The GDDNetwork Final Report (and, well, a global pandemic) – GDD Network

“First, I’m delighted to announce that the GDDNetwork report is now available! It describes our project findings, looking at the feasibility of developing a single global dataset documenting the extent of digitised works. It sets out two key areas of work – identification of core use cases, and metadata aggregation and data matching – and identifies a clear value proposition for the development of the dataset….

I’m also excited to say that a new experimental service called OpenTexts.World has recently been launched! OpenTexts is based upon the work of the GDDNetwork, but has built upon and expanded our publicly available dataset to create an experimental service that provides free access to digitised text collections from around the world….”

OpenTexts.world: Home

“OpenTexts.World is an experimental service that provides free access to digitised text collections from around the world. Think of it as a search engine for books.

Every year, libraries worldwide digitise hundreds of thousands of books. Open Texts brings (some of!) those collections together, allowing you to search across a multitude of different libraries worldwide….”

Global online library Open Texts goes live with 8m books and rare works | Scotland | The Times

“When historians of the future are searching the archives for “good things to come out of the great pandemic” one of the answers will surely be “Open Texts was founded”.

Formally launching today, Open Texts is a global online library, with eight million digital titles from nine of the world’s great collections. All are free to use by scholars, students and the general public who can search with a simple searchable database….”

Here’s Open Texts itself = https://opentexts.world/