Books from the past:an e‐books project at Culturenet Cymru

Abstract

Purpose

To describe the open‐source solution developed by Culturenet Cymru, for the Welsh Books Council, for presenting digitised books and other printed material online.

Design/methodology/approach

The challenges faced in the implementation of a pilot e‐book collection of nine out‐of‐print books is described.

Findings

The adoption of a number of international standards for the presentation, coding, conversion, metadata and searching of texts have resulted in a working pilot project.

Practical implications

It is hoped that many publicly funded bodies such as libraries and archives will make use of the system. A small collection of e‐books may be of some use, but it is the ability to search for, and access, e‐books across distributed collections which will provide real educational benefit.

Originality/value

Culturenet Cymru hopes to play a role in co‐ordinating the adoption of common standards for text digitisation in Wales.

Citation

Haarhoff, L. (2005), "Books from the past:an e‐books project at Culturenet Cymru", Program: electronic library and information systems, Vol. 39 No. 1, pp. 50-65. https://doi.org/10.1108/00330330510578804