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Photos: Internet Archives' book project

The open-source initiative wants to digitize all the world's books and make them universally available.

By Bill Detwiler, Contributor July 20, 2006 at 9:00 a.m. PT

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Open Library table

Table at the Internet Archive's event promoting the Open Library (openlibrary.org). The display shows a printer and binder for delivering on-demand books.

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Brewster Kahle

Brewster Kahle, founder of the Internet Archive, talks about the vision behind the Open Library on Tuesday night at the Presidio Club in San Francisco.

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Danielle Tiedt

Danielle Tiedt, general manager of search content acquisition at MSN, said the company was happy to donate funds for the Internet Archive to digitize 150,000 books over the next year for the Open Library.

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Scribe

A demonstration of the Internet Archive's "Scribe" book-scanning machine. Scribe is also the name of the Java-based open-source software that formats and records the books.

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Scribe

The scanning machine is human operated to cause minimal damage to books. An operator steps on a pedal to release the book from its glass casing once a photo is taken and stored to the PC.

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