Category Archives: libraries

Building a new banned books exhibit for a new era

Posted on September 20, 2022 by John Mark Ockerbloom

When I first created Banned Books Online over 25 years ago, I wasn’t primarily worried about book censorship. I was worried about Internet censorship. It was 1994, and the world at large was just getting to know the Internet, which … Continue reading →

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Welcome to everybody’s online libraries

Posted on March 16, 2020 by John Mark Ockerbloom

As coronavirus infections spread throughout the world, lots of people are staying home to slow down the spread and save lives.  In the US, many universities, schools, and libraries have closed their doors.  (Here’s what happening at the library where … Continue reading →

Posted in libraries, online books, open access | 4 Comments

Wikipedia and the deep backfile

Posted on November 8, 2019 by John Mark Ockerbloom

We’re continuing to add serial information to the Deep Backfile project that I announced here last month.  I’m adding some of the existing information in The Online Books Page serials listings and our first serial renewals listings that hadn’t initially … Continue reading →

Posted in copyright, libraries, open access, serials, wikipedia | Comments Off on Wikipedia and the deep backfile

The worth of the work

Posted on September 20, 2019 by John Mark Ockerbloom

A number of research libraries, including the one where I work, are increasingly interested in catalogs built on linked data rather than on MARC records. Linked data work has been going on for years, in the hopes of reaping benefits … Continue reading →

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Why pay for what’s free? Finding open access and public domain articles

Posted on October 23, 2018 by John Mark Ockerbloom

[Another version of this post appears on PennLibNews, as part of the Penn Libraries’ celebration of Open Access Week.] It happens to most researchers all too often.  You see a reference or a link to an article that you’d love … Continue reading →

Posted in copyright, libraries, open access, serials, sharing | 9 Comments

Forward to Libraries update, and some thoughts on sustainability and scale

Posted on October 3, 2016 by John Mark Ockerbloom

It’s been a while since I posted about Forward to Libraries, but if you’ve been following my Github repo, you may have noticed that it’s had a steady stream of updates and growth.  If making connections across library collections or … Continue reading →

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Sharing journals freely online

Posted on May 25, 2016 by John Mark Ockerbloom

What are all the research journals that anyone can read freely online?  The answer is harder to determine than you might think.  Most research library catalogs can be searched for online serials (here’s what Penn Libraries gives access to, for … Continue reading →

Posted in citizen librarians, copyright, discovery, libraries, open access, serials, sharing | 2 Comments

Public Domain Day 2015: Ending our own enclosures

Posted on January 1, 2015 by John Mark Ockerbloom

It’s the start of the new year, which, as many of my readers know, marks another Public Domain Day, when a year’s worth of creative work becomes free for anyone to use in many countries. In countries where copyrights have … Continue reading →

Posted in copyright, libraries, online books, open access, sharing | 3 Comments

Going beyond 1922: Finding periodicals with (and without) renewed copyrights

Posted on June 16, 2014 by John Mark Ockerbloom

As mass digitization progresses, and as copyright terms grow longer, we now have access to much more literature from 1922 and the years before it than from the years that come soon after it.  This graph by Eric Crampton, based … Continue reading →

Posted in copyright, libraries, metadata, preservation, serials | 2 Comments

Some presentations on reading (and linking) libraries

Posted on October 4, 2013 by John Mark Ockerbloom

Have you ever wanted to read a library?  I know I have.  More than once when I was young, and introduced to a new library, I’d contemplate, if just for a moment, whether I could read every book in it.  … Continue reading →

Posted in discovery, libraries, metadata, reading | Comments Off on Some presentations on reading (and linking) libraries