News

Amazon-owned BookSurge and Kirtas Technologies have combined with universities and public libraries across the US to preserve, reproduce and distribute thousands of rare and inaccessible books.

They are  then printed on-demand when ordered through Amazon.com and other online retailers, giving people greater access to the publications regardless of geographical location.

Kirtas founder and chief executive Lotfi Belkhir said that the company was offering discounted rates to select institutions, describing the deal as “the first  large-scale digitization initiative that puts the research libraries and universities in full control of their content”.

The first institutions to sign up to the deal are Emory University, University of Maine, Toronto Public Library and Cincinnati Public Library.

University of Maine’s dean of libraries Joyce Rumery said: “This project will allow users access to materials that are now largely unavailable to most potential users.”

Cincinnati Public Library technical services director Jason J. Buydos said: “Digitization allows librarians to move away from being the curators of the rare book museum  and back toward the true tenets of librarianship – enabling access to the ideas and information locked within the content of those rare books.”