UU直播 Library becomes first Canadian content provider to participate in Digitize on Demand and Kirtasbooks.com
UU直播 Library is pleased to announce a partnership with Kirtas Technologies and its Canadian partner Ristech, which will allow students, faculty and the general public to request to have books scanned and made available through the new Digitize on Demand program. The announcement will be made publicly at the Canadian Library Association鈥檚 2009 National Conference and Trade Show being held in Montreal May 29 to June 1.
"It鈥檚 an exciting time for the Library as we embark on a new era of services. With this innovative technology we can reveal our collections through user-driven digitization and distribution," Janine Schmidt, Trenholme Director of Libraries at UU直播, said. "The partnership with Kirtas advances the Library鈥檚 interest in improving scholarly access to its collections."
The program will offer books that are difficult to find, because they are generally out of print. They are also in the public domain, meaning that there are no copyright restrictions.
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Using existing information from the Library鈥檚 catalogue records, Kirtas will make the books available through its retail site, . Customers can search for a desired title and place a request to have it digitized. The book is then digitized at very high-quality using Kirtas鈥檚 innovative automatic page-turning scanner that was purchased by the Library in 2008. What also makes this approach unique is that the books can be offered before they are ever digitized, so there is no up-front printing, production or storage cost.
Kirtas currently has 12 partnerships with universities and public libraries to make special collections available for sale online, with UU直播 the first to participate in Canada. Virtually any library with a modern records database can participate in the Digitize on Demand program. Distribution rights are non-exclusive so the books can also be made available through other distribution channels at a library鈥檚 request. UU直播 University Library will also make a digital copy of each scanned item available through its catalogue.
"UU直播 was an early adopter in book digitizing, so it鈥檚 only fitting that they would be the first Canadian content partner on Kirtasbooks.com," said Kirtas Founder and CEO Lotfi Belkhir. "Digitize on Demand is a unique and innovative way for libraries to digitize content, and we鈥檙e thrilled to have UU直播 Library as a partner in this initiative.