First editions from The British Library

[Argel]

The British Library, The UK's central copyright library, is to make first editions of 19th century authors such as Dickens available for free downlaod as ebooks, according to this report in the Daily Telelgraph:

British Library to offer 19th Century first editions for free download on Amazon Kindle

Whether the underpaid news monkey who wrote the story understands enough about ebooks to justify the statement that the books are for the Kindle remains to be seen. But given the size of the BL's collection this is terrific news.

[RedHeadPeter]

Well all references I can find to this suggest that they are for the Kindle. There is no press release on the British Library site but there seems to be a close link with Amazon who will be selling facsimile editions (on paper) though funding seems to be from Microsoft???

[Pardoz]

Originally Posted by Argel

Whether the underpaid news monkey who wrote the story understands enough about ebooks to justify the statement that the books are for the Kindle remains to be seen.

I'd be shocked if they didn't offer them in .mobi (Kindle) format. I'd be only slightly less shocked if they didn't also offer them in .epub, and wouldn't be terribly surprised if they offered them in .pdf to boot.

Regardless, if they're DRM-free, as one assumes they will be, it's pretty trivial to format-shift them if necessary.

[RedHeadPeter]

Why, if they are going to be sold through the Kindle store, would you assume they are going to be DRM free.

Interesting stuff - for e-documents you can order from the British Library direct, they come in e-pub format. Last year they had a little demo of e-readers for people to try, didn't have a kindle.

[Pardoz]

Originally Posted by RedHeadPeter

Why, if they are going to be sold through the Kindle store, would you assume they are going to be DRM free.

I've not seen anything about the electronic versions being for sale anywhere. Paper facsimiles via Amazon, yes. Electronic versions, free download, nothing indicating the e-books will be sold through the Kindle store.

[Daithi]

Pretty much all of the books that people would actually want to read (Dickens, Austen, etc.) are already available for just about any ereader -- and for FREE. HarryT did an outstanding job providing illustrated editions of Dickens and Austens works. I also have PDF versions of the Gadshill edition of all of Dickens works, with all the original illustrations, that I downloaded from the archive.org site.

However, the "penny dreadfuls" that they mentioned in the article look interesting.

[aleks]

Even if the books are released in .mobi, can't they just be converted with Calibre into other eBook formats?

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by Daithi

Pretty much all of the books that people would actually want to read (Dickens, Austen, etc.) are already available for just about any ereader -- and for FREE. HarryT did an outstanding job providing illustrated editions of Dickens and Austens works. I also have PDF versions of the Gadshill edition of all of Dickens works, with all the original illustrations, that I downloaded from the archive.org site.

However, the "penny dreadfuls" that they mentioned in the article look interesting.

I think they are a bit different:

Owners of the Amazon Kindle e-book device will be able to view the books, including their original typeface and illustrations, of famous works by Charles Dickens, Jane Austen and Thomas Hardy, as well as thousands of more obscure authors.

emphasis mine... I'd say this implies PDF or maybe Topaz?

[Argel]

Originally Posted by Daithi

Pretty much all of the books that people would actually want to read (Dickens, Austen, etc.) are already available for just about any ereader -- and for FREE. HarryT did an outstanding job providing illustrated editions of Dickens and Austens works. I also have PDF versions of the Gadshill edition of all of Dickens works, with all the original illustrations, that I downloaded from the archive.org site.

However, the "penny dreadfuls" that they mentioned in the article look interesting.

With all due respect to Harry, I think the British Library collection is slightly bigger than his - and the 19th century is about a lot more than Dickens and Austen or even their respected contemporary Etc.

[andrys]

In a couple of the news stories, there are statements that this project is a partnership of the Library and Amazon and is currently specifically for the Kindle.

However, they also say that they're of course open to partnerships with other companies as well.

I had 3 stories linked when the news came through on sunday. They're all at
http://bit.ly/kwbrit_libr

[poshm]

* Altogether, 35%-40% of the library’s 19th-century printed books — now all digitised — are inaccessible in other public libraries and are difficult to find in second-hand or internet bookshops. '

quoted from http://kindleworld.blogspot.com/

I'm looking forward to this.