Talk:Ebook collections

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Removed comment identical to the one posted on Talk:World Public Library. Please discuss there. —Joe 16:29, 13 January 2008 (EST)

I'm looking at this, and can't easily access a child's book to read my baby. I'm redirecting the links on this page to project gutenburg. Also, I recommend that the author of this page create an account so he or she can clarify what they are offering. Since acces to the books being offered by this organization require a fee for access, I'd recommend IP blocking this user in a couple weeks if these problems aren't corrected. -Jeff 19:25, 9 March 2007 (EST)

I believe the confusion is that one of the editors (Joe) of this wiki keeps deleting the URL where you can FREELY download more than a 1,000 eBooks specifically made for the OLPC folks. If you look at the page history you see what I mean. The original post pointed folks to visit http://www.schoollibrary.com/OLPC/ to download the titles. There is no membership required for access the OLPC eBook Collection. They are not requiring a fee. As long as Joe does not delete this comment too their probably won't be any more confusion.

To date I have not deleted your URL, but I am seriously considering it... Your refusal to rationally discuss the appropriateness of your content or your one-sided, anonymous edits makes me question the value of your contributions. (And, if you hadn't noticed from my other comments on this page, I was one of the few arguing against deletion. If you were trying to change my mind and convince me that you're a spammer: well-played.) —Joe 10:04, 18 January 2008 (EST)

This article should probably be renamed to something like "World Public Library eBook collection for OLPC". Otherwise, it could be confused with the official OLPC eBook collection (if or when such a thing exists), which would doubtlessly include things from other sources, like Wikipedia, Wikibooks, or Project Gutenberg. There's no indication on the page that the collection is officially endorsed, requested, or even acknowledged by the OLPC project, but the current title implies it is the eBook collection that the OLPC project will use. —Joe 11:11, 14 March 2007 (EDT)

Agreed that a rename is in order; perhaps just "EBook Collections". OLPC is not endorsing a specific ebook library; it is providing an open library exchange through which collections such as the World Public Library [and the much larger but similarly named World Digital Library at the Library of Congress] can identify materials suited and curated for OLPC's laptops and audience. Sj talk 19:25, 18 March 2007 (EDT)

First draft of proper page

I've made a first draft of a proper page based on the discussion here and some of my ideas. Feel free to add/change it.

I do agree that World Public Library is a blatantly commercial site trying to get free advertising on this wiki and that the user should be treated as a spammer or site vandal.

I wouldn't be too harsh on them. They are (reportedly) a non-profit, and they do seem to have some affiliation with Project Gutenberg beyond reselling their work. And another thing: Are you an OLPC official? If not, you probably shouldn't be writing the page to sound like official policy (which is essentially the same thing the World Public Library was doing). If you are an OLPC official, on the other hand, you might want to sign in, attach your name to your comments, and mark the page protected. —Joe 00:51, 18 March 2007 (EDT)
You are right; don't be too harsh on them, they are just getting the hang of the wiki. They also need to differentiate between free and freely-licensed; we are interested in the latter for our library exchange. Sj talk


Original notes from the world public library

World Public Library is a Non-Profit Organization, and is not affiliated with any governmental agency or department.

The World Public Library Consortia Collection shelves more than 400,000+ PDF eBooks in 100+ languages. The World Public Library Consortia contains 125 eBook and eDocument collections published on the Internet.

History

World Public Library was founded in 1996 by John Guagliardo with the vision to bring eBooks under the public license domain to people of all age groups around the world. It is an Internet based library, shelving digital books, enabling innovations in technology to preserve and disseminate classic works of literature, serials, bibliographies, dictionaries, encyclopedias, and other reference works in a number of languages and countries around the world.

Their mission is to serve the public, aid students and educators by providing free public access to the world's most complete collection of electronic texts on-line as well as offer an enhanced members supported collection. All eBooks are carefully selected to offer online support to educators by providing them with a variety of services and resources that support and strengthen the instructional programs of education, elementary through post baccalaureate studies.

The World Public Library was produced as part of the "eBook Campaign" to promote literacy, accessibility, and enhanced reading. Authors, publishers, libraries and technologists united to expand reading with eBooks.

See WorldPublicLibrary.org, Project Gutenberg, and Wikibooks.

redirects

IIRC, the 'main' page had been made into a redirect, actually a chain of them, so placing content in it breaks that chain... we should do some cleanup, or review what-points-what and their intentions. Tagging this page for

{{cleanup}}... --Xavi 09:54, 6 May 2007 (EDT)