The great ancient library in Alexandria, Egypt, was charged with collecting all the world’s knowledge. In the U.S. that role falls to the Library of Congress. In Alexandria’s time, the works were primarily papyrus. Works at the Library of Congress reflect, as they should, technology changes. Much of their current collection is paper. What happens when the electronic format becomes more prominent?
Since 2011, the Library of Congress has taken copyright claims and deposits of e-books transmitted over the Internet and processed entirely in digital format. Except that… The EPUB format is not currently one they accept. Now of course that can change. And not to be critical; the LoC already accepts 43 distinct file types, including eight text-oriented filetypes.
But here’s the crucial language from the Copyright Office:
Please review this list before uploading a copy of your work as an electronic file or sending a hard copy via mail. If the type of file you plan to upload or mail is not included in this list, you must convert the file to an acceptable file type.
Which takes me to a recent interview with the American Library Association’s (ALA) executive director, Keith Fiels. One of the hazards of electronic formats is constant change, of a sort not found in the paper world. Notes Fiels : “Electronic information is not permanent. And libraries have always, and always will play a role in preservation, because libraries care about the permanent preservation of knowledge.”
Notably, Fiels is not leaving it all up to the Library of Congress. But the question remains; beyond the LoC, whose role is it to preserve these works?
Are publishers going to now be responsible for maintaining permanent electronic access? I don’t think so, because they are forced to pay attention to economic value.
Perhaps Fiels is being rhetorical, but he has a suggestion:
I think electronic storage may make some of that easier to do, but changes in format, devices, and changes in infrastructures means that things have to be constantly refreshed. Digital is not a static environment, it is a rapidly changing world of accelerating obsolescence. So, enabling permanent ownership of electronic works by a library might be a good idea if we care about civilization.
I agree. That is not, of course, the case at present. The only permanent eBook repository is the Library of Congress. Sort of. That has to change. The lack of support for eBook formats is one more obstacle along the way to the maturity of the eBook format. No, wait — it’s one more obstacle to taking the eBook format seriously. Standards anyone?