The problem with the libraries is that all these scans are behind walls, so while the texts are public domain nobody can easily access them. I'm trying to liberate them and re-upload them outside the walls.
Until recently a lot of libraries would allow you to remotely sign up for a library card, but in the last 12 months almost all of them have reverted to having to bring ID in person to the library to validate your account, which puts the brakes on things.
[–] NoMoreNicksLeft 1 day ago
Are you doing newspapers?
[–] qingcharles 1 day ago
Overdrive has a pretty limited amount of back issues for magazines, which is why I generally ignore it, except if I want to quickly read something on my Kindle.
Do you have a plan for all the data once you have it?
[–] NoMoreNicksLeft 1 day ago
I think your estimate of magazine issues is high, but I commend your effort. I wouldn't mind hearing about which you've managed to complete. I keep finding that I can get all the historical issues, and I can get all the recent issues, but there's this hole in the middle from about 1985 through 2005 that is usually impossible. It's irritating.
I might test if I can pull audio books down too, though those will be limited to the ones appearing in my own local library (every municipal library seems to have access to the full magazines though, if you know the magic urls).
[–] sriacha 1 day ago
[–] qingcharles 1 day ago
What's the solution, though? All these newspapers won't scan themselves. I'm setting up a non-profit right now to deal with the magazines. The rights issues are both better and worse with magazines. "Better" in that most magazines have gone out of business and the rights are cheap. Worse in that most of them are orphans and the rights are very hard to track down.