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Idea#29

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Records Management »

Digitize everything

Why Is This Idea Important?: Imagine if the National Archives wasn't just a proper noun--not just a building in a city on the Potomac--but a household resource freely accessible to all. Imagine if your neighborhood librarian was nationally recognized for finding absolutely anything you'd need from the government's holdings. Imagine your kid's schools having every resource the other kid's schools have--at least when you walk into their library. It doesn't take long to recognize that if we can make the US Government's data at least as accessible as our favorite celebrity we're in better shape.

'Google Books' (as a verb) the government. Set as a goal before the next census to have scanned every unclassified document the government has ever printed, drafted, or otherwise produced. I would say the same of the Library of Congress--make sure that every item that has passed out of copyright is scanned and made available free online. And be creative with your indexing: I can imagine some fascinating opportunities to employ a bunch of 19th and 20th century historians to better annotate this database, and CS folks to break down the barrier between the archive and the Main Street library.

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Submitted by Unsubscribed User 2 years ago

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Comments (4)

  1. slleyva said:

    make sure no one "owns" the information after scanning it though!

    2 years ago
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  2. wolbrich said:

    You have no earthly idea how much money this would cost. The OCLC WorldCat currently lists 1,871,254 "titles" produced by the federal government, including books, magazines, maps, and internet homepages. Most of this material is already available with little time or trouble required by visiting your nearest public library.

    2 years ago
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  3. merveilleux24 said:

    This would cost WAAY too much money. Also, Google is trying to obtain copyright for many of the things it has scanned--not good. FYI there is a (free, online) TED talk about doing this with a nonprofit group, in which it was likened to the library of Alexandria, but I don't remember the name of the talk.

    2 years ago
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  4. Money Hayabusa said:

    Hmm, yes it would cost a lot of money, but a database of human experience is expected to cost that, no? I mean, its just a matter of time.

    2 years ago
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