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New York Public Library Website Adds Free Movie Download Service

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on June 8, 2006 - 6:57am.
New York - The New York Public Library has added the ability for its cardholders to download free movies through its eCollection online service, which is powered by technology from OverDrive and also offers music, audiobooks and e-books. The movies may be downloaded to a PC or laptop, and also transferred to certain portable devices. The online video library includes foreign films like "The Bicycle Thief" and Fellini's "8 1/2", documentaries, children's titles, IMAX films and various live performances of stage productions. Cleveland-based OverDrive said in March it is in negotiations with providers such as A&E Home Video to add content to its library movie download service, which is also available from the website of the Denver Public Library.
tags: New York | Website | Download | Movie | Library |

Cox Expands VOD Library, Signs with Gemstar for Program Guides

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on January 30, 2006 - 7:40am.
Atlanta - Cox Communications, the nation's third-largest cable TV provider with 6.6 million customers, announced on Monday that it has expanded its video-on-demand library to over 1,300 available hours of programming. Cox added shows from MTV Networks, PBS Kids Sprout, G4, National Geographic Channel, Speed Channel, Fuse and TV Guide Spot to the service. The company said that some Cox Digital Cable subscribers will now be given free access to its video-on-demand service. Separately, Cox said it has signed a long-term agreement to use Gemstar-TV Guide's interactive program guide on its digital cable systems. As part of the deal, Cox will also offer Gemstar's TV Guide Channel and TVG horseracing and interactive waging networks.
tags: Deals | VOD | Gemstar | Library | Cox |

Google Donates $3 Million to Library of Congress for "World Digital Library"

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 22, 2005 - 11:17am.
Washington - The U.S. Library of Congress announced on Tuesday that it has received a $3 million gift from Google, earmarked for the development of a World Digital Library that will digitize and make available online works from the U.S. and around the world. The Library of Congress recently collaborated with Google on the digitization of about 5,000 books in the public domain. The public-private World Digital Library project aims to index and make available to libraries, content owners and their supporters "rare and unique cultural materials held in U.S. and Western repositories with those of other great cultures such as those that lie beyond Europe and involve more than 1 billion people: Chinese East Asia, Indian South Asia and the worlds of Islam stretching from Indonesia through Central and West Asia to Africa," said Librarian of Congress James H. Billington. "We're trying to recreate the memory of cultures that have much longer memories than we do," Billington told The New York Times.
tags: Google | Library | World Digital Library | Donates |

Microsoft to Digitize 100,000 Books from British Library

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 4, 2005 - 3:13am.
London - Microsoft announced that it plans to digitize about 100,000 books in the British Library as part of its book search service. The books, which are out of copyright, will be put online next year. Microsoft is already working with the Open Content Alliance (OCA) to put an initial 150,000 works online and is digitizing public domain books from Oxford University, as well. The company said it would invest more than £1.4 million in the project, which will digitize more than 25 million pages. "This is great news for research and scholarship and will give unparalleled access to our vast collections to people all over the world," said British Library CEO Lynne Brindley. "The items digitized will be available to anyone, anywhere and at any time."
tags: Microsoft | Library | British |

Google Launches Online Library of Public Domain Works

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 3, 2005 - 3:42am.
Mountain View, Calif. - Google on Thursday announced the availability of the first large collection of public domain books on its Google Print program, which aims to digitize the world's printed works and make them searchable in an online index. Works now available from Google Print include those whose copyrights have expired, such as U.S. Civil War history books, government documents, and the writings of author Henry James -- which users may now search and browse every page online. Google partnered with the New York Public Library and university libraries at Harvard, Michigan, Oxford and Stanford to provide public domain works for scanning. "Today we welcome the world to our library," said University of Michigan president Mary Sue Coleman. "As educators we are inspired by the possibility of sharing these important works with people around the globe. Google's digital library project has angered many authors and publishers, however, who say the company should not be profiting from their works used without permission. The Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers have separately filed suit against the company for copyright infringement.
tags: Internet | Google | Public | Domain | Library |