Require digital format for Library of Congress number?
Years ago I suggested that the Copyright Office at the Library of Congress register only books supplied in digital format. In the essay below, Roy Lewis certainly has a good idea even if it is not quite the same as mine.
One of the things that publishers ask for from the Library of Congress is an LC number for their books as part of the cataloging. The storage problems for all of the books printed is becoming a real headache for the LOC. A good idea would be for the LOC to require a digital copy of any book for which the pubisher wanted an LC number from the LOC. This could then provide an archival copy of every book that goes through the LOC.
Storage would be electronic and in years in the future when the last copy was destroyed, it could be acquired from the LOC either in electronic format and even printed using Print on Demand technology (for those who just need the paper). After the book fell out of copyright, just look at how many books would then be available and accessible anywhere in the world and even space. An astronaut on the space station–or that GI on extended duty who wanted to read on a PDA or handheld ebooks device–could have the complete library of the LOC available with just a short transfer.
It would/will become a expensive project to convert all books now in the LOC, but it would not be an expensive project to plan for the future.
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