(Press Release) London, 12 April 2011—The Bodleian Libraries of the University of Oxford announced today that it has entered into a final agreement with ReadandNote.com to enhance access to the Libraries' exceptional digital collection; in particular materials derived from the Oxford-Google digitization project and other e-book publications. The initiative will transform the ability to access digitized books and other forms of content. The partnership will create a new kind of reading experience for ebooks allowing users to read, annotate, extract and share comments across online, mobile, and tablet platforms. The ReadandNote.com system allows reading research and e-published text to be brought forth, tagged, and annotated with comment, interpretation, and illustration.
Richard Ovenden, Assistant Director and Keeper of Special Collections at the Bodleian Libraries said, "The Bodleian owns books that have been annotated by great writers, scientist and intellectuals and those notes shine a light on an additional layer of intellectual process. This new initiative will allow our readers to annotate our digitized books and our ebooks and to share and save these annotations. This will be the way people read and share their academic discoveries in the future."
Read and Note's innovative technology and digital platform for E-Publishing and the unique digital collections of The Bodleian Libraries will ensure that increased access to this unparalleled collection.
"This bold and unprecedented investment by The Bodleian Libraries is indicative of their understanding of the rate of technological change, and their faith in ReadandNote.com to meet these ongoing technological advances and challenges," said Francis Olschafskie, President of Read and Note.com.
About the Bodleian Libraries
The Bodleian Libraries of the University of Oxford form the largest university library system in the United Kingdom. They include the principal University library—the Bodleian Library—which has been a library of legal deposit for 400 years; major research libraries; and libraries attached to faculties, departments and other institutions of the University. The combined library collections number more than 11 million printed items, in addition to 30,000 e-journals and vast quantities of materials in other formats. For additional information see www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk.
The Bodleian has been at the forefront of digitization as part of the Libraries' ongoing commitment to enhance online access to their vast and unique collections for researchers and interested members of the public. It is endeavoring to make its collections, books, ephemera and other material available in digital format by working with a range of partners including ProQuest, ARTstor, and the Alexander Street Press. Bodleian digital collections include Electronic Enlightenment, Shakespeare Quartos Archive and Bodleian Broadside Ballads. Recent initiatives including Early English Books Online, Jane Austen's Fiction Manuscripts, and Shelley's Ghost (focusing on one of the Romantic period's most fascinating literary families). Additionally, the Oxford-Google Digitization Partnership saw for the first time a large proportion of Oxford's 19th century out-of-copyright holdings made easily accessible to a new generation of readers around the globe. This included the first English translation of Newton's Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy from 1729, the first edition of Jane Austen's Emma, John Cassell's Illustrated History of England and Charles Darwin's first edition of On the Origin of Species.
About ReadandNote.com
ReadandNote.com is a developer of advanced web experience and technology solutions. It has a reputation for building sophisticated technology that meets the rate of technology change: "Read and Note is Thoughtful, Analytical and Considered." The System has the ability to annotate digital books and other digital assets, to add digital assets, and the capability of linking references through the annotation process. The e-publication suddenly becomes more than a "read-only" document.