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DCL publishes first ebook

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Oral history interview with Attilio F. Caporiccio by Caporiccio, Attilio F., 1916-2007 The key points:

  • This is an outgrowth of our ten year partnership with the Library of Congress’s Veteran’s History Project.
  • Mr. Caporiccio, who gave us his oral history of his WWII experiences, was a resident of Douglas County.
  • Adam Spiers, one of our staff members, converted the transcript and some digitized photographs to the epub format.
  • It is “published” on our website under the Creative Commons license.
  • It is a short work: 42 pages long.
  • You don’t need a library card to check it out. Just search for either the name “Caporiccio” or “Veterans History Project” then scroll down to find the cover. (Or just click on the first paragraph of this post.) Click on that, then scroll down to Access eContent. It begins to download. If you have an epub reader, now you’ve got it, and can read it.
Why is this significant?
  • This is an example of library as publisher, taking local content and making it freely available to the world.
  • It showcases the ability of the library to be a player in the digital world, highlighting unique information.
  • It shows a new opportunity for short form writing – something one might read during a commute, on a smartphone or tablet.
We have about 100 other such interviews. Nifty, eh?

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