World libraries: The Norwegian Library opened free online access to most books published before 2001

The National Library of Norway posted for free online reading most of the books published in the country until 2001. This was reported by L'Agence France-Presse (AFP), with reference to the library director Vigdis Skarstein.

All books, with the consent of owners, including books copyrighted, are posted at the website bokhylla.no (translated from Norwegian - "bookshelf").

For free online reading you can be find at the web site about 135 thousand books. In the future, library administration will intentionally increase the number of digitized books to 250,000, including Norwegian translations of books by foreign authors.

V. Skarstein noted that this is the first project of its kind, involving the free access to books, still protected by copyright, which expires in Norway in 70 years after the author's death.

"We decided that since we had to digitize their entire collection to save it for another thousand years, and it was also important to expand access to it as possible", - said V. Skarstein.

The publication of books in the public domain has become possible as a result of an agreement between the National Library and the group Kopinor, which represents the interests of a large number of Norwegian authors and publishers.