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Online books? Only in English By Ofri Ilani Tags: internet, open U, books English and French speakers who are interested in the dramatic arts can find abundant, detailed information on the Internet: Google refers them to dozens of articles, books and dramatic works that have been scanned or keyed in to make them accessible to search engines. But what will those who prefer to read about the history of theater find in Hebrew? Until recently, very little: a brief entry in Wikipedia and a few random citations from web sites and blogs. Last week, that situation changed a bit: The Open University uploaded "Experiencing Theater: Introduction to Drama and the Theater," by Zmira Heizner and Karin Heskia, a comprehensive, Hebrew-language introduction to theater history and theory. This is one of several books that have been put on the Internet as part of the university's Pe'er - Ptihat Otzarot Ruach ("Opening Treasures of the Mind") project, which aims to make the university's textbooks and teaching materials available online at no cost (http://ocw.openu.ac.il/). "Our vision is simple - to make education accessible to the Israeli public," explained the project's director, Dr. Yoav Yair. He added: "The finest textbooks in every field, from physics to Judaism to art, will soon be available, and anyone who wants to is free to use them. This is the first time something like this has been done in Israel, and there are almost no academic institutions elsewhere in the world that upload their textbooks." Advertisement For now, the ambitious project is mainly a mission statement. Only a few course-related textbooks have been uploaded, along with a few reference books in the fields of sociology, history, economics and mathematics. But the Open University intends to upload hundreds of books in the near future. For now, the body of knowledge on the Hebrew Internet is paltry and superficial. Countless significant subjects simply do not exist for the Israeli surfer whose English is not proficient. Despite that, Dr. Ora Neventzal, head of the Information Studies department at Beit Berl Academic College, is optimistic. "If you look at the music industry," she noted, "you can see that it changed completely in response to the distribution of material on the Internet. One can assume that similar developments will take place in the field of publishing. It happened more quickly and naturally in the music industry because it is more convenient, and because young people are more interested in that. The book industry is still more conservative. But as far as the technology is concerned, it is not difficult to disseminate entire books on the web - something that has already been happening, legally or illegally, for a few years now." 19th-century archives The leader in the field of digitalizing books, legions ahead of all others, is undoubtedly Google Books, the largest database of scanned books on the Internet. Google scans millions of books at astounding speed, filling 19 digital libraries - 12 in the United States, and the others in Europe, Japan and India. Google also collaborates with major publishers who permit limited perusal of books that they own. This month, Google trounced Microsoft's competing project in this arena, which to date has scanned about 750,000 books and articles, according to the company. Microsoft announ- ced that it has ceased scanning new books, apparently in response to the realization that Google has exclusive control over this field as well. Thus Google has attained nearly sole control of the digital preservation of thousands of years of human culture. In response to inquiries from Haaretz, Google representatives reported that the firm has already scanned millions of books in more than 100 languages. This database of digitalized books and articles has become mankind's collective memory. But English is unquestionably the dominant language in which this ocean of information appears. The challenge posed by Google has prompted a few, mainly European nations to begin scanning the books in their libraries. "It was Google that goaded the Europeans," observed Professor Elhanan Adler, director of the Information Technologies department at the Jewish National and University Library in Jerusalem. "They fear that English has taken control of the world, so they must upload their cultural assets." Newspapers around the world are also uploading their archives to the Internet. Some of these go back to the 19th century, and they are available on the Google News search engine. The New York Times, for example, launched its Times Machine project last weekend, which makes it possible to scan editions of the newspaper printed from 1851-1922 (http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/browser). Would Google collaborate? And what is happening in Israel? Not much. The Ben Yehuda Project, begun in 1999, is the digitalization pioneer of Hebrew literature. To date, the project has uploaded works by Bialik, Rachel, Sholem Aleichem, Shlomo Ibn Gvirol and, recently, Avshalom Feinberg's letters to Sarah Aharonson, among others (www.benyehuda.org). This is an impressive project, but it is being implemented by volunteers and, therefore, slowly. "The state would have to invest in the project to digitalize books in a significant way," said Adler. "The French government has become highly involved in this issue, due to an understanding of its significant cultural impact. Our country is not sufficiently active in this field. The digitalization that we implement in the National Library is almost completely funded by private donations. Therefore, it is maintained on a low flame." After very few years of activity in this field, the National Library has scanned 897 books, almost all of them rare and antique manuscripts of sacred books and Biblical literature, plus a few atlases, travel diaries and music books. This modest but impressive database is available at http://jnul.huji.ac.il/heb/digibook.html. There, one can browse manuscripts like Moshe Ben Eliyahu Galena's Hochmat Hakarat Hapartzuf, published in Amsterdam in 1658, or a Hebrew translation of Sans Dessus Dessous, by Jules Verne, published in Warsaw in 1923. Last month, the digital library added Sefer Sha'ar Hayehudim, written by Rabbi Chaim Vital in 1783, and the satirical Shvirat Luhot Haon (literally, "breaking the slabs of power/sexual potency"), written by Rabbi Jacob Emden in 1756. "The intention was to begin with the most ancient manuscripts, where only one copy remains in the world, and we have it," Adler explained. "Therefore, we uploaded all the books published in the 15th century. These are very vulnerable books that we don't want people to touch, and the digital version provides access. Once, when a researcher from abroad requested a unique book in our possession, we would photograph it and send it. Now, instead of photographing for one individual, we digitalize it, and it is available to the public at large." Adler said he would be very happy if Google decided to collaborate with the National Library and incorporate its books in Google Books. "We were in contact with them, but it has not yet produced results," he said. "Google is now scanning about 18 major libraries around the world, and we would be very happy to be the 19th. We uploaded about five books a week during the past three years. That means that we are able to accomplish in about a week what Google accomplishes in 20 seconds." Bookmark to del.icio.us   Building Google How an Israeli hi-tech guru inspired Google's 'magic formula'. La femme Tzipi Colleagues regale the Sunday Times with stories of Livni's days on a Mossad hit team.   1.   First Thing Israel Must Do 06:07  |  INCognito 28/05/08   2.   Re Hilberg Re hebrew 13:27  |  Rob of melbourne 29/05/08   3.   monsters and job 18:01  |  montgomery rosen 02/06/08

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