An electronic book provider, netLibrary, announced an agreement with the University's Electronic Text Center that will make 2,000 historic texts from the University's collection available to the public over the Internet.
The agreement, announced Friday, is intended to preserve historic texts in digital form and allow other communities to access the information.
According to netLibrary spokesman Brian Bell, the company produces about 100 electronic books a day.
The online company is pleased with the deal "because netLibrary has a growing user base," Bell said. "We will be able to spread knowledge to further corners of the world."
The University texts that will be included on the site are now being selected by book experts at the library, said Christine Ruotolo, associate director of the University's Electronic Text Center. "They should be chosen within two weeks."
A majority of the texts will be double-keyed, which Bell described as when "someone sits with a book in front of him and types [the text] into the computer." The rest of the books will be scanned in, he said.
The scanned texts will need to have their binding removed, so only the least valuable of the texts in the University library's collection will be scanned in, Bell said.
"It's heartbreaking enough to do that to any book, but [it would be even worse to do it to] one that's 150 years old," he said.
The collection will include the "Thomas Jefferson Letters," which will be the first text available. They will be online by the end of this month, Bell said.
The letters include correspondence about the establishment of the University, issues concerning the United States Constitution and personal matters in Jefferson's life.
The entire collection is scheduled to be online by March 2001.
The University was selected to provide the texts after netLibrary President and Chief Executive Officer Timothy R. Schiewe asked one of his employees to "find the best scholarly and academic content available," Bell said.
"NetLibrary approached us because of our prominence in this area," Ruotolo said.
The Electronic Text Center, which is located on the third floor of Alderman Library, already has put 4,000 texts online since its founding in 1992.
NetLibrary's Website is located at www.netlibrary.com. The Electronic Text Center's Website is located at etext.lib.virginia.edu.
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