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According to its "About Us" page, the goal of the Open Library is to have "One web page for every book ever published". A unique feature of the site is that it styles itself as "an open site" by which is meant that some of the information can be edited by the viewers. In their words "Now it's your turn! Everyone can participate in this project, whether you're a programmer who wants to build on top of this data, a librarian who wants to add records of digitized books to her local catalog, or a lover of books who wants to make sure his favorites are well represented."
From the FAQ:
- What is the Open Library?
- Open Library is a universal catalog for book metadata. Our goal is to create a web page for every book ever published. We call it “Open Library” because it is a collaborative open source initiative, which means that anyone can use and contribute to the Open Library catalog. In this way, Open Library opens the doors to the places where you can find the book you’re looking for.
- How does Open Library Interact with the Internet Archive?
- Open Library is an initiative of the Internet Archive, a 501(c)(3) non-profit library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form. Open Library contains information about books. Internet Archive hosts a collection of digitized books. Open Library’s universal catalog provides links to discover, borrow, and read from the Internet Archive’s collections. Your Internet Archive account can be used to sign-in to Open Library.
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