Since the National Library of Norway's Bookshelf project began in 2009, almost 50,000 books have become digitally available via their website. For us genealogists, this has meant a number of digitized village books, accessible from our own homes.
Despite the fact that some licensees have withdrawn their books from The Bookshelf for various reasons, the service has proved very popular. The Bookshelf includes all books published in the 1690s, 1790s, 1890s and 1990s.
To achieve this, the National Library of Norway entered into an agreement with Kopinor that ensured a certain amount of financial compensation to each publisher who had their book digitized and made available free of charge to the Norwegian population.
Read the full story on Kopinor's own website.Kopinor is currently distributing NOK 6.2 million to authors, publishers and other rights holders so that we can read rural books online for free. This is actually a fairly modest sum compared to what Kopinor otherwise pays out. On September 15, a total of NOK 97.5 million was paid out to rights holders, primarily as a result of copying in schools.
Photo: Ketil Born, NB
