Proposal & RFC

We've been brainstorming hosting a Library Congress at the Internet Archive sometime in 2019. It would be similar in spirit to (a) Internet Archive's annual October bash, (b) CCC: Chaos Communication Congress, (c) Wikicite, (d) Books and Browsers. The event might focus primarily on book digitization efforts, lending software, book and author metadata, user-facing catalog services, and exciting advancements in bookreaders.

The following is a planning document to see whether such an initiative is viable, what mission it will serve, which groups or individuals may want to attend, who may be willing to sponsor, and other logistics like budget, scheduling, etc.

Goals

@mekarpeles: My 3 personal goals would be to use this as an opportunity to:

1. Announcements: Announce a new donation-to-digitization pilot program whereby the Open Library community can fund the digitization and addition of books they love into Internet Archive's library lending program
2. Collaboration: Meet with partners and see how we can support and raise awareness about their efforts and needs
3. Expand Community: Reach and inform potential collaborators and readers in our community

Target Partners

It would be amazing if one or more of the following groups was enthusiastic about co-hosting such an event with us:

• BookBrainz
• Wikidata, WikiSource
• Library.Link Network
• LibraryThing
• Inventaire.io
• BookMooch