Princeton Seminary unites with Microsoft
Princeton Theological Seminary (my alma mater) has partnered with Microsoft to digitize its theological library. At over one million volumes, PTS has the second-largest theological library in the world, bested only by the Vatican.
The effort will begin with pre-1923, out-of-copyright works. In an excellent move, these works will become available to the public on the Internet Archive.
I’m excited to see the seminary provide long out-of-print theological works and make them available again. I’m also excited to see Microsoft partner with the Internet Archive, (as far as I know) an unprecedented step. Freedom is Christian!
Microsoft’s own press release tells the story. From the article:
Princeton Theological Seminary and Microsoft Corp. have entered into an agreement to digitize a large number of materials in the public domain from the collection of the Seminary library. This initiative will enable the library to contribute religion content to Microsoft’s Live Search Books service and thus increase worldwide access to its historic religion collection.
Princeton Seminary President Iain Torrance said, “This seminary exists to serve the church both near and far. Continuity, depth, and access are what make a library great. Microsoft will help us to be accessible as never before. We are really grateful for their partnership.”
This initiative is one of the most significant ventures in the Seminary’s history. Collaboration with Microsoft and its groundbreaking technologies, which are designed to assist discovery and use, continues the Seminary’s investment in enhancing online resources. Microsoft will give the Seminary digital copies of all the materials and allow them to be shared with noncommercial institutions and nonprofit organizations, which will enable the Seminary to advance in a remarkably concrete way the vision of a theological library for the world, and enable students, researchers, and scholars global access to Princeton Theological Seminary books in the public domain.
Please note that this is only follow-up act to Microsoft’s acquisition of the Vatican, a joke so old it’s growing hair.
