Nearly all books published in the last two hundred years are unobtainable. Millions of books have gotten far enough to earn the backing of a publisher. They ha

Nearly all books published in the last two hundred years are unobtainable. Millions of books have gotten far enough to earn the backing of a publisher. They have a small print run of say 100 - 500 copies. If sales are dismal usually the books go on "regular" sale and if that does not work, then once a year the (Norwegian) bookstore dumps them out for $1 a piece. If they still have not sold, they get dumped into a recycler and will never be read or seen ever again. I love going to the yearly sale and buying books for $1 per book. I do feel sad when I look at the bin. All the blood, sweat and tears an author has invested into it. Writing it, sending them out, getting rejected from publishers but finally finding one that will publish it. That must be a proud moment. Becoming a "real" author with a published book. Maybe getting recognized? Instead, it becomes a sad tale of loss. Seeing your book out there for $1 and still not getting picked up. I have discovered a few books I got for $1 that I thought were great. I note them in my blog and try to harass friends into reading it. I have been scanning and putting out my grandfather's books. Technically the publisher owns all rights, but I doubt they care anymore. I am not saying he was a great author or that his books will be "discovered" but at least they are available for free should someone want to read one. It is my dream that a system can be made globally so that all books published are made available for free online once some period time has passed. For books that ended up in the recycler the publisher could let them be published sooner. The national library would put it out on their website and someone can enjoy a few of them later on. The cost of storing en ebook is cheap. Granted storing millions is not that cheap but worth it to preserve more of the culture and perspectives from the past. The national library in Norway has copies of most books published after some date. They are also allowed to, perhaps supposed to publish books online (yay) once they enter the public domain. (yay). The national library does not have the resources to follow up on it. I talked to a couple of the librarians. Someone needs to keep track of when a book enters the public domain. It appears the rules surrounding that in Norway are a bit complex. It would be helpful for them if the publisher sent them a signal when a work enters the public domain, but they have no interest in doing that. If someone such as I write a letter to request a book and someone finds it worth their time to go check on it, they have to contact the publisher and try to figure out what the story is. A majority of books available digitally at the national library are "streamable". They have a picture of each page. Often not a good photo. A lot harder to read than an eBook. They can in most cases if the publisher agrees to publish an eBook of it but again, it is a question of having enough manpower to manage all of it. Hopefully one day.