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LONDON (AFP) - Six British and US centers of learning have teamed up to form a formidable online public library aimed at bringing the rarefied world of academia to the Internet.
The London School of Economics, Cambridge University Press and the British Library launched fathom.com along with Columbia University, New York Public Library and The Smithsonian Institute, the centers said in a statement.
The 'interactive knowledge site' puts the libraries of all six institutes online, complete with research, lectures, specialized periodicals, textbooks, individual articles, interviews and discussion forums.
"We are creating a vibrant 'main street' for knowledge and education," said Ann Kirschner, who will head up Fathom. "Fathom reaffirms the founding principles of the Internet," she said. "By providing global access to these resources, Fathom holds the promise of knowledge without boundaries and offers a new medium for the exchange of ideas," she added.
Subjects treated will include business, law, economics, social sciences, medicine, computer science and technology, the arts, journalism and physics, giving users the opportunity to interact and collaborate with the leading experts in their field. "At the moment anything which is freely available from libraries, universities and museums will continue to be free," said Stephen Hill, a professor at LSE.
The institutes will invest some $80 million in the site, and could float the operation if it is successful. Much of Fathom's content has never been available outside the participating institutions, which will be joined by other cultural centers in the project.
Users will also be able to subscribe to courses offered by the institutes and snap up the texts of high-profile speakers appearing at the centers of learning on a pay-per-view basis. "A huge majority of LSE courses could be developed (online) if one feels that there is a demand for this," Hill told AFP. "These are very early days and nobody knows how this support will develop."
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