Digitising rare and out-of-print literature

In 2021, the Westland District Library in Hokitika began to digitise and make available out-of-copyright West Coast works of literature and history. Scanned pages are uploaded to the crowdsourcing site Wikisource, where volunteers transcribe and proofread them; the corrected text is exported as an EPUB file, which the library can then lend out as an ebook. Rare and out-of-print works, too valuable to lend out, get a second life and can be read by anyone with Internet access and a library card.

The Mātātuhi Foundation is supporting a digital librarian to continue the digitisation process, and coordinate and train volunteer proofreaders, enabling dozens of New Zealand books to reach a new audience.