User:Cristinac/Comparisons
How do online libraries that provide free access distinguish themselves from each other?
Is the PDF that one downloads from aaaaarg different from a PDF that one downloads from Monoskop? Here I am looking at what the possible similarities and differences are between four resources: aaaaarg, Monoskop, Public Library and textz.com.
"In this view of materiality, it is not merely an inert collection of physical properties but a dynamic quality that emerges from the interplay between the text as a physical artifact, its conceptual content, and the interpretive activities of readers and writers. Materiality thus cannot be specified in advance; rather, it occupies a borderland— or better, performs as connective tissue—joining the physical and mental, the artifact and the user."
(Katherine Hayles, 'Print Is Flat, Code Is Deep: The Importance of Media-Specific Analysis')
| aaaaarg.fail | Monoskop | Memory of the World | textz.com |
| it requires an account to download texts | it doesn't require an account, but the possibility for it exists | it doesn't require an account and the possibility for it doesn't exist | it doesn't require an account, however, the collection has a password |
| it has multiple contributors | it has multiple, but few contributors | it has multiple contributors that are also identifiable | it is not possible to contribute to the collection anymore |
| self described as: a conversation platform, or alternatively, a school, reading group or journal | self described as: a wiki for collaborative studies of the arts, media and humanities | self described as: a collection of collections | self described as: a warez database for texts |
| created by Sean Dockray: an artist, a founding director of the Los Angeles non-profit Telic Arts Exchange, and initiator of knowledge-sharing platforms, The Public School and Aaaarg.org | created by Dušan Barok: an artist, writer and cultural activist involved in critical practise in the fields of software, art, and theory | created by Marcell Mars & Tomislav Medak: Marcell-a free software advocate, cultural explorer, and social instigator; Tomislav- a philosopher, a free software and free culture advocate and the project lead of Croatian Creative Commons team | created by Sebastian Lütgert: a writer, programmer, media artist and activist |
| the books are stored on a central server | the books are stored on a central server | the books are stored on the computer of the librarian serving them | the books circulate through a torrent file, they are stored on peers' computers |
| the files can be downloaded at any time | the files can be downloaded at any time | the files can be downloaded whenever the librarians are connected to memoryoftheworld | the files can be downloaded if there are active seeds |
Links to discussed libraries and other related websites: