AustLit

'Most Australian books ever written are now out-of-print and unavailable to readers. That includes local histories and memoirs, beloved children’s titles – and even winners of our most glittering literary prizes.

'Untapped is a collaboration between authors, libraries and researchers, working together to identify Australia’s lost literary treasures and bring them back to life!

'We’re digitising culturally important out-of-print Australian novels, histories, memoirs, poetry and more. They’ll be licensed into public libraries around the country, and our library partners will promote them so everyone has an opportunity to rediscover these engaging, enlightening texts. And most of them will be made available for sale as ebooks too!

'This project will create a new income source for Australian authors, who currently have few options for getting their out-of-print titles available in libraries. And it supports arts workers affected by COVID, who we’re hiring to assist us with the proofreading necessary to get the scanned books up to library quality.

'It will also support vital research into the economic value of out-of-print rights for authors, the value of libraries’ book promotion efforts, and the relationship between library lending and sales.

'The results will be fed into public policy discussions about how we can best support Australian authors and literary culture. And we’re hopeful that this new investment and attention will cause some of these important books to get another look from commercial publishers too.' (https://untapped.org.au/)