Appalachian State University receives grant to turn out-of-print books about Appalachia into e-books

Appalachian State University will use an $88,000 grant to turn 73 classic out-of-print books about the history and culture of Southern Appalachia into e-books available for free under a Creative Commons license, reports Appalachian State University News. ASU was one of 10 schools to receive $774,000 in funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Open Book Program.

Belk Library at ASU will work in conjunction with University of North Carolina Press in Chapel Hill to create digitized versions of the books that were published by the now defunct Appalachian Consortium Press, reports ASU. The project should be completed by late 2017.

Dr. William Schumann, director for the Center of Appalachian Studies, told ASU News: "The digitization of these important resources is a vital step forward in bringing regional scholarship to interested students and into the public domain. The ease-of-access this project provides will not only broaden our knowledge of these materials but also expand the ways that North Carolina’s students and citizens interpret and utilize these resources. This project is a service to the state of North Carolina and to those interested in the Appalachian region everywhere.” (Read more)