The Bielefeld University Library (Bibliothek der Universität Bielefeld) in Germany offered online versions of German rare prints. Michael Behrens, in charge of the digital library project, wrote in September 1998: " We started digitizing rare prints from our own library, and some rare prints which were sent in via library loan, in November 1996. (...) In that first phase of our attempts at digitization, starting November 1996 and ending June 1997, 38 rare prints were scanned as image files and made available via the web. (…) The next step, which is just being completed, is the digitization of the Berlinische Monatsschrift, a German periodical from the Enlightenment, comprising 58 volumes, and 2,574 articles on 30,626 pages. A somewhat bigger digitization project of German periodicals from the 18th and early 19th century is planned. The size will be about 1,000,000 pages. These periodicals will be not just from the holdings of this library, but the project would be coordinated here, and some of the technical would be done here, also." (NEF Interview) # The ARTFL Encyclopédie The same year, the database of the first volume (1751) of the Encyclopédie by Diderot and d’Alembert was available online as an experiment from ARTFL (American and French Research on the Treasury of the French Language), a common project from the CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique -- National Scientific Research Center) in France and the University of Chicago in Illinois. This online experiment was a first step towards a full online version of the first edition (1751-1772) of the Encyclopédie, with 72,000 articles written by 140 contributors (Voltaire, Rousseau, Marmontel, d'Holbach, Turgot, and others), 17 volumes of text (with 18,000 pages and 21,7 million words) and 11 volumes of plates. Designed to collect and disseminate the entire knowledge of the time, the Encyclopédie was a reflection of the intellectual and social currents of the Enlightenment, and contributed to disseminate novel ideas that would inspire the French Revolution in 1789. 1998 > WEB-EXTENDED COMMERCIAL BOOKS