Could you advise an Open Source method for creating an online library?

Question

Could you advise an Open Source method (platform, software) for creating an online library? I want to create a rather simple online library that will provide an opportunity to download the file of book (pdf, djvu, doc, docx), not necessarily for reading the book on the Internet, but rather for downloading the file. I would also like to provide some simple opportunities to search for books (by title, author, theme). All books will be located in thematic sections, possibly just as lists with the books in alphabetical order.

I'll be doing this for the professional community, and the general topic of the library will be dedicated to the Nature Conservation work (all different aspects). Also, we will place these books in view of copyright protection (with the permission of the authors, and with books that have open access as well as older publications).

I am not a specialist in web-creating and programming, that's why I'm trying to find something rather simple, but acceptable to do this.

Answer 1

You should look at Calibre it does all that you want, and some more. It primarily manages your ebooks, but also allows for downloading over the internet, email dissemination of these books. As well as reading, converting and editing.

Answer 2

It sounds like what you need is something like WordPress, which will allow you to create a full site for free using any one of a number of templates that they provide. You can create separate Categories for different types of content and you can upload your files to the site and then create links to those files so that your readers can access them. You will also be able to easily create thumbnail images for your files if you choose to do so. In addition to this, WordPress offers a large variety of tools that you can add to your site to help improve the usability and to provide other features for your visitors.

Answer 3

I created a small collection in drupal at my library. Do you need to digitize texts, because I've done that, too using open source software.

Drupal might be overkill, but if you want categories, and expect the collection to grow, building a site in content management system like drupal or wordpress will serve your community better in the long run.