Darwin's On the Origin of Species in digital format Google download

19th February 2009

To mark the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species, the University of Oxford, through the collaboration between the Bodleian Library and Google, has released the first edition of the scientist’s seminal work in digital format.

Published in 1859 by John Murray, On the Origin of Species created widespread interest on its publication for its controversial ideas that contradicted the then current theories of biology. Although only 1,250 copies were printed, of which only 1,170 were for sale, such was the interest it is believed that all the copies sold on the day of publication. Copies of the first edition are therefore very rare. University of Oxford has only three original copies of the 1st edition within its collections: one belonging to the Plant Sciences Library, one to the Bodleian Library and the third one part of the Christ Church collections. The digitized copy is the one from the Plant Sciences collection.

The book is now available at Google books download and the whole text of the book can be searched in full. On the Origin of Species is just one example of the many hundreds of thousands of books from libraries across the University collections now available through Book Search.

Talking about the digitization programme, Dr Sarah Thomas, Bodley's Librarian and Director of University Library Services said: 'Library users have always loved browsing books for the serendipitous discoveries they provide. Digital books offer a similar thrill, but on multiple levels - deep entry into the texts or the ability to browse the virtual shelf of books assembled from the world's great libraries.

Richard Ovenden, Keeper of Special Collections and Associate Director said: 'The Bodleian and other Oxford libraries are delighted to collaborate with Google on this major digitisation project. Hundreds of millions of pages of Oxford books are now freely accessible online, and scholars are already using the added functionality that full-text searching provides to make new discoveries and advance scholarship and learning.'

Regarded as ‘the most important single work in science’ (Dibner), On the Origin of Species has revolutionised modern scientific thinking and has established Darwin as one of the most influential thinkers of all time.

The Oxford-Google Digitization programme is part of the Oxford University Libraries’ ongoing commitment to enable access to their vast collections for the general public.

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