At Infinite Zero, we continue our efforts to preserve two kinds of digitally archived books for future generations by registering them with the Internet Archive.
But first, what is the Internet Archive?
The Internet Archive, founded in San Francisco, USA in 1996, is one of the world's largest digital libraries.
Its mission is said to be:
"To provide universal access to all knowledge by preserving digital materials and building an Internet library for researchers, historians, scholars, and future generations."
Then, what are the "two kinds of books" referred to here?
They are the two types of publications with which I, the organizer of Infinite Zero, have been personally involved throughout my life.
The first consists of publications released by UTA Book.
These works were created in order to preserve, in printed form, the teachings of the late Tomekichi Taike, whom I deeply respect.
After leaving behind his long career as a schoolteacher, he devoted himself entirely—without concern for profit—to sharing the importance of "looking within one's own heart," not only throughout Japan, but also in Korea and the United States.
Books such as The Flow of Consciousness and Turning Consciousness form the core of these publications.
The second type consists of books produced during my working years through a publishing method I called "made-to-order publishing."
This was a hybrid form of publishing that combined elements of personal publishing and commercial publishing: gathering readers and supporters from the planning stage itself, and then bringing the book into publication.
Through this method, we were able to publish important works that would never fit commercial market standards, even in small print runs, while still placing them into normal bookstore distribution channels.
More than 200 publications were created in this way.
Among them, I am gradually registering on the Internet Archive those works for which permission has been granted by the authors, as well as works I myself authored around themes that I felt should remain for the future.
In short, this activity began from a simple desire:
to carry forward, to future readers, the many books that I helped bring into the world, as a responsibility of someone who was involved in their creation.
