From No Shelf Required:
De Gruyter has taken the decision to digitize the entirety of its backlist all the way back to 1749. The decision to make this significant investment to complete the prestigious archive was taken earlier this year and the digitization process will begin shortly.
Many treasures are among works to be digitized, including Noam Chomsky’s “Syntactic Structures” as well as versions of “Grimm’s Fairy Tales” to name but two. The project is expected to conclude in 2020 with 3,000 additional titles to be available by the end of 2017. Of those titles digitized during the rest of this year, up to one hundred of the most important series will have priority, to allow librarians to complete their holdings.
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De Gruyter’s desire to secure its backlist for generations to come stems from the publishing house’s long tradition as a family-owned company which not only has a commitment to the past, but also a keen interest in shaping the future.
Link to the rest at No Shelf Required
PG sometimes tells his author clients before they sign typical legacy publishing contracts that those contracts will effectively last forever if the publisher wants them to do so.