As I mentioned a few weeks ago, we’ve been working hard on reconstructing Open Library, and it’s getting to that exciting stage when the redesign is starting to feel alive, and full of real data.

One thing we’re producing is a new page about a certain subject that shows a list of all the Works about that subject, authors that write about it, publishers that publish books in that area, and a graph that shows the publishing history of that subject – all generated from bibliographic data and our shiny new search!

Here’s my favourite so far: fondue.

It probably goes without saying, but there was a bump in fondue books around 1970. I’ll sprinkle a few more sneak peeks of the new design from now until we do our soft launch. Coming soon!

Update: I couldn’t resist sharing a few more…

And this final comparison is really interesting. For all the order of library cataloging, it’s funny how much difference your native tongue can make. I love how the birth of the Industrial Age is represented in literature this way…