Apologies for the cross-posting.
- Joe


The Office of the Historian at the U.S. Department of State is pleased
to announce the release of its Foreign Relations of the United States
(FRUS) series in a new e-book format that is readable on popular
electronic devices such as the Amazon Kindle and Apple iPad. The
e-book edition combines many of the benefits of print and web
publications in a new form that is portable and extremely convenient.
During the pilot phase of the FRUS e-book initiative, five selected
FRUS volumes will be offered on the Office of the Historian’s e-book
homepage: http://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/ebooks. The
public is invited to download the new e-books and provide feedback to
help improve the FRUS e-book edition. At the conclusion of the pilot
phase later this year, the Office will work to offer e-book versions
of many more FRUS volumes both through the Office website and on a
wide array of e-bookstores. The Office will continue to expand and
enhance its e-book offerings, as part of the ongoing FRUS digitization
effort.

The FRUS e-book initiative is an outgrowth of the Office of the
Historian’s efforts to optimize the series for its website. Because
the Office adopted the Text Encoding Initiative’s open, robust
XML-based file format (TEI), a single digital master TEI file can
store an entire FRUS volume and can be transformed into either a set
of web pages or an e-book. The free, open source eXist-db server that
powers the entire Office of the Historian website also provides the
tools needed to transform the FRUS TEI files into HTML and e-book
formats.

For questions about the FRUS e-book initiative or feedback about the
“beta” FRUS e-books released today, please contact
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The 151 year-old FRUS series presents the official documentary
historical record of major foreign policy decisions and significant
diplomatic activity of the U.S. Government.

Office of the Historian
Bureau of Public Affairs
U.S. Department of State
March 8, 2012