Requesting resources from DBL

Question

Has anyone successfully requested a resource from the Digital Bible Library that is not showing up in the Paratext listing? I compared what was in the Paratext DBL list with what is actually in the DBL database and noticed some resources that would be nice to have. That led me to this link where it says I can submit a request for such resources: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdcyW8cmxgr_SG6dKb6I2C5CmRTt7iI-LE1h5M6M95I25DWig/viewform

But I’m curious if anyone sees these requests, or is it an outdated form? And I’ve tried contacting the address given for dbladmin at SIL as well, but so far to no avail.

This is a nice feature to have if it works!

Answer 1

jwagner,

The system is working, but there is no guarantee that all requests will be responded to quickly or favorably by the copyright holders.When you fill out the online form a request is made to the copyright holder to make the text available to either all or a subset of Paratext users. It can take a long time for the other organizations to process the request. I have been waiting on one myself, but if we users don’t ask, then the DBL administrators of our organizations do not know what texts users would like to have. Paratext 8 already has hundreds more texts available than Paratext 7 did, so don’t give up hope on your request. I think the chances of a positive response for permission to use a text, might go up if many people request a particular text.

Answer 2

Hi jwagner, My experience was that finding out who held the copyright was an issue, especially where there were multiple partners. Thankfully, we did get that ironed out, and produced a letter that satisfied the requirements for making the resource available in DBL.
The resource may already be there, but you may need to look it up using the short name for the project. That was our experience. It wasn’t immediately evident that the project had been made available.
Blessings, anon239805