Get.INFO is an ongoing project dedicated to the preservation and digitization of historical encyclopedias from around the world, and to making them searchable as a living archive of recorded knowledge.

These books matter not despite their age, but because of it. Every encyclopedia is a primary historical record of the state of knowledge at a particular moment in history. It shows what was known, what was believed, what was omitted, and how a culture chose to describe the world to itself.

At a time when digital knowledge is increasingly mediated by a small number of dominant platforms, historical encyclopedias offer something essential: plurality. They resist the idea that there can be only one source of truth. They allow us to compare one era with another, one nation with another, one editorial tradition with another. In doing so, they reveal that knowledge is always historical, situated, and contested.

A volume published in 1800 does not simply differ from one published in 1910 because it is older. It reflects a different intellectual world. Likewise, two encyclopedias from the same period but from different countries may describe the same subject in strikingly different terms. Preserving these differences is part of preserving history itself.

The encyclopedias presented on Get.INFO all originate from the personal collection of Roberto Bourgonjen. They were digitized by him using software he developed himself. The collection is now managed and hosted by Stichting Outpapier, the foundation responsible for its preservation and public access.

The broader collection includes many more recent encyclopedias as well, and some of these have already been digitized within the archive. As a matter of policy, Get.INFO currently publishes only works issued before 1936. This is a conservative threshold, and it advances by one year each year.

Get.INFO treats encyclopedias not merely as containers of information, but as primary documents of civilization: records of what was once printed, circulated, trusted, and taught. By digitizing them, the project seeks to protect that diversity of knowledge for future readers, researchers, and generations to come.

Access to the collection is supported through paid viewing credit. By purchasing credit to explore the archive, visitors directly help fund the continued digitization of the collection. Payments for credit are received by Stichting Outpapier and are used to support the management, hosting, and further expansion of the archive. At present, 67,486 pages have already been scanned, but dozens of encyclopedias are still waiting to be digitized. Every contribution helps expand the archive and preserve more of this printed history before it disappears.