In an announcement put up just before Roonwit’s helpful summary of the PotterCast interview with Ms. Rowling, Madame Pince, the librarian at Accio Quote! (and friend of this blog), announced big changes at Accio Quote!. She wrote under the headline “Changes Coming” that:
I want to let all of our readers know that my website Accio Quote! will be changing. Some of the articles will be taken offline, although when possible we will be linking out. This means that for a short time the current search index will be less thorough, so we will be re-configuring that too and moving to Google Coop for our search utility.
Why? I have been informed that, thanks to the uncertain boundaries of fair use in copyright law, we could face potentially expensive legal fights over some of the materials in the archive. Rather than wait to be dragged into these disputes, I prefer to take action now.
For serious readers and for those researching the interview part of Potter Canon, this is a set-back something like the burning of the Library of Alexandria. I have frequently expressed my gratitude for this resource here and to Madame Pince; I know too well, unfortunately, my appreciation for what an invaluable collection and set of tools Accio Quote! has been is only going to be heightened by its absence or major overhaul.
But is there hope something can be saved? Madame Pince writes:
Help wanted: I could use some help saving Accio Quote. Specifically, we are looking for one more PHP programmer who can donate their time to help us finish our database. If you are interested, please send me links to active PHP-based projects that you have worked on and information on your training and/or experience. In this project, you will be joining Roonwit and one other programmer whose name I’m not ready to announce yet.
I trust if you are a HogPro All Pro with PHP programming experience that you will do all you can for God and Fandom to help Madame Pince in her time of need. Accio Quote! is all volunteer and generates no income. Amazing. Thank you, Madame Pince, for all you have done — and my best wishes in your struggle to find a copyright clear way to keep this information available to us all.
I am actually one of Madame Pince’s volunteers. 🙂 Thanks for the encouraging words, John. We really do need another programmer, so we hope there’s someone out there who can help. 🙂
I, too, hope this site survives. It’s invaluable. Thanks for all your hard work Madame Pince and volunteers!
Kitties don’t volunteer for anything if it’s not about them…
I, too, have always loved being able to read all the interviews for myself instead of someone else’s version or interpretation. I will really miss that. I wish I could help in saving the articles, but since I have no idea what PHP stands for, I doubt that I’d be very useful.
Thanks to all who have worked on Accio Quote!
Pat