Researchers struggle to trace classical texts and their availability
Researchers, librarians, and writers working with classical or rare texts struggle to find which works have been scanned or translated, locate source texts for quotations, and access usable digital copies. Information and access are fragmented: one reader reports that downloading a digitized Latin book is unavailable and translating it with ChatGPT Agent Mode is tedious. A focused index could make the state of the work and links to available sources easier to discover, though it would not itself create missing scans or translations.
For classics researchers, librarians, and writers. Mentioned from Mar 2025 to Aug 2025 on Bluesky and Hacker News.
3 different people described this problem in 4 separate discussions.
- Indie fit
- 2.0/10
- Pain
- 5.0/10
- Frequency
- 5.0/10
- Willingness to pay
- 0.0/10
- Momentum
- 5.0/10
- Who pays
- Professionals
- Competition
- Medium
- Build difficulty
- Medium
What people said
Quoted word for word. Follow a link to read the whole discussion.
I wish there was a central way to track the books that have never been scanned or translated— just to show the work we have to do
I wish there was a resource that tracked all the untranslated classical texts
See what to build and who will buy it
- 1 product idea with the smallest useful version and pricing
- 3 places to find your first customers
- 2 more quotes from people who have this problem
- Current workarounds, existing solutions and risks