Press: “Harvard librarian promises free Digital Public Library of America by 2013”

“At a talk at Columbia Law School on April 2, Harvard University librarian Robert Darnton promised that the Digital Public Library of America, a nonprofit effort to offer free access to millions of digitized books, would become a reality by this time next year.

“Darnton, a cultural historian and author of The Great Cat Massacre, as well as several notable books about publishing history such as Revolution in Print: the Press in France 1775-1800, was giving a talk titled “Digitize, Democratize: Libraries and the Future of Books” as the featured speaker at the 25th Annual Horace S. Manges Lecture.

“Publishers Weekly reports that Darnton advocated for striking a balance between commerce and democratization of information, pointing to Google’splan to scan library shelves as an idea that showed promise but failed to deliver, as it became a commercial library with no oversight.”

From Nick Davies’ post on Melville House, Harvard librarian promises free Digital Public Library of America by 2013