Press: Q&A: Knowledge liberator

“Robert Darnton heads the world’s largest collection of academic publications, the Harvard University Library system. He is also a driver behind the new Digital Public Library of America. Ahead of its launch in April, he talks about Google, science journals and the open-access debate.”

“How did you come to run the Harvard libraries?”

“As a graduate student at Oxford in 1963, I began writing about books in revolutionary France, helping to found the discipline of book history. I was in my academic corner writing about Enlightenment ideals when the Internet exploded the world of academic communication in the 1990s. As president of the American Historical Association I started a programme to make dissertations into e-books in 1999. Before I knew it I was involved in other electronic projects. Harvard invited me to become director of the libraries in 2007. From that position I have been trying to help grow the digital landscape to serve the public good.”

An excerpt from Jascha Hoffman’s article for Nature, Q&A: Knowledge liberator