“A National Digital Public Library that Harvard Library Director, Professor Robert Darnton has been talking and writing about for many months and others (for example, TeleRead Founder David Rothman have been talking and writing about for years) will soon be the topic of a research and planning initiative that will be hosted by the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at the Harvard University Law School.”

“Harvard Law’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society has announced a ‘research and planning initiative’ to construct and open a so-called digital public library.”

The Berkman Center for Internet and Society today announced that it will host a research and planning initiative for a “Digital Public Library of America.”

From David Rothman: “But there is one thing I currently cannot do with my Kindle despite all the sizzle in the commercials–read public library books.”

“Can the nonprofit world create a national digital library to put America’s collective intellectual wealth within everyone’s reach? Robert Darnton, the historian who directs the Harvard University Library, has been one of the most public champions of the idea.”

“A universal collection of knowledge. What libraries have always striven to provide, and what library patrons have always desired, has now been made possible by new information technologies.”

“Can we create a National Digital Library? That is, a comprehensive library of digitized books that will be easily accessible to the general public. Simple as it sounds, the question is extraordinarily complex.”

“Sloan’s motivation for funding this new organization has to do with fear of duplication of effort – they are supporting a wide range of efforts to digitize content, and realize that there’s a need for a central registry of content that’s been digitized. There’s also a great need to coordinate legal and advocacy efforts to make the larger vision of a global, multilingual open library possible.”