New Weblog To Focus on the Building of a National Digital Library
LibraryCity is a recently launched weblog that will provide news and comment about the building of a national digital library for the United States. On the LibraryCity homepage it provides a more precise definition about what LibraryCity. It reads, Toward a universal national digital library system with public governance."
The site is being developed/organized by two experts on libraries and digital material.
First, Tom Peters. He’s a librarian and former director of the Center for Library Initiatives of the Committee on Institutional Cooperation.
The co-founder of Library City is long time e-book and digital resource expert and writer, David Rothman. Some of you might know David as the founder of the TeleRead blog (now being edited by Paul Biba) that is all things "ebooks". Rothman been writing about digital libraries and the idea of national digital library for more than 20 years.
Here are two important paragraphs from the an introductory post:
Now a national digital library initiative is underway at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, and we hope it will lead to a genuine public library system online serving the entire country, not just the elite—even though we’re also in favor of well-funded research libraries. The new LibraryCity is an ad hoc group focused on these goals. If you’re in a rural area, don’t let "City" scare you—in the virtual world everyone should be able to enjoy "urban" amenities.
[Clip]
Our own vision is not to replace existing libraries but rather provide them with a wealth of new content that they can position to serve Americans’ individual needs as well as community and institutional ones. We believe that the physical and digital can co-exist and that buildings will still be useful for community activities…
It's our hope that in the future the blog discusses the role of the information professional in all of this? In other words what happens to local collection development, reference services, training, etc. What are new roles for info pros that might come from a national digital library? Also, how can various types of libraries can work together to the benefit of all users.
The new weblog is also actively soliciting writing (comments, essays, etc.). This page has contact info for Peters and Rothman.
Finally, LibraryCity includes a page with links to articles and other materials about the national digital library concept from a variety of viewpoints. This portion of the site has a lot of potential to become the "go to" bibliography/webliography on the creation of a national digital library and related topics. Even if you don’t want to or have time to share an opinion or essay you might want to consider sharing useful URL’s with LibraryCity when you come across them.
UPDATE: David Rothman has sent some additional background about the LibraryCity concept for a national digital library. Here's a portion of what he e-mailed to ResourceShelf.
The digital library system should be tax-funded and responsive to the public's needs and well-integrated with schools and libraries. Foundation money would be wonderful--hello, Warren Buffett, Bill Gates and the others!--but we don't want to see our public library system privatized or even "nonprofit-ized." The system, of course, could link to nonprofit collections and academic, which Tom and I both see as valuable (in fact he has an academic library background). And specialists from the academic world could greatly enrich the system and in turn benefit from it. We simply want public libraries to remain public, online and off, in all senses of the word.
Given President Obama's plans to address educational and training needs in his State of the Union speech, LibraryCity.org should be rather timely now. Tom and I value books--separately we've both written our share of them--but we believe that a public library system online should also include such content as job training material in multimedia formats where appropriate. We also want user-originated items, like oral histories, and an interactive approach; and a related national reference service would be nice. It is not enough simply to do a public version of Google's efforts. Libraries mean so much more than simply "culture"--however essential--and national heritage. A national digital library system should try to shape the future by helping people advance educationally and economically rather than just preserving the past. LibraryCity.org will reflect the philosophy expressed earlier in the two essays on the Atlantic site.
Finally, don't let the "City" in the name give you the wrong idea. We envision a universal system for all Americans--serving agricultural areas, not just the cities. Tom lives in rural Missouri, deep in so-called flyover country.
The FreePint Family is a family of resources to help information workers be more effective, raise the value of information in their organisations and contribute to success.
'FreePint... provides most of my professional development because it won't come through work and [other resources] just don't cut it.'
FUMSI Forum: Do you have a research question? Post it to the FUMSI Forum, where professionals share Q&A and useful tips on how to Find, Use, Manage and Share Information. It's free.
FreePint Shop:
