“I was fortunate to be among those attending Robert Darnton’s talk on the Digital Public Library of America initiative last week. Harvard Professor and Director of Harvard Library, Darnton is a pivotal figure behind DPLA and his talk – most concurred – was both provocative and inspirational. More than a description of the DPLA initiative, Darnton framed his talk with key issues and questions for us to reflect upon. How can we provide a context where more knowledge is as much as possible freely available to all? Where we can leverage the internet to change the emerging patterns of locked down and monopolised chains of supply and demand? And as Professor David Baker highlighted in his introduction of Darnton, there is much alignment here with the broader and more aspirational ethos of Discovery: a striving to support new marketplaces, new patterns of demand, new business models – all in the ideal pursuit of the Public Good. Arguably naïve aspirations, but certainly the tenor in the room was one of consensus, a collective pleasure at being both challenged and inspired. Like Discovery, the DPLA is a vision, a movement, tackling these grand challenges, but also striving to make practical inroads along the way.”
From Joy Palmer’s post on Discovery: A Metadata Ecology for UK Education & Research, The Digital Public Library of America: Highlights from Robert Darnton’s recent talk