With or without Google, prominent academics tell The New York Times that the Web will eventually get its universal library. Dubbed the Digital Public Library of America, the new effort counts a long
list of heavyweights among its supporters, including librarians from major universities and officials from the National Archives and the Library of Congress.
Robert Darnton, director
of the Harvard University Library, recently praised the project in an opinion article in The New York Times. "People feel energized," he says. "This is an opportunity for those of us who care about
creating a noncommercial public digital library to get on with it." Darnton and others, the NYT writes, "see it as an opportunity to bring new urgency to a project to create a universal public library
-- one that, they say, would be far superior to Google's because it would not be commercial." The mission of the Digital Public Library of America is to "make the cultural and scientific heritage of
humanity available, free of charge, to all."
Read the whole story at The New York Times »