Thomas Jefferson Dreamed Of Knowledge As 'Common Property': Can It Be Realized In A National Digital Library?

The New York Review of Books:

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. It involves issues that concern the nature of the library to be built, the technological difficulties of designing it, the legal obstacles to getting it off the ground, the financial costs of constructing and maintaining it, and the political problems of mobilizing support for it.

Despite the complexities, the fundamental idea of a National Digital Library (or NDL) is, at its core, straightforward. The NDL would make the cultural patrimony of this country freely available to all of its citizens. It would be the digital equivalent of the Library of Congress, but instead of being confined to Capitol Hill, it would exist everywhere, bringing millions of books and other digitized material within clicking distance of public libraries, high schools, junior colleges, universities, retirement communities, and any person with access to the Internet.

The ambition behind this project goes back to the founding of this country. Thomas Jefferson formulated it succinctly: "Knowledge is the common property of mankind." He was right--in principle. But in practice, most of humanity has been cut off from the accumulated wisdom of the ages. In Jefferson's day, only a tiny elite had access to the world of learning. Today, thanks to the Internet, we can open up that world to all of our fellow citizens. We have the technical means to make Jefferson's dream come true, but do we have the will?

Read the whole story: The New York Review of Books

Comments

[m1jones]

08:19 PM on 10/21/2010

Google is busy creating the international library with all books in it. The only hold up is getting the copywrite holders permission to digitize the books. Old books with expired copywrights (e.g. works of Charles Darwin) are already online on Google. The Getty Museum in LA is making all of the art in the world available in digital form on line. There is no excuse for not having access to books today. But the more books that are put in digital form on line, the fewer people seem to read them. Problem: most people are so busy tweeting nonsense that they don't have time or the inclination to read actual books.
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[olddognewtrick]

06:43 PM on 10/12/2010

National Digital Library...Let your fingers do the reading...