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By David Rothman

robertdarnton Robert C. Darnton, the new director of the Harvard University Library, isn’t just talking about the importance of digitization for the library world. He’s actually writing an e-book and will welcome customization of it by others.

As reported by the Harvard Crimson student newspaper, Darnton "studies the history of books and taught at Princeton before coming to Harvard this year." He sees libraries not as “warehouses of printed paper,” but as “dynamic cultural centers.”

Book-smuggling: Darnton’s e-book topic

So what’s the e-book Darnton intends to write? From the Crimson:

"Inspired by an archive in an old Swiss town in which he found—and spent 14 summers reading—50,000 unpublished letters, Darnton said he plans to write about book smuggling across the French border during the 18th century.

"The book will be published in electronic form along with monographs and digitized manuscripts so that the reader can create a personal version of the text.

“’You can log on and follow things in very great detail depending on how seriously you’re interested,’ Darnton said.

"Darnton said the book could have several ‘levels’ in which readers could click on additional items according to their degree of interest and have the opportunity to translate excerpts of correspondence and read source material in the original French."

At the same time, in a speech titled “Old Books and E-Books,” Darnton pledged to "continue to strengthen Harvard’s fabulous collections in old printed material…."

Related: Library Journal article on Darnton.

And speaking of E and academia: Yale Library and Microsoft partner on ambitious digital project (press release, via LISNews).

 
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