Here are three questions and answers from the complete interview that appears in the July 24, 2011 edition of the Boston Globe: IDEAS: So why not leave it to Google? DARNTON: It became clear, as Google's project evolved, that it would be a commercial enterprise, and in fact an enterprise attached to a gigantic monopoly. A monopoly, perhaps, with the best intentions, but that would not necessarily serve the public good, because of course Google's primary responsibility would be to its shareholders .[Clip] IDEAS: So what would a digital public library be like? What would it do? DARNTON: It doesn't look like everybody's image of...

From an OverDrive blog post: The days of having to dig your library card out when you’re trying to download an eBook at the doctor’s office (or park, or airport terminal, or a bar mitzvah) are over. With the latest update to OverDrive-powered mobile sites, users will have the option for their devices to store their library card numbers. Starting now, when customers check out a title, the device will have a box where they can check “Remember me on this device.” The device will then hold the characters in its memory for 90 days after each use. This is...

Egypt's Library of Alexandria has announced that it's placed 19,000 works from its collection on the Espresso Book Machine (EBM) network, and plans to add another 150,000 Arabic titles soon. The library operates three EBMs, but this also means people around the world can print replicas of the library's titles from their nearest EBM. You can read the press release on On Demand Books' News page. Via INFOdocket...

You forgot to record Monday night's premiere of the new C-SPAN documentary on the Library of Congress, didn't you? Well, you can watch it online for free at C-SPAN's LOC minisite. The 90 minute film takes a holistic approach to its subject, covering everything from the library's founding to its architecture to its vast collection (including a Braille copy of "Mein Kampf"). If you just want to watch the section about how the library uses technology to preserve and study manuscripts, jump to 1:15:45 and watch the part about the Preservation Division. If you're even more impatient, jump straight to 1:20:45, which...

From the Khaleej Times: Dubai's and the Middle East's first electronic library is a far cry from those of another era which housed dusty books on rusty bookshelves. "This is just an idea, the first step towards something big and different. The library has many e-services like different online databases that offer access to different technologies and has more computers and fewer books. The response towards the library in terms of members and visitors has been very good," said Eissa Abdulla Khalaf Abdulla, Library Services Officer, Public Libraries Department, Dubai Culture and Arts Authority. Being the first electronic library in the Middle East,...

Sue Polanka of No Shelf Required participated in an ebook summit yesterday in New Jersey, sponsored by that state's major library organizations. Other speakers included Robert Miller of the Internet Archive and Eli Neiburger of Ann Arbor District Library, and the panel discussed issues of licensing, copyright and DRM. Polanka's summaries are posted in two parts on her blog (Part I, Part II), but here are some of the highlights. Eli Neiburger, Ann Arbor District Library — "The eReader as a device is a flash in the pan. It’s not about the hardware/software and not really about the content –...

From a News Release: The Virginia Foundation for the Humanities (VFH) will receive a grant of $150,000 from energy company, Dominion Resources to build the Commonwealth's only online historical and cultural archive about Virginia's Indian communities. The grant matches an additional award from the Mary Morton Parsons Foundation of $75,000. Virginia Indian Heritage Online will be a collaborative project between two programs at the VFH--the Virginia Indian Heritage Program and Encyclopedia Virginia. It will create a comprehensive record of Virginia Indian history, interpreted and delivered, which anyone can access at any time. Through this two-year project, VFH will visit tribal communities to scan...

From the opening paragraph: "The bookless library has finally arrived, making a beachhead on college campuses. At Drexel University's new Library Learning Terrace, which opened just last month, there is nary a bound volume, just rows of computers and plenty of seating." However, what TIME doesn't mention is that the Learning Terrace is essentially a modern, library-connected study space in the middle of a University residence hall, and not simply a library gutted of printed books by some digitally starry-eyed administrators. In fact, the Drexel University Library's student guide explicitly points out that its actual libraries do still have printed...

From a LeMonde Article (In French, Mechanical Translation via Google): The National Library of France announced Wednesday, July 6, launching an appeal to private partners for the digitization and enhancement of its collections. “Today is a historic step,” said President BNF, Bruno Racine, during a joint press conference in Paris with the Minister of Culture, Frédéric Mitterrand, and the Commissioner General for investment, René Ricol. The BNF has identified 12 areas that can be scanned in partnership with private actors. These include ancient books from 1470 to 1700, a set of 300 000 French and 500 000 printed in the public domain,...

Next month, 3M's recent investment in German ebook device company txtr will bear fruit in a pilot program in Minneapolis. TwinCities.com reports that the library system there will test 3M's new cloud-based ebook library lending service using cloud-connected kiosks and custom ereader devices that users who don't own any hardware will be able to check out. Allowing library patrons to check out an actual e-reader does come with some security concerns. But the St. Paul libraries are comfortable with the risk. "Our biggest focus is giving access to people who can't afford them," said Sheree Savage, a spokeswoman for the St. Paul...

@calimaq has posted (in French) about a Europeana program that began at the beginning of 2011 to aggregate digital content from European libraries. The focus of the post is on what this might mean for digitized book content from Google. Here’s a mechanical translation of the post using Google Translate and another from Bing Translate. You can read more about the aggregation via “Europeana Libraries: Aggregating digital content from Europe’s libraries” from the European Commission. Hat Tip/Thanks To: @blanktextfield and @calimaq...

Overdriveblogs.com writes that after a successful recent beta-testing period, starting today the company is rolling out a DRM-free ebook option to all libraries. Here's a list of some of the publishers who are participating (although territory issues may impact availability in some cases): AMG Bold Strokes Books Books to Go Now Carina Press Gideon Informatics Joe Konrath KBS Microsoft Press O’Reilly Media Rock Nook Romance Divine LLC Rosenfeld Media Sher Music Simonelli Editore TidBITS University Press of Colorado Wildside Press More from the blog post: "All DRM-free eBooks are available under the one-copy/one-user model, which means you can add a copy to your collection and one user at a time can borrow the title from the library. Just...