An Idea: the National Digital Library

British Digital Library Logo

Can you imagine the Library of Congress being digital? That’s right no books, no journals, no paper. What would the building look like? Would it even have a building? Or would it be just a server that sat in a closet? Frighteningly it would probably be a series of servers linked together and dependent on a tenuous supply of electricity. The NDL or the National Digital Library would have no place, it would be everywhere at once via the Internet. All the printed knowledge we have accumulated freely accessible to homes, schools, offices, to anybody. Sounds great, but is it just wide eyed utopianism? The idea of the NDL has started to be seriously bantered about. The idea is afoot. And the seed for the NDL has already been planted in the NDLP (National Digital Library Program of the Library of Congress). However this program only deals with digitizing materials about the history and culture of the United States. But could an all-inclusive NDL be created? One containing all published books and journals? Other countries are trying to do it. The Dutch for instance are digitizing every Dutch book. And after all Google is digitizing everything, so it seems. Sounds great, sounds easy, just warm up the scanners. But wait a minute such a concept is actually extraordinarily complex. What about the publishers and their infamous copyright restrictions and licenses. If you were a librarian like me, you would know these fellows mean business. They don’t like their copyrights and licensees violated. This is what is known as the legal obstacles. And what about the technological obstacles? And how could you marshal the political support to fund such a project? Hmm I’m starting to sound negative. I was also thinking, an NDL wouldn’t be as egalitarian as it sounds because not everyone has access to the Internet. And doesn’t a single pipeline to all knowledge make it vulnerable? That all being said, I am actually in favor of the NDL and think it’s be doable. And actually as a librarian I get kind of excited about it. The most important thing needed in order to make it doable is a strong public sentiment in favor of such a project. Once the will is there the other pieces, legal, logistical and technological will fall into place, albeit I would guess, with a lot of fits and starts. The most difficult task then lies not with legal and technological, but with creating the desire and motivation for it.