Robert Darnton, university librarian at Harvard, has been talking a lot lately about why the United States needs to create a national digital library. Now he has taken things a step further. With Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society and with funding from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Darnton is coordinating plans for the Digital Public Library of America. There is a wiki and a public listserv for anyone who wants to get involved in the discussion or follow along with the planning as it happens.
Call me crazy but this is really exciting. I mean, that there is even a discussion in which interested parties can take part is huge and wow and makes me just a touch giddy. I’ve signed up for the listserv. There isn’t much more I can do at the moment, but hopefully after school is done somehow I can find a way to make a contribution however small it might be. And I am glad I am typing this because if I were talking the pitch of my voice would be rising with my excitement to the point where it sounded like I had sucked down some helium.
On a more relaxed and ebook-y note, marginalia. Do ebooks mean the loss of marginalia? And if so, is that bad? It’s a wonderful article. Apparently the folks who like to study marginalia have become increasingly interested in the the scribblings of the not-famous for what it says about how people read, what the “average” person thinks of a book, and the historical information that can be gleaned from reader comments. It made me want to pick up a pencil and start scribbling in the margins of all my books.
And now, I must go shovel some snow. We got over a foot of snow yesterday and it is snowing still/ again today. I got a snow day from work but didn’t find out until I got to work. Bookman got a snow day too but only because the car is stuck in the snow on the street and we won’t be able to get it out until a plow comes by. I am always happy when spring arrives, but this year I will be pretty close to ecstatic.
Ah I shall check these sites later today but thanks for sharing them. I love your posts on things library and information-ary!
I did though read the marginalia article because another blogger linked to it in a comment on my blog earlier today. Interesting stuff. As I commented on her comment, I guess the librarian and 20th century attitude issue relates to the growth of free libraries. It’s one thing to write marginalia in one’s own book (or to even like it in a secondhand books one buys) but it’s not the thing to do in a book you don’t own (unless you are invited to of course!).
I figure that what really gets lost with ebooks are front page dedications, author signings, tender messages from sender to recipient. I expect most authors won’t feel too bad about not having to turn up to book store signing events. But the whole secondhand book market of first editions and signed copies will shrink and either disappear or become a very expensive pursuit indeed.
Do you know that there are fewer than a hundred Darnton’s in the world? Which is why whenever I see the name somewhere public it really throws me. So you are giddy about what he is doing, I am giddy because of who is doing it. I’ve never tried to trace the family connection but I suppose somewhere along the line we have to be related; there are so few of us it’s almost inevitable. Someone somewhere once referred to RD as ‘the last of the great eccentrics’ which caused a colleague to observe, ‘it runs in the family, then.’
On the subject of marginalia, like Helene Hanff, I love it. It’s so interesting to know what another reader has thought. I’ve been known to argue with the absent scribe for hours. I’ve even been known to argue with my younger self and banish me to the outer regions of the campus for such pale and naive thoughts. Maybe my colleague was right!
whisperinggums, I am glad you like the library and information-ary posts. Sometimes I wonder if I am only babbling and everyone is just putting up with it! As for marginalia, I think you are right about the growth of free libraries contributing to the decling of marginalia. That, and in the U.S. at least when I was in grade school the school provided textbooks and the teachers threatened us with severe punishment if we should write in them.
Litlove, signed books! And standing in Disneyland-like lines for two hours to get your favorite author to sign the book. How sad for those to disappear. And books given as gifts with notes from the giver on the flyleaf. They aren’t gone yet and hopefully never will be.
Annie, how exciting that you are probably related to RD! I didn’t realize Darnton was an uncommon name. I rarely find any good marginalia in secondhand books. Evidence, perhaps that it is a lost or uncommon art. I have definitely argued with my own marginalia when I have reread a favorite book. It can be a rather entertaining exercise
The marginalia article leaves me feeling SO vindicated!
“reading a book should not be a passive exercise, but rather a raucous conversation.”
YES, precisely! Go Studs Terkel. I wouldn’t write in a library book but I delightedly write in my own books and give people a piece of my mind when they object. A book I’ve read and written in becomes much more valuable to me than one I’ve read and left “pristine,” both for the emotional value and because I can now find and engage with the passages that struck me.
I don’t write in books but I always enjoy finding the odd little comment in a used book, especially if it’s something you think you would have noticed on your own. Sort of like a shared conversation
eBooks are cool but I totally agree with what Litlove wrote about author signings and dedications. What a shame if that were to be lost with an ebook generation!
Emily, oh how I wish I could be like you in writing in my books! I have fallen victim to the librarians, teachers, and my parents who drilled into my head, “NEVER write in books!” But I have books from college classes in which I had to write and when I reread them I love that I’ve scribbled in them. But for the most part I still can’t bring myself to write in my books. I’m working on it though!
Iliana, exactly! I’m reading a secondhand Trollope at the moment and the previous owner wrote in the margins now and then and I like that very much except when I can’t read what the person wrote, then I get annoyed at them for sloppy writing! the is such a book culture that had developed around author readings and signings that I don’t think we are in danger of losing them any time soon. At least I hope not!
I think studies of average, regular readers are fascinating — a great corrective to all our focus on famous people. We may lose marginalia, but think of the studies people could do of blogs! Most bloggers are “average” reader-types, right? If they continue to be readable in the future, I expect scholars will have a field day with them. (But will they accessible?)
Dorothy, I think those studies are really interesting too and they are slowly nudging me away from my pristine book ways. Blog studies when they start showing up are sure to be fascinating. How accessible today’s blogs will be in the future is a very good question and a great unknown.