I’m at an event at the Library of Congress put on by the Federal Library and Information Center Committee. The event was opened by Dr. James Billington. I took some notes by hand. Here’s my impression of his comments:

Dr. Billington presented a progressive vision for the future of libraries. The digital revolution is the most profound change in knowledge since the codex was introduced in the 4th Century BCE…more important than even the printing press. “The cascade of digital information calls out for human intermediaries” and for physical places, he said. [Note: As always, quotes are actually paraphrases and are undoubtedly wrong.] We need “knowledge navigators” more than ever.

Nevertheless, he said, the Library’s fundamental mission hasn’t changed: To make accessible the world’s knowledge. There will, of course, be changes. Libaries will collect at the point of creation; libraries will complement traditional categorization and navigation systems with free search; the Library will “continue to work with legislators to balance copyright vs. the need to access information.” [Yay!]

“Libraries are ideologically important to democracy,” Dr. Billington said. They are inherently “islands of freedom,” an antidote to fanaticism, and inherently pluralistic because “books stand next to books that disagree with them.” Libraries unify communities and yet celebrate diversity.

He talked briefly about the World Digital Library being built by the US with six other national libraries. The collections will be full blended digitally. “Globalization has to happen intellectually and perceptually,” he said.

[Jeez, I love librarians.] [Tags: libtraries library_of_congress james_billington everything_is_miscellaneous]

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