With Robert Darnton in the digital jungle

Abstract

Robert Darnton’s book The case for books, now published in Italian as Il futuro del libro (Milano: Adelphi, 2011), despite its limitation of being a collection of articles written over a decade of rapidly changing phenomena, communicates the sense and love of research, and therefore of books and libraries, and indicates a sound and viable path for research libraries today.

The two most current issues debated in the book are Google Books and the mass digitization on the one hand, open access to scientific research results on the other.
Darnton is the most authoritative spokesman of those who think that we should not stand by and watch the transformation of the ideal of access in digital form to all books and periodicals of the past in a “package” of licenses sold by only one company (a monopoly, worse than the current access to bundles of electronic journals). He then launched the idea of building a «national digital library, or Digital Public Library of America», giving free access to all the books of the largest research libraries. The project has received wide support and detailed planning is now in progress.

In the “digital jungle” in which we live, where important achievements are not well known while others are boosted by unreliable propaganda, we need a more alert, critical and active approach.
For Italy, the most urgent need is the ability to quickly identify what is already freely available in digital form and the easiest and most effective solution would be to record it in the major national catalogues (SBN, ACNP). Cooperation between libraries is the best way to enhance access to digital resources already available and to select and add the most needed material not yet digitized.