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LibraryCity.org has a friend over in the United Kingdom—hit hard by library cutbacks and looking for new solutions, one of which, we hope, will be a truly well-stocked national digital library system serving the population as a whole. Ahead is a letter to us from Simon Barron, a UK librarian and author of related writings in the Guardian and elsewhere. Thanks, Simon, and keep us posted on your own NDL efforts! In a future post—I don’t know when it will appear—we’ll further discuss the UK’s NDL situation.
Dear Mr. Rothman,
I am a librarian in the UK and have been a follower and supporter of your ideas on ebooks and National Digital Libraries. I’m pleased that prominent figures such as yourself and Robert Darnton of Harvard University Library are promoting the idea in the United States. I am attempting to promote the idea in the UK throughout the library community and am writing to share some of my recent articles and to thank you for the inspiration.
Attached is a copy of my article in the March edition of CILIP Update setting out an argument for a UK National Digital Library despite the horrific cuts to library services that the UK is suffering. I’m also providing this link to my accompanying blog post where I further elaborate on what the idea of an NDL means. I also wrote this article for The Guardian newspaper which is about the issues of managing digital commodities and acknowledges the NDL concept.
I hope you find this information useful. The key to large-scale digital libraries is collaboration and in this spirit of sharing I feel it is important for advocates of similar ideas to share information.
Yours sincerely,
Simon Barron
Correction: I botched the spelling of Simon Barron’s name in the first mention of it. Fixed, with apologies. – D.R.
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- Well-stocked national digital library systems, please, Mr. Clinton—not a ‘Ministry of Truth’ or other police agency
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