Date: 18^th October, 2019

Time: 18:30 p.m.

Venue: Lecture Hall, Floor 2, Agricultural and Medical Science Library of Zhejiang University Library, Zijingang Campus, Zhejiang University.

【Speaker Introduction】：Robert Darnton was educated at Harvard University (A.B., 1960) and Oxford University (B.Phil., 1962; D. Phil., 1964), where he was a Rhodes scholar. After a brief stint as a reporter for The New York Times, he became a junior fellow in the Society of Fellows at Harvard. 

【Lecture Abstract】：Despite a lot of gossip about the demise of paper books and outdated libraries, books and libraries are more important than ever in today's digital information environment. This importance is increasing as we conceive the digital future, and I hope we can make it on the right track. One development path is that excessive commercialization will lead the public to stop accessing most of the materials in the public domain in the future. Another development path is to democratize the channels of knowledge acquisition. On 8^th April, 2013, the US Digital Public Library was officially launched, which demonstrates the possibility of such democratization. The library is a decentralized digital collection system that collects data from research libraries across the United States in digital form, designed to provide free access to American cultural heritage materials to all Americans and even everyone in the world.