Blog post (and more): the really modern library

the institute for the future of the book (if:book) is seeking comments. They have said:

We're in the very early stages of devising, in partnership with Peter Brantley and the Digital Library Federation, what could become a major initiative around the question of mass digitization. It's called "The Really Modern Library."

Over the next 30 days, they will be holding invitation-only brainstorming sessions in Los Angeles, London and New York. Their goal is "to shed light on the big questions about future accessibility and usability of analog culture in a digital, networked world." Many questions are posed in the blog post, including those that will be discussed during the brainstorming sessions. Several of the general questions are:

• How might we bring the records of our culture with us in ways that respect the originals but also take advantage of new media technologies to enhance and reinvent them?
• How does the digital network change our relationship with analog objects?
  
• What does it mean for readers/researchers/learners to be in direct communication in and around pieces of media?
• What should be the *social* architecture of a really modern library?

A few comments have been left on the blog post. It would seem to me that more people could contribute to this discussion by leaving well thought out comments. Charles Bailey has suggested that if:book create a wiki or use CommentPress to gather and refine ideas. However they do it, this is a topic that touches many people and institutions, so I hope many people can be involved in the conversation.

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Technorati tag: Digitization