Webchat: 5 Myths About the "Information Age" with Robert Darnton

Vinnytsia Information Resource Center "Window on America" was welcome to tune into a video webchat on Wednesday, June 8, presenting Robert Darnton, Director of the University Library at Harvard (CO.NX webchat, hosted at the U.S. Embassy in Rome, Italy).

Confusion about the nature of the so-called information age has led to a state of collective false consciousness. It's no one's fault but everyone's problem, because in trying to get our bearings in cyberspace, we often get things wrong, and the misconceptions spread so rapidly that they go unchallenged.

Robert Darnton answered various questions from all over the world during a conversation about 5 myths of the Information Age. Among the questions discussed at this Chat the following ones were the most intersting and worth to answer in details (Prof. Darnton, do you think one of the various formats for ebooks will become the standard, and that we will eventually head into a single format? Is privacy as we know it a thing of the past? Isn't the ''digital age'' (with websites and technologies dissapearing all the time..) a threat to preserving information for the future generations?...What can be done? Is there a difference in the way the brain takes in or absorbs information when it is presented electronically versus on paper? Does the reading experience change, from retention to comprehension, depending on the medium? Can we consider the social media a part of the information age? What will be the long-term effect of moving from a culture founded on literacy, education, history and philosophy all communicated by books, to a culture that “accesses” pieces of free-floating text? Has the information age and Globalisation reached its zenith and what next? do you agree that IT has widen the digital divide between people of different geographical locations and therefore it reinforces the cultural and scientifical divide between Nort and South and East and West? how can the developing country make use of information age? Do you know of U.S. libraries that lend Kindle e-readers to patrons? How they manage their digital book collections? What do you *honestly* think of Google/Kindle's approach of not licencing ebooks to Libraries? How can a library, which is a non-commercial entity, not be forced by the commercial business deciding what it should make available to the public and what not?).

The participants of this activity from Vinnytsia WOA prepared questions in advance. The answers were detailed and really expressive giving us even info about future of Ukrainian e-books with some data.
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Historian, specialist of the 18th Century, graduated from Harvard University and Oxford University, Robert Darnton taught at Princeton until 2007 when he became Director of the University Library at Harvard. Trustee of the New York Public Library and the Oxford University Press, he is the former President of the American Historical Association. Honors: MacArthur Prize Fellowship, National Book Critics Circle Award, French Legion of Honor. One of his latest books is “The Case for Books” (2009).
Enjoy reading articles about Robert Darnton and his ideas about Digital Library (Harvard University Library Director Robert Darnton Asks If We Can Create a National Digital Library in the U.S.) (http://web.resourceshelf.com/go/resourceblog/61021).