Library 2.0 Symposium to Explore the Future of Digital Collections

The Yale Information Society Project (ISP) will host the Library 2.0 Symposium on Saturday, April 4, 2009, at Yale Law School. The symposium is especially timely as the confluence of book digitization projects, user-generated content, and social networking applications forces us to rethink the role of libraries. Among the topics to be considered:  What counts as a library in the 21st century? And how do digital collections and web 2.0 applications create new challenges to copyright, fair use, and civil liberties online?

“The way we search for and interact with digital collections is in a state of transformation in every possible way,” said Yale ISP Executive Director Laura DeNardis, who noted that Google recently negotiated a $125 million settlement with book publishers and authors over the use of copyrighted materials in its book search digital library project. “The question of what counts as fair use exceptions to copyright for digital books is certainly in a state of flux, as the Google book settlement indicates, but so are issues of privacy and freedom of expression for library patrons and issues of interoperability and openness in technical architectures for digital collections.” 

The symposium will bring together leading thinkers from libraries, academia, and legal practice to lay out a vision for the future of the library in the digital age; the ethical implications of Library 2.0, including data retention and patron privacy; intellectual property rights in user-generated and traditional digital library content; and the future of book digitization. Featured speakers will include Ann Wolpert, head of MIT libraries and the MIT press; John Palfrey, Professor of Law and Dean for Library and Information Resources at Harvard Law School; Josh Greenberg of the New York Public Library; Jeff Cunard of Debevoise and Plimpton; and a host of other luminaries.   

The event will take place in Room 127 of Yale Law School, 127 Wall Street, New Haven, Connecticut. It is free and open to the public but is expected to fill up quickly, so early registration is encouraged. Click here to register online. If you have questions, please contact Perry Fetterman at perry.fetterman@yale.edu. More information will be made available on the ISP website.

The Library 2.0 Symposium is made possible by the generosity of the Oscar M. Ruebhausen Fund at Yale Law School.

The Information Society Project at Yale Law School was founded in 1997 by Professor Jack Balkin to study the implications of the Internet and new information technologies for law and society.