An Anonymous Patron writes “Shirky: We (Still) Have a Long Way to Go The Internet is the most important thing for scholarship since the
printing press, and all information which can be online should be
online, because that is the most efficient way to distribute material
to the widest possible audience. Billington should probably be asked
to resign, based on his contempt for U.S. citizens who don’t happen to
live within walking distance of his library. More importantly,
however, is what his views illustrate about how far the Internet
revolution still has to go.”
Update: 11/18 07:06 EST by R:A kind reader has pointed out to me that this piece is over four years old. He also must be an amazing rememberer, as there’s no date on the piece itself. Caveat lector!
Billington speech was April 14, 2000 😉
Not a caveat lector thing. I would expect most folks working as librarians four years ago would have enough of a recollection of this flap to have done a web search on — billington national press club — and found the date. In fact, anyone curious about the date of the article could have done such a web search