CILIP & OCLC Executive Briefing on the Digital Library 17 April 2008

The European Union (EU) Digital Libraries Initiative shows us clearly that digital libraries and digitization are on the march, not just in the United States, and not just at Google.

In the UK, CILIP: the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals, informs us about an upcoming 17 April 2008 Exectuive Briefing on the Digital Library:

"CILIP is joining forces with OCLC, the world's largest library service and research organisation, to present an Executive Briefing on the Digital Library in London on 17 April 2008. It will focus on how digital media is impacting on UK libraries, and the challenges and opportunities this trend presents."

As we wrote previously at LawPundit:

"The bookless digital libraries of the future are already on their way. CNET's Stefanie Olsen wrot in ZDNET News on "The college library of tomorrow" that book digitization has been well under way for some time, but that the major problem in digitizing books is the law:

"Yet the biggest challenge to digitizing libraries are the concerns of publishers and intellectual property rights holders. Copyright laws have changed over time and can be different outside the United States. As a result, many book-digitization projects must entail copious amounts of time researching the rights of works and obtaining permissions."

Here again, sensible legislation concerning this inevitable development is lacking in the US Congress and elsewhere among the world's civilized nations."

Accordingly, anyone interested in digital libraries must also keep one eye on legal developments. LawPundit is a good place to start.

Technorati Tags law, ip, copyrights, copyright, libraries, library, digitization, digital library, digital libraries, CILIP, OCLC, European Union, EU, Digital Libraries Initiative.