The D.C. newspaper novel, the media, the Washington area, tech and other surrealism: David Rothman at large
If you’re here to learn more about Quinn Bradlee’s activities, check out the LibraryCity site. A long essay there mentions his Friends of Quinn campaign for people with learning disabilities. The LibraryCity post is actually about the need for two separate national digital library systems—one public and one academic—to serve often-starkly different library users. And […]
Read MoreUpdate #1: Ethics-challenged or not, Rep. Jim Moran of Virginia's Eighth District won reelection June 12. Scroll to the end for my advice for his possible foes in the 2014 Democratic primary. Update #2: Jim Moran has since told me there was no quid pro quo, that the real estate developer's contributions were part of […]
Read MoreAlmost to the day, 66 years ago, on April 28, 1045, Mussolini’s enemies shot him and kicked and spat on his body, and on April 30 of that same year, Hitler killed himself with a Walther PPK 7.65 mm pistol (right photo). Now it is 2011 and we’ve TWEPed and buried Osama bin Laden. A […]
Read MoreI’ll be back to the Scandals blog in time, but for now, more of my blogging is happening on the LibraryCity.org site—devoted to the K-12 benefits and other glories of a well-stocked national digital library system for the United States. Drop by and think about contributing your own essay on the need for one. If […]
Read MoreThe “L” word was “Library,” and the place where I’ve been blogging lately is the new LibraryCity site, promoting the idea of a well-stocked national digital library system for the entire country, not just the elite. The site was in beta, but now librarian Tom Peters and I have officially unveiled it, aided by an […]
Read MoreWith so many local libraries facing cutbacks, the case for a well-stocked national digital library system grows stronger each day. At TheAtlantic.com I’ve written of the possibility of a decentralized public library system existing within the Library of Congress but run by librarians in many cities, so that Washington does not dictate to America what […]
Read MoreRoy Tennant, a digital library maven, Library Journal columnist and OCLC program officer, has just posted Dueling National Digital Library Visions on the LJ site. It’s my plan on the Atlantic site vs. Harvard Library Director Robert Darnton’s proposal in the New York Review of Books. If this is new to you, go to the […]
Read MoreOn the Atlantic site this morning, you’ll see my call for a well-stocked national digital library system, along with comments from James Fallows, once a speechwriter for Jimmy Carter. But who says the proposal is just for Democrats and liberals? In fact, my own interest in such a system arose originally from a comment by […]
Read More