Alexandria Library 2.0

There's an initiative afoot at Harvard, where some alums are trying to get the university to use some of its endowments to advance social causes overseas, such as supporting schools in Africa.

As admirable as the Harvard alum initiative is, I think global education would be transformed if Harvard, Stanford, UT, Princeton, MIT, the University of Chicago, and [fil in the blank] committed enough of their resources to provide universal access to a digital library with holdings equal to the holdings at the nation's top university libraries. When we consider the question of education in the 21st century, we must contend with restricted access to evolving insights and understandings. With the unrestrained increase in subscription rates for online journals and the slashing of state support for higher education, one doesn't have to cross the ocean to find the have nots; with the advent of wireless global distribution, creating a global Alexandria Library 2.0 is worthy of consideration.

rspin