Opening Plenary: Peter Brantley, the Internet Archive
Peter Brantley, is widely respected as a creative, visionary and activist leader in the library community, with over 20 years experience in working with libraries and information technology systems. Peter is currently with the
Internet Archive, a well known nonprofit that seeks to preserve copies of the Internet and Internet sites, as well as other cultural artifacts in digital form. Drawing from his significant experience at the Internet Archive as well as the Digital Library Federation and the California Digital Library, Peter will discuss his views of the role that libraries and VR departments should play in the information technology landscape of the future, especially vis-à-vis copyright. In particular, he will discuss what libraries and VR departments should be doing to preserve the scholarly record, to advocate for community standards, and to protect academic access to scholarship given the ongoing, highly-pitched battles between copyright owners and users. Should libraries be taking a more aggressive stand to protect the rights of the academic user? Are libraries and other academic entities ceding too much to commercial entities like Google? Will the library survive if scholars and students increasingly go directly to the internet to obtain what they need? Peter's talk will focus on the potential for collective action among libraries and VR departments to protect and defend the role of the scholar and access to scholarly and educational materials.
