No. 175, October 2010

Lecture by leading figure

Lecture by Prof. Chartier on September 7, 2010 at the Tokyo Main Library

On September 7, 2010, a lecture by Prof. Roger Chartier of the Collège de France was held by the National Diet Library (NDL), attracting a large audience.

Prof. Chartier, who holds the chair of writing and cultures in modern Europe at the Collège de France, gave a lecture titled "Qu'est-ce qu'un livre? Métaphores anciennes, concepts des Lumières et réalités numériques" (What is a Book? Old Metaphors, Enlightened Categories, and Digital Realities) at the Tokyo Main Library, talking about the history and future of books and reading.

After the lecture, a three-way discussion was conducted between Prof. Chartier, Prof. Norihiko Fukui (President of Gakushuin University) and Dr. Makoto Nagao (Librarian of the National Diet Library). Based on questions submitted in advance by the audience, they discussed the characteristics of e-books and e-publishing, roles of the public and private sectors in constructing digital libraries, comparison between the Printing Revolution led by Johannes Gutenberg and the present Digital Revolution, copyright issues, roles of a library in the digital era, etc.

Discussion

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