About Robert Darnton: Robert Choate Darnton is an American cultural historian and academic librarian who specializes in 18th-century France.
The fact that I spend a lot of time in the 18th century doesn't mean I'm not concerned with the 21st.
I want to continue to strengthen Harvard's fabulous collections in old printed material, but at the same time, I want to help Harvard move into the world of digitized information.
The American revolutionaries believed in the power of the word. But they had only word of mouth and the printing press. We have the Internet.
I was very fortunate to be elected to the Society of Fellows at Harvard, which is, in effect, a small research center where you are given three years to do whatever work you want.
My work has taken me from historical research to involvement in electronic publishing ventures to the directorship of the Harvard University Libraries.
