One of the high points that emerged from the HathiTrust Constitutional Convention, which was held in Washington, D.C. from October 8-10, was the opening presentation by John Wilkin, HathiTrust’s executive director. Wilkin talked about the project’s past, present and future, and he emphasized that “this is a libraries writ large success story. What has happened is something we accomplished collectively. This is not a story of an external organization—Google, a government agency, or some external champion—doing something for us. This is our story, and one that we need to understand and celebrate.” Toward that end, we reproduce here, with Wilkin’s permission, the complete text of his presentation along with the accompanying slides.
The convention itself consisted of a series of sessions over 3 days, attended by delegates from each partner institution and consortium. The sessions were designed to consider the ballot proposals submitted by partner institutions, allowing for amendments to proposals, and culminating in a final vote by partners.
HathiTrust’s Past, Present, and Future
John Wilkin’s opening presentation given at the HathiTrust Constitutional Convention, October 8, 2011:
Accompanying PowerPoint slides:
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