This is all the news the last couple of days:

Google Gift to Digital Library, from NY Times

$3-Million Gift From Google Jump-Starts Library of Congress’s Digital Cultural Archive, from the Chronicle

James H. Billington, the librarian of Congress, said the World Digital Library would be modeled after the library’s American Memory Project…

I’m extremely gratified that this project is being undertaken by LC, & funded by Google — rather than being undertaken by Google. A library is the right place for a project like this to reside, & librarians are the right people to create it. I’m impressed with Google for backing this effort. Call be a romantic, but this has to a certain extent renewed my faith in Google’s not being evil. Still, I say, the LC needs to be careful in how this project is publicized, so that it’s known as LC’s project & not Google’s project. Lorcan Dempsey made a similar point back in January.