Library Futures has a new home: the upstart independent advocacy initiative to support the mission of libraries in the digital realm has joined New York University’s Engelberg Center on Innovation Law & Policy, part of NYU Law School.
In a release announcing the move, NYU officials said Library Futures’ work “is deeply connected to existing initiatives at the Engelberg Center,” including work on understanding the nature of ownership of digital goods, as well as an array of open access initiatives.
“Library Futures has done insightful, impactful work in the digital library space, including projects related to controlled digital lending, electronic repair, privacy in libraries, and more,” reads the NYU release. “They are a community of passionate experts, practitioners, and thinkers operating on the leading edge of the evolving library world. We look forward to expanding that work, and integrating it with current and future projects here at the Engelberg Center.”
As part of the move, Library Futures executive director Jennie Rose Halperin will become the Director of the Library Futures Project at the Engelberg Center, and Kyle K. Courtney will join the Center as a Library Futures Fellow. Existing Library Futures Board members will continue to serve as an advisory board for the initiative.
“Together with the Engelberg Center, including Executive Director Michael Weinberg and Co-Director Jason Schultz, we are doubling down on our strategy, bringing continued focus and direction to our work and a new energy fueled by the community,” Halperin wrote in a post announcing the move. “The Engelberg Center is a unique environment for scholars to examine the key drivers of innovation as well as the law and policy that best support innovation. As part of this merger, we will join a community of practitioners, scholars, students, and researchers working together to further knowledge and policy in the service of the public good.”
Library Futures officially launched in January, 2021 to “advance a research and programmatic agenda” dedicated to “ensuring that libraries will continue to provide open, non-discriminatory access to information to benefit the general learning, research, and intellectual enrichment of the public.” Among the group's priorities it advocates for “less restrictive licensing agreements for e-media and e-books” and for policies that would enable libraries to continue to fulfill the traditional roles libraries have played in the analog world in the digital space.
