Paul N. Courant has joined the steering committee for the proposed Digital Public Library of America. This 12-member committee, composed of library and foundation leaders, will create a blueprint for "an open, distributed network of comprehensive online resources," as explained by Doron Weber, vice president of the Sloan Foundation and a member of the steering committee, in a press release.
A plenary meeting of all stakeholders will be held in early summer 2011 and a series of workshops will be planned throughout the year to get consensus on legal, technical, financial, governance, and content questions for the new library. "We [the steering committee] hope to emerge with a concrete work plan and a governance structure that represents the consensus of the country's libraries, universities, archives, and museums for moving forward together with a shared vision," Weber also explained.