I would not minimize the digital divide, which separates the computerized world from the rest, nor would I underestimate the importance of traditional books.

As president of the American Historical Association, I started a programme to make dissertations into e-books in 1999. Before I knew it, I was involved in other electronic projects. Harvard invited me to become director of the libraries in 2007.

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 would not minimize the digital divide, which separates the computerized world from the rest, nor would I underestimate the importance of traditional books.

It's important to make clear to all the schools at Harvard the central role of the library.

I worked for a brief spell as a journalist, but soon I discovered that I didn't want to be a journalist - I wanted to be a historian.

The notion of 'history from below' hit the history profession in England very hard around the time I came to Oxford in the early 1960s.