Digital Libraries

Digital Libraries
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The global information exchange experiment.

Digital libraries are a large part of the future of librarianship. Now in their infancy, they struggle with the same issues other libraries do: access, collection development, cataloging, copyright, labor costs, user-friendliness, searchability and preservation. Their growing importance is seen as a force behind the mergers of information science programs and library science schools. My interest is in collection development and user services at digital libraries. I like visiting them. Here is my list of the most interesting and useful digital libraries, DL organizations, and sites related to them.

The Berkeley Digital Library sunSITE. One of the best, with the most interesting collections, and good links. A collaboration between the UC Berkeley Library and Sun Microsystems, Inc. Sun hosts sunSITES all around the world. The BDL sunSITE has The Papers of Emma Goldman, and the Jack London Collection. Historical collections include the California Heritage Project, the American Heritage Project,and the Online Medieval and Classical Library.

	The Making of America, Parts 1 and 2. MOA Part 1 contains primary source material in American social history from c.1800-1870. Part 1 was created as a joint project of the University of Michigan and Cornell. MOA Part 2 is a newer effort from Berkeley. It covers 1869-1900. History of the railroads is featured in both.
	UM Digital Library and DL projects at the University of Michigan.
	Columbia University Digital Library Program and VisualSEEk, Columbia's image search engine.
	Electronic Text Project at the University of Pittsburgh Library.
	Project Open Book at the Yale University Library.
	Alexandria Digital Library at the University of California at Santa Barbara.
	Berkeley Multimedia Research Center, a UC Berkeley Library project.
	British Library Research and Innovation Centre, Digital Library Research Program.
	Portico- the British Library. Gateway to BL catalogues and history.
	The New Zealand Digital Library at the University of Waikato. NZDL seems to have a new URL, but I haven't discovered it yet.
	The Digital Library Federation.
	Web4Lib an ongoing electronic discussion forum on digital libraries, for library professionals.
	Online, Inc.'s web site often features articles from Online magazine about digital libraries.
	BiblioBytes features books online, and a searchable database of books.
	D-Lib magazine. E-journal on digital libraries.
	Want to go international? Digital libraries and research projects in Canada, the Netherlands, Scotland and Australia!

Okay! That'll keep you busy for a bit. <grin>

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