# DIGITAL LIBRARIES: AN ESSENTIAL BIBLIOGRAPHY

# Concept and Theory of a Digital Library**: "Based on the idea of a library or information service providing virtual anywhere/anytime electronic access through the Internet to documents and or services." A digital library will direct users to electronic collections, such as research papers or video clips that document in great detail the history of a particular locale or area or that offer a unique thematic perspective on a subject. The main benefit of constructing a digital library is the ability to provide 24 hour, remote access to high demand items from multiple users worldwide. The best way of discovering the potential of such a service is to look at actual examples:**

**Important Meta-Resources:**

**Center for the Study of Digital Libraries**:
<http://www.csdl.tamu.edu/>

Based at Texas A&M University; lists conferences, digital library
projects, publications, courses.

**Checklist and Resource Guide for Building Digital Collections
(scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition, Washington,
D.C.) :** <http://www.arl.org/sparc/IR/IR_Guide.html>

**Digital Library Federation** (Washington, D.C.)
<http://www.diglib.org/>

This Web Site has information on Collections, Standards and Practices,
Forums, Publications and Resources, Research Reports and Links to DLF
Partners.

**Digital Collections and Programs at the Library of Congress**:

<http://www.loc.gov/library/libarch-digital.html> includes standards for
building digital collections, with technical documentation and
information.

**Digital Library Technology Trends** \[.pdf\]

<http://www.sun.com/products-n-solutions/edu/whitepapers/pdf/digital_library_trends.pdf>

Published in August 2002, this paper examines technology trends in
digital libraries. It starts with the fundamentals of building a digital
collection and how practices have evolved in the past few years. The
paper notes a few pioneering efforts that were originally intended for
the preservation of historical works, and in doing so, underscores the
importance of digital library design. By using several different sites
as examples, the paper describes how digital libraries are implemented.
The document concludes with a look at how future technologies will
impact the creation and organization of digital libraries.

**Search Engine for Uncovering Digital Resources** (University of
Michigan) <http://oaister.umdl.umich.edu/o/oaister/>

"**OAIster** is a Mellon-funded project of the [University of Michigan
Digital Library Production Services](http://www.umdl.umich.edu/). Our
goal is to create a wide-ranging collection of free, useful, previously
difficult-to-access digital resources ([what are digital
resources?](javascript:MM_openBrWindow('digres.html','','resizable=yes,width=300,height=250')))
that are easily searchable by anyone."

# [EXAMPLES OF DIGITAL LIBRARIES:]{.underline}

**I. Catalogs and Databases of Digital Libraries and Initiatives
Worldwide**:

1)  UNESCO PORTAL
    <http://www.unesco.org/webworld/portal_bib/Preservation_and_Access_initiatives/Access/Digital_libraries/Collections/index.shtml>

2)  ARL DIGITAL INITIATIVES DATABASE (a collaboration between the
    University of Illinois in Chicago and the Association for Research
    Libraries) <http://www.arl.org/did/>

3)  Directories of Digitized Collections Worldwide (UNESCO/IFLA
    Directories of Digitized Collections)
    <http://www.unesco.org/webworld/digicol/> (currently lists over 270
    digital collections by theme or category worldwide; also lists
    projects by type of institution---this site is truly invaluable.)

4)  Bibliotheca Universalis: a Collaborative Project between 13 national
    libraries in Europe with the purpose of placing "major works of
    worldwide cultural and scientific heritage comprising texts, images
    and sounds."
    <http://www.bl.uk/gabriel/bibliotheca-universalis/en/bibliotheca_universalis_accueil.htm>

**II.** **History: Through the dim mists: the emerging history of
digital libraries**[:]{.underline}
<http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/services/papers/bl/blri078/content/>

## Provides a valuable historical context for digital libraries

**III. MAPS: (courtesy of the University of California at Santa
Barbara):** <http://webclient.alexandria.ucsb.edu/>

**IV. Photographs:** Courtesy of the American Memory Project of the
Library of Congress, a collection of Photographs from the Chicago Daily
News, 1902-1933. All photographs published in the [Chicago Daily
News]{.underline} from 1902-1933 are digitized here. "This collection
comprises over 55,000 images of urban life captured on glass plate
negatives between 1902 and 1933 by photographers employed by the
*Chicago Daily News*, then one of Chicago\'s leading newspapers. The
photographs illustrate the enormous variety of topics and events covered
in the newspaper, although only about twenty percent of the images in
the collection were published in the newspaper. Most of the photographs
were taken in Chicago, Illinois, or in nearby towns, parks, or athletic
fields. In addition to many Chicagoans, the images include politicians,
actors, and other prominent people who stopped in Chicago during their
travels and individual athletes and sports teams who came to Chicago.
Also included are photographs illustrating the operations of the
*Chicago Daily News* itself and pictures taken on occasional out-of-town
trips by the *Daily News*\'s photographers to important events, such as
the inauguration of presidents in Washington, D.C."
[**http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpcoop/ichihtml/cdnhome.html**](http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpcoop/ichihtml/cdnhome.html)

**V: CITY DIGITIZED ARCHIVE: Seattle Municipal Archives**\
This site has digitized material, dating from 1870, from the city
archives of Seattle, Washington. The highlight is a searchable
collection of over 47,000 images of the city\'s history. The site has a
chronological listing of elected officials, election results (beginning
with 1910), quick facts about the city, and information about the
city\'s symbols. There are also online exhibits, links to related Web
sites, and suggested research topics and resources for students and
teachers. <http://www.cityofseattle.net/cityarchives/>

**VI. UNIVERSITY LIBRARY's DIGITAL COLLECTIONS: University of
Missouri-Columbia Libraries: Digital Library Collections**\
 This site has digitized full texts of William Bryan\'s A History of the
Pioneer Families of Missouri and Switzler\'s Illustrated History of
Missouri, from 1541 to 1877. This online collection also has an early
work on navigation of the region\'s rivers, a 1904 study of race
relations in Columbia, MO, two 1904 works by Charles A. Ellwood on
county almshouses and jails in Missouri, and a number other early works
of regional history and biography.   
<http://system.missouri.edu/spec/digital.htm>

**VII. STATE HISTORY: Wisconsin Pioneer Experience: A Digital Collection
of Original Sources**: Nineteenth-century Wisconsin History. An online
\"collection of diaries, letters, reminiscences, speeches and other
writings of people who settled and built Wisconsin.\" A joint project of
the Council of University of Wisconsin Libraries (CUWL) and the
Wisconsin Historical Society (WHS).
<http://libtext.library.wisc.edu/wipionexp/>

**VIII. PROJECTS / INITIATIVES / STANDARDS: Digital Library Projects:
Initiatives:** <http://www.dli2.nsf.gov/> Gives projects, examples and
standards for digital libraries around the world. This is an important
site for understanding both the importance and objectives of a digital
library.

**IX. EXAMPLE OF DIGITIZED ARCHIVES DOCUMENTING THE HISTORY** **OF A
REGION:** Documenting the American South: <http://docsouth.unc.edu/>

First Person Narratives of the American South. (Sponsored by the
University of North Carolina.)

**X. EXAMPLE OF A DIGITIZED ARCHIVE SPECIALIZING IN A SPECIFIC TIME
PERIOD:** University of Michigan's Making of America Project.
<http://moa.umdl.umich.edu/>

A Digital Library of Primary Sources in American Social History,
particularly strong in the history of the Antebellum period through
Reconstruction

**Early Americas Digital Archive**:  "A collection of electronic texts
...originally written in or about the Americas from 1492 to
approximately 1820.\" Also includes \"\'Gateway to Early American
Authors on the Web,\' a browsable list of early American authors whose
texts are available \...on sites that others have posted on the World
Wide Web.\"  Searchable and browsable. From the Maryland Institute for
Technology in the Humanities.  <http://www.mith2.umd.edu/eada/>

**XI. EXAMPLE OF A NATIONAL LIBRARY OF DIGITIZED ARCHIVES** **RECORDING
THE ENTIRE RANGE OF A NATION'S HISTORY**:

1)  Library of Congress American Memory Project:
    [http://memory.loc.gov](http://memory.loc.gov/)

> (Millions of Photos, Maps, Books, Periodicals, Motion Pictures, all
> digitized. A Treasure Trove for the Study of American Political and
> Social History---offering one of the best examples of the
> possibilities inherent in a digitized library

2)  Cuban Heritage Digital Collection (University of Miami:
    <http://www.library.miami.edu/chcdigital/collections.html>

3)  **U.S. Digital History**: This site enhances history teaching and
    research through primary sources, an online textbook, extensive
    reference resources, and interactive materials. This Web site was
    designed and developed to support the teaching of American History
    in K-12 schools and colleges. The materials on this site include a
    U.S. history textbook, supplemented by primary sources on slavery,
    Mexican American and Native American history, and U.S. political,
    social, and legal history.
    [http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu](http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/)

**XII. EXAMPLE OF A DIGITIZED ARCHIVE OF WORLD HISTORY:** New York
Public Library's Digitized Image Collections:
[http://digital.nypl.org](http://digital.nypl.org/)

"NYPL will launch a searchable database of visual materials documenting
culture studies and social history internationally from the ancient
world to the present. A phased rollout through 2004 will eventually
total 600,000 images selected from collection strengths in the arts,
humanities, performing arts and sciences, including artwork, maps,
photographs, prints, manuscripts, illustrated books, and printed
ephemera."

**XIII. HUMANITIES**: Wright's American Fiction Project: 1851-1875. This
is a collection of 19th century American fiction, as listed in Lyle
Wright\'s bibliography American Fiction, 1851-1875. There are currently
2,887 volumes included (2,463 unedited, 424 fully edited and encoded) by
1,387 authors. <http://www.letrs.indiana.edu/web/w/wright2/>

**XIV. DIGITIZED ARCHIVES FOR U.S. FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND FOREIGN POLICY**
: National Security Archive (Washington, D.C.) From George Washington
University, this is an extensive archive of American Foreign Policy
including many documents. <http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv>

**XV**. LATIN AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS. Archivos Virtuales
<http://artarchives.si.edu/guides/archivos/index.cfm>

Expands access to information about the Archives of American Art\'s
papers of Latino and Latin American artists. Uses the Archives\'
published guide, [The Papers of Latino and Latin American]{.underline}
[Artists]{.underline} (revised edition, 2000) as its foundation,
incorporating all of the previously published collection descriptions,
adding detailed finding aids and enhancing it with an online selection
of digitized letters, sketchbooks, photographs, scrapbooks, interviews,
and other primary sources.

**XVI. TRAVEL MEMOIRS:** [American Memory: Travels in America,
1750-1920.]{.underline}

<http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/lhtnhtml>

**XVII. Selected Examples of Major Digital Projects in the Spanish
Speaking World (El MUNDO HISPANO-HABLANTE):**

1)  Biblioteca Virtual de Miguel de Cervantes:
    <http://cervantesvirtual.com/index.shtml> (a truly impressive
    site\--has links to numerous Latin American Projects and Digital
    Libraries)

2)  Digital projects en el Mundo Latino:
    [http://biblio.colmex.mx](http://biblio.colmex.mx/)

3)  ARGENTINA VIRTUAL LIBRARY:
    [http://www.biblioteca.org.ar](http://www.biblioteca.org.ar/)

4)  Example of a Digital Library en CHILE:
    <http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/portal/BNC/>

5)  Lists of Digital Libraries throughout Latin America:
    <http://www.uidaho.edu/special-collections/mexico.html>

6)  Spain, the United States and the American Frontier: Historias
    Paralelas.

> <http://international.loc.gov/intldl/eshtml/eshome.html>

7)  Digitized Global Treasures at the Library of Congress:
    <http://www.loc.gov/rr/international/int-treasures.html>

8)  The Hispanic and Portuguese World: The Modern States of the Americas
    (Library of Congress)
    <http://lcweb.loc.gov/rr/hispanic/guide/modameri.html>

9)  The Hispanic and Portuguese World: Encounters in the Americas.
    (Library of Congress)
    <http://lcweb.loc.gov/rr/hispanic/guide/encameri.html>

10) Cuban Heritage Digital Collection (University of Miami)
    <http://www.library.miami.edu/chcdigital/collections.html>

11) Chilean Digital Library Sites: <http://www.memoriachilena.cl/> and
    <http://www.biblioredes.cl/> Digital Libraries throughout the
    Spanish Speaking world:
    [http://www.bibliotecasvirtuales.com](http://www.bibliotecasvirtuales.com/)

12) Bibliotecas Digitales: Directorios de Recursos: (Jose Antonio Merlo
    Vega de la Universidad de Salamanca)
    <http://exlibris.usal.es/merlo/escritos/redcbd2.htm>

13) Comunidad Andina:
    <http://www.comunidadandina.org/bda/home_biblio.htm>

> XVI\. Setting up and Designing a Digital Library**: ("The Digital
> Library Tool Kit")**

<http://www.sun.com/products-n-solutions/edu/whitepapers/digitaltoolkit.html>

> XVII\. Finally, How do I find out more about Digital Libraries?
>
> **There are a number of *E-Journals* that focus on digital library
> issues:**

a)  **ARIADNE: [http://www.ariadne.ac.uk](http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/)**

b)  **D-LIB Magazine: [http://www.dlib.org](http://www.dlib.org/)**

c)  **Journal of Digital Information:
    [http://jodi.ecs.soton.ac.uk](http://jodi.ecs.soton.ac.uk/)**

d)  ***ORGANIZATIONS*: Digital Library Federation (for future and
    ongoing projects and initiatives):
    [http://www.diglib.org](http://www.diglib.org/)**

e)  ***Current Awareness (Mailing List sponsored by IFLA)*
    <http://infoserv.inist.fr/wwsympa.fcgi/info/diglib>**

Stephen Perry, IRO, PAS Buenos Aires,

Last Revised December 22, 2003