This really was to provide the most broad introduction to materials in five years. Costs included repairing and conserving rare or damaged manuscripts, as well as producing high-resolution digitized copies. But those costs are minimal compared to the amount of resources it would take to transform the library into a national, or even global, repository. The money the library will receive from Congress in the next few years will depend on the success of its future projects, O'Donnell said. For the library to maintain a current historical and cultural record, it needs to build a new system to receive and preserve digital information.
Digital materials are less durable than print and more likely to become quickly obsolete.
The Library of Congress has already taken steps in that direction, as evidenced by its recent acquisition of the complete set of the electronic archives from the American Physical Society. That's an area they can really be a leader. Digital projects like American Memory have already opened the doors of the world's largest library to the public. The American Memory website receives more than 18 million page views per month and the main Library of Congress website receives approximately 80 million page views a month. Wired Digital Inc. All rights reserved.