It will provide a vehicle for rapidly and relatively cheaply engaging institutions in digital image technology and for providing an incentive for staff and researchers to learn about its costs and benefits. It will also enable institutions to cooperate in developing new library policies regarding access and use of materials that are readily available across networks. Providing a usable and readily accessible library of digitally preserved materials will depend substantially on the ability of institutions to produce a large and growing base of preserved materials in digital image form. Projects that are currently underway or planned will contribute to the growing base of digitally preserved documents. The experiences of libraries in generating preservation microfilm suggest that service bureaus can generate economies of scale that individual libraries, each with their own conversion operations, cannot hope to achieve.
Similar economies are likely to accrue in the digital conversion arena.
As libraries address the technical and organizational issues associated with digital preservation and access, they need to involve service bureaus as partners in the creation of standards of performance and cost. The sooner libraries can hand off the conversion work to service bureaus, the greater the number of deteriorating materials they can expect to convert to digital form. An important dimension of projects that Consortium members undertake is to explore whether researchers will demand greater access to documents in digital form if image libraries contain thematically related materials. If the hypothesis holds true, then the Consortium will need to promote subject-related projects and to assist member institutions in selecting appropriate themes. Such a project will enable the research community to evaluate the potential for the digital library to overcome many of the physical barriers to effective scholarship.