Among Friends
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THE CENTER FOR LIBRARY DIGITAL INITIATIVES |
The Library is committed to using the full capability of current technologies
to support the traditional library mission of collecting, preserving and
making materials accessible. As evidence of this commitment, the Library
will soon establish a  Center
for Library Digital Initiatives to make its historic and
unique materials available electronically. By digitizing these resources
and creating powerful new access and navigational tools for their use,
the Library's traditional resources can serve in new ways as raw material
for scholars and students. In recent years as the technological and intellectual
challenges of digitization have come to be better understood, a critical
mass of experience and expertise has developed. Indeed the Library has
contributed to that growing body of national experience with its first
full-scale digitization project, African-American
Sheet Music, 1850-1920, produced with a grant in the Library
of Congress's American Memory series.
In order to be able to sustain the production of high-quality digital
projects the Library has resolved, on the basis of its strategic planning
effort, to reallocate resources in support of the on-going development
and expansion of digital initiatives. A modest start-up hardware and software
budget will be carved out of the Libraryâs FY2001-2002 budget. To fulfill
initial staffing needs, the Library has reallocated a vacant professional
position and is currently conducting a national search for a librarian
to launch this effort. The Center will utilize the skills of Brown students
to perform much of the actual conversion of materials to digital formats
by scanning and other techniques. It is recognized that additional staffing
and funding will be essential if the Center is to fulfill its vision and
promise. To that end, the Digital Initiatives Librarian will seek out
funding opportunities and, as the scope of the Libraryâs projects grows
more ambitious, will explore partnerships with colleague institutions,
with other not-for-profit institutions, and with the commercial sector.
The Center for Library Digital Initiatives will be located on the second
floor of the Rockefeller Library in a sizable space soon to be vacated
by the move of the Reserves Unit to the first floor as part of the renovation
of the Circulation Department. This location is both convenient to the
special collections resources located in the John Hay Library and allows
the greatest flexibility in hours of operation.
In addition to establishing an in-house production facility, the Digital
Initiatives Librarian will work closely with faculty and with library
subject and collections specialists to identify projects which support
and enhance faculty teaching and research. A survey of faculty interest
and experience in producing and using digital scholarly resources is now
in preparation. In addition a Digital Initiatives Group is currently laying
the groundwork for the Center by identifying potential projects and developing
standards and guidelines for selection and prioritization. Among the initial
projects under consideration for the Center are:
- World War II Documentary Art - over 600 original works of art done
by ordinary soldiers and sailors in the field
- World War I Related Sheet Music - 1,300 titles with color covers
and scarce portraits of performers covering subjects such as war propaganda,
the roles of women in wartime, isolationism, patriotism, refugees,
comic songs
- Thomas Nast Scrapbook - an extremely fragile repository of Nast's
working library of Civil War sketches, drawings, and photographs
- Chester H. Kirk Collection on Alcoholism and Alcoholics Anonymous
- from a leaf of the 1493 Nuremberg Chronicle depicting a drunken
Noah to movies, videos, books, pamphlets, journals and magazines,
newspapers, prints, audio tapes, photographs, government publications,
autographs, posters, musical scores, and catalogs
- Napoleonic Caricatures - lively and colorful works which illuminate
the politics and society of late 18th - early 19th century Europe
- George Orwell Manuscript of 1984 - the only surviving Orwell
manuscript
- Emile Zola letters - correspondence about contemporary writers and
journalists, literary criticism, the stage, censorship, politics,
and personal affairs
Stay tuned as more and more of the Library's treasures make their way
to the classroom and the desktop. Our fervent hope is that students and
scholars will use these resources, as they have used traditional library
resources, to re-discover, re-interpret and re-evaluate human knowledge
and experience. As James O'Donnell says in Avatars of the Word:
"The dream of the virtual library comes forward now not because it promises
an exciting future, but because it promises a future that will be just
like the past, only better and faster."
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