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ALA January
2004 Meeting Minutes Digital Library
Clearinghouse (Clearinghouse
for Joint German-American Digital Projects/ Dokumentationsstelle f_r
gemeinsame Deutsch-Amerikanische Digitalprojekte) |
MISSION STATEMENT
Digital library development for German-language materials is driven by
the same incentives as digital libraries in general. Developing digital
libraries for learning and scholarship serves a number of purposes. First,
they can make materials, both rare and endangered, much more accessible to
library users. As the technology has continued to improve, libraries are
increasingly viewing digitization as a viable means for preserving rare or
endangered materials. Rather than requiring a trip to the special collections
departments of research libraries, creating digitized collections of fragile
materials permits libraries to mount them on the Internet via their
institutional Websites. This makes these materials accessible from any
Internet-connected computer in the world, thus allowing patrons the
convenience of access directly from their offices. Because of the geographic
distance between Germany and North America, the potential of the Internet
takes on a new importance and value in providing access to these materials.
Through resourceful planning in creating digitized collections, libraries can
make works that were once of highly restricted access available remotely from
anywhere around the world. This potential of remote, distributed access also pertains to current
research and scholarship, whether it is made available from individual or
institutional Websites, or as articles appearing in electronic journals. Here
too the Digital Libraries Working Group can foster electronic access to current
research on both sides of the Atlantic, both in identifying projects worth
pursuing, and in providing tools to organize the proliferation of materials.
As German-language databases and full-text materials continue to proliferate
on the Internet, German area studies specialists will need to work together
in organizing Websites, known as gateways, to this growing body of material. In addition to being remotely accessible, digital libraries provide
powerful tools for searching and discovering needed information, such as
through gateways or boolean keyword searching. Electronic full-text is
transforming the way texts are being used in scholarly research. In fields
like cultural linguistics, literary studies, and history, digital libraries
are revolutionizing how scholars are approaching the use of primary source
material, making research possible that would have been very difficult or
even impossible only a few years earlier.
As library administrations are learning, creating a collection of
digitized material is both labor-intensive and costly. Careful planning is
necessary, as well as being able to secure the staffing and funding for
carrying out a digital library project. More than in other areas of library
activity, resource sharing is a critical means of keeping the costs of
digital library development at affordable levels. An important goal of the
German Resources Project is to identify bodies of material for digitizing
that would make a significant impact on the scholarship of one or more
fields, and to assist in the development of the necessary digitizing projects
for creating digital libraries. |
(Last modified July 2004)