Illinois Digital Academic Library

[Sloan, Bernie]

FYI......a recent press release on our Illinois Digital Academic Library
project...
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September 1, 1999

CONTACT: 	Tom Dorst
		tdorst at uillinois.edu
		217-206-7856


The Illinois Board of Higher Education has approved an $870,000 grant to
launch the Illinois Digital Academic Library (IDAL).  IDAL will provide
access to a core collection of digital resources on-line, primarily
journals, with full text and images.  

The new service, which will be up and running early next year, will reach
over half a million undergraduate, graduate and professional school
students, faculty and staff of some 150 Illinois public and private
colleges and universities.  

The initial IDAL content and vendor(s) will be decided later this fall.  A
request for proposals was issued to potential vendors Sept. 1.  Permanent
funding for this important statewide library service will be requested
beginning in Fiscal Year 2001.  The project proposal was prepared by the
Illinois Library Computer Systems Organization (ILCSO) on behalf of the
Illinois higher education community, with grant funding to be administered
by the University of Illinois.  

IDAL will play an important role in supporting the expansion of
distance-learning opportunities in Illinois, such as the Illinois Virtual
Campus.  IDAL is intended to meet the needs of  traditional students, as
well as those taking courses on the Internet.

The Illinois Digital Academic Library builds on a strong tradition of
state and local funding partnerships, inter-institutional cooperation, and
library resource-sharing that led to the development of other successful
Illinois library services.  Examples include ILLINET Online, a union
catalog consisting of over 22 million items held by the 45 ILCSO member
libraries, and the Illinois Bibliographic Information Service  that
provides online access to journal indexes, citations and abstracts in 20
databases offered to subscribing ILCSO member libraries.  

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Bernie Sloan
Senior Library Information Systems Consultant
University of Illinois Office for Planning and Budgeting
338 Henry Administration Building
506 S. Wright Street
Urbana, IL  61801
Phone:  (217) 333-4895
Fax:      (217) 333-6355
E-mail:  bernies at uillinois.edu