MIT plans for digital library serving things born digital

[Richard Wiggins]

Here's a story that should interest this forum:

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/technology/AP-MIT-Digital-Library.html

November 4, 2002

MIT Adds Scholarly Digital Library

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 5:12 p.m. ET

BOSTON (AP) -- The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is adding to
its online offerings an electronic library for the already
vast and mounting catalogue of scholarly materials born in digital form.

The digital library, called DSpace, initially will be managed by a
federation of eight universities, including MIT. It will be
available on the World Wide Web and enable data to be stored not just in
text but in video and other formats.

The system runs on ``open source'' software that was developed in
conjunction with Hewlett Packard Co. That means other
institutions can use or adapt the program royalty-free to create digital
libraries of their own that could easily be linked to the
DSpace consortium.

``The average lifespan of a digital document is only a few years,'' said
Ann Wolpert, director of MIT's libraries. ``So the goal
here is to create the capability, the persistence in works that are born
digitally.''
....

/rich

____________________________________________________
Richard Wiggins
Writing, Speaking, and Consulting on Internet Topics
rich at richardwiggins.com       www.richardwiggins.com