Keywords
Citation
(2001), "Digital technology deal heralds library of the future", Interlending & Document Supply, Vol. 29 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/ilds.2001.12229aab.012
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2001, MCB UP Limited
Digital technology deal heralds library of the future
Digital technology deal heralds library of the future
Keywords: Libraries, Digital mapping, Internet, Information systems
A multi-million pound technology deal was recently announced which will provide the British Library with a Digital Library System (DLS). Development of the system means that the British Library, with the help of IBM, will build a national "Digital Library" to preserve and access electronic materials indefinitely, ensuring that its digital collections – including words, sounds and images – will still be retrievable when the formats in which they originated are long dead.
The project provides a sophisticated solution to the difficult problem of how to preserve and provide long-term access to digital items. IBM's solution involves constructing and storing preservation "metadata" for every digital item in the collection. The metadata will allow each item to be moved to new hardware/software environments, or for its original environment to be emulated as technology changes. In practical terms, this means that electronically created and stored material will survive future technology changes.
At present the Library's digital collections comprise items it has acquired through voluntary deposit and through licensing, purchase and digitisation. Covering all subjects, languages and periods, the collection ranges from the latest Web-based publications, through CD-ROMs and DVDs to digitised copies of some of the Library's greatest treasures such as The Lindisfarne Gospels and the notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci.
The Dutch national library, the Koninklijke Bibliotheek, has embarked simultaneously on a similar project with IBM and it will be working closely with the British Library.
More information about the Digital Library System can be obtained from Valerie McBurney in Press and Public Relations at the British Library. Tel: +44 20 7412 7112; Fax: +44 20 7412 7168; E-mail: press-and-pr@bl.uk or Lucie Lohrey at BSMG Worldwide. Tel: +44 20 7841 5517; Fax: +44 20 7841 5777; E-mail: llohrey@bsmg.com
Source: Press release