LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
January 31 2007
$2 Million Sloan Foundation Grant To Help Library Of Congress Digitize Thousands Of Books
Librarian of Congress James H. Billington today announced that the
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation has awarded the Library of Congress a $2
million grant for a program to digitize thousands of public-domain
works, with a major focus on at-risk "brittle books" and U.S. history
volumes.
The project, "Digitizing American
Imprints at the Library of Congress," will include not only the
scanning of volumes, but also the development
of suitable page-turner display technology, capability to scan and
display foldouts, and a pilot program to capture high-level metadata,
such as table of contents, chapters/sections and index. Past
digitization projects have shied away from brittle books because of the
condition of the materials, but "Digitizing American Imprints" intends
to serve as a demonstration project of best practices for the handling
and scanning of such vulnerable works.
"Digitizing American Imprints" will make a major contribution to the
collective body of knowledge that is accessible worldwide, further
democratizing the information that is a key to functional societies and
economies," Dr. Billington said.
"It is inspiring to think that one of these books, many of which are in
physical jeopardy, might spark the creativity of a future scholar or
ordinary citizen who otherwise might not have had access to this wealth
of human understanding."
Deanna Marcum, Associate Librarian for Library Services, and
coordinator of the project, said: "The Library has been a leader in
digitization of special collection materials, and this grant from the
Sloan Foundation allows us to digitize, preserve and make available
additional brittle materials from our general collections."
"We are delighted to partner with the Library of Congress, the world's
largest library, in this important digitization effort," said Doron
Weber, program director at the Sloan Foundation. "A significant number
of books from the Library's great collection will now be available to
anyone in the world in an open, non-exclusive and non-profit setting,
thus bringing the ideal of a universal digital library closer to
reality."
The Library of Congress' proposal includes digitization of works in the following categories:
+ Brittle books' from across the Library's General Collection.
+ American history.
+ U.S. genealogy and regimental histories. The former includes many
useful county, state and regional histories, while the latter includes
histories, memoirs, diaries and other collections from the Civil War
period.
+ Six collections of Rare Books including the Benjamin Franklin
Collection, selections from the Katherine Golden Bitting and the
Elizabeth Robins Pennell Collections of Gastronomy, a selection of
first editions from the Library's Rare Book and Special Collections
Division, selections from the Confederate States of America Collection,
the Henry Harrisse Collection of Columbiana, and selections from the
Jean Hersholt Collection of Hans Christian Andersen.
+Works of photography focusing on the technical aspects of photography
and the artistic publications and biographies of photographers.
Digitizing American Imprints will utilize the ?Scribe? scanning
technology of the Open Content Alliance. Scanning is expected to begin
within a few months after an initial startup period to establish
logistics, staffing and resources.
Partnerships are crucial to help the Library of Congress realize our
mission of acquiring and making accessible a universal repository of
information in order to further human understanding and achievement,"
Dr. Billington said. 'We're grateful to the Sloan Foundation and all
of our partners across a broad spectrum who share these goals and
values.:
The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, founded in 1934, makes grants in
science, technology and the quality of American life. Sloan's program
in Universal Access to Recorded Knowledge, directed by Doron Weber,
aims to increase access to recorded human knowledge by encouraging
digitization of material in the public domain, assuring public
archiving, preservation and open access of this material and fostering
its availability to people everywhere. The program has also supported
the Internet Archive, the Open Content Alliance ' which includes over
50 of the nation's biggest libraries and research institutions ' the
New Orleans Public Library and On Demand Books.
Founded in 1800, the Library of Congress is the nation's oldest federal
cultural institution and the largest library in the world, with more
than 134 million items in various languages, disciplines and formats.
As the world's largest repository of knowledge and creativity, the
Library is a symbol of democracy and the principles on which America
was founded. The Library serves the U.S. Congress and the nation, both
on-site in its 21 reading rooms on Capitol Hill and through its
award-winning Web site at www.loc.gov.