Case Studies
Google Books
http://books.google.com/
One cannot examine digital libraries without including Google Books, the largest (and one of the few for-profit) digital libraries in existence to date. Google Books has a stated goal of digitizing every book ever published. This month (April 2013) they are said to have surpassed 30 million scanned and available books. Google Books compares its initiative to Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press.
Where do they get these books? Primarily from two sources: publishers and libraries. Many top-notch universities from around the world have partnered with Google Books, including the University of Illinois, Harvard, New York Public Library, University of Michigan and Oxford University, shipping thousands of books every month to Google for scanning. Publishers send their book data directly to Google books.
In addition to digital images of these items, Google Books offers the option to locate physical copies. There is often a link available to the reader’s local public library system, and an option to link to the publisher (or other outlet) to purchase the book. In spite of these links to libraries and retailers, much litigation has surrounded the Google Books initiative, with lawsuits brought by authors, illustrators and publishers. Judicial reaction has not been consistent, but the most recent judgment in 2012 was a clear victory for digital libraries.
Google is famous for innovative technology, and Google Books is no different. Many of the books are scanned using a special camera at a rate of 1,000 pages per hour. Google has also developed a searching interface called “Rich Results” that is geared towards users of digital libraries and their specific needs.
Digital Public Library of America
http://dp.la/
“The Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) is a project to make the holdings of America’s research libraries, archives, and museums available to all Americans, and eventually to everyone in the world, online and free of charge.” This is a direct quote from their website. An ambitious project, the DPLA is a brand-new, with a launch set for April 18, 2013.
The DPLA is significantly different from Google Books in many ways. The DPLA is non-profit group with a decidedly altruist bent, with a significant number of volunteers. Google Books, while so far offering its resources for free, is owned by a large private for-profit organization. In addition, the DPLA focuses on museum artifacts as well as books. The DPLA is also considerably smaller than Google Books at this point.
The DPLA has created a “hub system” for organization. Six geographically diverse areas are responsible for finding and incorporating organizations into the DPLA. Partners to date include The Smithsonian, the San Francisco Public Library, Harvard, ARTStor and many others.
The DPLA prototype platform is a metadata server. Their website says that “It will aggregate and manage metadata about content available online and in local physical institutions (libraries, archives, museums, etc.). For example, it might know the photographers, dates, and URLs of all of the images in the San Francisco Public Library image archive, but it would not keep copies of the images themselves (other than thumbnails). It will provide links to online data.”
We close with the DPLA’s mission statement: “We have the technological and economic resources to make all the collections of all our libraries accessible to all our fellow citizens—and to everyone everywhere with access to the World Wide Web. That is the mission of the DPLA.”
HathiTrust
http://www.hathitrust.org/
HathiTrust is a large-scale digital repository holding more than ten million digitized volumes contributed by over 60 partner institutions. The HathiTrust Digital Library includes both copyright and public domain materials digitized by the Internet Archive, Google, Microsoft, and though institutions’ in-house digitization initiatives. The mission of HathiTrust is “to contribute to the common good by collecting, organizing, preserving, communicating, and sharing the record of human knowledge.”
Users who are members of a partner institution can access the HathiTrust digital library and download free PDFs of volumes that are in public domain. Non-members can create a guest account, but cannot download PDFs.
Partnership with HathiTrust is open to institutions worldwide, though currently all but one of the partners are American. Partnership fees are distributed, with each institution paying an evenly distributed share of the cost to support public domain volumes in HathiTrust as well as a share of the cost of in-copyright volumes that overlap with volumes held in their print collections. HathiTrust is governed by a 12-member Board of Governors, composed of 6 elected members and 6 members appointed by the founding HathiTrust institutions (members of the Committee on Institutional Cooperation, or CIC, and the University of California).The University of Michigan is the current host of HathiTrust’s infrastructure; a succession plan is in place to support the transition to another host institution, should that become necessary. It will be interesting to watch HathiTrust leadership evolve as the repository becomes more international (as is its intention).
In September 2011, the Authors Guild sued HathiTrust for copyright violation. In October 2012, a federal court ruled against the Authors Guild, stating that HathiTrust was an example of fair use.
New York Public Library (NYPL) Digital Gallery
http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/index.cfm
NYPL Digital Gallery provides free and open online access to over 800,000 images digitized from the NYPL collection. Images include photographs, prints, maps, posters, illustrated books and even illuminated manuscripts.
NYPL Digital Gallery represents only a small fraction of NYPL’s overall visual holdings. Materials are nominated for inclusion in the gallery by curators based on demand from the public, rarity/uniqueness, condition, importance, and relevance to collection strengths identified by NYPL. While some of these criteria are certainly objective, materials are being identified and added to the gallery on an ongoing basis, so perhaps the process should be seen more as prioritization than inclusion versus exclusion.
Fortunately, NYPL has the financial and personnel resources to approach digitization as a preservation method (not surprising given that, according to their website, NYPL has “one of the oldest, largest and most comprehensive institutional preservation programs in the United States.”) High-resolution digital images are captured by scanner or digital camera, and these original archival image files are stored unaltered. Lower-resolution images captured at the same time are made available on the website for immediate downloading and/or printing as a reference copy. High-resolution images are available for licensing; fees vary based on copyright and other factors.
NYPL Digital Gallery runs on architecture designed by the Digital Library Program to provide for future enhancements with minimal impact to existing system functions. The gallery is managed in conjunction with the Library’s Information Technology Group. Digitization and digital preservation are being implemented in various projects throughout the Library, so clearly there is an institutional drive to create and promote resources such as the Digital Gallery. According to the NYPL website, “digital preservation activities are a shared responsibility among its Information Technology Group, Digital Experience Group, curatorial areas, and the Preservation Division. Policies and procedures are developed by NYPL staff to further the Library's mission and commitment to the long-term stewardship of its digital assets.
Historic Recipe files - Milwaukee Public Library
http://www.oclc.org/news/announcements/2013/contentdm-featured-collections-march-2013.en.html
This is a collection of recipes clipped from local newspapers primarily from the 1960's through the 1980's. This collection had been kept at the Reference desk at the Milwaukee Public Library, and was the reason for many "ready reference" questions. Now online, it is a snapshot into local and ethnic foods of that time from the Milwaukee region.
Forsyth County, North Carolina
http://www.digitalforsyth.org/
A grant-sponsored project of several local libraries and universities, this is a nice collection of historical photos and stories of the area. Very community-friendly, the public is invited to share their own photos, tag existing photos and provide input. Instructions are provided on how to use this collection in the classroom.
Internet Archive
http://archive.org/index.php
The Internet Archive is a non-profit that was founded to build an Internet library. Working with 80+ libraries and other memory institutions, its purposes include offering permanent access for researchers, historians, scholars, people with disabilities, and the general public to historical collections, texts, audio, moving images, software, and archived web pages in our collections. The Internet Archive also provides accessibility services for adaptive reading and information access for the blind and other persons with disabilities. Collections include:
1.2 million video files
1.5 audio files
100,000+ live music concerts (browse by band)
http://books.google.com/
One cannot examine digital libraries without including Google Books, the largest (and one of the few for-profit) digital libraries in existence to date. Google Books has a stated goal of digitizing every book ever published. This month (April 2013) they are said to have surpassed 30 million scanned and available books. Google Books compares its initiative to Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press.
Where do they get these books? Primarily from two sources: publishers and libraries. Many top-notch universities from around the world have partnered with Google Books, including the University of Illinois, Harvard, New York Public Library, University of Michigan and Oxford University, shipping thousands of books every month to Google for scanning. Publishers send their book data directly to Google books.
In addition to digital images of these items, Google Books offers the option to locate physical copies. There is often a link available to the reader’s local public library system, and an option to link to the publisher (or other outlet) to purchase the book. In spite of these links to libraries and retailers, much litigation has surrounded the Google Books initiative, with lawsuits brought by authors, illustrators and publishers. Judicial reaction has not been consistent, but the most recent judgment in 2012 was a clear victory for digital libraries.
Google is famous for innovative technology, and Google Books is no different. Many of the books are scanned using a special camera at a rate of 1,000 pages per hour. Google has also developed a searching interface called “Rich Results” that is geared towards users of digital libraries and their specific needs.
Digital Public Library of America
http://dp.la/
“The Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) is a project to make the holdings of America’s research libraries, archives, and museums available to all Americans, and eventually to everyone in the world, online and free of charge.” This is a direct quote from their website. An ambitious project, the DPLA is a brand-new, with a launch set for April 18, 2013.
The DPLA is significantly different from Google Books in many ways. The DPLA is non-profit group with a decidedly altruist bent, with a significant number of volunteers. Google Books, while so far offering its resources for free, is owned by a large private for-profit organization. In addition, the DPLA focuses on museum artifacts as well as books. The DPLA is also considerably smaller than Google Books at this point.
The DPLA has created a “hub system” for organization. Six geographically diverse areas are responsible for finding and incorporating organizations into the DPLA. Partners to date include The Smithsonian, the San Francisco Public Library, Harvard, ARTStor and many others.
The DPLA prototype platform is a metadata server. Their website says that “It will aggregate and manage metadata about content available online and in local physical institutions (libraries, archives, museums, etc.). For example, it might know the photographers, dates, and URLs of all of the images in the San Francisco Public Library image archive, but it would not keep copies of the images themselves (other than thumbnails). It will provide links to online data.”
We close with the DPLA’s mission statement: “We have the technological and economic resources to make all the collections of all our libraries accessible to all our fellow citizens—and to everyone everywhere with access to the World Wide Web. That is the mission of the DPLA.”
HathiTrust
http://www.hathitrust.org/
HathiTrust is a large-scale digital repository holding more than ten million digitized volumes contributed by over 60 partner institutions. The HathiTrust Digital Library includes both copyright and public domain materials digitized by the Internet Archive, Google, Microsoft, and though institutions’ in-house digitization initiatives. The mission of HathiTrust is “to contribute to the common good by collecting, organizing, preserving, communicating, and sharing the record of human knowledge.”
Users who are members of a partner institution can access the HathiTrust digital library and download free PDFs of volumes that are in public domain. Non-members can create a guest account, but cannot download PDFs.
Partnership with HathiTrust is open to institutions worldwide, though currently all but one of the partners are American. Partnership fees are distributed, with each institution paying an evenly distributed share of the cost to support public domain volumes in HathiTrust as well as a share of the cost of in-copyright volumes that overlap with volumes held in their print collections. HathiTrust is governed by a 12-member Board of Governors, composed of 6 elected members and 6 members appointed by the founding HathiTrust institutions (members of the Committee on Institutional Cooperation, or CIC, and the University of California).The University of Michigan is the current host of HathiTrust’s infrastructure; a succession plan is in place to support the transition to another host institution, should that become necessary. It will be interesting to watch HathiTrust leadership evolve as the repository becomes more international (as is its intention).
In September 2011, the Authors Guild sued HathiTrust for copyright violation. In October 2012, a federal court ruled against the Authors Guild, stating that HathiTrust was an example of fair use.
New York Public Library (NYPL) Digital Gallery
http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/index.cfm
NYPL Digital Gallery provides free and open online access to over 800,000 images digitized from the NYPL collection. Images include photographs, prints, maps, posters, illustrated books and even illuminated manuscripts.
NYPL Digital Gallery represents only a small fraction of NYPL’s overall visual holdings. Materials are nominated for inclusion in the gallery by curators based on demand from the public, rarity/uniqueness, condition, importance, and relevance to collection strengths identified by NYPL. While some of these criteria are certainly objective, materials are being identified and added to the gallery on an ongoing basis, so perhaps the process should be seen more as prioritization than inclusion versus exclusion.
Fortunately, NYPL has the financial and personnel resources to approach digitization as a preservation method (not surprising given that, according to their website, NYPL has “one of the oldest, largest and most comprehensive institutional preservation programs in the United States.”) High-resolution digital images are captured by scanner or digital camera, and these original archival image files are stored unaltered. Lower-resolution images captured at the same time are made available on the website for immediate downloading and/or printing as a reference copy. High-resolution images are available for licensing; fees vary based on copyright and other factors.
NYPL Digital Gallery runs on architecture designed by the Digital Library Program to provide for future enhancements with minimal impact to existing system functions. The gallery is managed in conjunction with the Library’s Information Technology Group. Digitization and digital preservation are being implemented in various projects throughout the Library, so clearly there is an institutional drive to create and promote resources such as the Digital Gallery. According to the NYPL website, “digital preservation activities are a shared responsibility among its Information Technology Group, Digital Experience Group, curatorial areas, and the Preservation Division. Policies and procedures are developed by NYPL staff to further the Library's mission and commitment to the long-term stewardship of its digital assets.
Historic Recipe files - Milwaukee Public Library
http://www.oclc.org/news/announcements/2013/contentdm-featured-collections-march-2013.en.html
This is a collection of recipes clipped from local newspapers primarily from the 1960's through the 1980's. This collection had been kept at the Reference desk at the Milwaukee Public Library, and was the reason for many "ready reference" questions. Now online, it is a snapshot into local and ethnic foods of that time from the Milwaukee region.
Forsyth County, North Carolina
http://www.digitalforsyth.org/
A grant-sponsored project of several local libraries and universities, this is a nice collection of historical photos and stories of the area. Very community-friendly, the public is invited to share their own photos, tag existing photos and provide input. Instructions are provided on how to use this collection in the classroom.
Internet Archive
http://archive.org/index.php
The Internet Archive is a non-profit that was founded to build an Internet library. Working with 80+ libraries and other memory institutions, its purposes include offering permanent access for researchers, historians, scholars, people with disabilities, and the general public to historical collections, texts, audio, moving images, software, and archived web pages in our collections. The Internet Archive also provides accessibility services for adaptive reading and information access for the blind and other persons with disabilities. Collections include:
1.2 million video files
1.5 audio files
100,000+ live music concerts (browse by band)