National Digital Library Federation Agreement Signed

Contributed by Dave Wells, wellsd@elwha.evergreen.edu

From: Paul Evan Peters (paul@cni.org)
To: Multiple recipients of list (cni-announce@cni.org)
Subject: National Digital Library Federation Agreement Signed

Dear cni-announce subscribers:

I thought you would appreciate receiving an electronic version of the attached even though the event in question was covered by the _Chronicle of Higher Education_ last week.

It announces the formation of a federation of fifteen members of the CNI Task Force to work together, under the auspices of the Commission on Preservation and Access, one of CNI's closest working partners, on "... the implementation of a distributed, open digital library accessible across the global Internet."

Best,
Paul

Paul Evan Peters
Executive Director
Coalition for Networked Information
21 Dupont Circle
Washington, DC 20036
Voice: 202-296-5098
Fax: 202-872-0884
Internet: paul@cni.org

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National Digital Library Federation Agreement Signed

For More Information, contact:
M. Stuart Lynn, Vice President for Technology
(510)548-2244 mslynn@cpa.org

May 1, 1995. Boston, MA.

Leaders of fifteen of the nation's largest research libraries and archives and the Commission on Preservation and Access today signed an agreement that pledges collaboration toward the establishment of a National Digital Library Federation. At the signing held at Harvard University, the founding members of the Federation -- collectively responsible for hundreds of millions of cultural, scholarly and historical resources -- agreed to cooperate on defining what must be done to bring together -- from across the nation and beyond -- digitized materials that will be made accessible to students, scholars, and citizens everywhere, and that document the building and dynamics of United States heritage and cultures.

A primary goal of the Federation is the implementation of a distributed, open digital library accessible across the global Internet. The library will consist of collections - expanding over time in number and scope - to be created from the conversion to digital form of documents contained in founding member and other libraries and archives, and from the incorporation of holdings already in electronic form.

In support of that goal, the Federation will establish a collaborative management structure, develop a coordinated funding strategy, and formulate selection guidelines to ensure conformance to the general theme of U.S. heritage and culture. The Federation also will adopt common standards and best practices to ensure full informational capture and guarantee universal accessibility.

The agreement signed today recognizes and acknowledges the important leadership role that the Library of Congress has played in raising as a national issue the need for such a digital library.

The first phase of the Federation's work will be completed in six months. During that time, a task force coordinated by the Commission on Preservation and Access and composed of senior members of the staffs of the founding institutions will develop an action plan to address, among other issues, funding strategies and the involvement of additional institutions. The Commission will report regularly on developments.

The primary mission of the Commission on Preservation and Access is to foster, develop and support collaboration among libraries and allied organizations to ensure the preservation of the published and documentary record in all formats and to provide enduring access to scholarly information. It operates as a private, non-profit corporation supported by foundation grants and the sponsorship of colleges, universities, associations, libraries, and publishers.

AMERICA'S HERITAGE

Mission and Goals for a National Digital Library Federation

We, the undersigned, agree to collaborate towards the establishment of a National Digital Library Federation. The Federation's mission is to bring together - from across the nation and beyond - digitized materials that will be made accessible to students, scholars, and citizens everywhere, and that document the building and dynamics of America's heritage and cultures.

We have as our goals:

The implementation of a distributed, open digital library conforming to the overall theme and accessible across the global Internet. This library shall consist of collections - expanding over time in number and scope - to be created from the conversion to digital form of documents contained in our and other libraries and archives, and from the incorporation of holdings already in electronic form.
The establishment of a collaborative management structure to coordinate and guide the implementation and ongoing maintenance of the digital library; to set policy regarding participation, funding, development and access; to encourage and facilitate broad involvement; and to address issues of policy and practice that may inhibit full citizen access.
The development of a coordinated funding strategy that addresses the need for support from both public and private sources to provide the means to launch initiatives at our and other institutions.
The formation of selection guidelines that will ensure conformance to the general theme, while remaining sufficiently flexible and open-ended to accommodate local initiatives and projects; and to ensure that the digital library comprises a significant and large corpus of materials.
The adoption of common standards and best practices to ensure full informational capture; to guarantee universal accessibility and interchangeability; to simplify retrieval and navigation; and to facilitate archivability and enduring access.
The involvement of leaders in government, education, and the private sector to address issues of network policy and practice that may inhibit full citizen access.
The establishment of an ongoing and comprehensive evaluation program to study:

how scholars and other researchers, students of all levels, and citizens everywhere make use of the digital library for research, learning, discovery, and collaboration;
how such usage compares with that of traditional libraries and other sources of information;
how digital libraries affect the mission, economics, staffing, and organization of libraries and other institutions; and
how to design systems to encourage access by individuals representing a broad spectrum of interests.

To these ends, we agree to establish a task force, to be coordinated by the Commission on Preservation and Access, composed of senior members of the staffs of the undersigned founding institutions. The task force will over the next 3 months develop a draft of a phased plan to accomplish these goals, and report back to the undersigned. A final plan will be produced in 6 months. This plan will also address involvement of institutions that are not initial members of the Federation.

We recognize and acknowledge the important leadership role that the Library of Congress has played in raising as a national issue the need for such a national digital library; and in recognizing the need for a broadly collaborative undertaking that brings together the expertise, collections, and capabilities of many institutions.

We understand that the accomplishment of the above goals raises significant issues of policy, funding, organization, scholarship, technology, and law, and will require the participation of many institutions of government, business, and education if the project is to be successful. We pledge that we and our staffs will work together to address these issues and to nurture such participation.

This statement is made in recognition of our common belief that problems and issues inhibiting the formation of digital libraries are best resolved through collaborative practical activity rather than through further theoretical discussion. The time is now ripe to establish a national digital library of sufficient size, scope, and complexity to support a meaningful test of the effect of distributed digital libraries on equitable access, on learning and scholarship, and on the economics and organization of libraries.

Signed, May 1, 1995:

Scott Bennett
University Librarian
Yale University

James H. Billington
Librarian of Congress
The Library of Congress

Nancy Cline
Dean of University Libraries
Pennsylvania State University

Richard De Gennaro
Roy E. Larsen Librarian of Harvard College
Harvard University

Joan Gotwals
Vice Provost and Director of Libraries
Emory University

Paula Kaufman
Dean of Libraries
University of Tennessee

Michael A. Keller
University Librarian and Director of Academic Information Resources
Stanford University

Nancy S. Klath
Acting University Librarian
Princeton University

Paul LeClerc
President
The New York Public Library

Peter Lyman
University Librarian
University of California, Berkeley

Deanna B. Marcum
President
Commission on Preservation and Access

Trudy Huskamp Peterson
Acting Archivist of the United States,
National Archives and Records Administration

Donald E. Riggs
Dean of the University Library
University of Michigan

Alain Seznec
University Librarian
Cornell University

Lynn F. Sipe
Acting Director of the University Libraries
University of Southern California

Elaine Sloan
Vice President for Information Services and University Librarian
Columbia University