The Digital Library: Present and Future
In January 1999, VICTORWeb, the Libraries' browser version of the online public access catalog, became accessible.
With VICTORWeb and MdUSA (Maryland University System Access), students and faculty can use the standard Internet browser of their choice to gain access to the full array of electronic resources offered by the Libraries' home page from anywhere on the Internet. The MdUSA gateway was first available in January 1998, providing the University System of Maryland Libraries state of the art individual or simultaneous searching for approximately 90 databases. Users can access MdUSA from home, an office, or from any point at which a Web-based Internet connections can be established. Authentication restricts access only to those users affiliated with the participating MdUSA libraries.
The Libraries continued to develop offerings of full text resources by adding publisher collections of full text journals when these were available to subscribers at no additional charge. Science Online was identified as a high priority electronic resource and added to the collections. The migration of electronic resources from networked CD-ROM to Web Access continued at an accelerated pace. The Libraries made available through their home page more than 500 electronic journals the number continued to grow almost daily. The vast majority of these comprised electronic equivalents of the Libraries' print journals.
Core Components
During the year the Libraries, on an ongoing basis, continued to engage in a number of developmental and research-oriented activities in the Digital Library area. An internal Digital Library organization was established to provide technical and public services support. Core components of the digital library program are MdUSA as well as LIMS, the cooperative library computing environment. Sources of digital library content include the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities (MITH), the Electronic Text and Imaging Center (ETIC), faculty-based research projects, the Performing Arts Library, Nonprint Media Services, National Public Broadcasting Archives, and other Libraries' Special Collections.
NEH Challenge Grant Creates MITH Facility
The University of Maryland, awarded $410,000 by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Challenge Grants Office, established the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities (MITH) on the campus. As a joint venture supported by the Libraries, the College of Arts and Humanities, and the Office of Information Technology, MITH plays a pioneering role in developing advanced technological applications for revitalizing, reinventing, and expanding humanities research and education. Planning for MITH got underway during the year with the goal of establishing the Institute by fall of 1999. As one of only 10 university Challenge Grants given out this year, the award represented a strong vote of confidence by the NEH in the University of Maryland's commitment to humanities research using the new technologies, and to preparing faculty and students to incorporate electronic resources into their research and teaching.
Housed in McKeldin Library, the Institute will serve both pre-college and college faculty with a broad array of programs: training, fellowships, colloquia, polyseminars, conferences, curriculum development, and student mentoring. MITH's outreach endeavors in the K-12 community will target Maryland minority high schools, in particular, with the mission of integrating the new technologies into the high school humanities classroom. Program offerings will draw upon the technological innovations that have already been integrated into the university's arts and humanities curriculum.
The MITH challenge grant will be matched by private sector funding.
Electronic Text and Imaging Center (ETIC)
Planning moved ahead to establish an Electronic Text and Imaging Center (ETIC) in McKeldin Library, adjacent to the quarters of MITH, to provide a location where faculty, students and staff can digitize and analyze electronic text materials and images. The Libraries are acquiring and putting into service software and hardware to assist in the analysis of electronic text, as well as various types of scanning equipment tailored for use with books.
Maryland Digital Library (MDL)
The Libraries continued efforts to help put in place a statewide Maryland Digital Library which extends some of the LIMS and MdUSA type capabilities to approximately 57 public and private academic libraries across the state. In a digital library environment, users can gain access seamlessly to electronic resources and to the substantial collections of more traditional forms of material that libraries collect. Key elements in the MDS Program include providing MdUSA gateway services to additional libraries with more databases, as well as digitization, storage, and retrieval of content from participating libraries.
Enhanced In-Library Network Access
As a result of a pilot project sponsored by the Office of the Vice President for Administrative Affairs, McKeldin Library became equipped for access to the University's data network via a user's laptop or mobile computer. Access is provided at 20 "walk-up" stations equipped with Ethernet wall outlets or through wireless endpoints located throughout the library. These two modes permit library users the flexibility of working at specific locations by plugging their laptops into wall outlets or to roam the library stacks and access the wireless network resources via special receivers. The Libraries, in coordination with the Office of Information Technology, are currently engaged with Lucent Technologies in testing and evaluating value added products and services, which integrate with the wireless infrastructure.
© 2001 University of Maryland Libraries
Last Revised: 01/24/01