The Internet archive is building a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form. Like a paper library, they provide free access to researchers, historians, scholars, and the general public. The Archive includes texts, moving images and audio.
At the ILL Center we are searching it to fill text requests that we cannot find through a WorldCat search. An added connection we have is that the Boston Public Library is participating in a scanning program digitizing some pre-1923 books into the Internet Archive. Recently the NOBLE ILL Center filled a request for the book, Historical Markers Erected by the Massachusetts Bay Colony . The book request was make through OCLC as a request to the Boston Public Library. Boston scanned the book and and it now appears in the Internet Archive for others to look at or download. The initiative at Boston Public Library is referred to as “scan on demand” and there will be more information on this as they set in in place.
The Rethinking Resource Sharing initiative is an as hoc group that advocates for a revolution in the way libraries conduct resource sharing. Want to learn more? http://www.rethinkingresourcesharing.org/
From A Manifesto for Rethinking Resource Sharing. “If libraries want to expand and promote information accessibility, and to continue to be valued resources, we believe that libraries must improve their information delivery system. Aligning resource sharing workflow, collection policies, and discovery-delivery systems by significantly reducing service barriers and cost, and offering user service options are critical pieces that promote information access”
This is an article in the September 2007 Searcher titled, “Beyond Worldcat: finding that elusive item” by Deborah Liptak.
There is an interesting article in today’s Washington Post about a semi-exclusive deal that the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has signed with Amazon and one of its subsidiaries to make historic NARA films, newsreels, and videotapes available through Amazon. The article is at http://tinyurl.com/3cqaor for those of you who are interested.