Universal Availability of Publications Core Programme

Archive - Historical Material

Directory of digitised collections: IFLA PAC/UAP project to compile a comprehensive listing of digitised documents held by libraries worldwide

Many national libraries are now undertaking or planning digitisation programmes for some or all of their major cultural collections, whether this be for preservation purposes or to increase access to the documents. This work is also being carried out by universities and other institutions, since they also hold many important collections and documents. The need to create a worldwide register of important cultural heritage has already been recognised by UNESCO in its "Memory of the World" programme, which aims to assist countries in digitising documentary heritage which meets the selection criteria for world significance. The two principles of the "Memory of the World" programme are the preservation of documents and collections, and the improvement in access to them.

In order for UNESCO to fulfil its role as co-ordinator of this Programme, three inventories in the form of regularly updated databases are already being created. These are:

• Lost memory: inventory of library collections and archive holdings which have suffered irreparable destruction since 1900
• Endangered memory: World list of endangered library collections and archive holdings
• Inventory of ongoing operations to protect documentary heritage

Aside from UNESCO's Memory of the World programme, there have been several attempts to record the work being done in the area of digitisation or reformatting of library materials in some countries or in some subject areas. EROMM, the European Register of Microform Masters is an international database containing information about all works which have been reformatted according to agreed technical standards. EROMM prevents duplication of effort by providing information on the existence of a reformatted item and the availability of a service copy. Until recently, EROMM listed only microforms, but there are now plans to extend this to digital documents too. The EU-funded DIEPER project will produce a virtual collection of digitised European periodicals, with similar aims to EROMM. Digitised periodicals will be registered in order to prevent duplication of work, and to facilitate searching via one web site instead of many. There are plans to link the register with JSTOR. Biblioteca universalis has as its aim the provision of access to the world cultural heritage digitised by libraries. However this project is limited to the G7 countries plus five others, and does not consider the preservation issues surrounding digitised documents.

It is therefore clear that there does not exist a comprehensive worldwide listing of digitised library collections. More and more collections are being digitised in this rapidly growing area, and it is the task of this IFLA project to identify and to list digitised collections of national importance worldwide. The project is being funded by UNESCO and has links to its Memory of the World programme since it will also attempt to identify collections which are of world significance and therefore suitable for inclusion in the Memory of the World register. The dual aims of Memory of the World - the preservation of documents and collections, and the improvement in access to them - coincide with the aims of the two core programmes of IFLA which are jointly undertaking the project: Preservation and Conservation (PAC) and Universal Availability of Publications (UAP).

The Directory of digitised documents will take the form of a freely accessible database on the UNESCO and/or the IFLA websites. It will aim to list digitised library and archive collections of national importance. This means that while national libraries will be targeted in the first instance, the database will be expanded to include collections in university libraries and other institutions, such as archives and museums, since they are also often holders of major national cultural documents.

The project began in 1998 with the distribution of questionnaires to national libraries to gather information on their digitisation programmes. The database will consist of a searchable listing of all the collections, together with clickable links to take the user directly to the website of the digitised collection. Individual items within a collection will not be listed, but it is assumed that detailed information about the contents of each collection will be available from the collection website.

Information is also being collected on the preservation issues surrounding the digitisation of materials. Digital preservation is perhaps one of the most neglected areas in the electronic library arena, with large volumes of data already lost because of lack of knowledge about long-term digital preservation issues. The project will aim to offer some information on how the issue of preservation is being handled by each of the libraries listed.

Further information can be found on the web pages of the IFLA PAC and UAP Core Programmes at http://archive.ifla.org/VI/4/pac.htm or http://archive.ifla.org/VI/2/uap.htm. Information about UNESCO's Memory of the World programme can be found at http://www.unesco.org/webworld/mdm/index.html.

For details of how to ensure that your digitisation project is included in the Directory, please send an email to Richard Ebdon at IFLA UAP, richard.ebdon@bl.uk

Sara Gould
IFLA Core Programme for UAP

January 1999