California Digital Library
Report to the Digital Library Federation
January 15, 2001


TABLE OF CONTENTS

  • Collections, Services, and Systems
  • Projects and Programs
  • Announcements


    I. Collections, Services, and Systems

    A. Collections

    1. eScholarship - The eScholarship program, supporting scholar-led experiments in scholarly communication, offers the following new services or enhancements:

      ePrint Repositories
      eScholarship is establishing several prototype eprint repositories for selected scholarly communities. The repositories are based upon software from the Eprints project at Southampton University and are compliant with the Open Archive Initiative protocols.
      http://escholarship.cdlib.org/eprintservers.html

      Web Site Enhancements
      The eScholarship web site is being enhanced and expanded with more scholarly communities, publishing models, scholarly content, and links to related materials. Appropriate interface changes are being introduced to enhance access to the new content and services.
      http://escholarship.cdlib.org/

      First XML-based Monograph Published
      In the first of what will likely be a steady stream of monographs published using the Extensible Markup Language (XML), UC Press and eScholarship have made available the digital version of Tobacco War: Inside the California Battles, by Stanton A. Glantz and Edith D. Balbach.
      http://escholarship.cdlib.org/ucpress/tobacco-war.xml


    2. Online Archive of California (OAC) - The OAC provides enhanced access to digitized photos, diaries, manuscripts and other primary source materials; new online publications drawn from these materials; and online guides or "finding aids" to archival collections held throughout California. The following new services and content are now available:

      Virtual Archives View available in OAC Dynaweb
      A Virtual Archive is an electronic grouping of OAC finding aids that brings together and highlights collections sharing a common theme but that are physically dispersed among multiple OAC repositories.
      http://www.oac.cdlib.org/dynaweb/ead/

      Japanese American Relocation Digital Archives (JARDA)
      JARDA is a digital "thematic collection" within the OAC documenting the experience of Japanese Americans in World War II internment camps. JARDA serves as a gateway to a collection of finding aids, digital images, and electronic texts from the holdings of a number of California repositories. It includes photographs, documents, manuscripts, paintings, drawings, letters, and oral histories; over 10,000 digital images have been created along with 20,000 pages of electronic transcriptions of document and oral histories.
      http://jarda.cdlib.org/

    B. Systems

    Locally Mounted Abstracting and Indexing Databases and the Melvyl? Union Catalog
    In June 2000, the CDL issued a Request for Proposals to replace the underlying technology for the Melvyl Union Catalog and the CDL-hosted A&I databases. Due to relatively little vendor experience in supporting local loading of A&I databases, the expectation of continued high overhead for local loading, and the proliferation of commercial sources for the same content, the CDL is now investigating the feasibility of vendor provision of the 25 CDL-hosted databases. In addition, the CDL is in the final stages of selecting a vendor to replace the technology supporting the Melvyl Union Catalog.

    II. Projects and Programs

    Counting California
    Counting California, a web based social science data access system, is a collaborative project funded by the California Digital Library and the Library of California. Through a single interface, Counting California enables users to access data compiled by federal, state, and local agencies, and to collate and integrate the data by topic, geography, title, and provider. This project represents substantial work with metadata standards and database design. It also addresses the serious preservation dilemma posed by ever-changing technology and data formats. A prototype system is currently being tested; a public version is scheduled to be available July 2001.

    Collection Management Initiative
    The University of California's office of Systemwide Library Planning works closely with the CDL and several of its initiatives are enacted through the CDL. As a result of a planning grant awarded to the University of California by the Mellon Foundation in June 2000, the Systemwide Planning Office has applied for and received a $670,000 grant from the Foundation. This grant will support a two-year study, begun in January 2001, that will explore the complex issues associated with integrating and managing research library journal collections composed of shared print and digital formats. The project will include an evaluation of the factors that affect reliance on and use of shared digital resources such as those made available through the CDL. It will assess the implications of these findings for the management and preservation of research library collections in a mixed print and digital environment.
    http://www.slp.ucop.edu/initiatives/cmi.html

    III. Announcements

    Interim University Librarian Named
    Beverlee French, CDL's Director of Shared Content, has been named Interim University Librarian for the CDL and Systemwide Library Planning effective February 1, 2001. She replaces founding University Librarian Richard Lucier, who is now College Librarian at Dartmouth. The recruitment for a permanent UL has begun.

    Initiatives Supported by Grant Funding
    Several CDL initiatives are supported by grant funding from the Scholarly Publishing Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC), the Library of Congress, the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA), which is administered in California by the State Librarian, and the U. S. Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS) under a provision of the LSTA. These include:

    • eScholarship - $167,000 SPARC Scientific Communities Initiative grant
    • Counting California - $158,000 LSTA grant
    • Japanese American Relocation Digital Archive - $400,000 IMLS grant
    • Museums in the Online Archive of California - $500,000 IMLS grant
    • "California Cultures" extension of the Online Archive of California in cooperation with the National Digital Library Program - $600,000 support from the Library of Congress