Future Plans
The Digital Services and Development Unit
will be accommodating the University Library's goal of accessibility by
scaling up its digitization and access program over the next several years.
To accomplish this goal we plan to digitize unique collections and build
model access and delivery systems. The DSD has completed the exploratory
analysis of these collections by digitizing samples, and has developed
innovative approaches to making materials accessible through the Internet.
Below we identify the selected collection as well as the types of technology
that will be developed and made accessible as our efforts progress toward
the future.
Collections
- Aerial Photographs of Illinois Counties:
60,000 photos, 1939 - 1954
- Historical maps of Illinois and the Northwest
Territory: Several hundred unique maps that document the development
of the Northwest territory, and the early days of the state of Illinois.
- D'Arcy Advertising Collection is one
of the largest collections of American advertisements, with over 750,000
items dating from 1880 to 1970. The University Library has an interest
in digitizing the ads to make them more accessible and to capture as
much of their color and brilliance as possible before additional paper
deterioration occurs.
- Selected materials from the Rare
Book and Special Collections Library and the University
Archives, including:
- German Emblem Books and the Emblem book
collection (approximately 15,000 images)
- Papers of Carl Sandburg (approximately
3,000 images)
- Motley Collection of Theater and Costume
Design (approximately 5,000 images)
- Lorado Taft Sculpture Photos and Papers
(approximately 3,000 images)
Technology
- A database system that manages both public
and subscription access to the collections.
- A method for on-line deposit of multimedia
objects and metadata.
- User interfaces that provide customized and
general search and retrieval options.
- Results of metadata format testing and development
with diverse materials.
