UCSB is leading the formation of the National Geospatial Digital Archive (NGDA), a collecting network for the archiving of geospatial images and data.
THE ALEXANDRIA DIGITAL LIBRARY PROJECT
The Alexandria Digital Library (ADL) was established as a collaborative initiative at the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 1994. Since that time it has developed into a significant community resource, serving the needs of instructors and researchers on the campus, in the University of California generally, in the region, and around the world. Many of its features are now fully operational and available to general users. It also continues to evolve, and is the focus of substantial research efforts. Its development owes much to the existence at UCSB of a nucleus of world-class researchers in digital libraries and geospatial information technologies, distributed over several departments and colleges; and to the vision and foresight of the Davidson Library.
In playing this dual role, ADL is analogous in many respects to the special collections maintained by many university research libraries, which act as a focus and repository for the innovative scholarship of specialists within the university community, and at the same time serve as a resource to a broader base of users.
The administrative structure under which ADL operates recognizes this dual role. It provides the long-term stability needed to ensure the sustained growth of the resource, and the delivery of services based on it to the broader user community. At the same time it provides the flexibility needed to encourage invention and innovation by developers and researchers. Finally, it ensures that the two roles are mutually supportive and beneficial.
To clarify the two roles, the term Alexandria Digital Library is used to refer to the services and content provided to the user community, while Alexandria Project refers to the more loosely structured research and development effort associated with ADL. ADL is a component of the Davidson Library, which is responsible for its administration and core funding, and for policies and strategies that will safeguard its long-term stability and evolution as a community resource. As head of the Davidson Library, the University Librarian (UL) is responsible for the long-term direction of the Alexandria Digital Library. The UL is advised in this role by the Librarian's Advisory Committee on the Alexandria Digital Library, and appoints its members. ADL is housed in the Map and Imagery Laboratory of the Davidson Library, which acts as the primary point of external contact with ADL.
A separate service of the Alexandria Digital Library Project, the
Alexandria Digital Library Gazetteer, provides a spatial dictionary of
named and typed places.
Alexandria Digital Library - orientation session, August 27,
1999 - Help
Docs
THE ALEXANDRIA DIGITAL LIBRARY PROJECT
University of California, Santa Barbara
Davidson Library
Santa Barbara, CA 93106-9010, USA
http://www.alexandria.ucsb.edu
email ADL