The LILRC Regional Digitization Initiative began in August of 2002 through the use of Regional Bibliographic Data Bases (RBDB) and Library Services & Technology (LSTA) grant money. This Initiative was intended to create a central access point for digital library resources in the region. The first year of the Initiative focused on exploring the current digitization activities on Long Island by surveying area libraries, development of a collaborative initiative, development of standards and guidelines to facilitate digitization, hiring a consultant with experience in the field of digitization, joining the OCLC Digital and Preservation Cooperative which provided a test kit of their product, CONTENTdm, and testing the product through a pilot project.

The pilot project was begun by the Bryant Library of Roslyn using the CONTENTdm tutorial kit. The Bryant Library created the Long Island Post Card Memories digital pilot project, which consists of 330 post cards and is accessible on the Web at http://209.139.1.66/.

The LILRC Regional Digitization Initiative was recently completed. The LILRC Regional Digitization Initiative has now progressed into the LILRC Regional Digitization Program.

Part of the Program will include digitization of resources contained in Long Island historical repositories that will be used in teaching with historical documents in K-12 classrooms, and will be in accordance with New York State Education Department Standards.

Through the collaborative efforts of Long Island archives, historical societies, libraries, museums, and organizations, the people of Long Island will have access to the visual and oral record of Long Island history, culture, government and industry through a variety of textual, graphic and audio content in digital format via the World Wide Web.

• To promote the use of accepted standards and processes for digitization by its members
• To ensure that the materials are of good quality and can be easily accessed.
• Advocate for libraries that remain behind the curve to learn and use digitization to their benefit.
• Build capacity, knowledge, and services among LILRC members so that more second and third stage digitization projects can be engaged.
• Encourage collaboration between institutions, members and non-members, to develop third stage collections of valuable digitized materials.
• Pursue the necessary funding and other resources to assist in the creation and marketing of digitized collections and projects.

The purpose of the Program is to develop a regional digital collection built collaboratively by regional institutions that will:

• Ensure public access to the rich regional resources of Long Island.
• Promote the economic and efficient delivery of digital resources to the people of Long Island.
• Contribute to the State and National effort to develop digital libraries and museums.
• Encourage the use of digital resources to meet the New York State education standards.

LILRC's role through the Regional Digitization Initiative and now the Regional Digitization Program is to be the catalyst for digitization projects, and in this capacity it will be a:

• Resource for information in the process of digitization
• Provider of training sessions on digitization, standards, metadata, and access
• Provider of information on digitization resources that are available to its members
• Promoter of the use of accepted standards in digitization
• Facilitator for collaboration within the region
• Advocate and trainer of digitization best practices
• To assist libraries, museums, and other organizations in the digitizing of materials and managing digital projects
• To emphasize the content and rich resources available in Long Island archives, historical societies, libraries, museums, and organizations
• To work with the New York State Educational Community to incorporate digital objects that assist teachers, parents, and students in meeting the New York State Education Standards.

A Task Force for the LILRC Regional Digitization Initiative was established. The purpose of the Task Force was to develop standards and guidelines to facilitate digitization, development of a collaborative Regional Digitization Initiative, and eventually, a Regional Digitization Program. This group will establish guidelines for metadata, standards for scanning, selection of materials, and a collection policy.

Task Force Charge:

Establish a Regional Digitization Plan, set goals and objectives, standards and policies, and evaluation criteria for a three-year digital library Program for the region.

Year One of Program (2003-2004)

Establish project parameters to help libraries set projects based on pilot project.

Establish a working relationship with local library schools to provide interns to help libraries to do their digitization projects.

Establish Best Practices for imaging, metadata, selection of materials to be digitized, quality control, maintenance of digitized materials.

For further information, please contact the LILRC Digitization Project Manager Virginia Antonucci at (631) 632-6656 or via email vantonuc@lilrc.org.