Glasgow Digital Library administration

Documents

Glasgow Digital Library Project Overview

July 2002

The Glasgow Digital Library (GDL) is a collaborative venture based in the Centre for Digital Library Research at the University of Strathclyde. The initial GDL project was funded for two years by the Research Support Libraries Programme.

The original aim of the project was to establish the GDL as a virtual co-library of the majority of public institutions in Glasgow. The long-term aim was to create a wholly digital resource to support teaching, learning and research at all levels in the city, bringing together material currently separated by ownership and physical location.

Initial project goals

• To initiate and develop an effective consultative structure for planning, implementing, operating and evaluating the GDL.
• To establish the GDL as a virtual co-library of the majority of public institutions in Glasgow and to establish the GDL website.
• To provide collaborative leadership in selecting, designing, building, managing and preserving high-quality digital collections of interest to researchers.
• To provide collaborative leadership in identifying, evaluating, selecting and implementing innovative online tools and services for sharing, accessing, manipulating and integrating content of resources via the Glasgow Metropolitan Area Network.
• To develop a public information programme which clarifies the GDL's directions, goals and activities for a variety of audiences.
• To participate and bid in other initiatives, aiming to fund further projects during the first two years of the GDL project.
• To evolve a financial model to enhance, extend and sustain GDL collections and services.

Current focus

As the GDL project developed in its second year, and further funding was received from SCRAN for specific digitisation projects, there was greater emphasis within the GDL on the development and management of original digital collections and establishing a coherent standards-based information environment. The GDL has therefore evolved into:

a distributed digital library based in Glasgow which aims to produce a coherent digital learning and information environment for Glasgow's citizens, through the development and implementation of a common collection development policy and an agreed technical and inter-working infrastructure.

As outlined in its collection development policy, the GDL seeks to create, collect and provide access to digital content that is about Glasgow, in Glasgow or for Glasgow but does not to duplicate work done elsewhere.