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"What can be done? The nation's cultural institutions must develop ways to preserve and ensure future access to computerized collections of historic manuscripts, newspapers, photographs, and audio and video recordings. NEH, the National Science Foundation and other federal agencies have begun the process by funding a pioneering, $2.3 million preservation project at Cornell University. This project will develop a standard way of organizing computerized collections, preventing data loss in these collections by alerting managers to the periodic need to upgrade aging CD-ROMs and tapes, and making the collections fully accessible on the Internet. All Americans will benefit because the project will ensure that computerized materials important for the study of America will be preserved and accessible for generations to come."

-- Bill Ferris, Chairman, National Endowment for the Humanities

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The National Science Foundation Digital Libraries Initiative (NSF DLI) award to Cornell represents both an acknowledgement of the Cornell University Library's leadership in the development of preservation and imaging standards and an infusion of resources into the shared efforts of the Department of Computer Science and the Cornell University Library to construct digital collections in a manner which enhances access and ensures their longevity. The NSF award culminated many months of discussion and planning by a cross-section of University stakeholders in digital library research. Project PRISM (Preservation, Reliability, Interoperability, Security, Metadata) incorporates sophisticated knowledge of computer science, an advanced understanding of standards undergirding dependable access to information, and teamwork across units. The Cornell University Library's extensive digital collections will serve as a testbed for research in an ideal bridging of the theoretical and the applied.

In 1998 the Library forged a set of goals and objectives to guide its efforts through December 1999. The NSF DLI award advances each of the five major goals identified by Library staff as priorities. Many other initiatives contributed to achieving the Library's vision of providing leadership through excellent, innovative library service. Organized under the most relevant goal are highlights of the past year