Cool

UK Digital Library chosen as one of five nationally for pilot project

As any researcher knows, it's easier to click a mouse than burrow through paper archives, looking for one piece of paper.

At the University of Kentucky, the Kentucky Digital Library has worked since 1997 to aid that process, slowly transforming huge historical collections from UK and other state universities — including old newspapers, family papers, photographs and oral histories — into digital content.

That work was recently recognized when the Kentucky Digital Library was chosen as one of five digital libraries nationwide to form the hub of a pilot project to make that information even more available: The Digital Public Library of America.

One of my first jobs years and years ago (the late 1980s) was a work-study position in micrographics where we ironed newspapers and microfilmed them from all over the state as part of the Kentucky Newspaper Project. It was a first step in preserving and making the information in them accessible. Now, the University of Kentucky has gone beyond that and that's great. Here's a relevant tidbit:

The launch of the Digital Public will take place on April 18 at http://dp.la. The Kentucky Digital Library can be accessed at http://kdl.kyvl.org.