The Northeast Massachusetts Digital Library or "NMDL" is a project to enhance access to an ever-growing digital collection of items, located in or items related to northeast Massachusetts. We are defining northeast Massachusetts as the 54 towns within the service area of the Northeast Massachusetts Regional Library System (NMRLS).
We hope the digital library to grow very quickly as librarians, library patrons, the general public, school and college students and faculty, and others begin to find it meets educational and personal needs and suggest additional collections for digitization and indexing.
We have worked with our partners, member libraries, museums, and historical societies to digitize, index, and post about 100 items on the NMDL site. During the four month period, April-July 2003, over 8,000 visitors viewed the site (more than 70 per day).
Plans are in place to increase the online collection size with a goal of reaching 4,000 indexed digital items by June 2005. Our initial efforts are on digitizing, indexing and/or linking to digital items of regional historical interest that are housed in libraries, museums, or historical societies located within the region.
Funding for the project began with a matching grant from the Essex National Heritage Commission and NMRLS' own state funding. An additional three-year matching grant is in progress from the Essex National Heritage Commission to expand the collection and we have received preliminary approval for a federal LSTA (Library Services and Technology Act) grant from the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners to outsource processing of collections from eight member libraries. More funding is needed and we will be seeking grants and gifts to support project growth. How can I help?
Our vision is to become a part of a future Massachusetts Digital Library that is currently in the planning stages.
