Libraries, museums, historical societies and commissions, town clerks, and other institutions that act as repositories of historical materials related to northeast Massachusetts history are participating in the creation of a northeast Massachusetts digital library.

This project will provide online access to resources related to northeast Massachusetts. The project is funded in part by a grant from the Essex National Heritage Commission. NMRLS will offer orientation, training, consulting, assistance, and the necessary technology to repositories of historical and archival records to build the digital library. Repositories are encouraged to digitize materials that are not otherwise available widely.

The main thrust of this grant (http://www.nmrls.org/dli/FY03grant.shtml) is to provide access to the NMRLS scanning lab and editing facilities along with training and assistance for institutions that lack such resources to create images to include in the Digital Library. Please visit our Web site for an online application: http://www.nmrls.org/dli/dliapp.shtml. However, we also welcome other forms of participation. For example: to include links to items that your institution has already digitized; or to attend training sessions to support your own digitization efforts. While there is no specific deadline to apply for this grant project, which will continue until June 2005, we encourage you to apply early to help us implement the Digital Library web site soon.

For further information on the digital library initiative, please visit: http://www.nmrls.org/dli/, send a note to greg@nmrls.org, or call 888-326-7772.

Join us for a brief demonstration and opportunity to ask questions about applying for this grant on December 19, 2002 or January 22, 2003. Register online at http://www.nmrls.org/dli/demo.shtml.