Digital Library of the Caribbean
Type of site | Multilingual |
---|---|
Owner | Caribbean |
Created by | Caribbean |
URL | dloc.com |
Commercial | No |
Launched | March 17, 2006 |
Current status | Online |
The Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC) is an international digital library operated collaboratively by the contributing partners.[1]
Partners
Current partners continue to grow on a regular basis and are listed on the dLOC Partner Page. Partners include the Archives Nationales d'Haïti (
In 2018, the partners confirmed a new design for dLOC, including a new logo.
Collections
Collections include books, photographs, archives of Caribbean leaders and governments, legal documents, official historical documents, literature (novels, poetry, journals, and more), art, audio-visual materials, and historic and contemporary maps. Collections also include Caribbean studies journals and scholarly publications including the
The Digital Library of the Caribbean provides open access to all materials, and all materials are full text searchable with JPG2000 images that load quickly but can be zoomed for detail, and the multiple formats support the digital preservation of materials in the Digital Library of the Caribbean. As of June 2019, the Digital Library of the Caribbean held 157,451 items comprising 3,447,483 pages built from the ongoing digitization of new materials from partner institutions.
History and concept
As a digital library, the Digital Library of the Caribbean was established as led by Judith V. Rogers with a committee of librarians, scholars, and archivists at a meeting held in San Juan, Puerto Rico on July 17, 2004. The goal of dLOC is to build a cooperative digital library among partners within the Caribbean and circum-Caribbean, thus providing scholars, students, and citizens around the world with open online access to Caribbean cultural, historical and scientific materials, while also ensuring long term preservation of these materials. The Digital Library of the Caribbean draws on the many connections among the partner institutions and the University of Florida's role in collecting, enabling access to, and preserving materials published in the Caribbean under and prior to the Farmington Plan.[3]
Shamin Renwick of
- It will help fill gaps among individual institutions' collections, bringing together a more complete history of the area.
- The dLOC will provide a key role in identifying new or perhaps even previously inaccessible topics. This is of particular importance to developing countries.
- The region is prone to disasters and weather that is not hospitable to preservation of physical items.
- The cost of transport is high in the area - discouraging physical visits to libraries among the islands.
Technologies
The Digital Library of the Caribbean is powered by the SobekCM software engine and suite of associated tools.[5]
Footnotes
- ^ dLOC homepage and "About" page.
- ^ dLOC "Partners" page and Florida International University news story.
- ^ See the full grant proposal in the University of Florida Digital Collections and available in dLOC for more information.
- ^ Renwick, Shamin. "Caribbean Digital Library Initiatives in the Twenty- first Century: the Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC)" (PDF). Retrieved 21 June 2014.
- ^ "Digital Library of the Caribbean". Retrieved 12 May 2012.
External links
- dLOC− Digital Library of the Caribbean website — homepage + topics index/links.
- FIU.edu: Florida International University, Kimberly Green Latin American and Caribbean Center website — an administrative partner with dLOC.
- Sobekrepository.org: SobekCM — Open Source Digital Repository software — used by dLOC.
- UFL.edu: University of Florida Digital Collections website — a technical partner with dLOC.
- UFL.edu: Florida and Puerto Rico Newspaper Project — related project in collaboration with dLOC partners.