Digital Library of the Middle East platform to be built

Thursday, 5 April 2018 Books+Publishing

In the US, the Digital Library Federation (DLF) program will construct the Digital Library of the Middle East (DLME) platform to record the cultural heritage of the Middle East.

The platform is envisioned as a non-proprietary, multilingual library of digital records of cultural heritage objects, with an emphasis on security, preservation and access. The DLME will hold text, video, photographs, archives, manuscripts, 3D data and maps illuminating the region’s history over 12 millennia. ‘A major focus of the work will be on respectful representation and close partnership with scholars, communities and content stewards,’ said DLF executive director and co-principal investigator Bethany Nowviskie.

US organisation Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR), which runs the DLF program of librarians with digital-library skills, announced the project would go ahead after a US$1.12 million (A$1.45 million) grant by the Andrew W Mellon Foundation.

The original prototype, including 135,000 objects, was created with funding from the Whiting Foundation. The DLF program will work with technical partners at Stanford University and content providers to build on the DLME prototype and also to create processes to extend the DLME in the future.