collection will always retain their central
importance, and we are committed to continuing to provide, and to improve,
access to these in our reading rooms. The importance of digital materials will,
however, increase. We recognize that network infrastructure is at present most
strongly developed in the higher education sector, but there are signs that
similar facilities will also be available elsewhere, particularly in the
industrial and commercial sector, and for public libraries. Our vision of
network access encompasses all these."

The Digital Library Programme will begin in February 1999. The two potential
partners are: Dawson-IBM-The Stationery Office Consortium, and the Digital
Library Consortium (Blackwell, Chadwyck-Healey, MicroPatent, Unisys). The
confirmation of the preferred bidder is planned for February 1999, and the
contract will be awarded in Spring 1999.

"The development of the Digital Library will enable the British Library to
embrace the digital information age. Digital technology will be used to preserve
and extend the Library's unparalleled collection. Access to the collection will
become boundless with users from all over the world, at any time, having simple,
fast access to digitized materials using computer networks, particularly the
Internet."

What exactly is digitization? Digitization is the conversion of text, sound or
images to digital form, that is, in the form of numerical digits (bits and
bytes) for handling by computer. Digitization has made it possible to create,
record, manipulate, combine, store, retrieve and transmit information and
information-based products in ways which magnetic tape, celluloid and paper did
not permit. Digitization thus allows music, cinema and the written word to be
recorded and transformed through similar processes and without separate material
supports. Previously dissimilar industries, such as publishing and sound
recording, now both produce CD-ROMs, rather than simply books and records.

7.2. Digital Libraries: Some Examples

Created by Michael S. Hart in 1971, the Project Gutenberg was the first
information provider on the Internet. It is now the oldest digital library on
the Web, and the biggest in terms of the number of works (1,500) which have been
digitized for it, with around 45 new titles per month. Michael Hart's purpose is
to put on the Web as many literary texts as possible for a minimal price.

In his e-mail of August 23, 1998, Michael Hart