Dartmouth library builds 'born digital' capability

Posted 03/03/02

Digital publishing is not a new concept in scholarly circles. However, most electronic resources provided by libraries are digital versions of already existing published materials. The Dartmouth Library's nascent Digital Publishing Program (DPP), which recently produced the first issue of Linguistic Discovery, could lead the way in producing noncommercial, "born-digital" scholarly publications.

The program signals a new direction for the Dartmouth College Library, according to Ann McHugo, Head of Acquisitions and Linguistic Discovery Project Team Leader.

"The library is often seen as being responsible for collecting and managing scholarly information that flows into the institution. The digital world gives us opportunities to manage scholarly information produced by our own faculty and students and to communicate it to the rest of the world," said John R. James, Associate Librarian of the College.

As the pilot project for DPP, producing Linguistic Discovery provided a model for creating future publications, said McHugo. It also helped team members determine some general objectives for the program, which is still taking shape.

"What was special about Linguistic Discovery — and what we hope to continue in the future with new projects — is the close collaboration between faculty members and staff from the library and academic computing. It was a very cooperative effort," said James.

A primary goal of the DPP will be to produce materials in formats that will be easily accessible even as technology changes, ensuring access to scholarly content over time.

"Standards for storing and retaining data will change as technology continues to evolve. We don't want information to get lost or become inaccessible because we've not accounted for technology changes," said McHugo.

The DPP team also hopes to take advantage of the multimedia capabilities of digital technology in future publications.

"Linguistic Discovery in many ways follows the traditional format of a scholarly journal. However, as part of digital publishing, we want to experiment with providing different types of content," said McHugo. For example, the first issue of Linguistic Discovery provides an editorial containing a digitized excerpt of a Yaghan speech recording. A proposed journal for Latino students and scholars might integrate chat rooms and other interactive technologies into its format, for example.

Unlike paper-and-ink journals, digital journals need not be "issue-bound," so new articles and research can be posted when they become available, rather than waiting until an entire issue is ready to go. James and McHugo would like to see projects that offer ongoing additions to their content.

Although the DDP is one of the Library's latest innovations, it is just a single facet of a much larger digital library concept envisioned by Librarian Richard Lucier.

"The Digital Library at Dartmouth is a way to comprehensively manage scholarly content, from its generation through its organization, representation, publication, dissemination, and use," said Lucier. "Linguistic Discovery is an important step in laying the foundation for this vision, and I am impressed with the commitment of Dartmouth faculty and staff in getting the project moving so quickly."

Because DPP is so new, there is no formal process yet for submitting proposals for consideration. However, faculty members can contact Richard Lucier or John James if they are interested in pursing digital publishing.