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As a federally‐funded independent granting agency, The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) became involved in digitization in the late 1990s when Congress gave it statutory authority to fund digitization of library and museum collections. Since that time, IMLS has funded more than 100 exemplary digitization projects through its National Leadership Grant program. Collectively, these projects have helped to identify best practices for the creation, management, preservation and use of digital content. Most importantly, they demonstrate the important role that museums and libraries can play in supporting both formal education and lifelong learning. Ultimately, this work will help libraries and museums to fulfill their roles as educational institutions. IMLS grants support the spectrum of learning from independent inquiry through formal education to the development of “learning communities.”

The New York Public Library (NYPL) has become the first institution to link its internal network with the new OCLC telecommunications network using the X.25 Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) standard. The telecommunications link will connect NYPL research libraries and branch libraries to the OCLC system for cataloging and resource sharing.

Focusses on California State University′s participation in a project to add contents notes to bibliographic records. Discusses the background of, and need for, such a project, the natureof the project, and the results from CSU. Surmises that there are a number of things that can be done to stimulate the sharing of contents information, to the benefit of library users.

It is perplexing that the library profession, which has made such a prodigious response to changing technology and has worked ceaselessly to provide users with the best and latest information, should be lagging behind in the area of financial management. The typical background which most students bring to library studies is in the humanities. This, together with the relative dearth of coursework in administration available in most graduate library school programs, has resulted in far too many librarians assuming important fiscal responsibilities with little more than a sip from the wells of financial management education.

This paper aims to summarize a three‐year federal grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services to create a statewide digital collection.

This paper describes the Cornerstone Project: its background, the processes used to determine appropriate standards, guidelines, and best practices for digital collections, the technology selected for the digital production centers and the web portal, and its plans for the future. The project is a collaborative statewide initiative to make unique historical treasures from Alabama's archives, libraries, museums, and other repositories electronically accessible to Alabama residents as well as students and scholars around the world.

The project has demonstrated a successful model for statewide collaboration among all types of repositories. NAAL member institutions are helping other repositories create digital collections of unique Alabama historical resources.

The Cornerstone Project offers practical procedures that can be replicated by any consortia considering distributed digital collection building.

The project offers training to help librarians, archivists, and other staff successfully plan, implement, and complete digitization projects. Three shared digital production facilities at the Alabama Department of Archives and History (ADAH), Auburn University, and The University of Alabama serve as training centers and assist with local digitization efforts.