Collections

The Library of Alexandria, ancient Egypt’s hallowed center of classical learning, was designed to be a universal research center that contained all the books—or scrolls—in the world. Fast-forward 2,300 years. UCSB Library’s contribution to today’s version of a universal library is the Alexandria Digital Research Library (ADRL), an online platform we built to store and deliver the Library’s distinctive collections of digital research materials.

You can’t actually try on Helen Keller’s bathing suit (and wouldn’t want to, because it’s cumbersome), but her old-fashioned way is one of more than 13 million items you can see online via the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA). This online portal, available for free to the public at https://dp.la, offers digital access to photographs, manuscripts, maps, recordings, music scores, videos and more from libraries, archives, and museums around the U.S. Here are just a few examples of DPLA content:

Allen Cohen is one for the books … and the paintings; and the poems; and the films; and the plays; and the opera, jazz and classical songs. And the steps.

The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) has awarded UCSB Library a $100,000 National Leadership Grant for "Always Already Computational: Library Collections as Data." The funds will be used for a series of meetings to develop strategies around library collections that support computationally-driven research and teaching. Of 85 submitted projects, only 15 were selected nationally for funding.