Subject: White House Announces $30 million grants for Digital Library for Education
David Green (david@ninch.org)
Date: Fri, 29 Jan 1999 16:22:15 -0500
Message-Id: <v04011704b2d7cadb1666@[192.100.21.23]> Date: Fri, 29 Jan 1999 16:22:15 -0500 To: ninch-announce@cni.org From: David Green <david@ninch.org> Subject: White House Announces $30 million grants for Digital Library for Education
NINCH ANNOUNCEMENT
January 29, 1999
WHITE HOUSE ANNOUNCES "DIGITAL LIBRARY FOR EDUCATION" GRANTS
Although it begs many questions and gives little details, the following
announcement from the White House is welcome in its recognition of the need
for new and radically increased funds for the complex and sophisticated
task of networking cultural resources. The award of new "digitization"
grants ($5 million each to the Smithsonian and the National Park Service
and $10 million to the Institute for Museum and Library Services) is a step
in the right direction.
We look forward to hearing more details about the disposition of these
grant funds from the agencies concerned.
David Green
===========
>From: Thomas_A._Kalil@opd.eop.gov
>To: david@ninch.org
>Date: Fri, 29 Jan 1999 15:17:02 -0500
>Subject: Digital Library
January 29, 1999
A Digital Library for Education
"It is a time to build, to build the America within reach ... an America
where every child can stretch a hand across a keyboard and reach every book
ever written, every painting ever painted, every symphony ever composed."
- President Bill Clinton
Summary: This $30 million initiative will begin the development of a
national library of text, images, sound recordings, and other materials
available to every school-child and every American with access to the
Internet. It will include: hundreds of thousands of America's historical
and cultural artifacts that are now only accessible to scholars visiting
archives; hundreds of thousands of books and images of paintings; and
leading-edge material to help America's children meet high academic
standards in math and science. Modern information technology gives us
powerful new tools for making America's rich and diverse cultural legacy
and educational content available to Americans of all ages.
This initiative supports the President's Educational Technology Initiative
by making unique historic, cultural, and scientific materials available to
teachers, children, and parents. It also supports the goals of the White
House Millennium Project by "honoring the past and imagining the future."
The Smithsonian Institution, the National Park Service, and other Federal
agencies are the custodians of priceless records and objects of American
achievements in the arts and sciences as well as the raw material of
American history. Currently, only about one to two percent of these
collections are on display at any given time. Fortunately, new digital
technology and the Internet can make these materials easily available to
homes and schools throughout America. The Administration will seek to
leverage these funds by partnering with corporations, libraries, museums,
archives, foundations, and other organizations.
Elements of the Initiative:
1. America's Treasures Online ($5 million, Smithsonian and $5 million,
National Park Service)
The Federal government is the custodian of such things as the Apollo 11
command module, Rose Kennedy's personal tour of the John F. Kennedy
birthplace, the Gettysburg battlefield, Ansel Adams photographs of
Yosemite, the compass Lewis and Clark used to explore the American West,
immigration records of Ellis Island, and Thomas Edison's laboratory notes.
These funds will allow the Smithsonian and the National Park Service to
digitize, index, and make available on the Internet not only pictures and
documents, but music, oral history, 3-dimensional objects, and virtual
tours of cultural sites like historic buildings or battlefields.
2. Digitizing the classics and putting museums online ($10 million,
Institute for Museum and Library Science)
This initiative will digitize hundreds of thousands of books that are in
the "public domain," such as the complete works of Mark Twain, the
Federalist Papers, Shakespeare, the Odyssey and the Illiad, Nathaniel
Hawthorne, Ralph Waldo Emerson, the great Greek philosophers, Dante's
Inferno, Charles Darwin's diary, Henry David Thoreau, John Locke, Jane
Austin, etc. Uses will expand rapidly as better screen resolution, longer
battery life, and lower costs make it as easy for students to read
electronic books as their electronic equivalents. Students will be able to
download entire books from the Internet, carry many books in one
lightweight device, and search large archives for material. The
Administration intends to work closely with the publishing industry to
ensure full compliance with U.S. copyright laws.
This initiative will also support the digitization of hundreds of thousands
of images, paintings, sculptures and other works of art from museums around
the country.
3. Digital Library for Math and Science Education ($10 million, National
Science Foundation)
The Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) found that
the performance of U.S. secondary school students in science and
mathematics is well below the international average. As the National
Science Board concluded, "No nation can afford to tolerate what prevails in
American schooling: generally low expectations and low performance in
mathematics and science, with only pockets of excellence at a world-class
level of achievement ... In the new global context, a scientifically
literate population is vital to the democratic process, a healthy economy,
and our quality of life." This initiative will help address this problem
by supporting a digital library for math and science education, which might
include:
- Tools to make it much easier for students and teachers to find
high-quality resources, using specialized search engines and "peer review"
mechanisms.
- Hands-on, interactive content that makes math and science come
alive and enables students to "learn by doing." Students could track the
progress of a real scientific experiment, or understand a concept using
simulation and multimedia.
============
===============================================================
David L. Green
Executive Director
NATIONAL INITIATIVE FOR A NETWORKED CULTURAL HERITAGE
21 Dupont Circle, NW
Washington DC 20036
http://www.ninch.org
david@ninch.org
202/296-5346 202/872-0886 fax
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