Northern Illinois University Libraries, along with a consortium of U.S. institutions represented by CORMOSEA and several international partners have recently won a grant from the US Department of Education to create the Southeast Asia Digital Library. The Digital Library will provide access to research materials, bibliographic indexes, and support a wide range of research and teaching activities. To enhance interoperability between area studies digital libraries, the project is based on the model established by the Digital South Asia Library. It will employ standards developed and approved by American and international library organizations to provide free access to archives of textual, still image, sound, and video resources, covering both historical and current information from the region.
A number of constituent projects will create content and provide services for the Digital Library. Projects include:
Acting in concert with partners in the region, individuals representing leading Southeast Asian Studies programs at US universities will coordinate these projects. This effort will enable these programs to use available resources more efficiently by establishing a cooperative digital library rather than constructing unconnected pieces. The Digital Library will amass substantial resources from Southeast Asia and provide free access for students, teachers, scholars, government officials, and many others with interest in the region.
Funding for the project began in October 2005 and is anticipated to continue for four years from that time. More information is available on the project website, accessed by clicking on the banner above. For more information on the grant program see the US Department of Education's Technological Innovation and Cooperation for Foreign Information Access website.