April 9, 1997

Contact: Helen Dalrymple (202) 707-1940

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Media Advisory: Winners of the Library of Congress/Ameritech National Digital Library Competition To Be Announced

WHEN: Thursday, April 10, at 2 p.m. EDT; 1 pm. CDT; 12 p.m. MDT; and 11 a.m. PDT.

WHO:

• James H. Billington, the Librarian of Congress
• Lana Porter, President Ameritech Library Services
• George Farr, Director of the Division of Preservation and Access, National Endowment for the Humanities
• Representatives from two of the winning institutions.

WHAT: Announcement of the first winners in the Library of Congress/Ameritech National Digital Library Competition, which enables libraries across the nation to digitize their collections in American history and make them available on the Internet via the Library's site on the World Wide Web (http://www.loc.gov/). This is the first time the Library will make available collections from other institutions.

HOW: A telephone news conference will be held at the above time. To participate, reporters should call 1-800-749-9805. Passcode 384744.

BACKGROUND

A $2 million gift from the Ameritech Foundation (http://www.ameritech.com) to the Library of Congress is enabling U.S. institutions to apply for awards to digitize their unique collections in American history and -- for the first time -- make them a part of the Library's on-line collections, called American Memory.

This is the first year of a three-year program (details of the 1997-98 Competition will be announced in July 1997). The winners are institutions both large and small from across the United States. Their collections to be placed on- line represent a diversity of subjects in American history for the period 1850-1920.

The National Digital Library Program of the Library of Congress aims to make freely available over the Internet millions of items by the year 2000, in collaboration with other institutions. Ameritech's contribution will help the Library meet that goal by providing funds to libraries, museums, archives and historical societies to aid them in the critical, yet expensive, task of making their unique collections available to anyone with access to the World Wide Web.

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PR 97-70
4/9/97
ISSN 0731-3527