Wallace Library debuts digital media site

From the deepening enigma of the egg nebula to photos of RIT freshmen in 1938, RIT’s Wallace Library offers an array of digital media in its new Digital Media Library.

Created by library staff, the Digital Media Library uses technology developed by MIT, tweaked to RIT’s needs. It holds documents, images, video and audio covering the vast range of RIT knowledge and research and makes this information available to the world via the Internet.

“The RIT Digital Media Library is a tool that will support RIT’s scholarship, research and teaching,” says Chandra McKenzie, library director.

The Digital Media Library was created as a single place where digital media could be made available. The library staff surveyed the RIT community and found 80 percent of the faculty were extremely interested in accessing and contributing to a digital archive containing the academic and artistic output of the RIT community.

New Web site makes RIT research materials available online.

Here’s how it works: Each college or administrative department/division can establish a “community” in the Digital Media Library. Through one appointed administrator, the community controls the content submitted to the virtual library. Content can be made available to the public or restricted to particular constituencies.

At this time, content is limited, but it is expected that this virtual library will become an important resource as more material is added, The material can be accessed at http://ritdml.rit.edu.