New Project: “Introducing the Digital Library of the Middle East”

Note: We first noted this recently funded project when it an announcement by the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) on July 19, 2016.
From The Ancient Near East (Newsletter From Friends of the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR):

The desire to more thoroughly secure collections of all kinds is one of the primary motivations behind a new project developed by the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) and the Antiquities Coalition, the Digital Library of the Middle East (DLME).
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The library will provide an internationally shared inventory of cultural artifacts including detailed descriptions and image documentation on a single website with coherent metadata and search facilities. Images and descriptions could be made publicly available to encourage greater understanding of and respect for the region’s cultural patrimony. Object-specific data would confirm ownership and legal status and would help determine whether an item of cultural or historical significance being offered for sale or transferred was acquired illegally.
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The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has generously provided funding to support exploratory research, community building, and technical prototyping for the DLME. Dr. Charles Henry of CLIR and I will serve as co-Principal Investigators on the project.
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We will also benefit from significant contributions from the Digital Library Federation, the Digital Public Library of America, and the National Digital Stewardship Alliance.

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Filed under: Data Files, Digital Collections, Funding, Interactive Tools, Libraries, News, Public Libraries