The "Scholarly Communications Project"

       Gail McMillan, Associate Professor, University Libraries
			  October 20, 1998

                  Computer Science Graduate Seminar
                          CS 5944 Index 9743
                        Tuesday 3:30 - 4:45 pm
                  Newman Library 6th Floor Boardroom

			    Sponsored by:
			    	Department of Computer Science
				Information Systems
				University Libraries
				Digital Library Research Laboratory
				Internet Technology Innovation Center

Abstract: 
The professional literature for library as well as computer science is rich
with jargon and a term currently in vogue is "digital library."
Unfortunately, too many authors write as if a digital library is a database
limited to online resources, distinct and separate from a library. They
ignore that libraries provide user services as well as materials in a
variety of media, including digital. For nearly a decade, libraries have
not only provided links between users and digital resources; some
libraries, like Virginia Tech's, are the originating source of online
information. The Scholarly Communications Project (SCP), a department
within University Libraries at VT, has nearly ten years experience in
storing and providing access to original electronic works and in designing
online systems that improved library services by adapting and enhancing
them for the Internet.

Biographical Sketch:
Gail McMillan is Director of the Scholarly Communications Project.  She
has an MA and MLS from University of Maryland, College Park.  During 1981
she was Assistant Archivist at the Smithsonian Institution.  Since 1982
she has worked in Virginia Tech Libraries on special collections, serials,
bibliographic services, and cataloging.  Since 1995 she also has served as
as head of the Special Collections Department.

A member of the American Library Association and the Association of College
and Research Libraries, Ms. McMillan also serves on the Association of
Southeastern Research Libraries' Committee on Electronic Archives and its
Committee on Special Collections.  She is co-PI on the US Dept. of Education
funded project "Improving Graduate Education with a National Digital Library
of Theses and Dissertations".

   gailmac@vt.edu     phone: (540) 231-9252