The Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC) is an international

digital library A digital library, also called an online library, an internet library, a digital repository, or a digital collection is an online database of digital objects that can include text, still images, audio, video, digital documents, or other digital ...

operated collaboratively by the contributing partners.

Partners

Current partners continue to grow on a regular basis and are listed on th
dLOC Partner Page
Partners include the Archives Nationales d'Haïti ( National Archives of Haiti), Biblioteca Nacional Aruba (National Library of Aruba,

Caribbean Community The Caribbean Community (CARICOM or CC) is an intergovernmental organization that is a political and economic union of 15 member states (14 nation-states and one dependency) throughout the Caribbean. They have primary objectives to promote econo ...

(CARICOM) Secretariat, Caribbean Studies Association,

University of The Bahamas The University of The Bahamas (UB) is the national public institution of higher education in the Commonwealth of The Bahamas with campuses throughout the archipelago. The main campus is located in the capital city of Nassau, on the island of New P ...

, the Fundación Global Desarollo y Democracia ( FUNGLODE), the National Library of Jamaica, Belize National Library Service and Information System (BNLSIS),

Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra The Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra ''(Mother and Teacher Pontifical Catholic University)'', named after Pope John XXIII's encyclical ''Mater et magistra'', which means ''Mother and Teacher'', (PUCMM for its Spanish acronym), i ...

(PUCMM), th
Universidad de Oriente in Venezuela

Florida International University Florida International University (FIU) is a public research university with its main campus in Miami-Dade County. Founded in 1965, the school opened its doors to students in 1972. FIU has grown to become the third-largest university in Florid ...

, the

University of the Virgin Islands The University of the Virgin Islands (or UVI) is a public historically black land-grant university in the United States Virgin Islands. History UVI was founded as the College of the Virgin Islands on March 16, 1962. In 1986, it officially be ...

, the University of Central Florida, the

University of South Florida The University of South Florida (USF) is a public research university with its main campus located in Tampa, Florida, and other campuses in St. Petersburg and Sarasota. It is one of 12 members of the State University System of Florida. USF i ...

, the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...

, and WIDECAST (the Wider Caribbean Sea Turtle Conservation Network). The Digital Library of the Caribbean received a US Department of Education Technological Innovation and Cooperation for Foreign Information Access (TICFIA) grant in 2004, which is administered by

, the University of Florida Libraries, and the

. The technical infrastructure is provided by the

University of Florida Digital Collections The University of Florida Digital Collections (UFDC) are supported by the University of Florida Digital Library Center in the George A. Smathers Libraries at the University of Florida. The University of Florida Digital Collections (UFDC) comprise a ...

. In 2018, the partners confirmed a new design for dLOC, including a new logo. Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC) Logo

Collections

Collections include books, photographs, archives of Caribbean leaders and governments, legal documents, official historical documents, literature (novels, poetry, journals, and more), art, audio-visual materials, and historic and contemporary maps. Collections also include Caribbean studies journals and scholarly publications including the '' New West Indian Guide'', MaComère, the '' Jamaica Journal'', and many others. The Digital Library of the Caribbean provides open access to all materials, and all materials are full text searchable with JPG2000 images that load quickly but can be zoomed for detail, and the multiple formats support th
digital preservation of materials in the Digital Library of the Caribbean
As of June 2019, the Digital Library of the Caribbean held 157,451 items comprising 3,447,483 pages built from the ongoing digitization of new materials from partner institutions.

History and concept

As a digital library, the Digital Library of the Caribbean was established as led by Judith V. Rogers with a committee of librarians, scholars, and archivists at a meeting held in San Juan, Puerto Rico on July 17, 2004. The goal of dLOC is to build a cooperative digital library among partners within the Caribbean and circum-Caribbean, thus providing scholars, students, and citizens around the world with open online access to Caribbean cultural, historical and scientific materials, while also ensuring long term preservation of these materials. The Digital Library of the Caribbean draws on the many connections among the partner institutions and the

's role in collecting, enabling access to, and preserving materials published in the Caribbean under and prior to the

Farmington Plan The Farmington Plan was a twentieth-century collective collections initiative developed by American research libraries in order to ensure access to research materials and publications regardless of war or other events around the world. The plan crea ...

. Shamin Renwick of The University of the West Indies explains in detail why the dLOC is necessary. * It will help fill gaps among individual institutions' collections, bringing together a more complete history of the area. * The dLOC will provide a key role in identifying new or perhaps even previously inaccessible topics. This is of particular importance to developing countries. * The region is prone to disasters and weather that is not hospitable to preservation of physical items. * The cost of transport is high in the area - discouraging physical visits to libraries among the islands.

Technologies

The Digital Library of the Caribbean is powered by the SobekCM software engine and suite of associated tools.

Footnotes

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External links

dLOC− Digital Library of the Caribbean website
— ''homepage + topics index/links''.
FIU.edu: Florida International University, Kimberly Green Latin American and Caribbean Center website
— ''an administrative partner with dLOC''.
Sobekrepository.org: SobekCM — Open Source Digital Repository software
— ''used by dLOC''.
UFL.edu: University of Florida Digital Collections website
— ''a technical partner with dLOC''.
UFL.edu: Florida and Puerto Rico Newspaper Project
— ''related project in collaboration with dLOC partners''. Caribbean studies Works about the Caribbean Geographic region-oriented digital libraries Caribbean Community Caribbean culture Education in the Caribbean History of the Caribbean Internet properties established in 2006 2000s establishments in the Caribbean 2006 establishments in North America 2006 establishments in South America Florida International University University of Florida