Virtual Libraries
Long nights in the library are a thing of the past.
Thanks to the Internet, you can access virtual libraries – from your own school's offerings to catalogs from around the world. Locating scholarly sources for term papers and case studies has never been so convenient.
Our list of virtual, Internet libraries is organized first by general interest libraries, then university-based libraries, government libraries, libraries by subject, and, finally, literature libraries.
- 1 General Virtual Libraries
California Digital Library
http://www.californiadigitallibrary.org/
The California Digital Library provides a single point of access for digital collections produced or managed by the University of California. This site offers a broad range of scholarly and popular content; the digital collections reflect the diverse interests and scholarship of the University of California. This website is a first step toward bringing together publicly accessible digital collections that are created and managed by the University of California.
Internet Public Library
The Internet Public Library (IPL), is a public service organization and learning/teaching environment at the University of Michigan School of Information. IPL seeks to challenge and redefine the roles and significance of libraries in an increasingly distributed and digital world.
WWW Virtual Library
Unlike commercial catalogs, the WWW Virtual Library is run by a loose confederation of volunteers, who compile pages of key links for particular areas in which they are expert; even though it isn't the biggest index of the Web, the VL pages are widely recognized as being amongst the highest-quality guides to particular sections of the Web.
- 2 University Virtual Libraries
Alexandria Digitial Library Project, University of California at Santa Barbara
http://alexandria.sdc.ucsb.edu/
The goal of the Alexandria Digital Library Project (ADL) is to develop a globally distributed georeferenced digital library.
Berkeley Digital Library SunSITE, University of California at Berkeley
The Berkeley Digital Library SunSITE builds digital collections and services while providing information and support to digital library developers worldwide. SunSITE is sponsored by the U.C. Berkeley Library and Sun Microsystems, Inc.
California Digital Library, University of California
Harnessing technology and innovation, and leveraging the intellectual and cultural resources of the University of California, the California Digital Library (CDL) supports the assembly and creative use of the world's scholarship and knowledge for the UC libraries and the communities they serve. Established in 1997 as a UC library, the CDL has become one of the largest digital libraries in the world.
Cornell University Library Digital Collections, Cornell University
http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/
Cornell Library Digital Collections are open to the general public, in accordance with the terms set forth in the Guidelines for Using Text and Images from Cornell Library Digital Collections.
DSpace, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
DSpace is a groundbreaking digital library system to capture, store, index, preserve, and redistribute the intellectual output of a university's research faculty in digital formats. Developed jointly by MIT Libraries and Hewlett-Packard (HP), DSpace is now freely available to research institutions world-wide as an open source system that can be customized and extended.
Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia
http://www2.lib.virginia.edu/etext/index.html
The Electronic Text Center's holdings include approximately 70,000 on- and off-line humanities texts in thirteen languages, with more than 350,000 related images (book illustrations, covers, manuscripts, newspaper pages, page images of Special Collections books, museum objects, etc.)
Digital Library Production Service, University of Michigan
http://www.lib.umich.edu/digital-library-production-service-dlps
The Digital Library Production Service (DLPS) was formed in 1996 to provide infrastructure for campus digital library collections, including both access systems and digitization services. DLPS is a unit of the University Library, and is part of its Library Information Technology Division. DLPS is also responsible for the Digital Library eXtension Service (DLXS) and host services for other academic institutions and non-profit organizations.
Digital Library Research Projects at Grainger Engineering Library Information Center, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
A list of the digital library research projects and pertinent resources and links from the Grainger Engineering Library Information Center at the University of Illinois.
Digital Research Library, University of Pittsburgh
http://digital.library.pitt.edu/
The Digital Research Library (DRL) of the University of Pittsburgh's University Library System (ULS) supports the teaching and research mission of the university and serves users through the creation and maintenance of Web-accessible digital research collections. The DRL also serves as a knowledge resource within the ULS for digital library issues and developments.
Informedia-II Digital Video Library, Carnegie Mellon University
http://www.informedia.cs.cmu.edu/
The overarching goal of the Informedia initiatives is to achieve machine understanding of video and film media, including all aspects of search, retrieval, visualization and summarization in both contemporaneous and archival content collections.
Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/
Perseus is an evolving digital library, engineering interactions through time, space, and language. Their primary goal is to bring a wide range of source materials to as large an audience as possible.
Government Virtual Libraries
United States Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the nation's oldest federal cultural institution and serves as the research arm of Congress. It is also the largest library in the world, with nearly 128 million items on approximately 530 miles of bookshelves. The collections include more than 29 million books and other printed materials, 2.7 million recordings, 12 million photographs, 4.8 million maps, and 57 million manuscripts.
National Archives & Records Administration
http://www.archives.gov/about/index.html
NARA, an independent Federal agency, is America's national recordkeeper. NARA's mission is to ensure ready access to the essential evidence that documents the rights of American citizens, the actions of Federal officials, and the national experience. Among the treasures available online are the cornerstone documents of our Government - the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States, and the Bill of Rights, as well as many current and past exhibits.
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian is committed to enlarging our shared understanding of the mosaic that is our national identity by providing authoritative experiences that connect us to our history and our heritage as Americans and to promoting innovation, research and discovery in science. These commitments have been central to the Smithsonian since its founding more than 155 years ago.
Library and Archives Canada
http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/
Library and Archives Canada is an innovative knowledge institution that combines the collections, services and staff expertise of the former National Library of Canada and National Archives of Canada. The objective is to provide all Canadians with easy, one-stop access to the texts, photographs and other documents that reflect their cultural, social and political development. Working closely with other archives and libraries, they will continue to acquire and preserve Canada's documentary heritage in all its forms.
- 3 Virtual Libraries By Subject
Asian Studies WWW Virtual Library
http://coombs.anu.edu.au/WWWVL-AsianStudies.html
This Web site is a global collaborative project which provides access in bibliographic and in hypertext terms to networked scholarly documents, resources and information systems concerned with or relevant to Asian Studies.
Links for Chemists
http://www.liv.ac.uk/Chemistry/Links/links.html
Links for Chemists is an index of chemistry resources on the web. This site is the copyright of The University of Liverpool, Department of Chemistry.
WWW Virtual Library: Electrical and Electronics Engineering
The Electrical and Electronics Engineering Virtual Library is hosted at Monterrey Tech, State of Mexico Campus, Electrical and Electronics Engineering Department. Contents include: Academic and Research Institutions, Information Resources, Journals and Magazines, Products and Services, and Standards.
WWW Virtual Law Library
You can search, browse by topical listing (Administrative Law, Business and Commercial, Law Civil and Appellate Procedure, Constitutional Law, Contracts, Criminal Law and Evidence, Environmental Law, Family Law, Foreign and International Law, Intellectual Property Law, Labor and Employment Law, Property Law, Taxation, and Torts), or browse by information source (Law Schools/Libraries, Law Firms, Law Journals, U.S. Government, State Government, Organizations, Foundations, Non-Profit Vendors, and Publishers.)
Mathematics WWW Virtual Library
http://www.math.fsu.edu/Virtual/index.php
This collection of mathematics-related resources is maintained by the Florida State University Department of Mathematics as a free service to the online community. Information is categorized by subject: Addresses and Societies, Bibliographies, Department, Education, Electronic Journals, General Resources, Gophers, High School Servers, Newsgroups, Online Books, Preprints, Science and Math, Software, Specialized Fields, and TeX Archives.
WWW Virtual Library: Microbiology & Virology
This section of the Virtual Library is devoted to the science, practice, and application of microbiology and virology. Subjects covered include culture collections, databases, educational sites, journals, government and regulatory sites, images, medical microbiology, university departments, virology, protista, and references to newsgroups, e-mail lists, and other resources for the microbiologist.
The World Wide Web Virtual Library: Pharmacy
This Web site includes pharmacy related resource available on the Internet, including: Associations, Community Pharmacy Pages, Conferences, Databases on the WWW, Government WWW Sites, Hospital Pages, Jobs and Pharmacy, Journals and Books, Miscellaneous Pharmacy Pages, Pharmaceutical Companies, Pharmacy Listservs, and Pharmacy Schools on the WWW.
WWW Virtual Library: Philosophy
http://www.bristol.ac.uk/philosophy/department/resources/virtual.html
The WWW Philosophy Virtual Library is located at the University of Bristol, hosted jointly by the Department of Philosophy and the Institute for Learning and Research Technology. This Virtual Library section is now provided in collaboration with SOSIG, the Social Science Information Gateway.
Psychology WWW Virtual Library
http://www.dialogical.net/psychology/index.html
The Psychology Virtual Library keeps track of online information as part of the WWW Virtual Library. Sites are inspected and evaluated for their adequacy as information sources before they are linked to.
World Wide Web Virtual Library: Statistics
http://www.stat.ufl.edu/vlib/statistics.html
Sections include: Data Sources; Job Announcements; Departments, Divisions, and Schools of Statistics; On-Line Educational Resources; Government Statistical Institutes; Statistical Research Groups, Institutes, and Associations; Services; Archives and Resources; Software Vendors and Software FAQs; Journals; Mailing Lists and Archives; and related News Groups.
World Wide Web Virtual Library: Veterinary Medicine
http://netvet.wustl.edu/vetmed.htm
The WWW Virtual Library Veterinary Medicine is a selected collection of veterinary medical Internet resources, operating since 1994.
Women's Studies Section
http://libr.org/wss/wsslinks/index.html
WSSLINKS was developed and is maintained by the Women's Studies Section of the Association of College & Research Libraries. The purpose of WSSLINKS is to provide access to a wide range of resources in support of Women's Studies.
- 4 Literature Virtual Libraries
The Online Books Page, University of Pennsylvania
http://digital.library.upenn.edu/books/
The Online Books Page is a website hosted by the University of Pennsylvania Library, that facilitates access to books that are freely readable over the Internet. It also aims to encourage the development of such online books, for the benefit and edification of all.
Project Gutenberg
http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page
Project Gutenberg is the Internet's oldest producer of free electronic books (eBooks or etexts). Their present collection of more than 10,000 eBooks was produced by hundreds of volunteers. Most of the Project Gutenberg eBooks are older literary works that are in the public domain in the United States. All may be freely downloaded and read, and redistributed for non-commercial use.
Psychology WWW Virtual Library
http://www.dialogical.net/psychology/index.html
The Psychology Virtual Library keeps track of online information as part of the WWW Virtual Library. Sites are inspected and evaluated for their adequacy as information sources before they are linked to.
Digital Book Index
http://www.digitalbookindex.com/
Digital Book Index provides links to more than 88,000 title records from more than 1800 commercial and non-commercial publishers, universities, and various private sites. About 49,900 of these books, texts, and documents are available free, while many others are available at very modest cost.
Humanities Text Initiative (HTI) American Verse Project
http://quod.lib.umich.edu/a/amverse/
The American Verse Project is a collaborative project between the University of Michigan Humanities Text Initiative (HTI) and the University of Michigan Press. The project is assembling an electronic archive of volumes of American poetry prior to 1920. The full text of each volume of poetry is being converted into digital form and coded in Standard Generalized Mark-up Language (SGML) using the TEI Guidelines, with various forms of access provided through the WWW.
