Plans are underway to expand MOA to include other major research libraries. The institutions represented in the National Digital Library Federation have agreed to explore using MOA as a model for multi-institutional cooperation in developing a distributed digital library.
In addition, the resource will continue to improve along several different fronts.
- The University of Michigan Library received a grant from the Mellon foundation to continue adding to the Making of America and to document the costs of building online text systems. Approximately 7,500 volumes were be added to the collection in 2000 and 2001.
- Further integration with the Making of America materials at Cornell University (http://moa.cit.cornell.edu/) is a high priority.
- Migration from "raw" to "cooked" can take place gradually, based on the availability of resources and specific demands. The Humanities Text Initiative, a part of the Digital Library Production Services at the UM, will undertake the process of proofing OCR and refining markup based on user demand. In the next year, the Humanities Text Iniative will be encoding dozens of the volumes of poetry in MoA as part of the complementary American Verse project.
- The UM Library will be incorporating digital conversion into its Preservation Department's "Brittle Books" program. New materials will be added to the MoA site as they are converted.
- We hope to work with other institutions and funding agencies to make more significant additions to the MoA site.