Knowledge for the Ages: Preserving Rare Collections through Digitization and Content-Based Access

Abstract

The mission of the SUNY Maritime College Library Archives is to preserve, protect and secure long-term access to its rare collections. The SUNY Maritime College Library aims to promote and provide access to rare collections by providing access to researchers, faculty, students and the public throughout the world. The rare historical collections housed in the SUNY Maritime College Library serve a variety of purposes, providing legal, historic and evidentiary value to individuals and society as a whole. The paper, “Knowledge for the Ages: Preserving Rare Collections through Digitization and ContentBased Access” describes the methodology for recruiting and acquiring rare historical documents, the technology standards, equipment and techniques used for digitizing the collections, the metadata and cataloging standards for making the historical collections searchable and accessible to researchers across the world as well as issues of storage and access.