THE eGRANARY DIGITAL LIBRARY : “Storing The Seeds Of Knowledge”

“The eGranary Digital Library provides millions of digital educational resources to institutions lacking adequate Internet access. Through a process of garnering permissions, copying Web sites, and delivering them to intranet Web servers INSIDE our partner institutions in developing countries, we deliver millions of multimedia documents that can be instantly accessed by patrons over their local area networks at no cost.”

Their “partners are looking for training and consulting in low-cost methods to digitize their materials to share with colleagues at other African universities. We are looking for volunteers and funding to help build the human capacity to work with the digitized materials in the eGranary Digital Library and help make them more relevant and useful on subscriber campuses.”

THE eGRANARY DIGITAL LIBRARY DELIVERS THE INTERNET
TO THE 7 OUT OF 8 PEOPLE IN THE WORLD WHO CURRENTLY HAVE NO ACCESS!

The eGranary Digital Library’s web site states:

“Most schools in developing countries do not have an Internet connection; and where an Internet connection does exist, it is slow, unreliable and very expensive. The WiderNet Project’s eGranary Digital Library delivers digital information directly to Web servers inside institutions, bypassing the Internet. More than 3-million educational documents are currently delivered to more than 100 institutions in Africa and other undeveloped areas in the world giving at least 300,000 students and professors access to information over their local area networks (LAN) quickly and at no cost. The eGranary Digital Library regularly adds new content that is provided by authors and publishers all over the world who want to enhance the educational opportunities for developing countries.”


Here's how they do it...

1. They identify Web sites with rich educational content

2. They secure the author's or publisher's permission to copy their materials

3. They copy the permitted materials to a hard drive at the University of Iowa's WiderNet Project

4. They make copies of the collection and distribute to subscriber universities

5. And they update and redistribute hard drives as time and travel schedules permit

Of course there is more to it than this, but if you visit their web site, you can get more specific details.

SOME NUMBERS - The eGranary Digital Library has

93 Subscribers

330 Authors

328 Publishers

214 Whole or Partial Web Sites

764 Articles, Books, Pages, and Reports

Over 2.7 million Total Items


The eGranary Digital Library acknowledges the following sponsors:
HyperTox, World Book, RedHat. Microsoft, Supercourse, University of Iowa Foundation, USAID, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and TheJohn D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation

The eGranary Digital Library