Civil Rights Digital Library
NEWS FROM THE FIELD--C&RL (College & Research Libraries) News, June 2008--Vol. 69, No. 6
by David Free
Civil Rights resources online
The University of Georgia Libraries and the Digital Library of Georgia recently launched the Civil Rights Digital Library (CRDL), an initiative to deliver online educational content on the Civil Rights Movement. CRDL promotes an enhanced understanding of the movement through its three principal components: a digital video archive of historical news film of the Civil Rights Movement, a virtual library portal aggregating metadata from more than 75 libraries and allied organizations from across the nation, and instructional materials to facilitate the use of the video content in the learning process.
The centerpiece of CRDL is a collection of more than 30 hours of historical news film held by the Walter J. Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection at the University of Georgia Libraries. These moving images—about 450 clips—cover a broad range of key civil rights events, including the desegregation of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas (1957); the Atlanta Temple bombing (1958); Atlanta sit-ins (1960); Freedom Rides (1961); desegregation of the University of Georgia and Georgia Tech (1961); the Albany Movement (1961-1962); desegregation of Ole Miss (1962) and University of Alabama (1963); and the Americus Movement (1963, 1965).
In addition to the news film, the digital library includes related collections of original documentation, such as oral histories, letters, and photographs from libraries, archives, and museums. CRDL is freely available online at crdl.usg.edu.
You can read the whole June issue of C&RL News at: http://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlpubs/crlnews/backissues2008/june08/june1.cfm