Digital Past is a digitization initiative undertaken by libraries, historical societies, museums, and other cultural venues throughout Illinois in partnership with the North Suburban Library System (NSLS) in Wheeling, Illinois. It began in 1998 with a grant from the Illinois State Library and has become a popular resource for researchers of all ages and interests including schoolchildren, genealogists, historians, authors, producers, and special interest groups. Digital Past contains collections from over 40 institutions of varying topics and formats including over 136,000+ records. The initiative uses OCLC’s CONTENTdm product and the metadata is based on the Dublin Core. It is OAI (Open Archives Initiative) compliant and data will be put into OCLC’s WorldCat. Information about the participants and their collections, can be viewed by visiting the collections and participants page.
