Ncecho.org
Title
North Carolina ECHO, Exploring Cultural Heritage Online
Description
About North Carolina ECHO
North Carolina ECHO, E xploring C ultural H eritage O nline, is the World Wide Web's doorway to the special collections of North Carolina's libraries, archives, museums, historic sites, and other cultural institutions. It is an evolving statewide, collaborative access to special collections and digitization project. Funded through a Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) Grant and managed by the State Library of North Carolina, this innovative project was one of the first in the nation to build a statewide framework for digitization and addresses a full-range of digitization needs of the state's cultural collecting agencies (libraries, archives, and museums).
The NC ECHO vision is that "All of North Carolina's cultural institutions work together to make the state's unique cultural and historical resources accessible for the education and enjoyment of people of all ages in the state, nation, and the world."
Background
The North Carolina State Library Commission adopted "Building Libraries--A Plan for Library Cooperation" on June 14, 1999. As a part of that plan, the Commission stated its intent to increase Internet access to the state's "specialized resources." The Commission created the Access to Special Collections Working Group (ASCWG) to meet this goal. Duke University and the State Library of North Carolina applied for and received a federal LSTA grant to fund that group's operation. ASCWG has representatives from public and private academic libraries, public libraries, archives, private museums and public museums.
