For Immediate Release: October 19, 2004.

                  JISC Joins the Digital Library Federation 

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Executive Committee of the Digital Library
Federation (DLF) today announced that the UK's Joint Information Systems
Committee (JISC) has joined the DLF as its first Ally from outside the
United States.  JISC is a joint committee of the UK Further and Higher
Education funding councils, and is responsible for supporting the
innovative use of information and communication technology (ICT) to
support learning, teaching, and research. 

DLF currently has 33 member libraries and 4 other allies: the OCLC
Online Computer Library Center, the Research Libraries Group (RLG), the
Coalition for Networked Information (CNI), and the Los Alamos National
Laboratory Research Library (LANL).

"I am delighted that JISC has accepted our invitation to join," said
David Seaman, Executive Director of the DLF. "We are a fast-moving
consortium of very active, academic digital libraries and the addition
of a major UK funding agency will significantly enrich our collaborative
work and help ensure we are better informed about non-US initiatives."  

"JISC and the DLF have each stimulated numerous studies and development
efforts intended to improve the transit from the services and
collections offered by traditional, analog libraries to the exploitation
of digital services, collections, and opportunities," said Michael A.
Keller, Stanford's University Librarian and chair of the Executive
Committee of the DLF.  He went on to say that "coordinating and perhaps
collaborating on such efforts can only improve the rate and extent of
that exploitation.  DLF is delighted to have JISC as an Ally and looks
forward to having them on board."

Stuart Dempster, Programme Manager at JISC said: "The JISC-DLF
partnership brings together two of the world's leading innovators in the
use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) within education
and research. This partnership will allow us to exploit the
opportunities and address the challenges presented to academic libraries
in the digital age through greater collaboration and cooperation. The
JISC is delighted to be working with the DLF, which will bring real
benefits to the learning, teaching, and research community." 

                                        # # #

The Digital Library Federation, founded in 1995, is a partnership
organization of 38 academic libraries and related organizations that are
pioneering the use of electronic-information technologies to extend
their collections and services. Through its strategic partnerships, the
DLF provides leadership for libraries by: identifying standards and
"best practices" for digital collections and network access;
coordinating research and development in libraries' use of technology;
and incubating projects and services that libraries need but cannot
develop individually. The DLF operates under the administration umbrella
of the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR). For further
information, see http://www.diglib.org or contact David Seaman at
[log in to unmask]; phone: 202-939-4762.

JISC - Joint Information Systems Committee - is a joint committee of the
UK further and higher education funding bodies, best known for providing
the UK's JANET network, a range of support, content and advisory
services, and a portfolio of high-quality resources.  Information about
the JISC, its services and programs can be found at
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/. For further information, contact Philip Pothen
on +44 (0)20 7848 2935 or 07887 564 006; email [log in to unmask]