Apologies for cross-posting _____________________ Dear friends, Quite a few DLF developments are recently reported on the DLF website. A brief list is supplied here with pointers for those interested in learning more. 1) Preliminary report on the DLF members survey. An initial summary of the survey results was discussed by a small group that met in Washington on April 10. An unedited draft report of that meeting, including some preliminary trend analysis and a plan for develping a formal report is available from http://www.clir.org/diglib/roles.htm 2) A number of DLF initiatives have turned attention to the tools and services that digital libraries need but cannot develop by themselves. The aim is to specify requirement and develop business and organizational options in the hope of stimulating service development by some third party. Three developments are worthy of note 2.1. Academic Image Cooperative. Our work on the functions, organization, and business development of an image distribution service contributed directly to the ArtSTOR service recently announced by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. ArtSTOR 'is an independent not-for-profit organization that will develop, "store," and distribute electronically digital images and related scholarly materials for the study of art, architecture, and other fields in the humanities'. More details from http://www.clir.org/diglib/collections.htm 2.2. Cataloguing tool for visual resources. In early 2001 the DLF launched an investigation into the need for, functional design of, and potential sustaining organizational and business models for a shared cataloguing tool that would assist in the shared development of high-quality image descriptions. The initiative, reported from http://www.clir.org/diglib/collections.htm, is likely to be taken forward by ArtSTOR. 2.3. Registry for digitized books and serials. Such a registry may be a key part... "of an evolving network of organizations and services that support the efficient and responsible stewardship of our cultural heritage, all formats, old and new, and the economical and effective development of high-quality scholarly collections." The characteristics and various benefits of such a service are described in a draft report of a DLF meeting held in April 2001, as are some of the next steps the DLF hopes to take to more fully develop functional, organizational, and business requirements. An unedited draft report of the meeting is available from http://www.clir.org/diglib/collections.htm. 3) Standards for structural, administrative and technical metadata. The DLF has launched a process to build upon and extend the work of the Making of America II. An initial meeting of experts has produced a preliminary draft metadata scheme which is currently under review. More details are available from http://www.clir.org/diglib/standards.htm Regards, Dan Daniel Greenstein Director, Digital Library Federation 1755 Massachusetts Ave, NW #500 Washington DC 20036 (202) 939-4762