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NEWS RELEASE For Immediate Release: 21 June 2006 Contact: David Seaman [log in to unmask] Oxford University Joins the Digital Library Federation WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Board of Trustees of the Digital Library Federation (DLF) today announced that Oxford University has joined DLF as its fortieth member, and its fourth from outside the United States. "I am delighted that Oxford University has accepted our invitation to join DLF," said Carol A. Mandel, dean of libraries at New York University and president of the DLF's Board of Trustees. "Oxford shares with DLF member libraries extraordinary research collections, a strong digital library program, and a commitment to give scholars the benefits of federated digital collections. We are pleased to welcome Oxford to our joint endeavor," she said. David Seaman, executive director of DLF, added, "We are a fast-moving consortium of very active academic digital libraries and the addition of this remarkable university library will enrich our collaborative work and inform our view of large-scale digital library endeavors." Ronald Milne, acting director of Oxford University Library Services, said, "Oxford is delighted to be joining an organization whose members share our vision of the future of library and information landscapes and who are addressing the challenges that face us all in the digital age. We look forward to contributing to the work of DLF and to working together with like-minded colleagues." The Digital Library Federation, founded in 1995, is a partnership organization of academic libraries and related organizations that are pioneering the use of electronic-information technologies to extend their collections and services. Through its strategic and allied members, DLF provides leadership for libraries by identifying standards and "best practices" for digital collections and network access; coordinating research and development in the libraries' use of technology; and incubating projects and services that libraries need but cannot develop individually. More information about DLF is available at http://www.diglib.org/. DLF is housed at the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR), an independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the management of information for research, teaching, and learning. More information about CLIR is available at http://www.clir.org/. The University of Oxford is the oldest university in the English-speaking world and lays claim to nine centuries of continuous existence. As an internationally renowned center for teaching and research, Oxford attracts students and scholars from across the globe, with almost a quarter of its 18,000 students from overseas. Oxford is a collegiate university, with 39 self-governing colleges related to the university in a type of federal system. The University of Oxford's Web site is at http://www.ox.ac.uk/. Oxford University has an extremely rich and diverse library service provided by more than one hundred libraries, including the college libraries, making it the largest university library system in the United Kingdom. The libraries share a common catalog, OLIS. More information is available at http://library.ox.ac.uk/. Most of the University's library facilities are managed under the umbrella of the integrated Oxford University Library Services (OULS). There are major research libraries -- including the Bodleian Library, which has been a library of legal deposit for almost 400 years -- as well as libraries attached to faculties, departments, and other institutions of the university. The combined collections of the OULS number more than 11 million printed items, in addition to vast quantities of materials in many other formats. More information on OULS is available at http://www.ouls.ox.ac.uk/.