The 1990s: the formative years of digital libraries

Purpose - This article aims to discuss some of the principal digital libraries projects during the 1990s and the impact that they had on modern libraries. Design/methodology/approach - The paper combines information from contemporary papers about the projects with recollections by the author who was personally associated with many of the projects. Findings - The paper reveals that, about 1990, computing reached a point where it became economically possible to mount large collections online and to access them over networks. The result was a flurry of experiments and prototypes. Many are almost forgotten, yet the libraries of today were formed by the energy and creativity of these efforts. The paper places some of the most influential projects in context and discusses why some prototypes and experiments succeeded while others fell by the wayside. Research limitations/implications - Several of the projects were never described formally in the academic literature, and there are no contemporary records to check some of the author's recollections. Originality/value - The value of this paper is that many of the projects that formed the libraries of today were poorly documented and it is already difficult to find good information about some of them.