During his fieldwork in Greece, classics Professor Kevin Clinton accumulated a collection of some 800 photographs of ancient documents carved in stone from the sanctuary of the Mysteries at Eleusis, one of the most important religious cults in ancient Greece.

This image of an ancient Greek stone document from the sanctuary of the Mysteries at Eleusis is one of 800 photographs, taken by classics Professor Kevin Clinton during his fieldwork in Greece, that have been digitized to create a new image collection in Cornell's digital library.

But the Web site he created to share the photos with his students and colleagues disappeared when an electrical failure disrupted his equipment. So Clinton asked Cornell University Library's (CUL) digital imaging experts to help him recreate and manage his collection in a format that would be more widely accessible over the Web. The new digital collection is available at http://eleusis.library.cornell.edu and is one of the largest contributions to a worldwide effort to make both text and images of all ancient Greek and Latin inscriptions carved in stone available online.

As faculty and researchers increasingly share the products of their scholarship on the Web, they are also exploring how digital resources can enhance teaching and study. To respond to this trend, in 2003 CUL created the Digital Consulting and Production Services unit (DCAPS). A one-stop service for the Cornell community, DCAPS provides a complete array of cost-effective services that support the entire life cycle of digital information -- from creation to long-term access and archiving.

In addition to consulting on content development and management, DCAPS offers production services in digital photography; digitization of print photographs, slides and other materials; indexing of data, known as metadata creation, Web site design and development; copyright clearance; and electronic publishing.

From the start, the DCAPS staff has worked closely with Cornell faculty members to identify content from CUL's holdings that could be digitized to support instruction and academic initiatives. And using the gift of an anonymous alumnus, for the past two years the library has offered grants to faculty members to transform unique teaching and research materials into digital collections that are searchable and accessible over the Web. This program has had a twofold goal: to support teaching and research in the humanities and social sciences, and to add new open-access content to the library's digital holdings.

Faculty responded enthusiastically to the two calls for proposals, with a total of 55 projects involving 76 faculty members. The library awarded 21 grants totaling $450,000. DCAPS staffers guide the projects and manage the production of the new digital collections. The array of projects is quite diverse, representing the wide range of scholarship under way at Cornell. Although most of the projects involve digitizing slides, photographs, rare books, historic documents and other publications, DCAPS also worked with faculty in several departments to create Web portals that integrate digital video and text. Descriptions of all the 2004 and 2005 projects are available at http://facultygrants.library.cornell.edu.

The library is currently developing an outreach program to foster grant-writing partnerships with faculty seeking to create new digital collections and make them available on the Web. DCAPS staff will offer guidance in developing the production component (digitization of photographs, slides, text, data, etc.) for grant proposals to foundations, government agencies and other sources. For more information, visit DCAPS in 106G Olin Library, online at http://dcaps.library.cornell.edu or e-mail dcaps@cornell.edu.

Oya Rieger is associate director of the Library's Division of Digital Library and Information Technologies and director of the Digital Media Group.