Education Department Awards $5 Million to Digital Library Project

The Information Institute of Syracuse at Syracuse University’s School of Information Studies recently received a $5 million grant and five-year contract from the U.S. Education Department to run the school’s Education Digital Library Initiative. The contract combines the work of the Institute’s The Gateway to Educational Materials (GEM) and The Virtual Reference Desk (VRD) projects. The new contract brings GEM (www.thegateway.org) and VRD (www.vrd.org) under the sponsorship of the Education Department’s Office of the Chief Information Officer.

The goal of the Education Digital Library Initiative is to enable educators, parents, students, researchers and policy makers to find the information they need from among a wealth of Internet resources. It will also help link information seekers with experts who can answer specific questions. Information Institute of Syracuse at Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, (800) 464-9107, http://iis.syr.edu.

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