Ohio College Library Center (OCLC) introduces an online shared cataloging system for libraries.

Project Gutenberg begins to text encode public domain written works in the hope that they will be freely reproduced and distributed.

The US Technology Assessment Act is passed to "aid in the identification and consideration of existing and probable impacts of technological application."

The National Information Systems Task Force (NISTF) develops the first two formally recognized archival description standards in the US: NISTF Data Elements Dictionary and USMARC AMC.

Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) founded.

Several projects representing collaborations between academic journal publishers and universities (e.g., CORE, Red Sage, and TULIP) begin to explore distribution of scholarly journal content via the Internet.

arXiv, an automated repository and distribution system for preparing articles in physics, mathematics, computer science, and quantitative biology is launched.

National Computer Security Center (NCSC) defines a trusted computer system as one "that employs sufficient hardware and software assurance measures to allow its use for simultaneous processing of a range of sensitive or classified information."

Cornell publishes a joint report on use of digital imaging to reformat brittle books.

Launch of D-Lib Magazine, which focuses on digital library research and development.

Journal Storage (JSTOR) becomes an independent nonprofit with the mission to build a trusted digital archive of scholarly journal literature.

Australia's Preserving Access to Digital Information (PADI) initiative receives government funding and the National Library of Australia assumes responsibility for PADI the following year.

Three web archiving projects are launched: Internet Archive founded by Brewster Kahle to archive the Web, the National Library of Australia's PANDORA Project (Preserving and Accessing Networked Documentary Resources of Australia), and the Royal Library of Sweden's Kulturarw Heritage Project.

The European Commission organizes the first multidisciplinary DLM-Forum to consider the preservation and authentication issues of machine readable data.

The Commission on Preservation & Access (CPA)/Research Library Group (RLG) publishes a seminal report on preserving digital information.

Ann Arbor conference on Electronic Records Research & Development discusses the preservation of electronic records.

World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) copyright treaty protects databases as literary works and makes fair use optional.

The Getty Art History Information Program releases a Research Agenda for Networked Cultural Heritage.

EU Database direction provides copyright protection to databases, even if the content is in the public domain.

A collaboration between the Universities of Leeds, Cambridge and Oxford forms the CEDARS Project, whose broad objective is to explore and raise awareness of digital preservation issues.

European national libraries form the Networked European Deposit Library (NEDLIB) to maintain and preserve born-digital objects within the library system.

OCLC Web Characterization Project begins conducting an annual Web sample to analyze trends in size and content. The project ended in 2003.

An RLG study finds that 2/3 of archives, libraries, museums, and other repositories had assumed responsibility for digital information, but 42% lacked the capacity to mount, read, and access some of this material.

Harvard University launches the Library Digital Initiative (LDI) as a five-year program to develop the University's capacity to manage digital information.

AHDS publishes "A Strategic Policy Framework for Creating and Preserving Digital Collections" discussing the key stages in the life cycle of a digital resource, and how these are influenced by major stakeholders.

Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe (LOCKSS) project is initiated to allow libraries to take physical custody of the electronic journals they purchase.

The Time and Bits: Managing Digital Continuity meeting is held at the Getty Center to discuss the future uses of digital technologies.

National Archives and Records Administration Electronic Records Archives project begins.

PBS broadcasts the CLIR film "Into the Future: On The Preservation Of Knowledge In The Electronic Age."

Resource Description Framework (RDF) is introduced. RDF is intended to provide metadata interoperability across different communities.

NSF funds Cornell's Project PRISM to develop policies and mechanisms for information integrity within a digital library.

The UK's Arts and Humanities Data Service (AHDS) begins "Preservation Management of Digital Materials," a project to develop a handbook giving guidance on digital preservation.

Project CAMiLEON begins at the Universities of Michigan and Leeds to study the use of emulation as a digital preservation strategy.

JISC/NPO studies on the preservation of electronic materials are summarized in "Digital Culture: Maximising the Nation's Investment."

International Research on Permanent Authentic Records in Electronic Systems (InterPARES) project begins.

Charles Dollar writes Authentic Electronic Records: Strategies for Long-Term Access.

Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act is passed in the US "to facilitate the use of electronic records and signatures in interstate or foreign commerce."

RLG DigiNews begins extensive coverage of digital preservation using this symbol: to indicate articles relating to digital preservation.
MIT Libraries and Hewlett-Packard begin a joint project to build the digital repository.

and are launched as digital archives of life sciences, biological, and medical journal literature.

Moving Theory into Practice, a digital imaging reference book for libraries and archives is published.

The US Library of Congress establishes the MINERVA Web Preservation Project to collect and preserve digital primary source materials.

The US Library of Congress receives funding for the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP) to "provide a national focus on important policy, standards and technical components necessary to preserve digital content."

Nordic Web Archive becomes the Nordic National Libraries' forum in the fields of harvesting and archiving web documents.

Jeff Rothenberg writes Using Emulation to Preserve Digital Documents.

Cornell project on Risk Management of Digital Information offers first assessment of the risks involved in migration for use in cultural institutions.

announces that it will accept digital records into custody and provide for their ongoing access over time.

The Dutch Digital Preservation Testbed is established as a part of the Digitale Duurzaamheid programme with the goal of achieving lasting accessibility of digital government information.

Paradigma Project begins collecting and preserving Norway's digital cultural heritage materials.

The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco rules that Napster violated copyright laws, and orders it to stop distributing copyrighted music.

Internet Archive unveils the allowing users to search archived versions of the Web, starting from 1996.

METS 1.1 schema is introduced as an XML standard for encoding descriptive, administrative, and structural metadata within a digital library.

Preservation Metadata for Digital Objects: A Review of the State of the Art is published by the OCLC/RLG Working Group on Preservation Metadata.

The Evidence in Hand: Report of the Task Force on the Artifact in Library Collections explores the tension between physical and digital artifacts.

French government adopts a law that requires every French Web page to be officially archived.

The Austrian On-Line Archive (AOLA) is established to take periodic snapshots of Austrian Web space.

The Digital Preservation Coalition is established to foster joint action to address the urgent challenges of preserving digital resources in the UK and elsewhere.

PADI begins Safekeeping Project aimed at building a distributed and permanent collection of digital preservation resources using this logo to indicate a permanent document:

The Guggenheim's Variable Media Initiative asks digital artists to involve themselves in the preservation strategy for their own works.

Maggie Jones and Neil Beagrie write Preservation Management of Digital Materials: A Handbook.

Trusted Digital Repositories: Attributes and Responsibilities, and Preservation Metadata & the OAIS Information Model, A Metadata Framework to Support the Preservation of Digital Objects are both published by RLG/OCLC.

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act is signed into law. "The goal of the act was to protect investors by improving the accuracy and reliability of corporate disclosures." The law requires publicly traded companies to closely monitor electronic and paper document retention and imposes criminal sanctions for the destruction or loss of certain electronic records.

Elsevier Science designated the Koninklijke Bibliotheek (KB), the National Library of the Netherlands, as the first official digital archive for Elsevier journals. IBM worked with the KB to create the technical infrastructure of the deposit service, called the e-Depot.

OCLC launches its Digital Archive as a production service.

Initial Open Archival Information System (OAIS) standards are released, providing a framework for long-term digital information preservation and access, including terminology and concepts for describing and comparing archival architectures.

The National Diet Library Web Archiving Project (WARP), begins to harvest and archive Japanese Web resources.

PRONOM, a database of file formats, and a supporting library of software products is released. The collection aims at helping with the problem of software obsolescence.

National Information Standards Organization (NISO) Technical Metadata for still images standards released.

A report by CLIR estimates that the average Web page has a life span of 44 days.

Swedish government issues a decree authorizing the Royal Library to collect Swedish websites and to allow the public access within the library premises.

An initiative known as PDF/A is undertaken to develop an international standard that defines the use of the Portable Document Format (PDF) for archiving and preserving documents.

The Public Library of Science (PLoS), a science journal archive and alternative publisher, is launched.