The digital library, called DSpace, will initially be managed by a federation of eight universities, including MIT. It will be available on the Web and enable data to be stored not just in text, but also in video and other formats.
The system runs on "open source" software that was developed in conjunction with Hewlett Packard. That means other institutions can use or adapt the program royalty-free to create digital libraries of their own that could easily be linked to the DSpace consortium.
"The average lifespan of a digital document is only a few years," said Ann Wolpert, director of MIT's libraries. "So the goal here is to create the capability, the persistence in works that are born digitally."
Over the next few months, the seven other universities will come online, officials said. They include England's Cambridge as well as Columbia, Cornell, Ohio State, and the universities of Rochester, Toronto and Washington.
After an initial testing period of about a year, it is hoped the number of universities involved would expand.
MIT is also working to make the system interconnect with the University of California's eScholarship program, a digital library which was launched in July 2000 and holds more than 1,200 titles, including books and articles.
The system was built to be almost indefinitely expandable, Wolpert said.
DSpace -- the "D" stands for durable, digital, documents -- has taken about four years to develop, Wolpert said. It was launched with a $1.8 million grant from HP. MIT expects to spend about $250,000 annually to maintain and operate the archive.
HP saw the development of the system as a way to explore digital media systems, said Robin Gallimore, director of HP's labs in Europe.
The library won't be limited to material that has never made it to paper. Past works, including articles and out-of-date MIT Press volumes, will also be included.
Last year, MIT announced that it planned to offer nearly all its course materials on the Internet for free. That $100 million project aims to put all MIT course material -- notes, outlines, reading lists and assignments -- on the Web within 10 years.
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