Using Cutting-edge Technology for Innovative Global Resource Sharing: The Cases of Global Memory Net and World Heritage Digital Memory.

To extend the traditional concept of using technology to improve inter-lending and resource sharing services, this author will draw upon the experience of her Global Memory Net (GMNet), supported by the US National Science Foundation's International Digital Library Program, and the latest activities of the first virtual US World Heritage Digital Center in partnership with the UNESCO's World Heritage Center to articulate as well as demonstrate how cutting-edge technology can be used to empower libraries, museums, and archives to provide innovative global resource sharing services. These will include resource retrieval, sharing and utilization in a way not possible before by: • Instant provision of multimedia and multi-lingual resources, • Instant link with the world available resources - both print and digital, • Instant link with the world available resources - both bibliographic as well as web-based, • Instant provision of full-text documents and resources if they are digitally available, • Instant zooming of image resources, • Many other features. Clearly in this dynamic digital age, "document delivery and resource sharing" can take on a very different meaning. Technology can help to expand the library's traditional role of inter-lending and resource sharing, and improve the resource sharing and utilization services in a global scale, not limited to resources owned or within reasonable distance. This paper intends to vividly demonstrate this innovative global resource sharing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]