A cross‐Pacific partnership: The University of Maryland Libraries and the National Diet Library of Japan jointly reformat children's books

This paper aims to describe the Prange Children's Book Reformatting Project as an example of bi‐national cooperation to provide the broadest possible access to a collection of historical significance to both nations, when most of the materials are still under copyright.

The paper examines the joint project between the University of Maryland Libraries' (UM Libraries) and the National Diet Library of Japan (NDL) to preserve and provide access to the children's books in the Gordon W. Prange Collection. It highlights the unique aspects of the project, including its international component, and describes the project's access tools and service products.

The access tools developed as part of this reformatting project – an online digital collection for the UM Libraries and color microfilm for NDL – each have their limitations. Used in combination, however, these tools can support in‐depth research.

The comprehensiveness of the project (all 8,000 titles are being scanned), the use of digital‐to‐color microfilm technology, and the use of the color microfilm as an access point make this project unique.