THE REASON FOR DAHLI: MAKING THE HOLDINGS OF HISTORIC IPY INFORMATION ACCESSIBLE TO ALL

The need for access drives a project to locate, digitize and make available historical materials from the previous three IPYs. The DAHLI project will provide a searchable online bibliography of records and publications from International Polar Year (IPY) events: 1882-1883, 1932-1933, and 1957-1958. This bibliography will constitute a new offering of scientific research, scientific observations, sociological and historical data. These items, still being discovered in archives around the world, are estimated to be several thousand items. Presently, these materials are scattered about the globe, largely uncatalogued and unpreserved. They are rare and typically only one or a few copies exist. At best they are difficult to discover and access, and at worst, in danger of total deterioration or destruction. These materials are the legacy of past IPYs and stand as milestones of scientific progress. They continue to be of scientific, historical, and sociological value, but their value cannot be exploited if inaccessible. As older generations of researchers retire, particularly those who participated in the 1957-1958 IPY/IGY, even the memory of these materials is lost. The need is imminent to identify and catalogue these materials while these researchers are still available to advise.