The Alexandria Digital Library (ADL) Project is one of six projects funded under the NSF/DARPA/NASA Digital Library Initiative.

The primary goal of ADL is to provide access to a wide array of distributed information resources by means of geospatial access, and particularly by means of the ``spatial footprints'' of both information items and objects referenced in information items. In this presentation, we describe the research and development aspects of the project. The main research thrusts have involved investigations of metadata and cataloging issues for georeferenced information; database support for cataloging, indexing, and access; support for access to images by content; parallel processing support for high performance; and evaluations of the usability of ADL from the user perspective.

The development of the system has involved an initial standalone prototype based on GIS technology; an initial Web prototype based on HTTP/HTML technology; and a current prototype system based on HTML/JAVA technology. A current version of the system is now being operationalized for use within the University of California and is moving towards a collections of maps, images, and text amounting to over 1 terabyte.