Work is under way to create a digital archive chronicling the 22-year history of the Old Dominion University Literary Festival. The project is the result of a collaboration between the Perry Library and the English department.

"The Literary Festival has two decades' worth of history, and we feel that organizing and saving this material would be of profound value to our students and the residents of Hampton Roads now and in the future," said Michael Pearson, director of the English department's M.F.A. program in creative writing.

The project team is headed by Karen Vaughan, digital services coordinator for the library, and Pierce Tyler, instructor of English. The group already has begun scanning brochures and photos and soon will begin digitizing audio and video recordings of the many authors who have participated in the nationally recognized event.

Over the years the Literary Festival has attracted a broad range of talent, including several Pulitzer Prize-winning writers and one Nobel Prize winner. Former U.S. Poet Laureate Rita Dove will be the featured reader at the festival next fall.

The digital archive, scheduled to be unveiled in time for the fall festival, will be accessible through a multimedia Web site hosted by the library. The physical materials will be available in the library's special collections department.

The project recently received a boost from Phil Raisor, associate professor of English, who turned over his collection of Literary Festival materials, including video tapes from the first festival held in 1978. Materials have been coming in from other sources as well.

Vaughan encourages anyone who might have additional memorabilia from the festivals to consider adding them to the growing library collection. "Contact us and let us know what you have a poster, photographs, an audio or video recording. If it is not donated to the library, perhaps we can at least capture it in digital format to add to our archive and Web site," she said. Contacts include Jay Gaidmore of special collections (683-4484), Pierce Tyler (683-4015) and Kurt Bolotin (683-4770), a graduate student in the English department's M.F.A. program.