HOW DOES ONE REPRESENT THE CARIBBEAN?  Separated by water, divided by language, and frequently held apart by political ideologies, there seems more to represent our divisions than our unity.

For much of the outside world, the Caribbean can be represented by sand, surf and sun.  One might have expected the digital Library of the Caribbean to evoke similar symbols, perhaps through images of beaches and hurricanes.  Both play important roles in our economic life and well being.  And, both seem to say “Caribbean” to those who think they know us.

We wanted our symbols to represent our unity through diversity.  Three symbols, rather than one, were chosen to represent not only the digital Library of the Caribbean’s three official languages – English, Spanish and French – but to speak to present, past and future.  Our symbols represent Caribbean peoples, rather than the landscape others might use to define us.

THE SPIRAL STAIRWAY OF A LIGHTHOUSE suggests our future.  The digital Library of the Caribbean embodies our desire to become an information beacon, to build upon our compiled knowledge, and to offer it freely in the interests of education, cultural preservation and economic development.  The digital Library of the Caribbean is a conduit between the deep reaches of our history and the guiding light of those who will use it.

NUTMEG FRUIT AND SEED characterizes our heritage and present.  Nutmeg is widespread throughout the Caribbean.  But, like most Caribbean peoples, it is not native to the region.  It was brought here by European colonizers from other tropics.  The digital Library of the Caribbean, nonetheless, represents the fruit of Caribbean soil and the spice of life from the islands to the continental shores.

THE SPIRAL SHELL OF A FOSSIL NAUTILUS embodies our past while evoking a sense of growth despite division.  From small to large and together a sum greater than its parts, its chambers symbolize the more than twenty states within the shell of the digital Library of the Caribbean.  Digitization of our cultural artifacts has the potential not simply to uncover lost histories but to allow their stories to be told anew.