The Digital Library Center (DLC) was born through converging digital initiatives from the UB Libraries and the Educational Technology Center (ETC).

The ETC was created in 1999 to address the needs of faculty with regard to developing online content in response to the Access99 initiative. Over time the needs of faculty changed from learning to build and manage simple web pages to developing more interactive content for teaching and learning. At the same time the ETC addressed faculty need for training in commercial software applications as well as concepts of digital literacy, instructional design and management of the learning space. As digital technologies became more widely used in teaching and learning, and the digital literacies of faculty on campus caught up with the pace of technological advance, our focus began to shift to the development of new tools and the leveraging of new technologies.

During this time, the University Libraries were increasing their collection of online digital resources, such as databases, full-text resources, and electronic books. Library patrons began to expect greater access to library resources electronically, preferably over the web. Students also began to demand greater access to classroom content and digital resources for learning, both in and out of the classroom.

The ETC formally joined the UB Libraries in 2003. As early as 2000 however, the ETC was working collaboratively with the Libraries on new technologies and literacy projects. Among the projects developed collaboratively with the Libraries was the UBdigit digital archive. UBdigit now includes such collections as: Pulp Fiction Cover Art, Universal Design Product Collection, and Evolutionary Biology Digital Dissections Collection.

More and more projects supported by the ETC focused on web based tools for creation, management, presentation, or archiving of content. For example the Evolutionary Biology Digital Dissections Collection started its digital life as an online study aid supported by an ETC Educational Technology Grant.

The Ed Tech Grants, which began as funding to support the transition from the traditional classroom to the hybrid and fully digital classroom, grew over time to more closely support the central research mission of UB. Projects supported by the Ed Tech Grants saw the same trend toward web based learning spaces and digital repositories as witnessed by the University Libraries.

The ETC began to see two distinct areas of demand: developing better teaching and learning practices through workshops and one-on-one assistance; and research and development of innovative uses of technology for web-based communication, collaboration, and archiving tools.  In 2007, the Center for Teaching and Learning Resources, whose mission was similar to that of the training side of the ETC, was merged with the ETC to form the Teaching & Learning Center, reporting to the Provost.  At that same time, the Ed Tech Grants and projects which supported digital library collections were reorganized into the Digital Library Center, which remained part of the University Libraries.

The Digital Library Center continues to pursue the Digital Library in all forms, to meet the requirements of the author, reader, researcher, instructor and student, and to seek out the best practices, tools and methods for development, management and persistence of the Digital Library.