Follow-up to CIP Community Conversation on "IP & Social Media"

This afternoon, I spent an hour engaged in a conversation with members of the UMUC Center for Intellectual Property community on the topic of "IP & Social Media".   To the right is the only side that I used for the hour conversation.  This blog post is a follow-up to that conversation, but it is not a complete summary of what was discussed.

What is "social media"?  Interestingly, wiktionary at one point had this as a definition:

media that is created to be shared freely

Of course, we use social media to share a wide variety of content, including content that is protected by copyright.  However, the perception in the minds of many people is that content shared through social media is in the public domain and can be reused, repeated, remixed, etc.  And that got me thinking...which turned into this train of thought...

I contend that we're using social media to have conversations like those that we have orally (using speech).  Indeed look at Facebook, Twitter, and even some blog posts and you see conversations that would happen orally if they could.  We even use photos and videos as a way of communicating...a way of talking.  Oral conversation is not in fixed form and therefore cannot be copyrighted.  If people are using social media to have a different type of oral conversation, do they expect that it will be protected by copyright law?  Is the"copying" that occurs just a retelling of the conversation (the same way we have retold oral stories since time began)?

This line of thought above is one that I am wrestling with. Is it an accurate or even helpful point of view?  I don't know.  However, I have a feeling that I'll be testing this line of thought with some of my colleagues in the coming weeks.

During the hour, several URLs were shared.  They were:

• 7 Big Questions: Taking the plunge with social media
• IBM Social Computing Guidelines
• Price Chopper Attacks Customer’s Job Over Negative Tweet
• Anthony Rotolo: Companies, and schools, need a strategy for social media
• Copyright and DMCA Policy
• SU iSchool: Social Networking

Some of our classes do tweet.  For example:

• Tweets related to IST613 (Planning, Marketing & Assessing Library Services)
• Tweets related to IST 300 (Star Trek and the Information Age)

Yes, I do allow tweeting during my class (IST 613) and I even tweet occasionally.  I find it helpful to see what they are thinking or what examples stood out to them.  And yes, they will use Twitter to communicate with me in-between class sessions, and that's okay with me.

At the end of the hour, someone asked what copyright blogs I follow.  Here are the ones I currently follow:

• Columbia University Libraries Copyright Advisory Office
• Copyright Advisory Network - the blog is not active currently, but their online forums are!
• Copyright Questions & Answers
• LibraryLaw Blog 
• ©ollectanea

I have followed more copyright blogs in the past, but have narrowed down - at least for the moment - those ones above.

In Twitter, I'm following these people who tweet on copyright (and likely also on other things):

• Stanford CIS
• Berkman Center
• Larry Lessig
• Copyright Law
• Siva Vaidhyanathan
• Creative Commons
• Michelle Thorne
• Copyright Clearance Center
• Digital Koans
• Syracuse University's Copyright & Information Policy Adviser
• Kenneth Crews
• Stanford Copyright and Fair Use Center

Twitter allows you to create lists and so these people/institutions above are my "Copyright" list.

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Addendum (4:25 p.m.) - One thing I mentioned - and I could be incorrect - is that tweets may be too short to have copyright protection.  ("Copyright does not protect names, titles, slogans, or short phrases.")  However, I could see tweets being like sentences in a email, where - perhaps - each sentence is too short to have copyright protection, but the entire email is protected by copyright.

Someone asked about a lawsuit against Twitter.  The service has been the object of a defamation lawsuit.  It seems to have been mentioned in a copyright lawsuit against AFP.   That case is still moving forward.

Getting Things Done

At the SLA Leadership Summit, I won one of the gift baskets (raffle) and it contained the audiobook version of Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity.  I didn't realize that I needed a "tune up" in terms of how I manage my list of things that require my attention, but evidently I did!  I've now listened to the book twice and will soon be handing it off to a friend who is looking forward to his own tune up.

So why mention the book here?  Because we all have things that need to get done, but we don't always consider what the next logical action is.  Our minds jump ahead to end result and not to the action that is required before we get to that step.  With that tidbit in mind, I've been asking my student teams to consider what is the next thing that must be done and then who will be responsible for it.  Yes, keep an eye on the big picture, but then recognize the steps that will get you there.  I won't know for a while if this focus of mine will help them, but my suspicion is that it will.

As you consider what is on your plate, especially in terms of your programs and projects, think about what must happen next...whether that is an email, phone call, research, etc.  Then check to see if there is something that needs to happen before it (there might be).  Word that next action using verbs...write, call, talk to...so you know what the action really is.  Amazingly, it will help.

The book, by the way, is much more than this, so it is worth reading or listening to so you can get your own tune up!

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FTC Disclaimer: Digitization 101 is an Amazon affiliate and receives a small commission if you purchase a product or service from an Digitization 101 Amazon link. (Trust me, I'm not getting rich off of Amazon.)

Jill's Presentation & Travel Schedule: Spring & Summer 2011

I've got several things on my schedule that I want you to know about, in case there is an opportunity for our paths to cross:

• Feb. 22, 1 p.m. ET: CIP Community Discussion on "IP & Social Media" (online event)
• March 6-7: Attending the Olin Innovation Lab 4, Needham, MA
• March 21-23: Attending the Computers in Libraries Conference in Washington, DC.  Presenting on March 23, 2:45-3:30 p.m., with Maurice D. Coleman and Paul Signorelli on "Planning and Realizing the Fourth Place"
• June 9: New York Archives Conference, Saratoga Springs, NY, presenting on "Convergence & Sustainability: Why Our Future is Bright" [exact time to be determined]
• June 12-15: Attending the SLA Annual Conference in Philadelphia, PA

If we do happen to be in the same place - online or in person - please do take time to say "hello"!  It would be a pleasure to meet you.

By Request: Networking Advice

If you approach each new person you meet in a spirit of adventure you will find that you become increasingly interested in them.  - Eleanor Roosevelt, Quotable Eleanor, p. 109

I received an email from a shy MLS student during the winter holidays that asked for advice on networking.  (This might be considered a natural follow-up to the advice I gave in November.)  So...

First a little back story: If you've seen me in person, you would think that I've always been an extrovert.  However, I began life as an introvert. My ability to talk to anyone about anything is balanced with alone time which is when I recharge my engines.  This isn't unusual.  You'll find other people that seem to be good at networking who get their energy in other ways (e.g, reading a book). And I'm not a natural networker and I suspect that most people aren't.  It is skill that I've cultivated and I know you can, too. 

Networking Tips:

• What stops people from networking is that they think they have nothing to say, aren't interesting, or are too shy.  I bet you talk to the checkout clerk at the supermarket about your groceries, right?  That is a short, focused conversation.  When you're networking, your conversations can also be short and focused.
• In Syracuse, NY, the natural conversation starter is the weather.  At a conference, the natural conversation starter is asking about the sessions.  For example, "what sessions have you thought were the best so far?"  (Notice that it is an open-ended question and not a yes-no question.  This gives the person an opportunity to say something meaningful.)  Every situation has a natural starter...and once you know it, you can use it over and over and...!
• Remember to introduce yourself.  If you want to make a connection with the other person, that person needs to know who you are.  "Hi, I'm..."  "By the way, I'm..." "...nice to meet you. I'm..."  And say your name clearly.  Even though you know who you are, it can be helpful practicing saying your name and your affiliation, so that you are guaranteed to say it smoothly.  ("Hi, I'm Jill Hurst-Wahl.  I just graduated with my MSLIS with a focus in digital libraries.") 
• In class, I had a student introduce herself as "Merrilee, like merrily you row along".  I can tell you that I instantly committed her name and face to memory because she had given me a way of remembering her name.  Yes, providing a "hook" that helps the person remember your name OR putting who you are in context can be useful.  For example, "I'm Jill Hurst-Wahl and I just attended the session you gave on digital libraries." Not only did I tell the person my name, but I also provided a little context for the conversation.
• If this is someone that has some synergy with you, give the person a business card.  This not only gives the person your contact information, but it reminds them of your name.  (Honestly, I have had many great conversations with people that I know, but whose name I can't remember.  Exchanging business cards is very helpful.)  Feeling awkward handing over your card?  "Here's my card, in case you want to talk about this later."  "My contact information has changed a bit, so here's my new business card."  "I don't know if you have my contact info, so here's my card."
• Have a business card!  You can get cards very inexpensively through places like Vistaprint.com.  If you are unemployed, you card could similar be your name and your contact information, and a few words about your focus or expertise.  If you are a student, your card should contact your contact information and some indication of your school/program.  Also consider a few words about your career aspiration.
• If your employer won't give you business cards, create your own!  While you may not be able to use the organization's logo, the card can have your name and contact information.  
• Consider including on your business card the URL for your LinkedIn profile and other relevant (and professional) social media accounts.  For many, this is much more useful than having your mailing address.
• It is advised that when you receive a business card that you should write information on it about the conversation you had with the person or any other pieces of information that will help you remember who the person is.  This requires effort and dedication that we don't always have. However, if you can do it, you'll find it useful.  (If I receive business cards while attending an event, I write the event name or acronym on the cards, which  I find helpful.)
• Longer conversations are beneficial, but this is where shy people may feel quite uneasy.  Consider framing the conversation, so that it remains comfortable.  "Can we talk over a quick cup of coffee?"  "Do you have 15 minutes, so we can talk?" "I have a quick question..."
• Talking over food gives you something else to do besides talk.  Your hands have something to occupy them and sipping a drink gives your mouth something to do while you mind listens.
• And there is the magic word...listen.  Networking isn't just about talking; it is about listening.  Learn how to be an active listener, then ask open ended questions, listen carefully to the replies, and ask follow-up questions when appropriate.  You'll gather lots of useful information and the other person will think that you are a wonderful conversationalist!
• If you find yourself standing by yourself, go find someone to talk with!
• If you see someone standing by him- or herself, go over and talk with the person!  This is likely someone who doesn't know how to jump into a conversation.  The person will be grateful that you made the effort to engage him/her in a dialogue.
• Sit with people that you don't know at events and talk with people you don't know. While it would be fun to sit with your friends, that doesn't help you expand your network.
• Remember that it is quality not quantity. It isn't the number of people that you talk with, but the quality of the conversations that you have.  In other words, it is better to talk with a few people and make excellent connections that to talk to lots of people in very quick (likely meaningless) conversations.
• I once watched a woman enter a networking event and walk through the crowd just saying "hi" and handing people her business card.  This was not networking.  She made no meaningful connections. In fact, she likely turned people off.  She went for quantity, not quality.
• Play baseball!  A baseball diamond have four bases and the runner must touch all of the bases in order to score a run.  Create a virtual baseball diamond when you go to a networking event.  The entrance is home base.  Look around the room and select locations that are first base, second base and third base.  Go to the area where first base is and find someone to talk with.  When that conversation is over, head to the area where second base is and network.  Then move to third base and do the same thing.  Finally, head home and continue networking.  What will you have done?  First, you will have had four conversations, hopefully with people that you don't know.  Second, you will have "worked the room", meaning that you didn't stand in one spot for the entire time.  Cool!  What happens if you don't make it to home plate?  That may not be a bad thing.  You may have found yourself in a worthwhile conversation that stopped you from working the entire room and that is okay. 
• It is possible to network all the time.  That may be a scary thought for some people, so think of it this way...it is always possible to encounter someone with whom you want to make a connection.  When you run into someone like that, take the opportunity to exchange contact information, schedule time to talk, or whatever is appropriate.
• Networking doesn't mean staying out all night, drinking heavy or eating too much...in case you wondered.  
• After a networking event, review the cards that you received from other people.  If you promised to follow-up with anyone, make sure that you do it.  Consider dropping quick follow-up emails to anyone with whom you had a useful conversation.  "It was good talking with you...."  If appropriate, connect with people on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, etc.
• After attending my first Computers in Libraries (CIL) Conference (2006), I was "friended" by several people in Flickr after I uploaded conference photos there.  Yes, that was appropriate given that we were all using Flickr for CIL photos, and it did lead to use becoming friends through other tools.
• Have fun! While you should be professional in your networking activities, engaging in fun events with potential colleagues is okay.  And honestly, even in lighter moments, serious topics and wonderful connections can be made. 

So. those are my tips.  If you have some to add, please leave a comment on this blog post.  Thanks!

A reminder...Ulla de Stricker and I wrote a book to help students and practitioners have successful careers. The Information and Knowledge Professional's Career Handbook: Define and Create Your Success will be available soon.  You can read more about it here. For those who are networking in order to locate a professional opportunity, several of the chapters will be of interest, including "Developing your brand: the professional image" and "Looking for a job: tips and tricks".

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FTC Disclaimer: Digitization 101 is an Amazon affiliate and receives a small commission if you purchase a product or service from an Digitization 101 Amazon link. (Trust me, I'm not getting rich off of Amazon.)

Workshop: Care and Identification of Photographs

Many programs digitize photographs and often those photos are in need to care.  With that in mind, this four-day workshop caught my attention.

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Care and Identification of Photographs

April 11-14, 2011

Location: This workshop will be hosted by the Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens (San Marino, CA)

Instructor: Gawain Weaver

REGISTER NOW: http://gawainweaver.com/workshop/care-id-photos-2011-losangeles/

Registration Includes:

• 4-day workshop
• 280-page color notebook
• 60x LED handheld microscope
• OPTIONAL: Basic Photographic Sample Set

This 4-day workshop is an introduction to the history, identification, and preservation of photographic materials. Participants will acquire hands-on identification skills and learn practical photograph preservation techniques. Using handheld 60x microscopes and a large set of photographic and photomechanical samples, they will learn how a variety of processes were created, why they look the way they do, and how they deteriorate. Knowledge about photographic processes is essential to their preservation and leads to a greater appreciation of the aesthetics and history of photographic prints.

Preservation topics include enclosures, handling guidelines, environmental monitoring, the effects of temperature and relative humidity on collections, and the importance of cold storage for certain photographic materials.

Processes examined in detail include but are not limited to the following: daguerreotype, albumen, collodion and gelatin printing-out processes (POP), matte collodion, gelatin silver, photogravure, offset litho, letterpress halftone, collotype, chromogenic color, inkjet, and dye sublimation. Group ID sessions, using a digital microscope and screen projection, will allow participants to practice their identification skills in a guided setting.

The registration fee for this 4-day workshop is $645 and includes a handheld microscope, and a workshop notebook with lecture handouts, Quick ID Sheets for each process, and a selection of readings on photograph preservation. The Basic Photographic Sample Set, consisting of 18 identified photographic and photomechanical processes, is available with registration for $75.

Due to the hands-on nature of this workshop, the number of participants will be limited to 12.

OTHER WORKSHOP DATES AND LOCATIONS: http://gawainweaver.com/workshops/

HISTORIC PHOTOGRAPHIC SAMPLE SETS: http://gawainweaver.com/store/

The Academy of Certified Archivists (ACA), a certifying organization of  professional archivists, will award 15 Archival Recertification Credits (ARCs) to eligible Certified Archivists (CAs) attending this workshop.

WHAT PREVIOUS STUDENTS HAVE SAID ABOUT THIS WORKSHOP:

Can't thank you enough, Gawain! Your knowledge, and the presentation of it, far exceeded expectations.
--Jean Marie Smart, Visual Resources Curator, University of Arizona

Thank you for a jam packed & fascinating, not to mention useful, workshop!
--Mary Anne Redding, Curator of Photography, New Mexico History Museum

For more information, please contact the instructor:

Gawain Weaver
Photograph Conservator
San Rafael, CA
tel 415.446.9138
info@gawainweaver.com
http://gawainweaver.com/

Digital Agenda: "Comité des Sages" calls for a "New Renaissance" by bringing Europe's cultural heritage online

This below is from Jan. 12, 2011.  The six key conclusions and recommendations below will be of interest to others that are involved in digitization.  Hopefully this work will influence conversations outside of Europe, especially around the digitization of copyrighted - but unavailable - materials and orphaned works.

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The report of the Comité des Sages (high-level reflection group) on Digitisation of Europe's cultural heritage was delivered today to Neelie Kroes, European Commission Vice-President for the Digital Agenda, and Androulla Vassiliou, Commissioner responsible for Education and Culture. The report urges EU Member States to step up their efforts to put online the collections held in all their libraries, archives and museums. It stresses the benefits of making Europe's culture and knowledge more easily accessible. It also points to the potential economic benefits of digitisation, including through public-private partnerships, for the development of innovative services in sectors like tourism, research and education. The report endorses the Digital Agenda's objective of strengthening Europe's digital library Europeana and suggests solutions for making works covered by copyright available online. The Comité des Sages on Digitisation comprises Maurice Lévy, Elisabeth Niggemann and Jacques de Decker (see IP/10/456). The report's recommendations will feed into the Commission's broader strategy, under the Digital Agenda for Europe, to help cultural institutions make the transition towards the digital age.

Neelie Kroes said: "I sincerely thank the three "sages" for their constructive suggestions on how we can trigger a "Digital Renaissance" in Europe. Bringing our museums' and libraries' collections online not only shows Europe's rich history and culture but can also usher in new benefits for education, for innovation and for generating new economic activities. It will put high quality content on the net for many generations."

Androulla Vassiliou added: "The Group has balanced the interests of creators with the imperatives of a changing environment in the digital era. We need to find ways and means to do so in all the areas where the cultural and creative industries are confronted with the challenges of moving into the digital age. Culture and heritage in the digital era represent a set of opportunities for European economies and societies."

The report, called "The New Renaissance", key conclusions and recommendations are:

• The Europeana portal should become the central reference point for Europe's online cultural heritage. Member States must ensure that all material digitised with public funding is available on the site, and bring all their public domain masterpieces into Europeana by 2016. Cultural institutions, the European Commission and Member States should actively and widely promote Europeana.
• Works that are covered by copyright, but are no longer distributed commercially, need to be brought online. It is primarily the role of rights-holders to digitise these works and exploit them. But, if rights holders do not do so, cultural institutions must have a window of opportunity to digitise material and make it available to the public, for which right holders should be remunerated.
• EU rules for orphan works (whose rights holders cannot be identified) need to be adopted as soon as possible. The Report defines eight fundamental conditions for any solution.
• Member States need to considerably increase their funding for digitisation in order to generate jobs and growth in the future. The funds needed to build 100 km of roads would pay for the digitisation of 16% of all available books in EU libraries, or the digitisation of every piece of audio content in EU Member States' cultural institutions.
• Public-private partnerships for digitisation must be encouraged. They must be transparent, non-exclusive and equitable for all partners, and must result in cross-border access to the digitised material for all. Preferential use of the digitised material granted to the private partner should not exceed seven years.
• To guarantee the preservation of collections in their digital format, a second copy of this cultural material should be archived at Europeana. In addition, a system should be developed so that any cultural material that currently needs to be deposited in several countries would only be deposited once.

The recommendations of the 'Comité des sages' will feed into the Commission's broader strategy, under the Digital Agenda for Europe to help cultural institutions make the transition towards the digital age and to search for new and effective business models that accelerate digitisation while allowing fair remuneration for rights holders where necessary (see IP/10/581, MEMO/10/199 and MEMO/10/200). The recommendations will also be useful for the Commission's plan to develop a sustainable funding model for Europeana by 2012.

Today europeana.eu already offers access to more than 15 million digitised books, maps, photographs, film clips, paintings and musical extracts, but this is only a fraction of works held by Europe's cultural institutions (see IP/10/1524). Most digitised materials are older works in the public domain, to avoid potential litigation for works covered by copyright. 

Background

The "Comité des sages" comprised Maurice Lévy (Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of advertising and communications company Publicis), Elisabeth Niggemann (Director-General of the German National Library and chair of the Europeana Foundation) and Jacques De Decker (author and Permanent Secretary of Belgium's Royal Academy of French language and literature).

Comité des Sages' recommendations: link here:

http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/digital_libraries/index_en.htm

Europeana's Strategic Plan 2011-2015

I received this in email a few weeks ago. In the preface, Dr Elisabeth Niggemann,Chair of the Europeana Foundation Board, said:

I commend this Strategic Plan as a clear-sighted assessment of the route Europeana must take in order to fulfil its potential.

The plan is a very interesting 24-page document.  I may have to assign it as a reading in the course I'm teaching this semester because of its thoughtfulness and information content.

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Europeana's Strategic Plan 2011-2015, has been published by the Europeana Foundation. The Plan comes as a timely response to last week's report from the Comité des Sages which recommended 'a clear vision and plan 'for the further development of Europeana.'

The Strategic Plan outlines the approach Europeana will take in the changing information landscape. In the next few years, one specific focus for Europeana will be on enhancing the users' experience. It will give users access to cultural heritage content wherever they are and whenever they want it, making it available through APIs and search widgets, in teaching resources, on blogs, college sites and social networks. Europeana will also explore new ways of actively engaging users in the development of the site and making creative reuse of its content.

Download the full colour version or the black and white print version of the Strategic Plan 2011-2015.

For New Yorkers: Report on the Meeting of the Regents Advisory Council on Libraries, Jan. 28

The Regents Advisory Council on Libraries met by phone on Jan. 28 for a short meeting.  This meeting was held days before the governor released his 2011-2012 budget, and indications were that the budget was going to contain bad news (and it did).  


During the conference call, we received a brief update from Deputy Commissioner Jeffrey Cannell on other legislative news, the December 2010 Regents Cultural Education Meeting, and the budget's effect on the State Library.   

John Hammond reported on the 2020 Vision process action plan and next steps.  Work on this began at the NYLA Annual Conference and will continue this year with other library partners.  The group wants to gather ample input from others and discussed how that might happen.  A session on this 2020 Vision is already scheduled for the NYLA 2011 Annual Conference.

The 2020 Vision grew out of our meeting with the Regents Cultural Education Committee last year, and so our report to them this year include an update on that effort.

We did discuss other topics, including the need for school librarians and work that is being done on literacy standards.   John Monahan and Sara Kelly Johns led those discussions.

Advisory Council members go to the Albany in February to meet with legislators and we discussed that activity.  Since Jan. 28, we have learned that the date we'd selected is not a date when legislators will be in Albany (day after President's Day), so we're discussing alternatives. 

For New Yorkers: Governor's proposed 2011-2012 budget

On Feb. 1, Governor Andrew Cuomo released his budget proposal for 2011-2012.  In the proposal, he has the following cuts to libraries and schools:

• 10% reduction in Library Aid from $83 million to $76 million
• $1.5 billion reduction in School Aid
• 10% or $3.9 million reduction in Bundy Aid to private colleges
• $115 million cut to SUNY
• $70 million cut to CUNY

 While a news report today talked about library funding over the last four years, it is important to note that state funding for libraries is currently at 1998 levels. 


A local school administrator sees these cuts as a way of forcing school districts to cooperate and consolidate.  We may see that occur with some libraries.

{What follows is totally my point of view...}

Libraries always focus on service to their users/patrons/members and in keeping that service intact.  We don't want our users to suffer because of our budget woes, so we "make do" with less.  For some, that may prove that libraries don't need as much funding as they receive.  Maybe it is time to visibly do less with less -- e.g., fewer hours and services, less space, etc. -- and let legislators hear about the pain that is causes. 

{End of my point of view}

NYLA's Library Advocacy Day is March 1 and likely 1000+ library staff members and supports will descend on Albany.  If you cannot go, there are a number of advocacy tools on the NYLA web site as well as links to contact information for state legislators.

Virage MediaBin

Last spring, someone told me that they had selected MediaBin as their digital asset management system.  I was going to write a blog post at the time about MediaBin after I learned more about it, but didn't.  From what I did learn, this is a product that would be used in specific situations.  The web site says:

Virage MediaBin centralizes the management of logos, copy, video, images, presentations, and other rich media and digital assets and makes them accessible to geographically dispersed teams. Virage MediaBin is the only commercial digital asset management system designed to work with "original" master assets: it dynamically generates variations or derivatives and delivers them on request. Virage MediaBin uses a patented high-volume media processing engine to render on-demand transformations quickly.

There are likely other products on the market that do similar things.  You should be able to find other products by searching the literature for MediaBin and then seeing who else is mentioned.

Addendum (2/3/2011):  Be sure to read the comment below from Ralph Windsor, who notes that there are other companies that produce similar software and that this software isn't the "only".   He suggests looking at the web site http://www.opensourcedigitalassetmanagement.org/ for information on open source DAM  programs.

Every company tried to position their product as the best solution or the only one that can meet your needs.  Keep in mind that every company has competition.  In fact, for a company to be successful, it needs competition.  Competition proves a need in the marketplace.  At any rate, I do tend to ignore platitudes in company press releases, but forget that others do not. 

The Vatican's Apostolic Library

In January, the New Yorker magazine published an article entitled " GOD'S LIBRARIANS: Letter from Rome" (length abstract).  If you have a subscription to the New Yorker (online or hardcopy), you can view the entire article.  Given that most people can't see that article, here are linked to related content about the work that the Vatican did.  Note that digitization is not specifically discussed, but the work was done to increase access to the materials as well as keep the materials safe.

• Vatican to Open High-Tech Library for Ancient Volumes
•  Sounds of silence: Restored Vatican Library ready for scholarly hush

And then there is this, which does not seem to be a part of the Vatican Library, but it a digitization effort:

• Vatican digitizes more than 7 million photos from archives

I do know that one of the Vatican's libraries did a digitization program in the 1990s and reportedly created hardcopy surrogates to place on the shelf.  So the Vatican is indeed using technology to preserve its past and ensure access into the future.

Report : The Survey of Library & Museum Digitization Projects 2011 Edition

This report is available for purchase, but even the press release (below) contains interesting informarion.

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The nearly 200 page report looks closely at how academic, public and special libraries and museums are digitizing special and other collections. The study is based on detailed data on costs, equipment use, staffing, cataloging, marketing, licensing revenue and other facets of digitization projects from nearly 100 libraries and museums in the United States, the UK, continental Europe, Canada, and Australia.

The study covers and presents data separately for digitizers of photographs, film and video, music and audio, text and re-digitization of existing digital mediums. Data is also broken out by budget size, region of the world, type of institution and other factors. Data presented separately for academic libraries, public and government libraries, special libraries and museums.

For more information please click on:
http://www.researchandmarkets.com/product/26199f/the_survey_of_library_museum_digitization_p

Just a few of the study's many findings are that:

-Digitization budgets come largely through non-budgetary allocations. The library or museum annual budget accounted for only a little over 35% of the overall digitization budget.

-Prospects for digitization funding in the United States were much better than prospects outside of the USA; about 28.6% of US survey participants considered the outlook pretty good or excellent while only 5.88% of those from other countries shared this optimism.

-The mean annual number of staff hours expended per institution on digitization projects was 2,272 with a range of 0 to 24,000 (or about 12-13 full time employees spending all of their time on digitization projects).

-Only 3.45% of institutions sampled have outsourced rights, permissions or copyright management to any third party.

-Overall survey participants say that over the past three years they have outsourced close to 27% of their overall digitization work.

-Close to 54% of the organizations sampled have some form of digital asset management software and an additional 8.3% share a system with another department or division of their institution.

-14.61% used the servers of some kind of third party service; this was most popular in the USA, where one sixth of respondents used a third party server service for digital content storage

-16.05% of organizations surveyed license or rent any aspect of their digital collection to any party

-Digitizers whose primary medium was music and audio spent 56.25% of their total digitization staff time on cataloging and metadata related issues

For more information please click on:
http://www.researchandmarkets.com/product/26199f/the_survey_of_library_museum_digitization_p