The questions and conversations were good. In one conversation, I mentioned that there are some Information Schools (iSchools) that have certificate programs for digital libraries (which digitization would be a part of). Two schools that I mentioned were the School of Information Studies at Syracuse University and and the School of Information Resources and Library Science at the University of Arizona. Of course, there are other programs in the U.S. and Canada.
And are the recipients of these graduate certificate programs finding employment? Yes! Jobs are posted in a variety of locations including:
- lisjobs web site
- SAA Online Employment Bulletin web site
- Digital-Preservation email list (URL added 4/12/2008)
- Metadata email list (I need to find the URL for this)
- Imagelib email list
Another person asked if federal agencies are digitizing materials, and that answer was "yes." One of the departments mentioned was the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) which is digitizing in order to increase public access to their collections.
Since Information Today scheduled the workshop for only three-hours, I did a good overview of the topics involved in digitization, but could not go into detail in areas that deserved much more information. Thankfully, the resource list will provide more information for the participants. However, those who are preparing to undertake a digitization program will need to continue to learn. I believe some needed to build awareness. One person is repositioning her career, so she is looking for truly in-depth information on digitization and digital libraries.
If I could give them one piece of advice, it would be to look at several (many) digitization projects that are on the Internet. It is amazing what you can learn by seeing what others have done. Look at the web site, the digital assets, metadata, additional information, the software being used, etc. Figure out what you like/admire about the projects, as well as what you would like to see changed. Look --> Investigate --> Learn
Link updated 4/8/2008
Technorati tags:
CIL2008, 
Digitization
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