Kirtas to unveil SkyView

At the American Library Association Annual Conference, which is happening now, Kirtas is unveiling a machine named SkyView. The SkyView 3525 provides an overhead solution for large format materials including fold-out pages in books. To the right is the photo of the machine that Kirtas included in its Summer 2008 newsletter.

What I find interesting is that companies, who are already providing equipment, are looking for ways to extend their product lines as well as pull more clients towards them. I see this with many of the equipment companies. For example, a simple machine for doing book digitization might morph into a machine that can be used by patrons in an academic or public library. Or a microfilm reader morphs to include a digitization option. Here Kirtas is applying its technology to solve a different set of problems, with the most obvious being fold-put book pages, however, undoubtedly this machine is capable of much more (and likely you'd have to do more than just fold-out pages in order to justify it.

Kirtas doesn't have any information on its web site about this machine. It will be interesting to read about its full capabilities and perhaps watch a video of it in action. Actually, here is one video they've shot, although the sound doesn't play well for me.



The text with the video states:

Kirtas' new flatbed imaging system captures up to a 35x25 inch aerial view using 21.1 megapixel high-resolution Canon EOS 1DS Mark III digital camera. Moving cameras and a sliding shelf work together to create a perfect image of your important larger documents. With the Kirtas SkyView 3525™, high - quality digitization of maps, newspapers and oversized materials are now a reality.

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Technorati tag: Digitization

"a turnkey Open Source Integrated Library System (ILS) and integrated Digital Library content management solution"

I had not seen the press release that contained that line before the SLA conference. John Yokley made me aware of it when I visited his booth. The press release says that PTFS :

has announced that the company plans to release a turnkey Open Source Integrated Library System (ILS) and integrated Digital Library content management solution. Systems will be available for installation at customers’ sites or as a hosted solution (SaaS) beginning in Q4 of 2008.

Integrating the digital asset management software in with the ILS means that users can go to one spot to locate a wide variety of content including digital assets and information hardcopy books. Users don't want to have to search multiple places for information, so this is creating a solution that users should like.

John said the part of the press release that caused the most stir was (emphasis added):

The solution will benefit special, academic and public libraries that want to utilize capital funds for building a Digital Library Content Management solution while obtaining an ILS functionality at no additional cost. The investment will provide libraries with an integrated ILS/Digital Library solution at a cost that is significantly less than the cost of commercial ILS software alone.

I, for one, will be interested to see this software once it is released. Could it start a trend that other software companies will follow?

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Technorati tag: Digital Asset Management

Press release: Readex partners with Center for Research Libraries

From Readex via email.

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Readex partners with Center for Research Libraries
to create Web-based World Newspaper Archive

Digitization effort will feature thousands of historical newspaper titles published outside the United States

JUNE 26, 2008 (NAPLES, FL) — Readex, a division of NewsBank, and the Center for Research Libraries (CRL) announced today that they will create the world's largest, fully searchable digital archive of international newspapers. The World Newspaper Archive will provide students, teachers and scholars unprecedented access to historical newspapers published outside the United States, advancing research and offering new insights across wide-ranging academic disciplines.

"NewsBank offers the greatest combination of expertise and capabilities to provide our members sustainable access to historical news content," says Bernard F. Reilly, president of the Center for Research Libraries. "By partnering with its Readex division in this cooperative effort, we plan to systematically digitize and deliver over the Web the foreign newspapers held by CRL and other major newspaper repositories."

This uniquely comprehensive electronic resource will first offer Latin American newspapers published between 1805 and 1922 in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru, Venezuela and other countries. Further series will focus on historical newspapers published in Africa, South Asia and other areas. Users will be able to seamlessly cross-search the World Newspaper Archive with America's Historical Newspapers, including Early American Newspapers and Hispanic American Newspapers.

"Readex and the Center for Research Libraries share a commitment to provide sustainable online access to primary source research collections," says David Braden, Readex president. "We are delighted to be working in cooperation with CRL—one of the world's largest and most important newspaper repositories—to launch this landmark digital project and expand opportunities to discover these primary resources."

The initial Latin American series will offer approximately 35 titles, encompassing nearly one million pages. Among the newspapers expected to be included are La Prensa (Buenos Aires), O Estado de São Paulo (São Paulo), Mercurio (Santiago), La Prensa (Havana), Diario de Centro America (Guatemala City), Daily Chronicle (Georgetown, Guyana), Mexican Herald (Mexico City), El Peruano (Lima), Port of Spain Gazette (Port of Spain), and the Venezuelan Herald (Caracas).

"International newspapers have long been highly valued by students and researchers in the humanities and social sciences," says Glenda Pearson, Human Rights Librarian and Head of Newspaper Collections at the University of Washington. "This exciting joint project between CRL and Readex will advance scholarly inquiry, while ensuring worldwide access to these invaluable publications for generations to come."

Participating members of CRL will enjoy permanent access to the World Newspaper Archive, while all others around the world will be offered access by Readex. Charter CRL participants now include Harvard University; McMaster University; New York Public Library; Princeton University; University of California, Berkeley; University of California, Los Angeles; University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign; University of Texas; University of Washington; and Yale University.

About the Center for Research Libraries
The Center for Research Libraries is an international partnership of over 240 universities, colleges and independent research libraries. CRL supports advanced research and learning in the humanities, sciences and social sciences by ensuring the survival and accessibility of source materials vital to those disciplines.

About Readex, a division of NewsBank
For more than 50 years, the Readex name has been synonymous with research in historical materials and government documents. Recognized by librarians, students and scholars for its efforts to transform academic scholarship, Readex offers a wealth of Web-based collections in the humanities and social sciences, including the Archive of Americana and the Foreign Broadcast Information Service Daily Reports.

For more information or to speak with a Readex expert, contact Readex Marketing Manager David Loiterstein by calling 203.421.0152 or emailing dloiterstein@readex.com.

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Technorati tag: Digitization

Press release: BCR's CDP Releases Digital Imaging Best Practices, Version 2.0

This is from the DigiStates email list.

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BCR's CDP Releases Digital Imaging Best Practices, Version 2.0

AURORA, CO, June 25, 2008 - BCR's CDP has released the updated Digital Imaging Best Practices, Version 2.0, featuring new sections on digital cameras, digital preservation and more. The revised Digital Imaging Best Practices document is based on the Western States Digital Imaging Best Practices Guide published in 2003, developed by experts and practitioners in the field.

Brenda Bailey-Hainer, BCR president and CEO, says, "one of the biggest joys of working in a collaborative environment is seeing the great achievements - like this document - that collective efforts bring about. The biggest reward for this particular endeavor will be the rich digital content that will result from the many librarians, archivists and museum professionals who will use BCR's CDP Digital Imaging Best Practices as a guide to their work."

The Digital Imaging Best Practices Working Group took leadership for the revision, spending time researching new and updated standards, examining new technologies and evaluating new workflow options. The working group drew on the expertise of its members and digitization colleagues to address the many changes informing image digitization during the last five years.

Sarah Goodwin Thiel, digital services librarian, University of Kansas, served as the working group chair. She notes, "While continuing to address the needs of a particular audience, beginning practitioners and those from institutions with limited resources and/or expertise, Version 2.0 is developed to assist practitioners from the cultural heritage section to navigate the quickly evolving world of image digitization and to efficiently increase and improve access to digital scholarship."

To view the entire document, please see: www.bcr.org/cdp/best/digital-imaging-bp.pdf.

About BCR's CDP, http://www.bcr.org/cdp/

BCR's CDP enables access to cultural, historical and scientific heritage collections of the West by building collaboration between archives, historical societies, libraries and museums. The key to its success is collaboration. BCR's CDP provides assistance to the cultural heritage community through best practice guidelines, workshops and digitization grant funding. BCR's CDP also delivers access to thousands of digital photographs, text and sound files documenting the history, culture and science of the West through Heritage West.

About BCR

BCR brings libraries together for greater success by expanding their knowledge, reach and power. They offer a broad range of solutions and their hands-on, personal attention to each member enables them to deliver effective and timely solutions that help libraries keep pace with new developments in technology and services. BCR is the nation's oldest and most established multistate library cooperative. Since 1935, the BCR team has helped libraries learn new skills, reach new customers, increase productivity and save money. BCR (Bibliographical Center for Research) is a 501(c)3 nonprofit headquartered in Aurora, Colorado. For more information, visit www.BCR.org or email info@BCR.org.

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Technorati tag: Digitization

Blog post: U.S. copyright renewal records available for download

This is wonderful news from Google for people research U.S. copyrights:

How do you find out whether a book was renewed? You have to check the U.S. Copyright Office records. Records from 1978 onward are online (see http://www.copyright.gov/records) but not downloadable in bulk. The Copyright Office hasn't digitized their earlier records, but Carnegie Mellon scanned them as part of their Universal Library Project, and the tireless folks at Project Gutenberg and the Distributed Proofreaders painstakingly corrected the OCR.

Thanks to the efforts of Google software engineer Jarkko Hietaniemi, we've gathered the records from both sources, massaged them a bit for easier parsing, and combined them into a single XML file available for download here.

Based on comments made by Siva Vaidhyanathan, I am assuming that these records are very complete. He wrote:

This is great news for historians, journalists, researchers, publishers, and librarians. It's also great for the Open Content Alliance and other book digitization projects.

Of course, this does not help much with books published and copyrighted outside of the United States. But that's always a complication.

However, I wonder if Google itself is going to use these records to change the format of many of the scanned books published between 1923 and 1963. Currently, these are only available in "snippet" form. Will Google Book Search change significantly now that this file is available?

That last paragraph is very interesting. Could this allow Google and others to display more, now that they can easily check these records? I hope the answer is "yes."

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Technorati tags: Copyright, Google

Thomson Reuters to sell Dialog to ProQuest

Most of you will not be interested in this news that broke on June 12 -- Thomson Reuters has agreed to sell Dialog to ProQuest. I wrote a thoughtful blog post on it last week in the Special Libraries Association blog. At the end of that post, I wondered if Google would ever buy Dialog for its content repositories. Roger Summit, the father of Dialog, posted a comment and wondered what would have happened if Dialog had been purchased by Google now instead of ProQuest. ProQuest and Google are going after two different markets. Google is about making information available to as many people as possible. In its letter to subscribers dated June 12,2008, the executive vice president of Thomson Reuters said:

Together, Dialog and ProQuest will be able to provide the authoritative content and precise search tools essential for the information professional market in the 21st Century.

Later he wrote:

ProQuest intends to invest aggressively in Dialog, refreshing the Dialog and DataStar platforms and meeting the needs of next-generation users.

Here's the problem...the information professionals of today want tools that give them flexible search options, that integrate with others tools (including federated search), and that can be used by a broad group of people with a variety of search skills. Search is not just for professionals anymore; it is someting everyone does. For Dialog and DataStar to be successful into the future, they need to retool themselves not for the information professional market, but for the broader market that includes white collar workers, knowledge workers, academics and students...if not even ordinary people. Dialog has the world's largest digital newspaper archive -- wouldn't you want to be able to search that easily, too? (The letter does not qualify their newspaper archive as being the largest of current materials, but I think that qualifier should be placed on it, since there are massive archives of historic newspapers.)

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Technorati tags: Dialog, Thomson Reuters, ProQuest, Google

For New Yorkers: Seeking recommendations for membership in the Regents Advisory Council on Libraries

The call below went out several weeks ago. My apologies for not posting it sooner.

I am currently a member of the Regents Advisory Council on Libraries and find it a very worthwhile statewide committee to be on. The Council is composed of 12 people who are "related" to libraries in New York State. We include current and former librarians, library trustees, and people whose jobs cause them to interact with libraries frequently. This Council is meant to be a diverse group and it is.

Besides the four meetings per year, there is generally some reading and communication between meetings. For example, this past year we worked on the New York Digital Collection Initiative. Several members worked intently on the proposal, while all others gave input and feedback.

You'll notice that nominations are due by June 30 and hopefully some information on the person being nominated. If you know of someone you want to nominate, please give the names to Paula Paolucci as soon as possible, and include additional information if possible. The nominee will be contacted to ensure that the person is interested and that person will be asked to submit additional information about him/herself. The nominees will then be presented to the Board of Regents in August/September and they will select those that will join the Council.

If anyone wants additional information on the Regents Advisory Council on Libraries, please feel free to contact me.

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The New York State Library is seeking, by June 30, recommendations for membership in the Regents Advisory Council on Libraries.

The Regents Advisory Council on Libraries advises the New York State Board of Regents on State policy regarding the New York State Library, library development programs, legislation and library aid programs. The Council works with the officers of the State Education Department in developing a comprehensive statewide library and information policy and makes recommendations to the Regents concerning the implementation of the program.

The Board of Regents will appoint two new Regents Advisory Council members to serve five-year terms from October 1, 2008 to September 30, 2013. The Council meets four times a year: January (conference call), May (Board of Regents meeting in Albany), September (Albany or NYC) and December (Albany or NYC). Members of the Regents Advisory Council are leaders in a wide variety of endeavors across the State, including business, human services, education, and libraries. For more information, see www.nysl.nysed.gov/libdev/adviscns/rac/index.html

The State Library particularly encourages recommendations of representatives of New York State's broadly diverse population, including but not limited to African Americans, Asian Americans, Native Americans, Hispanic origin/ancestry and people with disabilities.

Please send nominations, and if possible a brief bio or resume, for membership on the Regents Advisory Council on Libraries by June 30 to: Paula Paolucci, New York State Library, 10C34 Cultural Education Center, Albany, NY 12230; or e-mail ppaolucc@mail.nysed.gov. For more information, please contact Ms. Paolucci.

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Technorati tags: Regents, New York State, NYS, RAC, libraries, state library

Videos of the Treventus ScanRobot book scanner

This first video is a promotional piece, while the second video shows the equipment in action. The description for the second Treventus ScanRobot video says:

The ScanRobot in action, scanning an old book from the 16 th century, by a speed of circa 1250 pages per hour. In this video the whole scanning process and the result in the software is visible.

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Technorati tag: Digitization, Book

Event: Mid-Atlantic Digital Library Conference

From the DigiStates email list.

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Mid-Atlantic Digital Library Conference
July 9, 2008
Bucknell University -- Lewisburg, PA

Please note: Registration for the Mid-Atlantic Digital Library Conference will close on July 1.

Full details about the conference, including abstracts for sessions, are available from the conference web site: http://blogs.bucknell.edu/DigitalLibraryConference2008/. A discussion
group has also been started on Facebook for pre-conference networking: http://www.facebook.com/p.php?i=3806254&k=Z31445V6442MZG1CVB64X

Conference Highlights:

• 25 sessions scheduled over five tracks
• Poster sessions, a technology showcase, and vendor exhibits
• Special-interest-group discussions during lunch
• More information available on the conference web site: http://blogs.bucknell.edu/DigitalLibraryConference2008/
• Access the Facebook page for the conference: http://www.facebook.com/p.php?i=3806254&k=Z31445V6442MZG1CVB64X

About the 2008 Mid-Atlantic Digital Library Conference: This regional conference is designed to bring together librarians and technologists, experienced digital library practitioners and those who are new to to the field. Registrants are from a wide range of cultural heritage institutions including colleges and universities, public libraries, museums, and historical societies. The conference will include 25 sessions over five tracks. Sessions cover a wide range of topics and are aimed at varying levels of experience.

Registration is only $50, and graduate students are eligible for a discounted rate. This one-day event will be held at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, PA. Lewisburg is only a three- to four-hour drive from Philadelphia, New York City, Washington D.C., Baltimore, and Pittsburgh.

Conference Schedule and Sessions -- Wednesday, July 9, 2008

8:00 - 8:30 a.m. -- Registration, breakfast

8:30 - 8:50 a.m. -- Opening, welcoming remarks

9:00 - 10:00 a.m. -- Session One

• Introduction to Digital Library Technologies & Metadata 101 - Laura Riskedahl, Bucknell University
• Local History Online: An Open Source Solution to the Management and Access of Historical Collections - John Lyles, Chattahochee Valley Regional Library System
• Building and Managing a Successful Digital Repository in DSpace - Michele Kimpton, DSpace Foundation
• The Tri-Colleges' Collaborative Visual Resource Collection - Nicole Finzer, Bryn Mawr College; Susan Dreher, Swarthmore College; Julie D. Coy, Haverford College
• Balancing the Need for Efficient Submission of Scientific Data with the Need to Collect Metadata - Robert R. Downs and Robert S. Chen, Center for Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN), Columbia University

10:15 - 11:15 a.m. -- Session Two

• Archivists' Toolkit - Brian Hoffman, New York University and Sibyl Roud, Archivists' Toolkit
• Introduction to Streaming Video - Eric Smith, Bucknell University
• Access to Visual Resource Collections - Joan Beaudoin, PhD Candidate at Drexel University and Rachel Bradley, PhD Candidate at Drexel University
• Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory Digital Image Library -- Karen Higgins, Johns Hopkins University
• Various Approaches to Building Digital Libraries - From Tech Cool to Strategic - Deborah Ludwig and Sheryl Williams, University of Kansas

11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. -- Session Three

• Scaling Up Digital Library Production: Strategies for Practitioners - Aaron L. Brenner, Univ. of Pittsburgh
• Tools for Repurposing MARC Metadata in Digital Libraries - Michael Bolam, Univ. of Pittsburgh
• Digital Reference Services: The Current State of Library and Archival Instruction - Valli Hoski, Kathleen O'Neill, Donna Scanlon, Mark Sgambettera, Vanessa Uribe
• Implementing a Digital Library Repository Using Fedora - David Kennedy and Jennie A. Levine, University of Maryland
• The Classical Artifact Research Repository in DSpace: A Partnership with Students - Lois Widmer and Dai Wei, Brandeis University

12:30 - 2:00 p.m. -- Lunch and Special-Interest Group Discussions

2:00 - 3:00 p.m. -- Session Four

• Defining and Digitizing a Commonwealth: Towards a Collaborative Approach to the Digitization of Pennsylvania's History, Society, and Culture - John Barnett, PALCI
• A Series of Unfortunate Events, or How Not to Build a Digital Image Archive - Jami L. Bryan, Thomas McNulty, and Carolyn S. Parsons, University of Mary Washington
• Building Digital Audiovisual Collections: An Example from the Archives - Kevin Clair, Penn State
• MetaDB: A Distributed Metadata Creation Tool - Eric Luhrs, Lafayette College
• Collaborating with Faculty on Digital Projects - Michael Weaver, Bucknell University; Jim Gerencser, Dickinson College; Robert Harris, William Paterson University

3:15 - 4:15 p.m. -- Session Five

• Projects from University Archives - Rodney G. Obein, Worcester Polytechnic Institute and Malinda Triller, Dickinson College
• Using Open Source Software: What it Means for Your Institution - Panel discussion.
• World War II Poster Project - David Del Testa, Bucknell University
• LSTA Grants: From Project Planning to Fruition to Sustainability - Janet Hurlbert, Lycoming College and Jim Gerencser, Dickinson College
• Tour of Bucknell University's Bertrand Library

4:30 - 6:00 - Posters and Technology Showcase

Confirmed Poster Sessions:

• Planning and Administering a Digitization Project in a Small, Team-Based Library - Brian Ardan, Bernadette Heiney, Joby Topper, and Cathy Weglarz, Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania
• An Investigation of Image Users Across Disciplines: A Model of Image Needs, Retrieval, and Use - Joan E. Beaudoin, Drexel University
• Leveraging History with Social Technologies - Judith Brink-Drescher and Diane Holliday, Dowling College
• West Virginia History OnView: A Big Digital Project with a Little Budget - John Cuthbert, West Virginia University
• Fleet Street Found: The Global Photos Metadata Project - John Fahs and Abigail Meisterman, New York Public Library
• Evaluation of Digital Libraries: My Personal Experiences with MIC, NJDH, and NJVid - Judy Jeng, New Jersey City University
• Managing Digitization Activities: An ARL SPEC Kit - Rebecca L. Mugridge, Penn State University
• Digital Herbarium Collection - Andrew Sallans, Carla Lee, and Sherry Lake, University of Virginia
• Using Dublin Core to Create Electronic Access to the West Virginia and Regional History Collection's Printed Ephemera Collection - Anna Schein, West Virginia University
• I Never Met A Digital Object I Couldn't Cite: Zotero and Alternatives for Personal Digital Libraries - Jack Widner, Edinboro University of Pennsylvania

Technology Showcase List - TBA
Sign up to participate in the Technology Showcase. More information is available at:
http://blogs.bucknell.edu/DigitalLibraryConference2008/2008/06/technology_showcase.html.

Exhibitors - TBA
If you are interested in participating as a vendor/exhibitor, please contact dig@bucknell.edu.

Please direct questions and comments to dig@bucknell.edu.

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Technorati tag: Digital Libraries

Blog post: Libel Suit over Digitized Article Dismissed

Quoting American Libraries (6/13/2008):

A federal judge has dismissed a $1-million lawsuit filed by a Cornell University alumnus who claimed that the school libeled him in a 1983 Cornell Chronicle article reporting that he had been charged with third-degree burglary when he was a student. Back issues of the Chronicle, a newspaper published by the university’s press office, are being digitized by the campus library.

Marry Minow wrote in her blog post:

Disclosure of private facts claim was dismissed since the item was newsworthy.

As she notes, this is an important issue, since so older news is being digitized and will likely surface news items that some people would rather have forgotten.

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Technorati tags: Digitization, Privacy

SLA2008: A Digital Microfilm Road Map

On Monday, June 16, there was a session at the SLA Annual Conference entitled "A Digital Microfilm Road Map" sponsored by the News Division. Each of the speakers talked about their experience with digitizing newspaper microfilm. Presentations will be available on the News Division web site. Here are some quick notes from the session:

• Microfilm equals preservation. Digitization equals access as well as the ability to create new products.
• When considering a project, check to see what similar organizations have done.
• Survey your vendors and compare their answers.
• the more human involvement in the project, the higher the cost. For example, if you want your OCR to be 100% accurate, that will require people to review the OCR and the cost of the project will increase.
• Think about the return on investment (ROI) for your project.
• Newspaper digitization is still problematic, according to the presenter from the California newspaper Project. Standards still have not been developed, but should be developed soon.
• Preserving the microfilm master negative is important.
• Is the Library of Congress's National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP) a sustainable model? To date, it is expensive and time-consuming.
• Page-level access is less costly than article-level access.
• 8-bit (grayscale) seemed to work better for OCR than 1-bit (black-white).
• Association for Library Collections and Technical Services (ALCTS) has created definitions of digital preservation. The medium-length definition says: "Digital preservation combines policies, strategies and actions to ensure access to reformatted and born digital content regardless of the challenges of media failure and technological change. The goal of digital preservation is the accurate rendering of authenticated content over time."

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Technorati tags: SLA2008, Definition, Digitization

Event: III ENCUENTRO DE CATALOGACION Y METADATOS

I received this in email and my rough translation leads me to believe it is appropriate.

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III ENCUENTRO DE CATALOGACION Y METADATOS
29 al 31 de octubre de 2008

El Centro Universitario de Investigaciones Bibliotecologicas y el Instituto de Investigaciones Bibliograficas de la UNAM, a traves de la Biblioteca Nacional de Mexico, han venido auspiciando la realizacion de diversos eventos academicos sobre catalogacion y metadatos. En estos eventos, los participantes han tenido la oportunidad de intercambiar experiencias sobre la teoria y practica de la catalogacion y los metadatos en diferentes tipos de bibliotecas. Teniendo en consideracion que los principios en que se sustentan la teoria y practica de la organizacion de la informacion actualmente se encuentran en proceso de revision y que nos encaminamos hacia la definicion y adopcion de un nuevo codigo de catalogacion, asi como a un mayor uso de los metadatos, se considero conveniente continuar la discusion sobre los topicos incluidos en esta area de la Bibliotecologia y los Estudios de la Informacion.

Por lo anterior, el Centro Universitario de Investigaciones Bibliotecologicas y el Instituto de Investigaciones Bibliograficas de la Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico invitan a los bibliotecarios del extranjero y nacionales, vinculados con las tareas de investigacion, educacion y practica de la organizacion de la informacion a traves de la catalogacion y los metadatos, a participar en el III Encuentro de Catalogacion y Metadatos, el cual tendra lugar en las instalaciones del Centro Universitario de Investigaciones Bibliotecologicas del 29 al 31 de octubre de 2008.

OBJETIVOS:

• Identificar las tendencias de la organizacion de la informacion en el marco de las nuevas tecnologias.
• Analizar las caracteristicas y problematica del nuevo codigo de catalogacion: RDA (Resources Description and Access)
• Analizar las caracteristicas y problematica del uso de los metadatos
• Compartir e intercambiar experiencias sobre la teoria y practica de la catalogacion y los metadatos en diferentes tipos de bibliotecas.
• Fomentar la participacion en programas cooperativos de catalogacion y de control de autoridades.
• Discutir los aspectos relacionados con la formacion de bibliotecologos en el area de la organizacion de la informacion.

TEMAS:

Entre los temas que se abordaran se encuentran los siguientes:

• RDA (Resources Description and Access)
• Requisitos Funcionales de los Registros Bibliograficos (FRBR)
• Nucleo de Dublin y otros sistemas de metadatos
• Relacion entre metadatos y catalogacion
• Organizacion de recursos electronicos
• Formato MARC21
• Catalogacion de publicaciones seriadas
• Catalogacion de recursos continuos
• Control de autoridades (nombres y materias)
• Cooperacion en catalogacion y control de autoridades
• Formacion en el area de organizacion de la informacion

COMO PARTICIPAR PONENTES:

Podran participar como PONENTES todos aquellos bibliotecarios del extranjero o del pais, interesados en los temas del III Encuentro de Catalogacion y Metadatos, quienes deberan enviar un resumen de su propuesta, con una extension de 250 palabras como maximo.

La fecha limite para presentacion de propuestas sera el 28 de julio de 2008, las que deberan ser enviadas a la siguiente direccion electronica: cat2008@cuib.unam.mx

Las propuestas deberan incluir:

• Titulo del trabajo
• Autor o autores y correo-e
• Institucion (es) y pais
• Direccion y telefono

Los autores cuyos trabajos sean seleccionados por el Comite de Evaluacion, recibiran la comunicacion sobre la aceptacion de sus propuestas el 15 de agosto de 2008, debiendo enviar la version completa de los trabajos a mas tardar el 30 de septiembre de 2008.

• La extension de los trabajos aceptados debera ser entre 10 y 15 paginas incluyendo bibliografia, tablas, graficas y anexos.
• Los trabajos deberan ser enviados en formato electronico usando la version 6.0 o posterior del editor de texto Word para Windows con la fuente Arial 11.
• El espacio entre las lineas debera ser 1.5 y doble espacio entre los parrafos.
• Los margenes de las paginas deberan ser de 3 cm. cada uno.

Los autores del extranjero cuyos trabajos sean seleccionados, podran enviar al Comite Organizador una solicitud de apoyo para su estancia en la Ciudad de Mexico durante los dias del evento.

ASISTENTES:

Los interesados en participar como ASISTENTES, deberan enviar por correo-e el formato de inscripcion, ademas de cubrir la cuota de recuperacion correspondiente. El formato de inscripcion se encuentra disponible en la siguiente direccion: http://cuib.unam.mx/registro.doc

CUPO LIMITADO

CUOTAS DE RECUPERACION:

• Hasta el 22 de agosto de 2008
UNAM: $450.00
Otras instituciones: $600.00 (USD $55)
• Despues del 22 de agosto y hasta el 19 de septiembre de 2008
UNAM: $550.00
Otras instituciones: $700.00 (USD $65)
• Despues del 19 de septiembre y hasta el 17 de octubre de 2008
UNAM: $700.00
Otras instituciones: $900.00 (USD $82)

INFORMES E INSCRIPCIONES:

Lic. Juan Manuel Robles Correa
Depto. de Difusion y Educacion Continua del CUIB
Torre II de Humanidades, Piso 13, C. U.
Tels.: (52-55) 5623 0376, 0352
Fax: (52-55) 5623-0375
jmrobles@cuib.unam.mx
http://cuib.unam.mx

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Technorati tag: Metadata

Building Bridges, Creating Partnerships

At the SLA Annual Conference, Rebecca Jones and Craig Wingrove spoke on this topic (and I was the moderator for the session). Collaborating can be fabulous, if everyone is on the same page.

Quick notes from Rebecca's talk....

Driving Forces behind partnerships:

• Cost cutting
• Faster market entry / penetration
• Needed expertise or capabilities
• Improved client services
• New client services

Hindering Forces:

• Threat to Independence
• Politics of the organization
• Not having a plan or the time
• Jargon (no common language)
• Not wanting to appear pushy/aggressive
• Significant time and effort
• Difficult dynamics
• Loss of control and/or autonomy

Rebecca noted that she faithfully reads Harvard Business Review and encouraged everyone to read that publication in order to know what the business community is thinking.

Partnerships are often based on creative clashes.

Three things to consider:

• What is the purpose of the partnership?
• What are the prospective benefits?
• What are the risks?

The formal framework....(Rebecca will post her presentation, which includes this detailed slide here.) She said the framework should be placed in writing and documented. Yes, communication is further down the list than what you would expect, but by the time you get there, you will already have an idea of the communication style (if the partnership is a "go").

Working Principles & Ground Rules...a list of "hot-to's"...document these to ensure you are all on the same page. I think of this as creating something like a prenuptial agreement between people or groups.

Craig then spoke about partnerships from the aspect of the work he does (content buying). He noted that how he develops partnerships is likely very different from how others do, and so said that he was giving us examples for discussion, not advice.

He noted that content buying has many challenges that include vendor interaction, legal & privacy concerns, pricing, technology, training, and user needs. In building partnerships -- internally and externally -- Craig felt that it is important to recognize that people may be uncomfortable with the partnership building process. However, as Rebecca and Craig both said, it is important to make people comfortable and to get them on the same page. There are indeed many people who much be "on the team" including people are varying levels in the organization, as well as key stakeholders.

It is important that there be a team leader for the partnership. That person should be seen as a coach and initiator. The team leader must have a clear vision (and be able to communicate it). Whether or not the team leader is a member of the team or a supervisor will be up to how the organization functions.

During his presentation, Craig mentioned the book Virtual Teams: People Working Across Boundaries with Technology by Lipnack & Stamps (Wiley, 2000).

It is was interesting to hear both Craig and Rebecca talk abut using technology to keep the team on the same page. Since Web 2.0 and communication are a focus of this conference, it was good to hear them talk about the tools in relation to building partnerships. The tools mentioned included:

• Conference calls
• Collaboration tools
• Video conferencing
• Web conferencing

Finally, you must keep in mind that there are keys to success, when forming partnerships:

• Understand your organization and its values
  
• Get buy in from the right people
  
• Be flexible
  
• Understand that a partnership required hard work
  
• Understand that every situation is different

During the Q&A I mentioned that the documentation that Rebecca feels is needed for a partnership is similar to a prenuptial agreement. A prenup lays the groundwork for how the relationship will function as well as what will happen if the relationship fails. We need to realize that our partnerships need us to understand and document our expectations, roles, responsibilities, etc. as well as what will happen not only if things go well, but also what will happen if the partnership needs to be dissolved.

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Technorati tag: SLA2008

AIDA: call for volunteers

The announcement below was found on da blog web site.

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How safe are your digital assets? Do you think you know all about your digital assets? Would you like to understand more about how to improve digital asset management in your organisation?

ULCC are currently leading a project (sponsored by JISC) called Assessing Institutional Digital Assets, or AIDA. We’re looking for institutions in the HFE sector in the United Kingdom who would like to help us, by participating as a case study for this project.

The idea is that you would complete a guided self-assessment task which we hope will make things clearer in relation to you and your digital assets. We plan to do this around June-July 2008.

For this, we have drafted a self-assessment toolkit which would help determine your institution’s current capacity for digital asset management. It will help you assess your institution’s ability / readiness for digital asset management. Based on that assessment of readiness and maturity, later project outputs will provide recommendations on appropriate steps to take to improve digital asset management for you. (We’re approaching different institutions who are likely to be at different stages of maturity). The toolkit can be found at http://aida.jiscinvolve.org/toolkit/.

The process and the outputs of this project may be of some benefit to you. We think that the tools, guidance and case studies will help institutions understand how to take small steps forward to improve institutional maturity in regard to digital asset management and preservation concerns.

We’re looking to work with the following information experts: records managers, librarians, digital librarians, data curators, repository managers, information managers, digital asset managers, web masters, archivists, and others. Our guess is that there is no single person in the institution who can do the entire self-assessment, so it may turn into a team effort. There is also the possibility of on-site support or remote support from ULCC. We’re able to provide some financial support, via our JISC funding, to a small number of case-study sites.

If you’re interested in participating, we are looking at starting around June or July 2008, depending on availability of yourself and your staff. We expect the work to take an absolute maximum of eight days, but our hope and expectation is that it will be less for many institutions. At this stage, we are looking for participation from UK Higher Education institutions only, although comments from others are welcome.

Further information is available at our project website.

Contacts: Ed Pinsent (e.pinsent@ulcc.ac.uk) / Patricia Sleeman (p.sleeman@ulcc.ac.uk)

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Technorati tag: Digital Preservation

Blog post; Scan and Release: Digitizing the Boston Public Library

This long blog post, with photos, notes the abundant amount of information that Boston Public Library has.

Of this abundance, the digital group has so far scanned about 24,000 objects. When I point out to Maura Marx, the group’s head, that, given the library’s estimate that it has maybe 23 million objects, she’s looking at a 2,000 year project, she tells me that they’re just getting started. They’re going to bulk up, maybe do some offsite digitizing, and begin to make some serious progress.

I wonder how many years this project really will take?

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Technorati tag: Digitization

Comments requested on draft version of BCR CDP Imaging Best Practices

From the BCR web site:

BCR is inviting public comment on the draft version of BCR CDP Imaging Best Practices. It is intended to serve as a guide for practitioners in cultural heritage institutions that seek to create digital images from physical objects. Originally published by the Colorado Digitization Program in 2003 as the Western States Digital Imaging Best Practices, this updated version reflects the many changes that have occurred in the digitization field during the last five years.

We will accept comments on the document until close of business, Friday, June 13, 2008. Thank you for your contributions.

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Technorati tag: Digitization

Interactive Vietnam Veterans Memorial

I bookmarked this site a while ago. Since many people cannot go to Washington, DC to look at the Wall, this is a nice alternative. It also gives you features -- e.g., searching -- that is not available when you look at the monument itself.

The facts about the interactive Wall are fascinating (quoting):

• We found 58,320 names inscribed on The Wall.
• There are about 70 names which are duplicates or misspellings.
• 8 names are women.
• 2,056 are listed as "body not recovered."
• Average age is 22.8 years old.
• 6,301 images were photographed by Peter Krogh
• Darren Higgins used six computers to stitch 1,494 images into a single 5 gigapixel image of The Wall.

70 are duplicates or misspellings...I expect that the list was heavily proofed before the Wall was done, but mistakes happen. Being able to look at the list electronically allowed them to find this errors.

BTW when I copied the list above from the web site, then looked at the HTML, I saw a bullet point that had been commented out. I wonder if it was commented out because it wasn't correct or needed clarification? Would it be better if they had deleted the line totally, rather than leaving something on the site that shouldn't be there? (The comment says 26 names are listed as "not killed in action".)

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Technorati tag: Digitization

Jill's schedule & SLA Annual Conference

Next week is the Special Libraries Association Annual Conference, which will be held in Seattle, WA this year. I'm involved in three events at the conference:

• June 15 -- Digitization Essentials workshop, cost $299/SLA-members, $399/non-member. You can register online. Description: Digitization is much more than converting a physical or analog object into its digital equivalent: it efficiently repurposes crucial information resources to improve their use by staff, colleagues, and end-users. For libraries, digitization can open the collection to a much larger user-base, whether that user-base is comprised of researchers, students, or business people. A dangerous trap for digitization efforts is to focus on the conversion process instead of other, mission critical, pre-scanning issues such as selection criteria, preservation of original documents, metadata creation, software and hardware concerns, integration into existing systems, and legal issues. These issues and more will be discussed in this full-day workshop.

• June 16 -- Speaker (Panel), What's all the Buzz about Social Networking
  
• June 17 -- Panel Moderator, Building Bridges, Creating Partnerships
  

Although my schedule looks empty after the conference, it isn't -- I'm just waiting on date confirmations. If you would me to speak at your event, please give me a shout.

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Technorati tags: Digitization, Second Life, Social Networking Tools, SLA2008

Report: A Comparative Study of e-Journal Archiving Solutions

Neil Beagrie noted in his blog that this report -- A Comparative Study of e-Journal Archiving Solutions -- has just been published. According to Beagrie:

The report contains chapters covering: Approaches to e-journal preservation, Publisher licensing and legal deposit, Comparisons of Six Current e-Journal Archiving Programmes (LOCKSS, CLOCKSS, Portico, the KB e-depot, OCLC’s Electronic Collections Online, and the British Library’s e-journal Digital Archive), Practical experience of e-journal archiving solutions, Evaluation of four common scenarios/trigger events, and Criteria for judging relevance and value of new archiving initiatives. There are two appendices on Publisher Participation in different programmes.

Included in the report are 10 recommendations, which Beagrie outlines in his blog. The first recommendation is that negotiators have clear requirements when discussing archiving solutions. That goes along nicely with recommendation #8:

Using the scenarios outlined in this report, libraries should carry out a risk assessment on the impact of loss of access to e-journals by their institution, and a cost/benefit analysis, in order to judge the value and relevance of the archiving solutions on offer.

In other words, e-journal archiving is not something to be rushed into or taken lightly.

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Technorati tag: Digital Preservation

Report on UK LOCKSS Pilot Programme

This was found on the Digital-Preservation list.

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The JISC-funded UK LOCKSS Pilot Programme has recently been evaluated and the report is now available on the JISC website.

LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe) is an e-journal archiving system which enables institutions to keep licensed e-journal content on local servers so that in the event that the material is no longer accessible from the publisher's servers, users can still access it. LOCKSS is an open-source, peer-to-peer, decentralised, digital preservation infrastructure that was developed, and is still maintained, by Stanford University Library. The UK LOCKSS Pilot Programme is based at the University of Glasgow and supports a community of UK LOCKSS users comprising of thirty UK Higher Education Institutions. The report considers the future sustainability of the UK LOCKSS Programme and contains recommendations.

The report was authored by Pete Dalton and Angela Conyers (Evidence Base, Birmingham City University).

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Technorati tag: Digital Preservation

By 2010 the amount of storage available will be 40% less that the information created

This report -- The Expanding Digital Universe: A Forecast of Worldwide Information Growth Through 2010 -- contains a ton of information, but it can be summarized very simply. Humanity is creating information in many different ways and lots of it. By 2010 (figure 2, page 3), humanity will create 1,000,000 petabytes of information, but only have storage space for 600,000 petabytes. (Perhaps some of that information/data will not need to be stored.) One problem is replication, which is eating up storage space. (Many copies do keep stuff safe, but it also uses more storage space.) And of course, keeping information available/readable long-term is a serious issue and will only grow worse.

You are likely worried about the longevity of your stuff. Good. You might want to skim the report so you can see the bigger picture and the long-term implications.

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What is a petabyte? A gigabyte is 1000 megabytes. A terabyte is 1000 gigabytes. A petabyte is 1000 terabytes. [Addendum 2:11 p.m.: Okay, yes, the numbers should technically be 1024. The report- page 2 - uses 1000 for simplicity and I copied the information from the report.]

2:23 p.m. -- Sorry about the typos...more than usual. Sigh.

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Technorati tag: Digital Preservation

What image formats (RAW or TIFF) should you be archiving?

Maureen and her associates have asked this question about digital camera image files and come up with an answer. Is it either TIFF or RAW? Given the cost of storage, could it be both?

If you have comments on her idea, Maureen would like to hear them.

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Technorati tag: Digitization

Blog post: Evidence of the Impact of Early Digitisation?

Alastair Dunning, in Available Online, wrote:

Representatives from the UK funding bodies Museums, Libraries and Archives (MLA) and the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) which spoke at an event in spring 2008 which suggested there was not much enthusiasm from them for digitisation.

Rather than quoting the entire blog post, read what he wrote for yourself and then look at the posts he points to. Interesting....

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Technorati tag: Digitization

For New Yorkers: Regents Advisory Council on Libraries report highlights

This is now circulating on library discussion lists in New York State. As a member of the Regents Advisory Council on Libraries, I am also posting it here.

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REGENTS ADVISORY COUNCIL ON LIBRARIES RECOMMENDS INCREASED STATE FUNDING FOR LIBRARIES TO BOARD OF REGENTS

The 2008 report of the Regents Advisory Council on Libraries to the Board of Regents on the needs of New York's libraries and library systems is now online at www.nysl.nysed.gov/libdev/adviscns/rac/2008rept.htm

The report highlights the Council's discussion of the impact of the two percent across-the-board cut to New York State's Library Aid Program. Citing that the cut amounts to approximately $1.9 million of the $94 million ongoing Library Aid Program, the Council expressed concern that New York's libraries would be able to offer fewer books, fewer programs, and shortened hours to New York's library users.

The report also outlines the Council's recommendations to the Board of Regents for 2009 budget and legislative priorities for libraries. This includes:

• $5 million in state funding for the New York Digital Collection Initiative
• $20 million for the Public Library Construction Grant Program
• $10 million in Aid to Library Systems
• An increase to $10 per pupil in School Library Materials Aid
• State funding for the Statewide Summer Reading Program, Early Literacy Programs, and English as a Second Language Programs - $7 million
• State funding for Library Book Aid, Statewide Trustee Training and Support, Library Services for the Disabled, and Saturday hours for the State Library and State Archives - $12.05 million

The recommendations presented to the Board of Regents include a new proposal for a New York Digital Collection Initiative. The Initiative is a collaborative project involving libraries, archives, historical records repositories, museums, public broadcasting, and other partners.
It will incorporate the NOVELny pilot project/Statewide Internet Library. The purpose of the Initiative is to promote the use of digital technologies to broaden and enhance access to information available from local, regional, and New York State cultural education institutions.

More information about the Digital Collection Initiative is available online at http://www.nysl.nysed.gov/libdev/adviscns/rac/index.html

Please contact Lucretia McClure, Chairperson, New York State Regents Advisory Council on Libraries with any questions concerning the Council's 2008 report to the Board of Regents.

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Technorati tags: Regents, New York State, NYS, RAC, libraries, state library

Driving with bad brakes

We tend to think that our equipment and operations are perfect (best-in-class), because we operate in a vacuum. We may only seek out feedback that supports the picture we have of ourselves and our projects, rather than seeking out an independent view. It could be that a project begun years ago was state-0f-the-art at the time, but times have changed and that project may now be "old school," dated, and not a project to be admired. That move from being best-in-class to being not-so-great didn't happen overnight; it happened gradually.

Just like driving with bad brakes.

Brakes go bad slowly and if you don't know what to feel or listen for, you may not realize what has happened. However, unlike digitization programs, we do take cars in for periodic check-ups and our mechanics can tell us the sad truth -- our equipment isn't as good as it used to be. And once you know what to listen for, you can hear bad brakes! Just like having bad brakes, when someone opens your eyes to your project having equipment or operations that need updating, then you can't stop noticing it yourself (even if there is no squealing sound).

When we take our cars in for an oil change, we give our mechanics time to look things over and tell us how things are holding up. It could be that we need to spend a few dollars on maintenance, in order to eliminate the need of spending many dollars later on. What if you hired someone to take a peak under the hood of your digitization program? What if you asked a digitization "mechanic" to check things out, kick the tears, and give you an assessment? And what if spending a little money could give you peace of mind about the status of your project? Sounds a bit like money well spent.

Oh...yeah...my brakes are getting fixed today.

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Technorati tag: Digitization