Digitization agreement between the Library of Congress and others

According to the New York Times, "Last night the Library of Congress and a group of international libraries from the United States, Canada, Egypt, China and the Netherlands announced a plan to create a publicly available digital archive of one million books on the Internet. The group said it planned to have 70,000 volumes online by next April."

Google Will Digitize and Search Millions of Books From 5 Leading Research Libraries

That's the headline in the Chronicle of Education's Today's News. The BBC news noted that:

The libraries of five of the world's most important academic institutions are to be digitised by Google.

Scanned pages from books in the public domain will then be made available for search and reading online.

The full libraries of Michigan and Stanford universities, as well as archives at Harvard, Oxford and the New York Public Library are included.

Online pages from scanned books will not have adverts but will have links to online store Amazon, Google said.

A key point of this effort is that:

Books that are in the public domain will probably have their full text available through the search engine. For works that are protected by copyright -- the majority -- Google will show either bibliographic information or snippets of text that appear around a Google user's search term. (San Jose Mercury News)

The New York Times noted that:

Although Google executives declined to comment on its technology or the cost of the undertaking, others involved estimate the figure at $10 for each of the more than 15 million books and other documents covered in the agreements. Librarians involved predict the project could take at least a decade.

This will be an amazing effort! Everyone should keep his or her eye on this undertaking, and see what new understandings of digital libraries and digitization it yields.

How long do you expect digital files to last?

In going back through my notes of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference (MARAC), I see that one speaker talked about defining up front the lifespan of your digital materials you are creating. This is a point that we don't always consider. We may not creating digital assets that need to last forever. Perhaps the assets only need to last seven years for legal reasons, or some other defined length of time. So when thinking about a digitization project, think about the length of time you want the digital assets to last, then put the processes in place to ensure that they last that long AND (if necessary) destroy them at the appropriate time.

Digitization Training Opportunities

This following message is circulating on the Internet and worth noting.
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"Basics and Beyond" Digitization Training Opportunities!

The Illinois Digitization Institute at the University of Illinois Library
at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), through a National Leadership Grant from the
Institute of Museum and Library Services, is offering more digitization
training courses in 2005.

On-line Only Course: January 31 - February 18, 2005. This
three-week on-line course allows busy professionals the opportunity to
learn more about digitization from the convenience of their own
computers! Asynchronous, Web-based course allows participants to
use the on-line course time to engage in on-line discussions, solve real
world digitization problems, and do readings on various aspects of the
digitization process. Cost: $200.00 per person.

On-line Plus Hands-on: February 7 - 25 with workshop on March 1
and 2, 2005. 3-week web-based course followed by a 2-day, intensive
hands-on workshop which will take place at the UIUC campus. Once
the on-line portion is complete, participants will travel to the UIUC
campus for two days to work hands-on with scanners, digital cameras, and
other image capture devices, create metadata, and work with digital
imaging and image management software. The workshop will also
include guest experts in the areas of digitization and
preservation. Cost: $300.00 per person plus travel,
accommodations, and per diem for the 2-day workshop.

Both courses will be directed towards participants from libraries,
museums, archives, and other institutions who are seeking in-depth
digitization instruction to work with cultural heritage materials.
Discussions and assignments will focus on the following topics:

• Benefits and costs of digitization projects
• Issues involved with designing and evaluating digitization projects,
  and goal-setting
• Selection of materials for digitization
• Determining the best way to digitize a collection and make it
  accessible to the target audience
• Planning issues including: budgeting, workflow, copyright, storage,
  and preservation
• Metadata: best practices and creation
• Evaluating, selecting, and purchasing digitization equipment
• Basic scanning and image manipulation
• Delivery and access of digital images

Illinois cultural heritage associations may be able to qualify for a
scholarship to cover the cost of either of these courses.

To learn more about the "Basics and Beyond" digitization course series
and available scholarships or to register for courses, please visit
http://images.library.uiuc.edu/projects/IDI or contact:

Amy Maroso, Project Coordinator
Grainger Engineering Library Information Center
Phone: (217) 244-4946
E-mail: maroso@uiuc.edu

People like people who are responsive

Mark Zweig of ZweigWhite has written an article on being "hyper-responsive" to user requests. He believes that responding to a user in a few hours or within 24 hours is not enough; rather he believes that responding in 10 minutes is much better for the user and the organization. He notes that there are tools that will help people to be this responsive, but that we don't use them.

How responsive is your digital library or digitization project to user requests? How quickly can a person get a response? Historically, we have said that we would respond within 24 hours, but many people are working under deadlines (even students who are doing research), so is that really being responsive to someone's needs? Can we build a support network that will provide hyper-responsiveness to people -- no matter what time zone they live in -- when they use our online collections? If we are not hyper-responsive, will people see the collection as not being useful?

Obviously an idea worth discussing.