MCN 2008: Call for Proposals

From the HISTORY-DIGITISATION discussion list.

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ARE YOU READY TO SUBMIT?

Because we are ready to hear from you, MCN is planning something special for this year's conference in Washington D.C. We've already lined up a few special sessions that might be of interest:

--Leveraging our Washington, DC location, MCN 2008 will feature special technology sessions. One of these will focus on key aspects of collections imaging; organized by Alan Newman, Chief of Digital Imaging and Visual Services at the National Gallery of Art, it will consist of two parts: an expert panel at the conference venue and an on-site visit to the National Gallery of Art's imaging facilities.

--Diane M. Zorich, Museum Information Management Consultant, will be leading a panel looking at the national issues that impact our day-to-day business. What are some of the big topics that you need to get up to speed on? We'll take advantage of being in the nation's capital to rev up your engines. Diane and her panelists will have some answers, if you have the questions. In fact, maybe you'll have some answers as well.

--Joyce Ray, Associate Director of Library Services for the IMLS, will be leading a panel composed of top-level officials from funding organizations to give conference attendees a view from 30,000 feet. What are funders looking for in projects? What technology trajectories are they seeing now and what seems to be looming on the horizon for future funding.

--Richard Cherry, Directory of Operations, Skirball Cultural Center, is putting together a series of "how to" workshops for the opening day of the conference high-lighting some of the technology tools that are powering the museum industry and the museum partners who use them. You'll have the opportunity to get in and get your hands dirty as well as asking the hard questions.


AND NOW...we need to hear from you.
CALL FOR PROPOSALS
MCN 2008 LET'S DO I.T. RIGHT!

Washington D.C. November 12-15, 2008
Call for Proposals and submissions form are now online; please see:
http://www.mcn.edu/conferences/index.asp?subkey=2014

The MCN 2008 program committee wants YOU to submit your ideas for papers, panels, case studies, workshops, roundtables, and poster sessions for this year's annual conference. Join us in the nation's capital for four days of targeted programming emphasizing the how-tos of Information Technology as well as the "why-tos." Prospective presenters are invited to submit proposals in any of the following areas, as well as on other topics:

• Social Networking, Web 2.0 & Web 3.0
• Superior Content, Superior Delivery
• Digital Readiness
• Museum Information Standards
• Issues of National Concern for Museums
• Opportunities for Emerging Professionals Leadership, Sustainability, Accountability

If you've got an idea for a great panel or a workshop use the online form:
http://www.mcn.edu/conferences/index.asp?subkey=2014 to speed it our way.

Not quite sure if it's right for a panel or workshop? There are other opportunities for presentation. If your museum or company is working on a project that you would like to share with all the delegates, opt for our new Case-Study showcase format or if there is a topic you feel might be of national or international concern to delegates at the conference submit that idea for one of our round-table discussions. If you aren't quite sure whether your idea is ready for a full paper or case study, you might like to introduce it at one of the poster sessions held during a coffee break. Any and all ideas welcome.

Online proposals will be accepted from March 3 to March 21, 2008.
http://www.mcn.edu/conferences/index.asp?subkey=2014

If you have questions or need more information please contact:
Holly Witchey, MCN Program Chair 2008
216-707-2653
hwitchey@clevelandart.org

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Technorati tag: Digitization

Library Camp @ Syracuse

Today was the first day of the Library Camp @ Syracuse. The focus of today was the Future of Libraries. As one of the organizers of this event, I'm very pleased about the participation (80+) and information exchange. I've written two blog posts on today here and here.

Tonight we'll spend time playing board and electronic games. Tomorrow will be the Collection Development Conference.

Addendum (3/6/2008): You can find all of my blog posts about the Library Camp @ Syracuse here, including some pre-conference peeks "under the hood."

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Technorati tag: unyunc

Blog post: Five Key Issues in Digitisation - JISC Digitisation Conference, 2007

From the JISC Digitisation blog:

The JISC Digitisation Conference was held at the St David’s Hotel and Conference Centre in Cardiff on 20/21 July 2007. It gathered together some of the leading digitisation projects, funding-bodies, publishers, archives, libraries and many of the key thinkers in the area. There was an international delegate list, drawing in representatives from the UK, France, Germany, Italy, the US, Canada and elsewhere.

The full report, including details of all speakers’ presentations, is available to download as a PDF file (303kb).

You can read overviews of the five key issues here, including the issue of sustainability.

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Technorati tag: Digitization

Backing up your digital images?

A woman at yesterday's workshop (Promotion & Use of Digital Projects) asked a question during break about digital preservation that I would like to toss out to you. Please leave comments to tell us how you have handled this situation. Thanks!

At her institution, they are creating digital assets which are being stored on the organization's servers. The IT department backs-up the servers nightly and those backups are stored in a secure location and in the correct environment. However, all backups are not kept indefinitely with backup tapes being regularly reused. In order to ensure that they have the files necessary for any migration efforts needed (or for restoring the production system), I suggested that a backup be made and stored off-site indefinitely (utilizing the services of an company that provides this type of service). In addition, I recommended that they create a new backup yearly and store that one also off-site indefinitely. My assumption is that the backup would contain both the high quality files as well as the access files and metadata (or other associated content). My other assumption is that tapes -- stored properly -- should last for extended lengths of time (10 - 30 years) and that having yearly backups would allow the organization to go back to specific snapshots in time.

My answer above is based on my years working in IT (a previous life), but it may not be what large projects are doing (or recommending) currently. Therefore, please let us know what have you put into practice? What are the holes in my logic?

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Technorati tag: Digital Preservation

Blog post: Flickr used to publicize SRU Archives photos

Quoting the blog post:

The Slippery Rock University Archives is using Flickr to reach out to the larger community. A collection of World War II photographs has been posted to the public.

I mentioned yesterday, in a workshop on the Promotion & Use of Digital Project, that a project could successfully use a photo sharing service to promote itself. What a joy to see an announcement about this project in my email this morning!

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Tehcnorati tag: Marketing