For New Yorkers: Presenting the NY Digital Collections proposal to the Regents' Elementary, Middle, Secondary and Continuing Education Committee

Today I am presenting the proposal for the New York Digital Collections Initiative to the Regents' Elementary, Middle, Secondary and Continuing Education Committee. The two-page overview that is in the Committee's meeting packet was written by Johanna Duncan Poitier (Senior Deputy Commissioner of Education) and Jeffrey Cannell (Deputy Commissioner for Cultural Education, and Acting State Librarian and Assistant Commissioner for Libraries). [MS Word version] The four-age discussion paper on the Initiative provides more background.

Like many other states, our state government is looking for ways of trimming the budget. This leaves every department and agency with a difficult decision -- how do you decrease spending while meeting the needs of constituents? In New York State, how do we create infrastructure for this Initiative -- that is necessary for the creation and use of digital resources that will improve access to information for students, teachers, researchers, businesses and ordinary citizens -- in today's economic reality?

My personal hope is that this proposal will be seen as a foundation for the future and a foundation that requires a commitment -- at some level -- in the 2009 budget. Waiting could be devastating. Short-term, I hope the EMSC Committee supports this proposal (as did the Cultural Education Committee) and that it will soon be supported by the entire Board of Regents.

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Technorati tags: Regents, New York State, NYS, RAC

American Association for State and Local History (AASLH) conference notes

On Wednesday, I had the opportunity to present at the AASLH conference in Rochester, NY on a panel with John Ansley (Marist College), Russell Gasero (Reformed Church in America) and Duane Watson (Wilderstein Historic Site). Our topic was "Using Digital Collections to Expand Your Audience" and each of us took a different viewpoint on the topic.

I led off and talked about for digitization programs and how each is using its assets to promote their collections and institutions. My slides are below. I talked about two programs that had placed materials elsewhere on the Internet, then about two programs that had placed materials on their web site in interesting ways.

Using Digital Collections toExpand Your Audience: Thinking Outside of the Box

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: aaslh digitization)

Russell Gasero talked about creating and using video at the Reformed Church in America to educate people about its history as well as what is in its archives. In the 1980s, the RCA wanted to produce a video about its history, however, a producing a video was going to cost $1000/minute. The RCA did do a 15 minute video, but there was much more that could be said. Russell is using software on his computer to create short videos. He noted that while people are purchasing high-definition TVs, our cell phones are video studios and playback devices. People seem to be okay with the rugged and rustic look from cell phone video. Therefore, we shouldn't be obsessed with having the best quality available.

When creating a video, Russell:

• Determines the purpose of the video
• Decides on the audience
• Works on his storytelling techniques
• Watch TV commercials in order to learn how to tell a short, succinct story.
• "Short is cheaper"
• "Brevity is beautiful"

His work flow is:

• Gather images/material
• Create a storyboard. You'll need approx. 10 minutes per minute minimum.
• Create the narrative and record the audio. Consider who, what, where, when, how and why.
• Put the images and the audio together.
• Look for transitions (how you get from one scene to the next) and keep it simple.
• Export to whatever medium you want.

Russell mentioned the following software -- PowerPoint Pro, Encore, Moviemaker and Audacity.

Duane Watson gave us a brief overview of Wilderstein, which is a historic house. The house is staffed by 200 volunteers and 2 paid staff. There are 10 people who work in the archives. The house has extensive holdings (45 rooms of "stuff"). Duane has worked with the Southeastern NY Library Resources Council to create digital images for Hudson River Valley Heritage. They digitize 108 items with help from an MLS student who was hired (grant funded). The 108 items equates to many more images, since some of the items are newsletters. For example, they digitized the American Field Service Bulletin.

John Ansley talked about the Lowell Thomas Travelogues that have been digitized at Marist College. This project is not yet completed (it will end in 2009). The 1000 cubit feet of materials spans the mid-1800s to the 1980s and include materials in all types of formats. He mentioned using Moviemaker and Audacity, as well as Google Analytics. John sees this digital collection as being a teaser for researchers. It will definitely attract me people to the collection.

After our presentation, I went to the exhibit hall (approx. 60 exhibitors) and visited with Alexander Street Press, Kirtas Technologies, Museum Association of NY, PastPerfect Software, and the Upstate History Alliance.

It was unfortunate that I couldn't stay for the more of the conference due to my crowded schedule. I know it would have been an educational and useful conference for me. Next year's conference will be August 27-30, 2009 in Indianapolis, IN. The call for proposals is already online. A session proposal must be submitted by an AASLH member, however, non-members may be presenters.

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Technorati tags: Digitization, Marketing

9-11-2008

In numerology, I believe that the number 7 stands for completion. If you look at some ancient writings, the number 7 seems to mean a long time. It has been 7 years since Sept. 11, 2001. For some, it may seem like yesterday and for others, it is a long time.

I will never forget that day. First, my best friend works and lives in NYC and had worked near the Trade Center. Her quick email that morning said in part, "Jill, I am ok...I am not in downtown area. I am hoping midtown is not next. I can't find my sister or husband. I hope they were not traveling. In case something happens, it has been really wonderful getting to know you again. You are a great person and have helped me [immensely]....cease the day!!! I WILL speak to you soon!!!! " Thankfully, her family was okay, although she did know some people who died that day. My email back also had a sense of saying good-bye. Part of it said, "You are a very special person. Truly my best friend...and I hope you will be that for many years." Yup, it was a day for saying the things that mattered.

Second, I didn't own a TV then, so had to rely on the radio and Internet for the news. It wasn't, however, until I saw some of the images on TV later in the day, that I understood what they meant when newscasters said that the Towers had fallen. Fallen? Wasn't that impossible? No, it wasn't.

Third, I taught a class at Syracuse University that afternoon, where I had to use all my humanity and compassion in order to address the situation and tell them about resources, etc. Class didn't last very long.

Today I'm flying to Washington, D.C. for a conference tomorrow. Because of that, 9-11 is on my mind more. Today will not be normal, although I wish it were. Sadly, for tens of thousands, today will never be normal, no matter how many years pass.

On New Year's Eve 2001, I visited Ground Zero and some other places around NYC. At the time, I didn't feel right taking photos of memorials. Two years later, I did photograph two memorials. The photos below were taken in 2003 near/at St. Vincent's Hospital on 7th Avenue. Many of the injured were taken to this hospital in 2001. The tiles were done by artists from all ages and backgrounds from across the U.S. When I was in NYC last fall, the tiles were still there. It was one of many impromptu memorials and one that has lasted. The very last photo is of a memorial that was on a wall at St. Vincent's. I do not know if it is still there.

You can click on the photos in order to view a longer image.

9/13/2008: The flight on Sept. 11 went well, although we took an odd landing approach coming into National Airport. I always like flying into D.C. because of all you can see from the air. It is a great view of Washington!

BTW Today I corrected grammar and typos in this blog post, and added Technorati tags. I guess I wrote it too quickly on Thursday.

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Technorati tag: Ground Zero, 911, New York City, World Trade Center

Google partnering with ProQuest & Heritage - Part 2

Yesterday I wrote about the partnership between Google, ProQuest and Heritage. The ProQuest press release states:

"Newspapers are the lifeblood of every community-with a wide ranging interest for a myriad of users. The demand for digitized newspaper archives is clearly there. The problem is it that, until now, finding a workable economic model for libraries and publishers has been challenging," said Rod Gauvin, ProQuest senior vice-president of publishing. "This model overcomes that hurdle, unlocking a wealth of content for libraries and internet users with unique research needs."

The ProQuest/Google partnership does not impact ProQuest's other digital newspaper offerings such as its acclaimed ProQuest Historical Newspapers, which will continue to be strongly developed for use by serious researchers. Users of such products require robust application and search tools provided by the power of the ProQuest platform. The content delivered via Google's platform will be supported with a variety of advertising and e-commerce models that are standard in an open web context.

ProQuest will contribute content to the partnership, and will introduce newspaper publishers nationwide to the program. ProQuest will also supply from its microfilm vault newspaper content that can be delivered effectively in the less formal framework of the open web. The company currently holds more than 10,000 newspaper titles, most of which are pristine master film copies. This high level of microfilm quality allows for the creation of better scanned images, which will ultimately deliver more accurate OCR results for users.

While ProQuest's film vault will be tapped, the open web model does not replace or diminish ProQuest's commitment to microfilm. "The open web program is about access to content and has no impact on preservation, where microfilm is the 'gold standard,'" said Mr. Gauvin. "Microfilm is a technology-neutral format, so no matter the state of future technology, anything preserved on it can be read and stored effectively. It's an essential for preserving local history and culture, as well as the world's scholarship."

The work of the ProQuest/Google partnership commences immediately and is expected to be ongoing over multiple years.

The press release only talks about the microfilm content that ProQuest owns. ProQuest owns a lot of other content and so I will continue to wonder if this partnership could lead to something else between the company and Google.

Heritage, which creates microfilm and also can scan microfilm, does not have a press release on its web site about this partnership. Heritage owns NewspaperARCHIVE.com which boasts:

Easily Find Over 2.90 Billion Names • Over 968.76 Million Articles Search 89.7 Million Pages • 760 Cities • 240 Years • 2,905 Titles

Raymond McInnis asked in his comment on yesterday's post:

what impact, do you suppose, google will have up newspaperarchive.com?

Okay, so let's assume that Heritage is not willing to open up its NewspaperARCHIVE and let people have access to the content for free. Heritage could be the company that does the actual digitizing of the microfilm. And they could allow their newspapers to be indexed by Google so that searches through Google would find newspaper content that Heritage owns. Both of those would be a "win" for the company at least for the near-term.

Finally, I want to point to comments made by Stephen Arnold in his blog. I've known Steve for many years and trust his opinion. He has a keen insight into the search market and has been watching Google closely (and writing about them). Steve made three points in his blog post about this announcements:

• First, you can kiss most commercial database publishers’ as great investments good bye.
• Second, you can ignore those Monday Night Football ads from Thomson Reuters.
• Third, the yip yap of competitors, advertisers, and Google critics won’t make a single iota of difference to what Google is doing.

If I take his comments into account (and you should read the entire blog post), this is a short-term win-win situation for the companies involved, but long-term this is a bigger win for Google. Google's service model has broadened the search market. Oh...but professional searcher don't use Google. Honestly, they're likely using Google more than they will admit. And if Google continues to add content and improve, wouldn't it be more cost-effective to use Google first and use the others if necessary? (And what portion of the search market are professional searchers?)

This will continue to be something to watch. I'll be interested in other people's analysis of the situation and what other companies do now in hopes of combating Google. If you have comments or pointers to information, please let me know.

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Technorati tags: Digitization, Google, ProQuest, Heritage Microfilm

Google partnering with ProQuest & Heritage to digitize newspapers (oh...and ProQuest already has access to a lot of newspaper content)

Google is expanding its digitization efforts with this announcement:

Today, we're launching an initiative to make more old newspapers accessible and searchable online by partnering with newspaper publishers to digitize millions of pages of news archives.

Google explains that this effort will be a partnership:

This effort expands on the contributions of others who've already begun digitizing historical newspapers. In 2006, we started working with publications like the New York Times and the Washington Post to index existing digital archives and make them searchable via the Google News Archive. Now, this effort will enable us to help you find an even greater range of material from newspapers large and small, in conjunction with partners such as ProQuest and Heritage, who've joined in this initiative.

mmm...and ProQuest now owns Dialog, which likely has one of the largest newspaper repositories already. I wonder if that will somehow get factored in? One of the questions I posed in June was:

Wouldn't it be interesting if they -- at some point -- bought and added Dialog's files to its service?

Let's keep our eyes on this and see what develops!

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Technorati tags: Digitization, Google