Article: Libraries getting the digital treatment

This article starts out with a bleak story of a student doing research in the library, but is actually a positive story about the California Digital Library. Very interesting article with good information on what libraries will become. For example:

Gary Strong, the UCLA librarian, said that he envisions the library of the future as a space of collaborative learning. Instead of coming to the library to read books, students will be able to collaborate with peers and faculty while looking at and researching collections of rare material, he said.

And...

Last year there were 3.5 million downloads of UCLA's online licensed journals, Strong said. Comparatively, Powell library [at UCLA] had only 1.5 million visits, he [Strong] said.

And students said that due to the increasing availability of online materials, that number is most likely going to decrease.

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Technorati tags: Libraries, Digitization

Copyright Resources Project website

From IMAGELIB:

Since 2003, the Pacific Film Archive of the University of California, Berkeley has been working on an IMLS-funded project to develop innovative approaches to working with copyright-protected documents in the digital environment. As part of the project, we have created the Copyright Resources Project website
(http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/pfa_library/copyright_project/)
designed to share the results of our research and to offer guidelines and resources.

In order to make the website as useful as possible, we would greatly appreciate your feedback. Could you please take a few minutes to look at the website and briefly answer the survey questions available there (or you can access the survey directly here). We will make final revisions to the website based on your comments.

Thank you again for your time and support. Please feel free to contact Nancy Goldman at NLG@berkeley.edu with any questions.

Small digitization projects with no metadata

I've been reading about various sized digitization projects and noticing that smaller project sometimes -- still -- do not create metadata. Why should they? The project is small and does need that level of access. Sadly...

• These project teams are not thinking about how their materials might be used in the future.
• The libraries are not considering the possibility that this small project may grow into something bigger.
• The libraries are not adding records into their library management system for these new digital assets, so that users can find them through the OPAC.
• The libraries are not thinking about federated search options that would allow their content to be searched along with other digitized materials.
• The project managers are not realizing that the time/money they have saved may only be a temporary saving. That time and money may need to be spent in the future in order collaborate with others, provide additional access points, or just make the content more useful.

Reading about these projects makes me realize how much work still needs to be done in order for all projects (programs) to be high-quality efforts.

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Technorati tag: Digitization

Thinking outside of the box

I've decided to post part of my lecture (IST 677) for this week. In the last two weeks, I've tried to get the students to think outside of the box on how to make digitized materials available online. I've been trying to push them out of their "library" comfort zones and seek inspiration elsewhere.

This week, I wrote:

Thinking outside of the box: The discussion question last week was one meant to get you thinking outside of the box. The example I gave in the question had to do with interactive online maps. Some of you mentioned Amazon.com, ebooks, using iPods, etc.

As librarians, we tend to look at our “library world” for ideas. Historically, this has been good, but the world has changed.

• Ÿ How people use technology has changed.
• Ÿ Our reliance on various types of media has changed.
• Ÿ Our attention spans have change. We flip TV channels quickly. We change radio stations quickly. And we form an opinion about a web site in a 20th of a second.
• Ÿ We expect flashiness.
• Ÿ We want information yesterday. In other words, meet my information need immediately or before I know that I have the need.

It is time to look elsewhere for inspiration.

What tools do you use? PC? Laptop? Cell phone? PDA? Instant/text messaging?

Which of those tools can you use in your library? Which of those tools can you use to communicate with your library?

Which of those tools can you use to interact with the digitized materials at a library?

How do you want to interact with your library? How does that 18 year old adult want to interact with the library?

There is a movement to make libraries better that is known as Library 2.0 (or L2). The “Library 2.0” name may not stick, but I think the ideas behind it will. What is Library 2.0? Sarah Houghton (LiB) says that Library 2.0 is…

…making your library’s space (virtual and physical) more interactive, collaborative, and driven by community needs…The basic drive is to get people back into the library by making the library relevant to what they want and need in their daily lives…to make the library a destination and not an afterthought.

Part of Library 2.0 is about using technology better (e.g., social networking tools), but part is also just focusing on our users and given them what they need (not what we are able to give them).

So here is a challenge…I hope you will begin to look at the services and ideas that exist around you and begin to think about how they can be applied to a library. What can you learn from the businesses you interact with? From the media? From museum (e.g., interactive museums)? From video games?

And then think about if there is something you’re seeing that would make a collection of digitized content even better for its users.

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Technorati tags: Digitization, library 2.0

Event: 2nd International Workshop on Digital Genre

Call for Contributions and Participation in
2nd International Workshop on Digital Genre
June 15-16, 2006
Halmstad University, Sweden

This is the second international workshop to explore the world of Digital genre, from both the theoretical and practical aspects. In the 1st workshop held at Dalhousie University, Canada, we explored E-News from the perspectives of design issues and challenges. In particular, we explored the impact of current work on genre and news delivery, user profiles, task, and future tehnologies. This year we are expanding the discussion to other application areas including web searching, tourism, management information, new media, blogs and digital libraries.

Interested people can submit to the following categories, by March 31, 2006:
- position papers - 2-5 pages for web and printed proceedings
- posters - one page abstract
- participation - one paragraph to 1 page statement of interest.

All submissions should be emailed to Carina.ihlstrom@ide.hh.se

For more information contact the workshop organizers Carina Ihlstrom, University of Halmstad, and Carolyn Watters (watters@cs.dal.ca), Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada, or check the
workshop website *http://digitalgenre.hh.se*