Event: Planets Outreach and Training event, 22-24 June 2009

From the Digital Preservation discussion list.

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You are invited to participate in the Planets Outreach and Training event, ‘Digital Preservation – the Planets way’ at the Royal Library in Copenhagen, Denmark, on 22-24 June 2009.

Registration is now open, and a full event programme and registration form is available on the Planets website at: http://www.planets-project.eu/events/copenhagen-2009/.

Day 1 of the event explores the challenges of digital preservation and introduces the Planets tools and services. On Days 2 and 3 delegates will gain hands-on experience of working with Planets and a scenario (sample collection) to develop a preservation plan and preserve digital objects. The event will include plenty of opportunity for discussion, sharing ideas and best practice and to ask questions.

The event is aimed at CEOs, Heads of IT, Curation and Preservation, IT staff, digital librarians and archivists, curators, policy managers and other staff preparing to or involved in preserving digital content.

You can register for either Day 1 only at a cost of 80 EUR, or for all three days at a cost of 175 EUR.

Due to the nature of the event there is an upper capacity of 60 delegates on Day 1 and 40 delegates on Days 2 and 3.

Final closing date for all registrations is 11 June 2009.

This event is the first in a series of Planets outreach and training events to be hosted at venues across Europe between June 2009 and May 2010.

Planets (Preservation and Long-Term Access through Networked Services) is a four-year project co-funded by the European Union under Framework Programme 6 to address core digital preservation challenges. Planets is building practical tools and services to help ensure long-term access to our digital cultural and scientific assets.

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Technorati tag: Digital Preservation

Career Building and Staying Relevant in Trying Economic Times

Yesterday, the Upstate New York Chapter of the Special Libraries Association held an all-day event on "Career Building and Staying Relevant in Trying Economic Times" at SUNY Albany. An abundance of good information was exchanged during the event, as well as during the informal times in the day.

The morning speaker was Rachel Singer Gordon who is an author, editor and webmaster of LISjobs.com. Gordon divided her talk into the 12 R's which all have to do with establishing your career:

1. Refocus
2. Recognize the need to be proactive
3. Reinvest
4. Resume
5. Relocate
6. Resources
7. Reconnect
8. Ready yourself
9. Rethink
10. Reframe
11. Resilience
12. Realize

If I were to summarize her talk, I would say that her message was to understand yourself and your options. Think broadly. Don't be quick to eliminate possibilities. Keep yourself current (and your resume). Set goals and set a path for achieving them.

Gordon pointed to LISjobs.com as a site that does contain resources for job seekers and noted that many people don't take advantage of that part of the web site. She "hammered home" that there are conference scholarships, etc., that are available for people to apply for, yet few submit applications.

Gordon noted that how you think about your career is impacted by who you think is in control of your career: you or external forces. The key is for you to take ownership of your career.

Another resource for us to know about is Beyond The Job which contains "articles, job-hunting advice, professional development opportunities, and other news and ideas on how to further your library career."

The other morning speaker was Noah Simon from the SUNY Albany Career Center. Simon said that this economy is teaching use about career development. Everyone wants a recession-proof career, but we all should have been building recession-proof careers before the recession hit.

Simon talked about the 2% rule. He believes that you should spend 2% of each work week focusing on your career (that's 30 - 60 min. per week). What should you be doing with that time?

• Update your resume
• Look at your skill set and think about which skills are transferable to other types of jobs
• Make new contacts
• Follow-up on old contacts
• Place yourself in appropriate social networking tools (e.g., LinkedIn)
• Work on your skills
• ...and more

He emphasized over and over again that we need to be in control of our careers. We spend a lot of time planning vacations, etc., shouldn't we also plan our careers?

One question he asked was, "Are you being shut out of your current field (of expertise) or are you shutting yourself out?"

During lunch, Chris Miller, treasurer for the Upstate NY Chapter, talked about the resources available through SLA. there are many, many resources available to members on the SLA web site and most of us are unaware of what is there. If you have not explored the web site in the last year, please take time to look at it. Your membership dollars are providing an increased number of resources to you.

BTW Miller used this interactive map during his presentation which shows when jobs disappeared in the U.S.

After lunch, Ruth Wolfish, Association Chapter Cabinet Chair-Elect, spoke about SLA's Alignment Project. She provided us with a overview of the project and some of what had been learned. She encouraged each of us to go through the information on the SLA web site about this project. The goal of the Alignment Project is to help the Association and each of us understand how we should be positioning ourselves in the mind of our employers and clients. We know that the terms "special libraries" and "special librarians" are not clear and so what words, etc., should we be using?

SLA has been thinking about the "name thing" for a long time and this project is a very organized attempt at figuring it out. I think our earlier failed conversations on this really paved the way for this project. I, for one, have an open mind about the results.

The final part of the day was a panel discussion with Ruth Wolfish, Euan Morton, Polly-Alida Farrington, and myself talking about our career paths. None of us would have guessed the paths our careers have taken! Three of us are now independent information professionals with our own consulting businesses. Three of us had worked in IT or library systems during our careers. Three of us had corporate backgrounds. (And I should note that who the "three" are changes with each statement.) All of us had worked in libraries at some point. Our tips overlapped and included:

• Remaining flexible
• Being curious
• Learning how to network
• Developing and maintaining a good network
• Understanding how to promote yourself
• Being open to the possibilities that come your way

While hard to define, those of use who had some IT experience felt that it was a good addition to our skills set. I think our consensus was that the how-to wasn't as important as understanding how to communicate with IT and how to collaborate with them.

The themes of the day continued on the drive back to Syracuse between four of us who carpooled together (two MLS students and two information professionals). The day raised questions and also provided inpetus to "get moving". The students really saw the day as a wake-up call.

One of the conversations we had was about the value of the MLS. I've been in several conversations this spring on this topic. My bottom line is that there are library positions where the MLS is important: reference, research services, cataloguing, and management. Some libraries are hiring retail managers to run specific "client-facing" departments. In those areas, there are skills that those people have that an MLS may not have. The staff in circulation tends not to have an MLS, since circulation does not require the knowledge that is gained with an MLS. Those who do technology training within a library (for staff and users) often do not have an MLS. As for the IT area, that group may be a mix of MLS and non-MLS employees because both will bring necessary knowledge and skills to the position.

It is important to recognize that those who have an MLS and those who do not are all doing important, valuable work. Without each group, our libraries would fail. Members of each group are active in the overall profession through their writing and speaking, volunteer work, and leadership.

Yesterday was a long day. We left at 6 a.m. and return to Syracuse at 6 p.m., but it was very worthwhile! I'm glad for the new people I met and for those that I got a chance to see again. Hopefully everyone took away some action items; I know I did. Besides being reminded to tend to my own career every week, I was reminded to encourage others to tend to theirs. Of course, I found some tools to check out including Prezi and Wordle (I may be the last person on earth to try Wordle).

BTW for Upstate NY SLA members, I know that there will be a longer summary of the day likely in the next newsletter. These are just my notes and I know they only skim the surface.

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Technorati tag: SLA

Life photos on Google and copyright:: Updated info

I've complained here and here about the copyright statement on the Life photographs likely being inaccurate. Now I see that the photos are marked:

For personal non-commercial use only

While this is better, it would still be in Life's (and Google's) best interest to provide more information on their expectations of those who use the site. Yes, this requires thought but it would be good to document and communicate. For an example, see the Conditions of Use page for the UBdigit program.

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Technorati tags: Digitization, Google

World Digital Library launched on April 20

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and 32 partner institutions launched the World Digital Library on Monday. It is a $60 million joint effort. Quoting the press release:

The World Digital Library functions in seven languages―Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish―and includes content in more than 40 languages. Browse and search features facilitate cross-cultural and cross-temporal exploration on the site. Descriptions of each item and videos, with expert curators speaking about selected items, provide context for users and are intended to spark curiosity and encourage both students and the general public to learn more about the cultural heritage of all countries.

The World Digital Library was developed by a team at the Library of Congress. Technical assistance was provided by the Bibliotheca Alexandrina of Alexandria, Egypt. Institutions contributing to the WDL include national libraries and cultural and educational institutions in Brazil, Egypt, China, France, Iraq, Israel, Japan, Mali, Mexico, Morocco, the Netherlands, Qatar, the Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Slovakia, South Africa, Sweden, Uganda, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Contributed content covers nearly 200 countries and includes 1,200 high-resolution digitized files. 1,200 files is a modest beginning, but it is a beginning. The project's funding and partner commitment should allow this to grow to include much, much more.

Time Magazine wonders, though:

While the artifacts themselves are well-presented and engrossing, it's hard to see how this promising collection of primary sources can avoid competing with the likes of Google and Wikipedia for readers who don't need to read Genji in the original Japanese.

Good point and hopefully something that has been addressed in the project and marketing plans for this effort.

If you haven't looked at it, please do. The browse function is quite cool and will undoubtedly get people to play with it, use it, and learn from it.

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Technorati tag: Digitization

For New Yorkers: Report on the Meeting with the Regents Committee on Cultural Education, April 20

Yesterday morning, the Regents Advisory Council on Libraries (RAC) met with the New York State Board of Regents' Committee on Cultural Education. In addition to the members of the Committee, Chancellor Merryl Tisch was also in attendance. Norm Jacknis, chair of RAC, presented our report to the Regents, which focused on three areas:

• Fiscal Challenges -- It is clear that many of our libraries are facing fiscal challenges at a time when our citizens are relying on them more. We urged "the Board of Regents to press right now to maintain and increase state and federal funding for our libraries and library systems. Along with funding for State Aid to Schools, the Board of Regents needs to make state and federal funding for libraries a Regents priority budget and legislative item, each and every year."
• The Key Role Of Libraries In The Education Of All New Yorkers -- We asked that the Regents"ensure that libraries and library systems are recognized as full partners in the educational process and as necessary for student achievement. " As part of that we asked that the Board of Regents "strengthen and expand [the] present mandates for school library programs to include certified library media specialists at the elementary school level." We also asked that the State Library's role in providing electronic resources not be threatened.
• The Need To Re-evaluate Library Services In The Internet Age -- It has been a number of years since the Regents Commission on Library Services. Given the changes that have occurred since 2000, we asked that the Regents consider creating a new commission. Understanding the changes that have occurred in technology, we hope that any new commission could work effectively together while limiting the need for face-to-face (costly) meetings.
  

The Regents in attendance were vocal in their general support of our report and specifically in the need to have strong libraries in New York State. They recognize that the fiscal challenges that we face will be with New York State for a while, but are hopeful in helping libraries get through this tough time. They clearly understand the role that libraries can and do play in education, both for those in P-16 as well as those who are re-tooling themselves for new careers. I was pleased with their questions, suggestions and comments.

I left the meeting (and the post-meeting informal conversations) believing that now is the time for libraries to form the partnerships with business, industry, etc., so that our position in society is clear to everyone, especially those who control library funding. With those partnerships in place, requests for funding will be met with fewer challenges. We need to understand that although education is important, our societal concern at the moment is with an unstable economy. We need to connect ourselves to those engines that keep the economy moving forward and demonstrate ourselves a necessary core of that work.

It is not enough to say that businesses need us. They need to be at the table with us. For example, we need to be working with the Department of Labor and others on providing services that our users require (i.e., for job searches). We need to open our doors and make our "house" a "home" for more activities and more partners.

In addition, I left the meeting realizing that the Regents need to hear more from libraries, and those who advocate on behalf of libraries. And that does include hearing much more frequently from the Regents Advisory Council on Libraries. The Regents have important work/decisions ahead of them and we need to be sure that they have the needed information for those decisions.

Finally, I want to note that New York State Librarian Bernard Margolis and Deputy
Commissioner Jeffey Cannell were also in attendance yesterday and voiced support for RAC's report. Michael Borges, Executive Director of the New York Library Association, was in the audience. And I believe that State Education Commissioner Richard Mills was present for part of the meeting.

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