Laura Sheble et al. have released the 2009 Greenstone User and Developer Survey.
Here's an excerpt:
The 2009 Greenstone User and Developer Survey was designed to gather information about the organizational and technical contexts in which organizations and individuals use Greenstone Digital Library Software. A major component of the survey focused on how support resources are used and how current resources meet user needs.
The Council on Library and Information Resources has released The Idea of Order: Transforming Research Collections for 21st Century Scholarship.
Here's an excerpt from the announcement:
The Idea of Order explores the transition from an analog to a digital environment for knowledge access, preservation, and reconstitution, and the implications of this transition for managing research collections. The volume comprises three reports. The first, "Can a New Research Library be All-Digital?" by Lisa Spiro and Geneva Henry, explores the degree to which a new research library can eschew print. The second, "On the Cost of Keeping a Book," by Paul Courant and Matthew "Buzzy" Nielsen, argues that from the perspective of long-term storage, digital surrogates offer a considerable cost savings over print-based libraries. The final report, "Ghostlier Demarcations," examines how well large text databases being created by Google Books and other mass-digitization efforts meet the needs of scholars, and the larger implications of these projects for research, teaching, and publishing.
Presentations from the Texas Conference on Digital Libraries 2010 are now available.
Here's some representative presentations:
The University of Arizona Digital Information Management (DigIn) certificate program has released a series of podcasts and videos about information management topics.
Here's the press release:
The University of Arizona Digital Information Management (DigIn) certificate program recently hosted a series of talks by members of the program's national advisory panel. The resulting podcasts offer an in-depth discussion of critical themes we explore regularly in the DigIn courses as we help information professionals meet the challenges we face in the digital environment today.
All podcasts are available at:
http://digin.arizona.edu/presentations.html
Friday, April 23, 2010
University of Arizona Main Library"Career Paths for Information Professionals: Looking Ahead to 2020"
A panel discussion with members of the national advisory panel for the Digital Information Management (DigIn) graduate certificate program. This discussion examines the evolving role of the information professions today, and focuses on the skills and knowledge professionals need to build effective careers in a fast-changing environment.
Moderator:
Peter Botticelli
Director, DigIn program
http://digin.arizona.edu/Panelists:
Charles Bailey, Jr.
Publisher, Digital Scholarship
http://www.digital-scholarship.org/Richard Pearce-Moses
Past President, Society of American Archivists
Deputy Director for Technology and Information Resources,
Arizona State Library, Archives and Public RecordsChristine Szuter
Professor of Practice and Director
Scholarly Publishing certificate program,
Arizona State UniversityPete Watters
Technology Officer
Arizona State Library, Archives and Public RecordsFriday, April 23, 2010 James E. Rogers College of Law
Roberta I. Shaffer Law Librarian of Congress
"Digitization and the Future of Law Libraries"
Legal Information is increasingly born digital and presents challenges of authenticity and preservation that are critical because of the role of legal authorities in establishing the "rule of law." This presentation by Roberta I. Shaffer, the Law Librarian of Congress, will discuss unique challenges that face law makers, law practitioners, and information professionals who are the stewards of our legal legacy. Ms. Shaffer will also discuss developments at the Library of Congress that are designed to address some of the concerns.
Friday, April 23, 2010 University of Arizona Main Library
Richard Pearce-Moses
Past President, Society of American Archivists
Director of Digital Government Information,
Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records
http://rpm.lib.az.us/"Curating the Digital Past: Lessons from the PeDALS Project"
As the volume and complexity of digital information continues to grow, archivists and librarians have begun to develop the tools needed to preserve society’s legacy of digital records. This presentation by Richard Pearce-Moses will discuss the PeDALS project, a nationally-recognized digital preservation initiative funded by the Library of Congress, National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP) as part of its Preserving State Government Information initiative. This initiative focuses on capturing, preserving, and providing access to a rich variety of state and local government digital information.
DigIn is part of the University of Arizona School of Information Resources and Library Science. Major funding for the program comes from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), which has also provided scholarship funding.
Additional details on the program, including course descriptions, admissions requirements and application forms may be found on the program website:
Applicants may also contact the DigIn staff at:
digin@email.arizona.edu
D-Lib Magazine has published a special issue on digital libraries in China.
Here are the articles:
Presentations and handouts from the CNI Spring 20010 Task Force Meeting are now available.
Here are a few example presentations:
The Europeana Foundation, the governing body of the Europeana service, has published its Public Domain Charter. The Europeana beta currently links users to around 6 million digital objects. About 10 million digital objects are expected to be available this year, when version 1.0 becomes operational.
Here's an excerpt from the announcement:
Today Europeana officially publishes the Public Domain Charter. It takes a strong position in support of the Public Domain, saying that:
Europeana belongs to the public and must represent the public interest. The Public Domain is the material from which society creates cultural understanding and knowledge. Having a thriving Public Domain is essential to economic and social well-being. Digitisation of Public Domain content does not create new rights over it. Works that are in the Public Domain in analogue form continue to be in the Public Domain once they have been digitised. . . .
The Charter is published by the Europeana Foundation, our governing body (now completing its name change from the EDL Foundation). The Charter is a policy statement, not a contract. It doesn't bind any of Europeana's content providers. It recognises the dilemma in which heritage institutions find themselves. Our partners' drive to digitise and make Public Domain content accessible is tempered by a recognition of the costs involved, and the need to arrive at the most appropriate agreements with those who are willing and able to fund digitisation programmes—including the private sector.
We are developing plans to label the rights associated with a digitised item very clearly so that they are understood by Europeana's users, who will be able to exclude content from their results that requires payment or doesn't comply with the Public Domain Charter. Rights labelling will become a requirement when submitting content to Europeana by the end of this year.
While Public-Private Partnerships are an important means of getting content digitised, the Charter recommends that deals are non-exclusive, for very limited time periods, and don't take material out of the Public Domain.
Rose Holley, Manager of the Australian Newspapers Digitisation Program at the National Library of Australia, has self-archived "Ramping It Up: 10 Lessons Learned in Mass Digitisation" in E-LIS.
Here's an excerpt:
In 2007 the National Library of Australia (NLA) began a large-scale newspaper digitisation program that aimed to digitise one million pages (10 million articles) per year, with a view to increasing the volume over time and ramping up digitisation to include books and journals as well as newspapers. By the end of 2009 the NLA had learnt 10 key lessons about ramping up its digitisation activities into a mass-scale operation.
The JISC UX2.0 project has released Usability Inspection of Digital Libraries.
Here's an excerpt:
The JISC funded project, UX2.0 aims to contribute to this general body of works by enhancing a digital library through a development and evaluation framework centered on usability and contemporary user experience. User-centred design (UCD) forms the overall approach of UX2.0. Technological developments will be implemented in tandem with research, usability studies and evaluation.
This report relates to an UX2.0 objective to undertake usability inspection. It presents the findings of a general usability inspection (work package 2—WP2.1) done through heuristics evaluation on a selection of digital libraries. . . .
The report will detail the heuristic methodology chosen to conduct the report, followed by an introduction to the design patterns identified in Section 3 and 4 respectively. Following this the results of usability inspection are presented in three sections; resource discovery (Section 5), navigation (Section 6) and enhancing user experience (Section 7). Resource discovery deals with the search and browse aspects of each digital library, referencing the design patterns used where appropriate. Navigation discusses specific types of navigation including faceted navigation and pagination. It also inspects the orientation through the DL and how the labeling helps or hinders user expectations. Finally the third part of the results (enhancing user experience) discusses the provision of value-added services of the DLs. Each the results section includes a discussion. The overall conclusions of the inspection in general are given in Section 8.
Carl Lagoze has made his doctoral dissertation, "Lost Identity: The Assimilation of Digital Libraries into the Web," available.
Here's an excerpt:
The idea of Digital Libraries emerged in the early 1990s from a vision of a "library of the future", without walls and open 24 hours a day. These digital libraries would leverage the substantial investments of federal funding in the Internet and advanced computing for the benefit of the entire population. The world’s knowledge would be a key press away for everyone no matter where their location. This vision led to substantial levels of funding from federal agencies, foundations, and other organizations for research into fundamental technical problems related to networked information and deployment of the results of this research in numerous digital library applications. The result was a number of exciting and influential technical innovations.
But, the attempt to transplant the library to the online environment met with some unexpected obstacles. The funding agencies and many of the members of the digital library research community mainly focused on the technical issues related to online information. In general, they assumed that the new technology would be applied in a largely traditional (library) context, and largely ignored the profound social, economic, cultural, and political impact of turning "books (and other information resources) into bytes". The extent of this impact was demonstrated by the concurrent evolution of the World Wide Web, a networked information system not bound by legacy institutional conventions and practices or funding agency mandates and, therefore, able to organically evolve in response to the profoundly democratizing effect of putting information online. This has provided the context for the recent revolution in the web known as Web 2.0, a participatory information environment that contradicts most of the core assumptions of the traditional library information environment. The overwhelming adoption of the Web 2.0 model for both popular culture and serious information exchange and the increased evidence of the efficacy of this model for activities such as learning and scholarship call into question the viability of the library information model and the digital libraries that were meant to instantiate that model online.
In this dissertation I examine the almost two decade history of digital library research and analyze the relevance of the library information model, or meme, in relationship to the transformative Web 2.0 meme. I use my research results in digital library infrastructure and technology over this period as both a lens for viewing this historical relationship and a mirror for revealing its various facets. This analysis is particularly relevant as I, and fellow members of the research community, begin to engage in large-scale cyberinfrastructure projects that need to move beyond the largely technical focus of earlier digital library initiatives and recognize the sociotechnical nature of the work that lies ahead.
The University of Arizona School of Information Resources and Library Science is accepting applicants for the school's graduate certificate program in Digital Information Management (DigIn). IMLS-funded scholarships are available for students entering the program in 2010.
Here's an excerpt from the press release:
The DigIn program features hands-on experience and focused instruction supporting a wide range of professional careers involving digital systems and data. The certificate includes six three-credit courses designed to build students' hands-on technology skills, and to help students acquire the advanced knowledge needed to curate digital collections, manage digital projects, and to set policies for access and long-term preservation.
In 2009, the first cohort of DigIn graduates completed their certificate requirements with practical "capstone" field projects in a broad range of professional settings, including the Library of Congress, the Metropolitan New York Library Council, the College of William and Mary, UC Riverside, the New Mexico State Records Center and Archives, Phoenix Public Library, Cochise County (AZ) Historical Society, Arizona Department of Environmental Quality, and the Mohave Museum of History and Art. As one 2009 graduate noted:
"DigIn broadened my knowledge of the history, trends, and best practices for digital collections. It has also given me the practical experience to tackle hands-on projects that require a deeper understanding of technology and information management. My work in the DigIn program is most certainly what led to me landing a job in a technology-heavy environment."
For information professionals already working in the field, or those considering career changes, the DigIn certificate offers a flexible path for graduate studies. The program is delivered 100% online and has no residency requirements. Students generally complete the certificate in four or six semesters (15 months or 27 months).
Deadline For Summer '10 admission: April 1
Deadline for Fall ‘10 admission: July 1
Deadline for Spring ‘11: Nov. 1.
DigIn was developed in cooperation with the Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records and the University of Arizona Outreach College. Major funding for the program comes from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), which has also provided scholarship funding.
Additional details on the program including course descriptions, admissions requirements and application forms may be found on the program website:
digin.arizona.edu
Applicants may also contact the DigIn staff at:
digin at email.arizona.edu
Gerry Bayne at EDUCAUSE has released Paolo Mangiafico: Initiating a Campus-Wide Digital Information Plan (MP3 file).
Here's an excerpt :
In 2008, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation awarded Duke University a grant to initiate a campus-wide digital information plan. The university appointed a director for their programs and is moving forward with designing a strategies. This podcast features an interview with Duke's Director of Digital Information Strategy, Paolo Mangiafico.
John Wilkin's "Thinking and Acting Globally to Better Serve Local Needs: The Michigan Digital Library" presentation is now available.
Other presentations from the "Living Digital: The Future of Information and the Role of the Library Symposium" are also available.
Indiana University has been awarded a $2.38 Million Grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for the Kuali OLE (Open Library Environment) project.
Here's an excerpt from the press release:
IU will lead the Kuali OLE (Open Library Environment) project, a partnership of research libraries dedicated to managing increasingly digital resources and collections. Together, these libraries will develop "community source" software that will be made available to libraries worldwide.
Kuali OLE (pronounced Oh-LAY) partners include Indiana University; Florida Consortium (University of Florida representing Florida International University, Florida State University, New College of Florida, Rollins College, University of Central Florida, University of Miami, University of South Florida and the Florida Center for Library Automation); Lehigh University; Triangle Research Libraries Network (represented by Duke University and North Carolina State University); University of Chicago; University of Maryland; University of Michigan; and the University of Pennsylvania.
Large academic research libraries such as these manage and provide access to millions of items, using software to track interrelated transactions that range from ordering and paying for items to loaning materials to library patrons.
As the nature of library collections expands to include more digital materials—including leased electronic journals and digitized photograph collections—libraries are increasingly interested in developing management software for these resources, said Interim Ruth Lilly Dean of University Libraries Carolyn Walters.
"Libraries now create, lease and share digital materials, but the systems in place for cataloging and tracking these items are based on print collections," said Walters. "With this project, we benefit from working together with a community of academic libraries that want to change the way that information is managed in the scholarly environment."
"Research libraries are in dire need of systems that can support the management of research collections for the next-generation scholar," said Robert H. McDonald, executive director for the project and IU's associate dean for library technologies. "This approach demonstrates the best of open-source software development, directed partnership resource needs, and a market of commercial support providers to truly align with the needs of research libraries within the higher education environment."
More than 200 libraries, educational institutions, professional organizations and businesses laid the groundwork for the Kuali OLE project by participating in the original OLE project, a design phase that was supported by an earlier grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and led by Duke University.
The Coalition for Networked Information launched the CNI Conversations series with Clifford A. Lynch in September.
Two podcasts are now available:
- Oct. 6, 2009
Discussion topics included:
- Internet2
- NDIIPP storage systems symposium
- Bamboo Project
- University libraries and presses
- Sept. 15, 2009
Discussion topics included:
- DataNet
- Google Books proposed settlement
- Library measures for the challenging economic climate
- Future of newspapers
Japan's National Diet Library is evaluating the creation of a fee-based digital library containing digitized versions of works in its collection (Thanks to ResourceShelf).
Read more about it at "National Diet Library, Others Envision Digital Database."
In "Digital Library Europeana Said To Be Europe’s Answer to Google Books Settlement," Dugie Standeford examines Google Book Search in the European context and considers whether Europeana can compete with it.
Here's an excerpt:
Europeana has the potential to be the "Google-like service Europe needs" but as part of a broader vision, said Europeana Marketing and Communications Manager Jonathan Purday. The EC has enabled Europeana to become operational and laid the foundations for an integrated platform providing access from museums, archives, libraries and audiovisual collections. But the digital library's future "depends on countries scaling up their digitisation efforts" and unifying their fragmented legal framework, he said.
The European Commission has published Europeana—Next Steps.
Here's an excerpt:
Europeana—Europe's online library, museum and archive—opened in November 2008 as part of the Commission's digital libraries initiative, aiming to make Europe's cultural and scientific heritage accessible to all on the internet. The European Parliament and the Council have highlighted the importance of Europeana both as a showcase of the cultural heritage of the Member States on the internet and to provide access for everyone to that heritage. At the same time they have underlined the economic potential of making our cultural treasures available online as a source for creativity and new products and services in areas such as tourism and learning.
This document looks ahead to the next phase of development of Europeana and its orientation for the future. It sets out the main challenges for the coming years in relation to 1) enriching Europeana’s content with both public domain and in copyright material of the highest quality and relevance to users, and 2) a sustainable financing and governance model. The objective is to ensure that Europeana and the underlying policies for digitisation, online accessibility and digital preservation give European culture a lasting visibility on the internet and turn our common and diverse heritage into an integral part of Europe's information infrastructure for the future.
In order to gather input on the best way to achieve this objective, the Commission is launching a consultation on the basis of a series of questions that can be found in the staff working paper accompanying this Communication. Interested parties are invited to submit their comments on any or all of the questions by 15 November 2009.
See also "Questions for the Public Consultation 'Europeana—Next Steps'."
Read more about it at "EU Divided over Google Books"; "EU Urges Google, Libraries to Cooperate to Put Books On-line"; "Europe's Digital Library Doubles in Size but also Shows EU's Lack of Common Web Copyright Solution"; and "Europe's Digital Library: Frequently Asked Questions."
An alpha prototype of JHOVE2 is now available. JHOVE2 is a tool for the characterization (i.e., identification, validation, feature extraction, and assessment) of digital objects that is used for digital library and digital preservation purposes.
Here's an excerpt from the announcement:
An alpha prototype version of JHOVE2 is now available for download and evaluation (v. 0.5.2, 2009-08-05). Distribution packages (in zip and tar.gz form) are available on the JHOVE2 public wiki at (http://confluence.ucop.edu/display/JHOVE2Info/Download). The new JHOVE2 architecture reflected in this prototype is described in the attached architectural overview (also available at http://confluence.ucop.edu/display/JHOVE2Info/Architecture). . . .
The prototype supports the following features:
- Appropriate recursive processing of directories and Zip files.
- High performance buffered I/O using the Java nio package.
- Message digesting for the following algorithms: Adler-32, CRC-32,
- MD2, MD5, SHA-1, SHA-256, SHA-384, SHA-512
- Results formatted as JSON, text (name/value pairs), and XML.
- Use of the Spring Inversion-of-Control container for flexible module
- configuration.
- A complete UTF-8 module.
- An minimally functional Shapefile module.
The Open Library Environment Project has released a draft of the The Open Library Environment Project Final Report.
Here's an excerpt:
With funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Open Library Environment project (OLE Project) convened a multi-national group of libraries to analyze library business processes and to define a next-generation library technology platform. The resulting OLE platform is predicated on Service Oriented Architecture and a community-source model of development and governance. Over 300 libraries, educational institutions, professional organizations and business participated in some phase of the project. Using input from those participants, the project planners produced an OLE design framework that embeds libraries directly in the key processes of scholarship generation, knowledge management, teaching and learning by utilizing existing enterprise systems where appropriate and by delivering new services built on connections between the library's business systems and other technology systems.
The OLE Project met all of its objectives and was completed on time and within budget. Project members are now in discussions with potential investing partners who will develop and deploy this new library technology platform. Although this is an especially difficult time for libraries to launch new projects and commit funding for them, project planners continue to hear from the library community that it is more critical than ever to create the technology infrastructure that can help libraries serve as a primary nexus of scholarly information management.
JISC has released a brochure and two digital videos related to its Libraries of the Future campaign:
Presentations from the CNI Spring 2009 Task Force Meeting are now available.
The University of Arizona's School of Information Resources and Library Science has received a grant of over $900,000 from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services for its Digital Information Management (DigIn) online graduate certificate program. The grant will primarily be used to fund scholarships.
Here's the press release:
The DigIn curriculum combines intensive, hands-on technology learning with a thorough grounding in the theoretical principles needed to manage large and complex digital collections.
The program takes a comprehensive, interdisciplinary approach to managing digital information and is designed to support a wide range of career paths, especially involving libraries, museums, archives, and records management.
Graduate certificates are increasingly being recognized as a means for professionals with advanced degrees to update their knowledge and skills. DigIn also offers a path for those with undergraduate degrees who are interested in digital collections but who may not yet be ready to commit to a full degree program.
The grant will also greatly boost DigIn's mission to foster disciplinary, institutional, geographic, and cultural diversity in the management of digital collections and services.
Thus, DigIn strongly encourages scholarship applicants representing historically underserved institutions, regions, and communities, as well as students expressing interest in working with digital collections in culturally diverse settings.
DigIn is now accepting applications for admission and financial aid for the Fall 2009 semester. The application deadline has just been extended to July 10.
Late applications will be accepted, though Fall admission cannot be guaranteed once the July 10 deadline has passed. Late applicants will also be considered for admission in the Spring 2010 semester.
The program is delivered entirely online and does not require students to reside in or travel to Tucson. Students generally complete the certificate in 4-6 semesters (15-27 months).
DigIn was founded in 2007 with major funding from Institute of Museum and Library Services, the primary source of federal support for the nation?s 122,000 libraries and 17,500 museums. The Institute's mission is to create strong libraries and museums that connect people to information and ideas.
Our current partners also include the Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records, the Georgia Institute of Technology, and the Sedona Conference.
Additional details on the program including course descriptions, admissions requirements and application forms may be found on the program website:
Prospective applicants are also welcome to contact the DigIn staff at:
Read more about it at "SIRLS Earns Federal Grant to Train More Tech Savvy Librarians ."
The University of Arizona's School of Information Resources and Library Science's Digital Information Management Certificate program is accepting Fall 2009 applications until 7/1/09.
Here's an excerpt from the announcement:
DigIn combines intensive, hands-on technology learning and a strong grounding in the theoretical principles needed to manage large-scale digital collections in a fast-changing environment. The program supports a wide range of professional careers involving digital collections, including but not limited to libraries, archives, and museums.
Graduate certificates are increasingly being recognized as a means for information professionals with advanced degrees to enhance their knowledge and technology skills. DigIn is also open to professionals who are new to the field and who may be considering a masters-level education in the future.
The program is delivered 100% online and has no residency requirements. Students generally complete the certificate in four or six semesters (15 months or 27 months).
A beta release of the EmeraldView front-end to the Greenstone digital library software is near completion. The current code is available via a Subversion checkout. A demo is available.
Here's an excerpt from the project home page:
We are aiming to solve several key weaknesses of the stock front-end:
- Greenstone's cryptic URLs of unusual size are a fail for user comprehensibility, search engine crawlers, bookmarking, etc. . .
- Though extensive customization of the display is possible, there are some stopping points where modification of the C++ source is required.
- The customization that is supported is via a system of micro-templates referred to as macros. This system is so heavily nested and cross-referenced that it is very difficult to conceptualize how any given page is generated.
