digitizationblog News on digitization in libraries and allied institutions

I blogged about this yesterday in the SLA IT Division Blogging Section Blog and included the press release. This seems geared towards people who have digital content that they want to sell or license, not organization that have massive content. I wonder, though, what would happen if a digitization program used it to license high quality images from their collection? Would there be a way to input items quickly into Ozmo (bulk loading) or is the process geared towards doing one item at a time?

Some digitization programs might want to use Ozmo (if getting their stuff in there isn't tedious) in order to expose their materials to a different market -- a market that is willing to pay.

I wonder, too, how many sales -- for a specific program -- would make the effort deemed worthwhile?

I have lots of questions. I hope some members of the blogosphere will experiment with Ozmo and provide a few answers.

Technorati tag: Copyright

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Since my posts on the Google settlement (here and here), more people have weighed in on what it means. I appreciate everyone who has waded through the proposed settlement and figured out why we should be concerned. One of those people is Jill O'Neill, from NFAIS, who wrote in an email to me (quoted with permission):
Clearly all parties involved in this settlement believe that a searchable repository of book material that has been evaluated and selected by research-oriented librarians represents an information resource of value to knowledge workers, researchers, students and scholars. Despite PR window dressing, very little attention was paid to the general public's interest in and need for access to a fully functional repository. Google Book Search and Google Scholar are aimed at elite populations, just as are the services from NFAIS member organizations. The question becomes whether Google Book Search is a glorified card catalog or if it matches the value and quality of licensed content offerings on platforms from Ebsco, Proquest and Dialog.O'Neill's email sent my mind in motion and you might not like how my thoughts flowed. (What follows is totally my opinion.)

EBSCO, ProQuest, and others spend a lot time selecting their information sources. Their reputations are built upon those selections as well as their ability to update their sources quickly and to provide flexible search options. Having worked for a company that was negotiating content for building a search engine, I can tell you that the negotiations go slowly and that much work goes into ensure that the data from those sources is loaded correctly. Quality is extremely important. Missing pages, blurred pages, etc., due operator error are not tolerated.

Also important is depth and completeness of the content. "Holes" in the content -- however they might manifest themselves -- are bad. Sometimes they cannot be avoided (often due to specific licensing agreements). Professional searchers pride themselves on knowing which service has a more complete run of specific journals or higher quality information or more depth of content.

With Google Book Search, the company is digitizing materials that have been selected by librarians who specialize in specific subject areas. (Subject-specific librarians exist in academic research libraries.) Google doesn't have to do any selection because that work has been done for them. But libraries and their users don't just rely on the books in their libraries, they also access books in other libraries through interlibrary loan. And they use databases -- provided by services such as EBSCO, ProQuest and Dialog -- to complement what is in the physical library.

So what does Google need in order to match the value and quality of content that exists in libraries? They need the type of content that is held by fee-based services like EBSCO, ProQuest and Dialog. (Yes, there are many others.)

On June 18, I wondered out loud in the SLA Blog if Google would -- at some point -- purchase Dialog, which had just been purchased by ProQuest. In a comment to that post, Roger Summit wondered what would have happened if Google had purchased Dialog instead of ProQuest. I now know the answer to Summit's question -- We would be closer to having a true digital library, held by one company, that would meet the needs students, researchers and knowledge workers. Yes, this would be a collection for the elite -- those on the good side of the digital and information divide. And it would send shivers through the information industry.

So, here's the next question: Does Google have the vision and guts to do this? We'll have to stay tuned for the answer.

Technorati tags: Digitization, Google

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

The latest issue of Library of Congress Digital Preservation Newsletter is available. In it is an article on "Meeting the Challenge: Federal Agencies Collaborate on Digitization Guidelines."

To subscribe to this newsletter, go to this web page, type in your e-mail address and press Enter. After you confirm your email address, you'll be asked to select what you want to receive from the LOC -- scroll down and click on “Digital Preservation.”

If you are interested in past newsletters, they are archived online in PDF/A.

Technorati tag: Digital Preservation

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Keeping the records of science accessible: can we afford it? is a 14-page report on the 2008 Annual Conference of the Alliance for Permanent Access, held in Budapest on Nov. 4, 2008. Abstract:
This summary aims to highlight those presentations and comments with the greatest relevance for the key theme of the conference, ‘Business models for permanent access’, leaving the reader to gain more detailed insights from the individual powerpoint presentations. Reported by Inge Angevaare, coordinator of the Netherlands Coalition for Digital Preservation.I won't have time to read this for a while, but as I skim through the report, these points from Neil Williams stand out:

• Massive and rapidly increasing data flood
• Responsibility to preserve the correct data, for future need
• Importance of unified policy either at (inter)national or disciplinary level
• Preservation is a specialist skill in its own right. Be clear, and separate who is responsible for archiving data (the provider) and preserving and organising the archive (the archivist).

Technorati tag: Digital Preservation

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Earlier this week, I posted about the legislative session at the New York Library Association Annual Conference. On Wednesday, Governor Paterson announced proposed additional cuts in the current NYS budget. The proposal includes an additional $20 million cut in library aid, on top of the cuts that have already been made. If this is adopted, library aid will have been cut 22% this year. (It should be noted that libraries in NYS are already underfunded.) This reportedly will roll-back state funding for libraries to the level in 1993 (15 years ago). This is occurring when library use is increasing (due to the recession) and cost of library resources continues to increase.

As has been repeated many times recently, libraries provide free access to information, but libraries are not free. There is a cost to running them and ensuring that they are meeting the needs of their patrons.

And while we might think that this cut will impact only public libraries, keep in mind that many non-public libraries in the state rely on resources that are made available to all New Yorkers. This cut will impact knowledge-seeker in the State.

For more information on the proposed cut and its impact, go to the NYLA web site.

BTW many digitization programs receive funding through local and national grants. Are budgets tighten, we should expect that the amount of grants funds available for these programs will tighten, too.

Technorati tags: Regents, New York State, NYS, RAC, NYLA2008

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This blog post is long overdue...

During the summer, I ventured to Fulton, NY to visit the public library and to talk to Tom Tryniski, who runs the site "Old Fulton NY Post Cards." First of all, the site isn't really about postcards. Yes, it started as a small postcard digitization program, but has grown to be so much more. When I saw him, Tryniski has digitized over 6.12 million old New York State historical newspaper pages and would soon be placing another 1.3 million pages online. That's more than 2.8 terabytes of content from 1837 to 2007. This has translated into the site being a popular destination for people who are doing research (more than 1.4 million hits in 30 days).

When I first heard about Tom Tryniski earlier in the summer, I was amazed that I hadn't heard of the project sooner. When I met him, I understood why. This isn't a library doing a project or some other organization. This project is a labor of love by a former IT executive, who has the skills, technology and time to created a growing archive. At first, Tryniski digitized postcards that he had received and placed them online. When they got positive feedback, he digitized some other materials. Soon he stumbled upon content that was rich in information -- newspapers -- and began digitizing newspapers from microfilm. The amount of content he has digitized is amazing.

Okay...so what about his "process"? Is he following recommended practices? As we talked, he told me about his equipment, etc., and - yes - his is following recommended practices. In talking about the equipment he uses, Tryniski says on the site, "Old Newspapers found on this site has have been Scanned by production grade Wicks and Wilson Microfilm scanners which in the authors opinion are the Finest available. " Yes, he backs up and backs up and backs up. (This is a former IT guy, remember.)

Does he copyright clear the materials? Tryniski has a good understanding of copyright and the public domain. When things are not in the public domain, he seeks permission. In some cases, he has worked directly with content sources on digitizing materials and they've given him permission. When taking about copyright, Tryniski often points people to Mary Minow's article "Library Digitization Projects and Copyright." (BTW I mentioned Peter Hirtle's chart to him, which I find very valuable.)

Why does he do this? Tryniski recognizes that there is a lot of valuable content in newspapers and other analogue sources. He also knows that many small libraries and historical societies don't have the capacity to do this work (or even pay for it). Therefore, he set himself on a mission that bring a huge smile to his face when he talks about it. And he is open to working with any organization to further this cause. His only stipulation is that whatever he digitizes, he is able to add to his collection and give people free access to it.

What concerns does he have about this work? Actually, he and I have the same concern about various efforts to compile historic information online. I worry about projects, like this one by Joyce Tice, that are done by volunteers. I worry about the content surviving long-long-term. For example, what happens when the volunteers are old and unable to maintain the site? Have they made provisions for someone to take over? Personally, I think it would be great if there were someone (or an organization) that was willing to "inherit" these sites in order to ensure their longevity. (BTW if you search for my name on that site -- once you figure out how to search the site -- you'll see that I have a vested interest in having this site not disappear.) I did not ask Tryniski what specific long-term plans he had made, but given his passion, I'm sure he's already got that documented.

And what do I think of the "Old Fulton NY Post Cards" site? Wow...what a lot of content! What is missing for me is information on the project's background and standards, as well as a list of content sources. I wish the site was less animated, which some may find inhibiting. It would be great to have resources available to help students, teachers and researchers understand and use the materials. The things I want are things that you will see in digitization projects that have been done by institutions, but this is one person and a labor of love. I wonder if he would be open to having interns, who could add supporting materials to the site?

Now that I have told you about it, go check it out!

Technorati tag: Digitization

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In case you haven't seen this announcement in email:
The JISC are pleased to announce the publication of a study on Digital Preservation Policies which can be downloaded in PDF format from http://www.jisc.ac.uk/publications/publications/jiscpolicyfinalreport.aspx

A major business driver in all universities and colleges over the past decade has been harnessing digital content and electronic services and the undoubted benefits in terms of flexibility and increased productivity they can bring. The priority in recent years has been on developing e-strategies and infrastructure to underpin electronic access and services and to deliver those benefits. However any long-term access and future benefit may be heavily dependent on digital preservation strategies being in place and underpinned by relevant policy and procedures. This should now be an increasing area of focus in our institutions.

This JISC funded study completed by Charles Beagrie Ltd aims to provide an outline model for digital preservation policies and to analyse the role that digital preservation can play in supporting and delivering key strategies for Higher and Further Education Institutions. Although focussing on the UK Higher and Further Education sectors, the study draws widely on policy and implementations from other sectors and countries and will be of interest to those wishing to develop policy and justify investment in digital preservation within a wide range of institutions.

Two tools have been created in this study:

1) a model/framework for digital preservation policy and implementation clauses based on examination of existing digital preservation policies;

2) a series of mappings of digital preservation to other key institutional strategies in UK universities and colleges including Research, Teaching and Learning, Information, Libraries, and Records Management.

Our aim has been to help institutions and their staff develop appropriate digital preservation policies and clauses set in the context of broader institutional strategies.
Technorati tag: Digital Preservation

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

On Friday, I was able to attend two events at the New York Library Association annual conference where the future of library funding in New York State was discussed. The speakers were:

• Assemblywoman Amy Paulin, District 88 and Chair, Assembly Committee on Libraries and Education Technology
• Assemblyman Marcus Molinaro, District 103 (corrected 11/12/2008)
• Assemblyman Robert Reilly, District 109
• Mark Leinung, Governor's Assistant Secretary for Education
• Richard Strauss, President, New York State Association of Library Boards
• Kathy Miller, Chair, NYLA Legislative Committee
• Regent James C. Dawson
• Jeffry Cannell, Deputy Commissioner for Cultural Education and Interim State Librarian
• Richard P. Mills, President of The University of the State of New York (USNY) and Commissioner of Education (Commissioner Mills has announced that he will step down from his position in June 2009.)
  

Introduced was Bernard A. Margolis who will assume the position of New York State Librarian in January 2009. Among the 100+ people in the audience were staff from the State Library, representatives of various library consortia, and members of the Regents Advisory Council on Libraries (Gerald Nichols, Sara Kelly Johns and myself).

Notes below are grouped by speaker and are not a transcript. Some are just sound-bites.

Reilly:

• 20% of the State's yearly income comes from taxes paid by Wall Street (business and personal taxes, etc.)
• One-third of children in NYS do not receive a high school diploma.
• Just getting more money for libraries doesn't solve the (fiscal) crisis that is occurring.
• Need consolidation of services.
• Need to straighten out structures.
• We tend to cut services, but don't fix bureaucracies.
• We need to work our way out (of this mess), not cut our way out.

Leinung:

• A strong public library is a part of a strong democratic society.
• Our most precious commodity is information.
• When Wall Street sneezes, NYS get a cold. NYS is getting pneumonia.
• 160,000 people may loss their jobs in the state. 6.5% unemployment rate.
  
• Deficit is $47 billion in four years and is the largest in the State's history.
• There is a 35% gap in the general fund used by NYS.
• As the state looks at what to cut, nothing is sacred.
  

Strauss:

• A library is an economic engine in the community.
• Library trustees must unit to sustain and improve library funding across NYS. Need consistent and stable funding.
• State needs to provide trustee training. Should be mandatory for all trustees in NYS. They are trying to make this a law.
  

Miller:

• Across NYS, library systems are providing Internet access and continued learning through the library for unaffiliated people.
  
• Libraries are part of the education infrastructure.
• Libraries are the poster child for efficiency.
  

Paulin:

• Librarians are forceful, knowledgeable and polite. Librarians need to be less polite as they ask for funding.
• Libraries are a place for people to improve their quality of life.
• Need to think outside the box in regards to advocacy.
• Need to get users involved in our advocacy efforts and create a bigger movement.
  
• Need to tell legislators what is really happening in our libraries.
• Need to compete against the other interest groups.
  

Cannell:

• In talking about the budget, he said "everyone needs to get their allowance."
• Within the budget discussion, member items are also being discussed.
  
• This crisis is a change to learn how to be more nimble.
• Need less regulation.

Mills:

• Important to get to fundamentals.
• "I cannot live without books" - Thomas Jefferson. Mills then modified it to say, "I cannot live as a free person without books."
• "A library is the most democratic of all institutions."
• "The reach of libraries is vastly greater" now.
• "A library is where people go to learn the language."
• Libraries...
• Lost 2% in the last budget
• Lost 3.35% in operating funds (early this year)
• Lost an additional 7% in July in operating funds (clarified: 11/12/2008)
  
• Have lost $874,000 this year due to state funding cuts
• Governor wants to cut another $2 billion from the budget this month.
• Cultural Education's income (day-to-day sustaining budget) is primarily from various fees (e.g., real estate transactions). It also receives some federal money. The fees need to increase in order to sustains the Department (from $15/transaction to $22.50). Cultural Education includes the State Library, State Archives and State Museum. (clarified: 11/12/2008)
• Advocacy needs to be local and regional.
• Advocacy needs to be fact-based.
• We need to get legislators into our libraries, so they can see what is happening there.
• All cultural institutions in the State are under the University of the State of New York (USNY).
• "Everyone needs resources. What value do we add?"
• 1.5 million children have been in free literacy programs.
• The average book in a school library in NYS is 21-25 years old. The amount spent on library resources for pupils needs to increase from $.625 to $10,00 per student.
• A family without books cannot educate its children without a library.
• The Regents are working to raise education standards, graduation standards, and graduation rates.

Audience Member:

• Libraries are an economic force in the community. Libraries hire local people and services.
• Librarians have master degrees. Why not use libraries and librarians more in the State as resources to get things done? Libraries are not seen as partners. They are not integrated into other State activities.
  

Audience Member:

• Libraries are not free, but they provide free access.
• Should be mandatory to have librarians in every school.
  
• Libraries need "just a little bit of money."
  

Audience Member:

• Should use library school students to help with advocacy efforts.
  

Audience Member:

• "We're not far from closing the doors" on our libraries.
  

Audience Member:

• Cutting libraries is not going to save the budget.
• Think about the future.
• Libraries are a life-line.
  

I believe that I noted all of the figures mentioned correctly. If I did not, I hope people will leave comments to correct me. (And let me know of other mistakes too! This is important stuff and worth getting correct.)

Thanks to Sara Kelly Johns for allowing me to use her photos.

Corrections and clarifications made on 11/12/2008.

Technorati tags: Regents, New York State, NYS, RAC, NYLA2008

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

On Friday, I was able to attend two events at the New York Library Association annual conference where the future of library funding in New York State was discussed. The speakers were:

• Assemblywoman Amy Paulin, District 88 and Chair, Assembly Committee on Libraries and Education Technology
• Assemblyman Marcus Molinaro, District 103
• Assemblyman Robert Reilly, District 109
• Mark Leinung, Governor's Assistant Secretary for Education
• Richard Strauss, President, New York State Association of Library Boards
• Kathy Miller, Chair, NYLA Legislative Committee
• Regent James C. Dawson
• Jeffry Cannell, Deputy Commissioner for Cultural Education and Interim State Librarian
• Richard P. Mills, President of The University of the State of New York (USNY) and Commissioner of Education (Commissioner Mills has announced that he will step down from his position in June 2009.)
  

Introduced was Bernard A. Margolis who will assume the position of New York State Librarian in January 2009. Among the 100+ people in the audience were staff from the State Library, representatives of various library consortia, and members of the Regents Advisory Council on Libraries (Gerald Nichols, Sara Kelly Johns and myself).

Notes below are grouped by speaker and are not a transcript. Some are just sound-bites.

Reilly:

• 20% of the State's yearly income comes from taxes paid by Wall Street (business and personal taxes, etc.)
• One-third of children in NYS do not receive a high school diploma.
• Just getting more money for libraries doesn't solve the (fiscal) crisis that is occurring.
• Need consolidation of services.
• Need to straighten out structures.
• We tend to cut services, but don't fix bureaucracies.
• We need to work our way out (of this mess), not cut our way out.

Leinung:

• A strong public library is a part of a strong democratic society.
• Our most precious commodity is information.
• When Wall Street sneezes, NYS get a cold. NYS is getting pneumonia.
• 160,000 people may loss their jobs in the state. 6.5% unemployment rate.
  
• Deficit is $47 billion in four years and is the largest in the State's history.
• There is a 35% gap in the general fund used by NYS.
• As the state looks at what to cut, nothing is sacred.
  

Strauss:

• A library is an economic engine in the community.
• Library trustees must unit to sustain and improve library funding across NYS. Need consistent and stable funding.
• State needs to provide trustee training. Should be mandatory for all trustees in NYS. They are trying to make this a law.
  

Miller:

• Across NYS, library systems are providing Internet access and continued learning through the library for unaffiliated people.
  
• Libraries are part of the education infrastructure.
• Libraries are the poster child for efficiency.
  

Paulin:

• Librarians are forceful, knowledgeable and polite. Librarians need to be less polite as they ask for funding.
• Libraries are a place for people to improve their quality of life.
• Need to think outside the box in regards to advocacy.
• Need to get users involved in our advocacy efforts and create a bigger movement.
  
• Need to tell legislators what is really happening in our libraries.
• Need to compete against the other interest groups.
  

Cannell:

• In talking about the budget, he said "everyone needs to get their allowance."
• Within the budget discussion, member items are also being discussed.
  
• This crisis is a change to learn how to be more nimble.
• Need less regulation.

Mills:

• Important to get to fundamentals.
• "I cannot live without books" - Thomas Jefferson. Mills then modified it to say, "I cannot live as a free person without books."
• "A library is the most democratic of all institutions."
• "The reach of libraries is vastly greater" now.
• "A library is where people go to learn the language."
• Libraries...
• Lost 2% in the last budget
• Lost 3.35% in operating funds (early this year)
• Lost 7% in July
• Have lost $874,000 this year due to state funding cuts
• Governor wants to cut another $2 billion from the budget this month.
• Cultural Education's income is from various fees (e.g., real estate transactions) and federal money. The fees need to increase in order to sustains the Department (from $15/transaction to $22.50).
• Advocacy needs to be local and regional.
• Advocacy needs to be fact-based.
• We need to get legislators into our libraries, so they can see what is happening there.
• All cultural institutions in the State are under the University of the State of New York (USNY).
• "Everyone needs resources. What value do we add?"
• 1.5 million children have been in free literacy programs.
• The average book in a school library in NYS is 21-25 years old. The amount spent on library resources for pupils needs to increase from $.625 to $10,00 per student.
• A family without books cannot educate its children without a library.
• The Regents are working to raise education standards, graduation standards, and graduation rates.

Audience Member:

• Libraries are an economic force in the community. Libraries hire local people and services.
• Libraries have master degrees. Why not use libraries and librarians more in the State as resources to get things done? Libraries are not seen as partners. They are not integrated into other State activities.
  

Audience Member:

• Libraries are not free, but they provide free access.
• Should be mandatory to have librarians in every school.
  
• Libraries need "just a little bit of money."
  

Audience Member:

• Should use library school students to help with advocacy efforts.
  

Audience Member:

• "We're not far from closing the doors" on our libraries.
  

Audience Member:

• Cutting libraries is not going to save the budget.
• Think about the future.
• Libraries are a life-line.
  

I believe that I noted all of the figures mentioned correctly. If I did not, I hope people will leave comments to correct me. (And let me know of other mistakes too! This is important stuff and worth getting correct.)

Thanks to Sara Kelly Johns for allowing me to use her photos.

Technorati tags: Regents, New York State, NYS, RAC, nNYLA2008

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Tim O'Reilly asked to use comments by Juliet Sutherland of Distributed Proofreaders as a guest blog post. Sutherland, whose organization does all the quality checking and correction for Project Gutenberg, is concerned about the quality being produced by mass digitization programs, i.e., missing pages. Her concerns are with projects such as those run by Google and the Internet Archive, while she says:
Our experience with various (book page) image archives suggests that those archives associated with libraries are usually reasonably good.Her comments are well thought out and articulated. Worth looking at.

Technorati tags: Digitization,
Book

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Francis Pelletier from MOS magazine mailed to me the August and September 2008 issues, which contained information on new and interesting products. MOS: le magazine du stockage et de la gestion d'informations (the magazine of storage and management of information) is written in French, so let me try to give you a bit of information on the articles of interest, as well as links for more details.

The August issue had an article on Pixelion (Aix-en-Provence, France), a company produces software for image processing. (Check the web site for more information.)

There was also an article on "des microformes de haute densite pour un archivage perenne" (microforms of high density for a perennial filing). The photos in the article were intriguing. Since my French is not that good, I checked online for information on the company mentioned and found this text:
La société ARnanO est l’une des dernières start up créée par le laboratoire français LETI (Laboratoire d’Electronique et de Technologie de l’Information) , avec la vocation de développer les produits avancés permettant la gravure de graphismes ou de textes infiniment petits et inaltérables.A rough translation is:
The company is one ARnanO recent start-ups created by the French laboratory LETI (Laboratory of Electronics and Information Technology), with the aim to develop advanced products to burn graphics or text and infinitely small and unalterable. It looks like the micro-images are stored in very high density on a "wafer" that is 200 mm in diameter.

Also in the August issue was an article on NanoArk (Rochester, NY), which is using waferfiche(TM) for long-term storage. The NanoArk web site says:
In the Waferfiche(TM) technology, data is stored in such a way that it is visible to the human eye with or without magnification. The data from print, digital or any other media is converted to images as a first step. These images, with the help of photolithography tools and fabrication techniques are then imprinted and etched on silicon wafers. The use of silicon makes the information temporarily resistant to high temperatures (up to 400°C) and water, ensuring longevity, which is very useful in preserving documents. In this technique, since the stored data is not processed or digitized before storing, the data is stored for long periods without any loss of data over time. The added advantage of the new technique is retrieval of the data can be as simple and straightforward as magnifying the image on the silicon wafers thereby eliminating the need for a computer. This feature enables archival of data in a technology free environment. Also depending upon the semiconductor fabrication technique used (smallest feature size in the order of 200 nm, 100nm, 90 nm or below), nano-scale images can be imprinted thereby making it possible to store large amount of data on a single silicon wafer.I suspect -- but could be wrong -- that ARnanO and NanoArk are working on similar solutions for long-term storage of information. We know that microforms are the best solution for long-term preservation of information. These wafers seem to allow for much more information to be stored and on a medium that is less susceptible to environmental changes.

Finally, in the September issue is an article on book scanners produced by Metis Systems. The company has two book scanner: DRS 5070 and DRS A1 Plus. From what I can tell, the operator must turn the pages. They also make a large format scanner (DRS 2AO).

For those of you in Europe, who perhaps have read these articles OR are familiar with the companies mentioned, please leave a comment if you can provide more information. Thank you!

Technorati tags: Digitization, Book, Microforms

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

This 20-minute video on the TED.com web site became available in September 2008, but the talk is from December 2007. At 7 minutes into the video, Kahle talks about using a $100 laptop as an ebook reader. At 9 minutes, he talks about digitizing books and about using robotic book scanners then about creating their own.

He also talks about capturing and storing film, audio, video (e.g., TV), and software at the Internet Archive.

Kahle is always informative and always make a compelling case. To me -- although he is not always in the limelight -- he is one of the people who is moving book digitization through his actions as well as his words.

Below you may only see two "boxes" asking you to select the video player that you want to use. (At least, that is what I see.) Pick a player and the video should begin.



Technorati tags: Digitization, Book

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

For those interested in the Vietnam War, this is a wonderful archive and digital collection. Interestingly, it also contains materials that mention John McCain.

Technorati tag: Digitization

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Today is the first Tuesday in November, which means it is time for the general election in the United States. Every four years, we elect a president. Below is a short video about the presidential election process.



If you are following people on Twitter or FriendFeed, for example, it is likely that you are seeing many voting-related posts. This election is a big deal...perhaps the most important election since Kennedy-Nixon in 1960 (Kennedy won). This election has captivated people and it is expected to draw many more people to the polls than normal. What is most interesting about this election is that people have become very involved in this election -- there is more talk, more analysis from ordinary people, etc. "We the people" understand that we have a role in deciding how government is run and who our leader is.

I am sure that this election will be analyzed for years to come. Seth Godin has already posted his analysis -- Marketing lessons from the US election -- which is worth reading.

I suspect that people will get some work done today in the U.S., but don't expect miracles. We're focused on the election and who our next President of the United States (POTUS) will be!

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It's November and a time when the weather really changes here in New York State. With that in mind, this Thursday, I will be driving to Saratoga Spring, NY for the New York Library Association Annual Conference. Thursday night, I will attend the Syracuse University iSchool alumni reception. Friday, I'll be at the conference all day and will be part of a panel called "Meet the Bloggers" (4 p.m.) where I and two others will talk about our experience as library bloggers and provide tips to the audience. If you are attending the conference, please feel free to stop me and say "hi". Who knows...maybe we can grab a cup of coffee?!

I do have two other business trips planned for later in the month, so you might see in an airport to/from Texas (Nov. 12 - 14) or in New York City on Nov. 21 for the Regents Advisory Council on Libraries meeting. If we do cross paths, remember -- say "hi"!

My December and 2009 schedule is on the left side of this blog. Please take a look. For more information on any of the events on my calendar, please contact the sponsoring organization or me. If you would me to speak at your event, please give me a shout.

Technorati tag: Social Networking Tools

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As I noted on Tuesday, Google has settled the lawsuit over the digitization and display of book in Google Book Search. Here are places for more information on the settlement:

• Google Book Search Copyright Settlement (Google)
• The Future of Google Book Search (Google)
• The Google Settlement - From the Universal Library to the Universal Bookstore(Paul Courant)
• Major universities see promise in Google Book Search settlement (Univ. of Michigan)
• New chapter for Google Book Search (Google's blog)
• Google, AAP, Authors Guild: Joint PUBLIC FAQ (AAP)
• My initial take on the Google-publishers settlement (Siva Vaidhyanathan)
• Will Google book settlement solve orphan works? (ZDNet)
• Digital librarian criticizes Google's settlement with booksellers (Mercury News)
• On the Google Book Search agreement (Larry Lessig)
• Google Book Search and orphan works (Georgia Harper) added 11/4/2008
• More on the Google-Publisher settlement (Peter Suber) added 11/4/2008
• More comments on the Google-Publisher settlement (Peter Suber) added 11/4/2008
• Comments on the Google-Publisher settlement #3 (Peter Suber) added 11/4/2008

I highly recommend reading or skimming the posts by Larry Lessig and Siva Vaidhyanathan, who point out both the good and perhaps bad of this settlement. This is a complex settlement with more to be worked out.

And keep in mind that this settlement still needs to be approved by the court.

Technorati tags: Google, Digitization

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If you are unfamiliar with PALINET, it is:
One of the largest U.S. member-owned and governed regional Library Networks, PALINET represents 600+ libraries, information centers, museums, archives, and other similar organizations throughout Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and beyond.For those of us not in their region, you may have seen PALINET exhibiting at a conference like Computers in Libraries or heard one of its staff members give a presentation (e.g., Tom Clareson).

The fact that they are starting a mass digitization collaborative is great news.

Press release:
PALINET Launches Mass Digitization Collaborative

Philadelphia, PA, October 21, 2008 — PALINET announces the launch of the PALINET Mass Digitization Collaborative, a project funded by the PALINET membership and supported in part through a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The Mass Digitization Collaborative offers PALINET members the capability to contribute important historical and archival materials for digitization as part of a regional digital collection. Through PALINET’s partnership with the Internet Archive, the new digital resources will be shared on the Web, ensuring unprecedented open access to the rare and special library collections of the Mid-Atlantic region.

Catherine C. Wilt, PALINET’s Executive Director, says, “The Mass Digitization Collaborative is an outstanding example of how cultural heritage institutions of all types can work together to build local and regional digital collections for free and open access to all. This effort will result in the availability of 20 million pages of digitized text from PALINET members.” Robert Miller, Internet Archive’s Director of Books, adds, "PALINET is a perfect partner. The extensive academic and research collections of the members combined with our mass digitization infrastructure makes for a great low-cost, high value partnership that will serve as a model for others."

Collaborative participants select unique items from their collections for digitization at regional scanning centers, and add the new digital assets to their online collections. PALINET staff support members throughout the process, as project participants work together to create best practices, standards, and policies. Through participation in the Collaborative, PALINET members create a community of practice dedicated to development of the regional digital collection. For more information on the PALINET Mass Digitization Collaborative, please contact Laurie Gemmill, PALINET’s Digital Services Manager, at gemmill@palinet.org or visit www.palinet.org/dshome.aspx.

About PALINET
Founded in 1936, PALINET is a member-owned and governed regional library network, representing 600+ libraries and cultural heritage institutions in the Mid-Atlantic region and beyond. Now offering hundreds of products and services from over 80 business partners, PALINET enables members to maximize budgets through group discounts and consortial savings programs. PALINET serves as a premier technology advisor to members, providing access to cutting-edge education and leadership on current innovations and emerging trends. Members access critical new skills, current technology tools, and traditional library skills through the PALINET Education Program, and expert consulting advice in a wide variety of library and management areas. In other initiatives, PALINET facilitates collaborative member projects in digitization, preservation, and resource sharing on national, regional, and statewide levels. For the latest information on PALINET, visit www.palinet.org.
Technorati tag: Digitization

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Congratulations to the New York 3Rs for their new initiative, New York Heritage. John Hammond, Executive Director of the Northern New York Library Network, said in email that they hope to see many, many collections added to this effort. With 10,000 cultural heritage organizations in New York State, there could indeed be a lot of growth!

The site uses many web pages that are not part of CONTENTdm to provide additional information. That really helps the site be more robust. The layout is clean and with 160 digital collections already, there is a ton of content!

Here's the press release about this new site:
The New York 3Rs Association has launched a new digital heritage web site, www.newyorkheritage.org. The site connects more than 160 digital collections from around the state, contributed by libraries, archives, museums and other cultural institutions, and builds on existing digital repository services administered by each of the nine reference and research library resources councils.

NewYorkHeritage.org uses OCLC's CONTENTdm Multisite Server to bring these collections together, allowing the public to search across all items simultaneously. This project provides free, online access to images of cultural and historical significance in New York State.

A variety of materials can be found among the New York Heritage Digital Collections, including photographs, postcards, correspondence, manuscripts, oral histories, yearbooks and newspapers. Many kinds of institutions from New York State have partnered to make this project possible, including public, academic and school libraries, museums, archives and historical societies. The power of collaboration is what makes this new service possible.

Participants to New York Heritage Digital Collections are committed to enhancing the site by adding both content and contributing institutions on a regular basis. The goal of the project is to eventually connect one thousand collections and one million items from throughout New York State. All institutions interested in participating in the project are encouraged to contact the 3Rs organization that serves their region.

The New York 3Rs Association is a partnership among New York's nine reference and research resource systems. The New York 3Rs was incorporated in 2003 to further the ability of those systems to provide statewide services. The members of the New York 3Rs Association are: the Capital District Library Council, Central New York Library Resources Council, Long Island Library Resources Council, Metropolitan New York Library Council, Northern New York Library Network, Rochester Regional Library Council, Southeastern New York Library Resources Council, South Central Regional Library Council, and Western New York Library Resources Council.
Technorati tag: Digitization, New York State, NYS

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PRELIMINARY PROGRAM AND ONLINE REGISTRATION NOW AVAILABLE FOR THE 2009 NFAIS ANNUAL CONFERENCE

The 2009 NFAIS Annual Conference, Barbarians at the Gate? The Impact of Digital Natives and Emerging Technologies on the Future of Information Services, will take place February 22 - 24, 2009 at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Philadelphia, PA. The preliminary program, online and fax registration forms, and general information are now available (early bird registration rates are in effect until January 9, 2009 go to:http://www.nfais.org/events/event_details.cfm?id=51).

The conference will take a look at how the born digital generation, with a lifetime of information seeking skills shaped by search engines and the Web, will impact the scholarly, scientific and business information services that they are beginning to use in their professional lives, and will highlight the opportunities for all information providers - publishers, librarians and educators - to adapt their products, services and business practices to the needs and expectations of this new generation of information seekers.

Highlights include:

• A provocative opening keynote by John Palfrey, author of Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives and a faculty co-director of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society, will look at how living digitally is globally transforming how people relate to information and to one another, and how the now ubiquitous and ever-evolving Internet is fundamentally changing information behaviors as we move from generation to generation.

• Key results of two recent studies -- one, by the British Library and Dr. Ian Rowlands of the City University of London, to identify how the researchers of the future, currently in school, are likely to access and interact with digital resources in five to ten years time, and a second, by Dr. Nora Barnes, Director of the Center for Marketing Research, University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, that looks at the use of social media by higher education and the 500 fastest growing companies in the U.S. ( Inc. 500).
• A panel of Digital Natives discussing the information tools they use and why and what needs to be changed in order for libraries and traditional information services such as journals and databases to be truly useful to them.
• A look at some transforming technologies that can be used to ensure that your information products and services can be accessed and used by Digital Natives around the world, including delivery to iPhones via Modality and state-of-the art translation technology from IBM.
• Examples of how the information and communication behaviors of Digital Natives are driving new business practices in libraries and in publishing houses, including the use of open source tools and innovative projects such as the University of Michigan's delivery of books on demand.
• A look at how scientific, scholarly, and business communities are embracing social networks, how organizations such as BioInformatics are creating and monetizing such global networks, and insights from the Gilbane Group on the importance of multilingual content and local/regional products and services in today's truly global information economy.

If you want to learn more about the information and search expectations of the Born Digital generation as they enter their professional careers, and the technologies, business practices and innovative projects that are emerging to meet those expectations, join us and find out how your organization can ultimately attract loyal followers and long-term users from among the Barbarians at the Gate!

For more information, contact Jill O'Neill, NFAIS Director of Communication and Planning (jilloneill@nfais.org or 215-893-1561) or visit the NFAIS Web site at http://www.nfais.org/events/event_details.cfm?id=51.

Technorati tags: Digital Libraries, Social Networking Tools

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Quoting ReadWriteWeb: (emphasis added)
Google today announced that it has reached a deal with book publishers to settle two copyright lawsuits over potential copyright violations in its Google Book Search product. This $125 million settlement, which still needs approval from a U.S. district court, will be used to establish a Book Rights Registry that will ensure that publishers and authors receive compensation from subscription services and ad revenue. For users of Google Book Search, this settlement will mean that they might soon be able to build an "online bookshelf" and buy licenses to read the full-text of books in Google's index.

Google will now be able to fade out the 'snippet view' in Google Book Search, which only showed very small amounts of text from a given book. Instead, most books will now allow readers to preview 20% of the book.

This will make Google Book Search even more popular. I can imagine libraries and schools licensing specific content. (I could definitely imagine a virtual bookshelf for specific classes or academic programs.) And getting rid of the snippets is a blessing! They really weren't useful. While 20% of a book is a lot, it means that people can make a better decision about purchasing it or borrowing it from a library.

Technorati tags: Google, Digitization

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