digitizationblog News on digitization in libraries and allied institutions

The Rights and Rewards Project's Digital lifecycles and file types: final report will be of interest to anyone planning an Institutional Repository.

Caliph & Emir are complimentary tools that allow the creation of MPEG-7 metadata for images and search and retrieval using that metadata. This set of screen captures and these Flash demos of Caliph and Emir illustrate what they do.

I've just come across Docvert (now in version 2.1.5), a set of PHP scripts that works with OpenOffice or Abiword to provide a web service for converting MS Word files into OpenDocument. Install OpenOffice or Abiword on a server, set up Docvert, and you've got a tool for your docuement authors or staff to create OpenDocuments.

This article by Duncan Burbidge in the latest Ariadne (Issue 47, April 2006) describes the workflow used by the FP6 PrestoSpace Project to digitize and process video media. Specifically, it discusses:

• Tracking the process of digitisation from tape to fully indexed archive;
• The encoding technology behind the system;
• Storage of the archive;
• Encoding formats that are available; and
• A conclusion on the whole process.

The International Conference on the Preservation of Digital Objects (iPRES 2006) will be held October 8-10, 2006 at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY U.S.A. Topics include Preserving Multimedia Objects, e-Journal Preservation, Certification, and National Efforts in Digital Preservation. Concurrent sessions will be held on Tools of the Trade; Selection, Workflow, and Accession; eScience and Digital Preservation; Metadata; Business and organizational issues; and Repositories. Deadline for contributed papers is August 15, 2006.