New & Noteworthy
University of RochesterDeveloping eXtensible Catalog
The University of Rochester's River Campus Libraries have received a $283,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to begin planning and requirements analysis for the development of an open-source online system to unify access to traditional and digital library resources. The new system, known as eXtensible Catalog (XC), has the potential to allow future library users to get more out of academic library collections, and to give academic libraries more control over how best to help library users gather information.
The first phase of the analysis will produce a plan that will include:
a survey of related projects that will assess the feasibility of bringing together and building on work being done at other institutions;
an analysis of freely-available source code that could be incorporated into the development of XC;
outreach to other academic institutions doing similar work at libraries;
recommendations for the metadata requirements of the new system, informed by data models that focus on how metadata helps people gather and understand information;
an analysis of existing user studies and recommendations for additional studies of user practices to guide the development of XC; and
an analysis of needs for the XC system within academic libraries.
The complete press release for the project is available at: www.rochester.edu/news/show.php?id=2518For additional information, please contact one of the XC Co-Principal Investigators: David Lindahl, director of Digital Initiatives (davidl@library.rochester.edu)Jennifer Bowen, head of Cataloging (jbowen@library.rochester.edu)Nancy Fried Foster, lead Anthropologist (nancyf@library.rochester.edu).
eXtensible Catalog (XC) Project blog: www.extensiblecatalog.info/
GAM3R 7H30RYInstitute for the Future of the Book and GAM3R 7H30RY
Educator/author Mackenzie Wark has teamed with the Institute for the Future of the Book to explore the creation of the first "networked" book entitled GAM3R 7H30RY. The book is a work in progress and changes to the work are affected by interaction with and by those participating and interacting through the project site. The basic subject of the book itself is computer gaming, exploring two questions: "Can we explore games as allegories for the world we live in?"; and "Can there be a critical theory of games?"
The about this project page gives insight into the thought process that went into designing the project, including goals, design objectives, and interface design decisions.
About the project: www.futureofthebook.org/gamertheory/?page_id=2
GAM3R 7H30RY: www.futureofthebook.org/gamertheory/
OCLC, Cornell University LibraryDevelop New WorldCat Selection Service
OCLC is working with Cornell University Library to develop a new WorldCat Selection service that will help libraries save time and money by streamlining the selection and ordering process for new library materials and delivering the corresponding WorldCat records.
The WorldCat Selection service will allow selectors of new library materials to view records from multiple materials vendors in one central, comprehensive system. Libraries will be able to get WorldCat records for newly purchased materials into their integrated library system early in the technical services process. And the library's holding symbol will be automatically set on the WorldCat records for the materials.
WorldCat Selection is being developed in partnership with Cornell University Library and is based on software known as the Integrated Tool for Selection and Ordering at Cornell University Library (ITSO CUL). The service is scheduled to launch in the second half of 2006.
"ITSO CUL software has enabled Cornell's acquisitions operation to increase productivity and reduce costs associated with selection and ordering,"said Scott Wicks, Head, Acquisitions and Information Organization, Library Technical Services, Cornell University Library. Cornell estimates that the software tool accounts for 40 percent of its firm orders and is saving approximately $100,000 per year in staff costs.
The WorldCat Selection service automates the middle part of the acquisition workflow – the selection process. Librarians still "select"materials, but the need for sending items via paper slips or selecting items in multiple vendor systems is eliminated with WorldCat Selection. Acquisitions staff automatically load WorldCat MARC records into the integrated library system, eliminating the need to re-key data or import data from multiple sources.
OCLC is in negotiations with materials vendors Aux Amateurs de Livres International, Blackwell's Book Services, Casalini Libri, and Harrassowitz to participate in the initial release of WorldCat Selection. OCLC will add more vendors as the service moves forward.
More information on the WorldCat Selection service: www.oclc.org/selection
Los Alamos National LibraryReleases Open Source Software
aDORe Archive Software
The Los Alamos National Library (LANL) Digital Library Research &Prototyping Team has announced the formal release of their aDORe Archive software. The aDORe Archive is a write-once/read-many storage approach for digital objects and their constituent datastreams.
The approach combines two interconnected file-based storage mechanisms that are made accessible in a protocol-based manner. First, XML-based representations of multiple digital objects are concatenated into a single, valid XML file named an XMLtape. The creation of indexes for both the identifier and the creation datetime of the XML-based representation of the digital objects, facilitates OAI-PMH-based access. Second, ARC files, as introduced by the internet archive,are used to contain the constituent datastreams of the digital objects in a concatenated manner. An index for the identifier of the datastream facilitates OpenURL-based access. The interconnection between an XMLtape and its associated ARC file(s) is provided by conveying the identifiers of these ARC files as administrative information in the XMLtape, and by including OpenURL references to constituent datastreams of a digital object in the XML-based representation of that digital object stored in the XMLtape. The aDORe Archive allows for the storage of multiple XMLtapes and ARC files through the introduction of OAI-PMH compliant XMLtape and ARCfile registries.
This distribution includes a comprehensive tutorial intended to introduce new developers to the application framework, as well as provide working knowledge of the API and application configurations.
The aDORe Archive 1.0 software was developed by the LANL Digital Library Research & Prototyping Team. Development of the software was partly funded by an NDIIP grant from the Library of Congress. This software may be used without charge in accord with the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License(LGPL).
Further context for the aDORe Archive software is provided in: Liu, X.,Balakireva, L., Hochstenbach, P., Van de Sompel, H. "File-based storage of digital objects and constituent datastreams: XMLTapes and ynternet archive ARC files" (2005, June) (http://arxiv.org/pdf/cs.DL/0503016)
aDORe Archive 1.0 software page: http://purl.lanl.gov/aDORe/projects/adoreArchive/
LANL and Ghent University's DIDLTools Software
The LANL Digital Library Research and Prototyping Team and Ghent University Library have announced the formal release of their DIDLTools software. The aDORe DIDLTools is a Java toolkit for the construction, validation, serialization and de-serialization of the MPEG-21 DID data model. DID, the MPEG-21 Digital Item Declaration, provides an abstract model for the representation of digital items,whereas DIDL, the MPEG-21 Digital Item Declaration Language specifies how to serialize the model in XML. The API provided by the aDORe DIDLTools allows for the construction of customized DIDL XML documents, as well as provides flexible and extensible serialization methods.
This distribution includes a comprehensive tutorial detailing the steps necessary to model and create a DIDL using the DID-API.
The DIDLTools 1.0 software was developed by the LANL Digital Library Research and Prototyping Team, in partnership with Ghent University. This software may be used without charge in accord with the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL). Further context for the aDORe DIDLTools software is provided in the papers:
Bekaert, J. and Van de Sompel, H. (2005). "Representing digital assets using MPEG-21 digital item declaration", August, available at: http://arxiv.org/abs/cs.DL/0508065
Bekaert, J., Liu, X. and Van de Sompel, H. (2005), "Representing digital assets for long-term preservation using MPEG-21 DID", November, available at: http://arxiv.org/abs/cs.DL/0509084
DIDLTools 1.0 software page: http://purl.lanl.gov/aDORe/projects/DIDLTools/
Call for Nominations2006 Mellon Awards for Technology Collaboration
The Program in Research in Information Technology of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation invites nominations for the 2006 Mellon Awards for Technology Collaboration (MATC). In support of the program's mission to encourage collaborative, open source software development within traditional Mellon constituencies, these awards – to be given for the first time in 2006– will recognize not-for-profit organizations that are making substantial contributions of their own resources toward the development of open source software and the fostering of collaborative communities to sustain open source development.
The awards will provide the recipients with opportunities to strengthen their commitment to inter-organizational collaboration and open source software development. Awards will be given at two levels: $25,000 awards to recognize important organizational contributions to open source projects which currently or potentially provide significant benefits to at least one traditional Mellon constituency; and $100,000 awards to recognize highly significant contributions to open source projects offering larger benefits to more or larger constituencies. Multiple awards will be bestowed at each level, at the discretion of the Award Committee and the Trustees.
Any organization that satisfies the Mellon Foundation's criteria for receiving grants is potentially eligible, including qualifying non-US organizations. To receive full consideration, the organization must have contributed its own financial and human resources to an open source software development project which:
provides a direct and demonstrably significant benefit to one or more of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation's traditional constituencies: higher education, with a special emphasis on the arts and humanities; libraries and scholarly communications; performing arts; conservation and the environment; or museums and art conservation;
meets the Foundation's strict standards for excellence; and
includes the development of intellectual property that is freely available to the academic community under one of the approved open source licenses.
Nominations must be made with respect to one particular project. Multiple nominations for a single organization and different projects will be accepted,as will self-nominations. Nominations should be received no later than close of business in Princeton, NJ on Friday 4 August 2006.
For additional information, and/or to submit a nomination: http://rit.mellon.org/awards/
New Google Search TechnologiesFor Information Discovery, Organization, Sharing
Google Inc. has announced new technologies to enhance and improve the search experience. Three new products – Google Co-op, Google Desktop 4, and Google Notebook – advance the state of the art in search by helping users worldwide find and share more relevant information. The products all incorporate new capabilities that leverage user communities, enabling users to either share more information with others or benefit from other users' expertise to improve the accuracy of search results. The company also introduced Google Trends, a new tool that enables users to examine billions of searches conducted on Google to gain insight into broad search patterns over time.
Google Co-op beta is a community where users can contribute their knowledge and expertise to improve Google search for everyone. Organizations, businesses,or individuals can label web pages relevant to their areas of expertise or create specialized links to which users can subscribe. Once a user has subscribed to a provider's content, all of that provider's labels and subscribed links are added to the user's search results for relevant queries. These contributions serve as meta information that helps Google's search algorithms connect users to the most relevant information for their specific query. As a first step, Google has worked with partners to annotate web pages related to health and city guides and to offer dozens of subscribed links to specialized content such as restaurant and movie information. Google Co-op is available today on all English language Google domains including Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the UK.
Google Desktop 4 beta – available in English, French, Italian, German,Spanish, Dutch, and Brazilian Portuguese – offers another way for users to improve their search experience, by personalizing their desktops with the introduction of Google Gadgets. These gadgets are mini-applications that reside on users' desktops and deliver a variety of personalized information such as games, media players, weather and news. Google currently has hundreds of gadgets users can add to their desktops and with the new Google Desktop Gadgets API,developers can easily create and share their own gadgets with other users.
Google Notebook is a simple way for users to save and organize their thoughts when conducting research online. This personal browser tool permits users to clip text, images, and links from the pages they are browsing, save them to an online "notebook" that is accessible from any computer, and share them with others. Google Notebook is an interactive scratch pad for every web site a user visits, offering a single online location to collect web findings without having to leave the browser window. For example, if a user were planning a vacation, she could clip the most relevant materials on the pages she visits and add personal notes to help organize all of her research. Users can make their Google Notebook public and share the notes they've taken with others. As a result, the time and effort put into their research can be harnessed by the online community as a whole.
Google Trends builds on the Google Zeitgeist to help users find facts and trends related to Google usage around the world. Google Trends enables users to learn how popular a particular search term has been on Google over time and see the relevant news articles that ran on that subject. "For the first time ever, Google is making it possible to sift through billions of search queries from around the world to see what people are thinking about," said Marissa Mayer, vice president, Search Products and User Experience, Google Inc. With Google Trends, users will be able to observe the collective interests of all Google users to gain general insight into topics such as people's preferences on ice cream flavors, American Idol contestants, or the relative popularity of brands and politicians in specific countries.
AmazonReleases Online Reader
Amazon.com has released its online book reader software Online Reader. The Online Reader software enables searching through and reading selected pages from thousands of books available in their Search Inside! program. Aside from the new look with the Amazon Online Reader, nothing has changed with the Search Inside!program. There is no additional charge for searching the contents of books and viewing sample pages of books in the Search Inside! program.
Amazon Upgrade is a program that allows you to read, search, and annotate every page of your books online. If a book is part of the Amazon Upgrade Program, if the physical book is purchased, the buyer can also purchase online access through any Internet enabled computer to an electronic version of the book. Then the Online Reader can be used to read every page; create highlights,bookmarks, notes, and tags; copy text; and print pages of the book. Highlights,bookmarks, notes and tags can be set to either public or private. Annotations set to public will be viewable by other Amazon Upgrade customers.
Currently the Amazon Upgrade program is only available to customers within the USA. Also, access to the electronic version of the book cannot be sold or transferred to another customer even if the physical item is transferred.
More information on Amazon's Online Reader: www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/browse/-/110745011/104-3580984-5815949
Updated Pilot VersionsOf ONIX SRN and SPS Formats Available
The NISO/EDItEUR Joint Working Party for the Exchange of Serials Subscription Information is pleased to announce the availability of updated pilot versions of the ONIX for Serials Serials Release Notification (SRN) and Serials Products and Subscriptions (SPS) formats. An XML schema and a prose overview for these formats are available on the EDItEUR web site. An eye-readable ONIX for Serials Glossary and a Codelist can also be found at that location. These formats join the already-completed Serials Online Holdings (SOH) format.
ONIX for Serials is a family of XML formats for communicating information about serial products and subscription information. The development of the formats has taken place through the efforts of the Joint Working Party, with the participation of libraries, subscription agents, publishers, and suppliers of systems and services to the serials world.
The SRN and SPS formats are currently at release 0.91, which is a release for piloting. On completion of the pilots, and the incorporation of any consequent changes, EDItEUR will issue a first full release, to be numbered 1.0. Organizations involved with the exchange of serials information are encouraged to exercise and exchange these messages and to send comments on the specification and schema to EDItEUR (brian@bic.org.uk). Organizations that are using the formats during the pilot period are asked to contact EDItEUR at the same address.
To receive notices of updates to ONIX Serials formats and documentation,please subscribe to the ONIX for Serials mailing list by sending an email to O4Sinfo-subscribe@list.niso.orgwith "subscribe" as the subject. You will receive an email from the list requesting confirmation.
To participate in the more detailed ONIX for Serials implementers' discussion list, please subscribe to the ONIX for Serials implementation mailing list by sending an email to O4Simplement-subscribe@list.niso.orgwith "subscribe" as the subject.
EDItEUR ONIX for Serials web site: www.editeur.org/onixserials.html
NISO web site: www.niso.org/news/SerialsExchange.html
DOPAMySpace, Libraries and the "Deleting Online Predators Act" (DOPA)
On May 15, 2006, ALA president Michael Gorman released a statement opposing the "Deleting Online Predators Act", a bill that would extend reach of Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA). The legislation, if passed, would expand provisions of CIPA, the law that requires libraries to block certain Internet content or lose federal funding. H.R. 5319 – the Deleting Online Predators Act (DOPA) – would block library computer users from accessing collaborative networking sites like MySpace, and would also bar access to a wide array of other important applications and technologies such as instant messaging, e-mail, wikis and blogs.
Meanwhile, more and more libraries are establishing a presence on MySpace,the popular social-networking site, as a way to connect with their user communities, promote their collections and services, and to send out announcements about events in the library. Among the academic and public libraries creating MySpace homepages are the Brooklyn College Library of the City University of New York (www.myspace.com/brooklyncollegelibrary),The University of Texas at Austin Libraries (www.myspace.com/utlibraries), and the Hennepin (Minn.) County Library (www.myspace.com/hennepincountylibrary).
Helene Blowers's Library TechBytes blog provides a list of MySpace library profiles, and some feedback and commentary from librarians on this trend, at: http://libtechbytes.blogspot.com/2006/03/myspace-library-profiles-updated.html
SageTeams with Portico and CLOCKSS to Preserve E-Journal Content
In order to ensure the long-term stability of its valuable journal content so future generations of scholars, researchers and students will have access to it,Sage Publications, a publisher of over 400 scholarly journals, is participating in CLOCKSS (Controlled LOCKSS – Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe) and has signed an agreement with Portico, a new, not-for-profit electronic-archiving service launched last year.
In the event of a disaster that would prevent the delivery of content,CLOCKSS will assure that access to the journals is maintained. A joint advisory board, made up of societies, publishers and libraries, will determine if the content is orphaned and whether it should be made publicly available. Since it's collectively managed, publishers are ensured that content is controlled and no one entity has authority over orphaned digital materials in the system. During the two-year pilot, participants will collect and analyze data for use in developing a proposal for a full-scale archiving model. As part of a longer-term strategy to permanently preserve published work, CLOCKSS will report the results to the research community and begin a dialogue about a global infrastructure to ensure preservation of all past, present, and future scholarly content.
Portico will provide an ongoing, permanent online archive of Sage journals,ensuring that an accessible copy of each issue will exist for decades to come. The service also offers the migration of the content into future technological formats as they are developed. Portico's archiving service meets library demand for a trusted, third-party archive and perpetual access while providing Sage with insurance against loss of the journal content.
Sage Publications is a leading international publisher of journals, books,and electronic media for academic, educational, and professional markets (www.sagepublications.com/).
CLOCKSS is a collaborative, community initiative to build a trusted large dark archive. The CLOCKSS governance and administration structure is distributed to insure no one-single organization controls oversight of the archive or has the power to compromise the long-term viability of the content's safety (www.lockss.org/clockss).
Portico is a new, not-for-profit electronic-archiving service established in response to the library community's need for a robust, reliable means to preserve electronic scholarly journals (www.portico.org/).
Library of Congress ProgramTo Capture and Preserve Web Sites
The Library of Congress has recently launched a web site devoted to information about its program to capture and preserve historically important eeb sites so that they can be accessed by future generations of users. The Web Capture Program is directly related to the library's larger digital preservation program, called the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program.
The Library of Congress and libraries and archives around the world are interested in collecting and preserving content on the web because an ever-increasing amount of the world's cultural and intellectual output is created in digital formats and does not exist in any physical form. Creating an archive of web sites supports the goals of the Library's Digital Strategic Plan,announced in March 2003, which focuses on the collection and management of digital content.
The subject areas in which the library has been collecting web sites include recent Supreme Court nominations; Hurricane Katrina; and the papal transition following the death of John Paul II. Current collecting projects include the crisis in Darfur, Sudan; the Iraq War; and the upcoming Election 2006. The Library collects Web sites only after it has received formal permission from web site content owners to do so. Some of the web sites captured by the library and its partners are currently available by accessing the "Projects" section of the site.
As part of the Web Capture Program, the "Technical background"section of the web site notes that the library, in conjunction with its partners, is working on developing a common set of web capture tools in four areas: curator selection, verification and permissions; acquisition; collection storage and maintenance; and access.
Library of Congress Web Capture Program web site: www.loc.gov/webcapture
National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program web site: www.digitalpreservation.gov
NCLIS Report from SymposiumOn Mass Digitization: Implications for Information Policy
The chairman of the US National Commission on Libraries and Information Science (NCLIS), Dr Beth Fitzsimmons, has announced the publication of a report from the symposium "Scholarship and libraries in transition: a dialogue about the impacts of mass digitization projects." The US NCLIS is a permanent, independent agency of the Federal government charged to advise the President and Congress on national and international library and information policies, to appraise and assess the adequacies and deficiencies of library and information resources and services, and to develop overall plans for meeting national library and information needs. The symposium was held at the University of Michigan on March 10-11, 2006.
The idea for the symposium was inspired by the announcement in December 2004 for a partnership between Google, Inc. and five major research libraries to digitize over ten million unique titles. This partnership launched a new era of large-scale digitization heretofore not imagined feasible or affordable. However, the "Google 5" project has generated many questions about the legal, social, economic, and other impacts of this and similar projects that will inevitably follow Google's lead. The symposium brought together scholars,librarians, publishers, government leaders to discuss their concerns and issues. NCLIS co-sponsored the symposium, which was planned and organized by the University of Michigan Library staff and funded mainly by the University of Michigan.
After the symposium, because of their responsibility to address the information and learning needs of the US people, NCLIS Commissioners summed up nine major issues that have information policy implications and connected them to key points made during the symposium. The nine issues or areas that the Commission identified to have potential impact on national information policy are:
- 1.
Copyright. How should important aspects of copyright – fair use,orphan works, opt-in vs opt-out models – be handled in digitization projects?
- 2.
Quality. When is the quality of OCR good enough? What about quality of content and authentication?
- 3.
Libraries. What are the roles and priorities for libraries in the digital age?
- 4.
Ownership and preservation. Who will assume long-term ownership of books and journals and other media? Who will take responsibility for long-term preservation of books and journals and other media, and preserving the public record?
- 5.
Standardization and interoperability. How can the silos of digital initiatives communicate with each other?
- 6.
Publishers. What are the roles of publishers and booksellers in the digital age?
- 7.
Business models. What business models are needed in the era of mass digitization? How will the open access movement affect the economics of digitization?
- 8.
Information literacy. What should be done about information illiteracy?
- 9.
Assessment. What types of assessment are being used? How will we know if digitization and electronic access are meeting people's needs?
The report sums up the key points under each of these nine topics and concludes that finding workable solutions will have to involve authors,scholars, publishers, libraries, associations, and government agencies. The solutions will involve education and awareness, policies, responsibility,standards, quality, cooperation, rights, sustainability, technology, and assessment. The URL for the free 24-page report: www.nclis.gov/digitization/MassDigitizationSymposium-Report.pdf
The Webcast of the entire symposium may be found on the symposium web page: www.lib.umich.edu/mdp/symposium/
Digital Dystopia?New Paper on Copyright and Digital Rights Management
Charles W. Bailey has made available a pre-print of his upcoming paper entitled "Strong copyright + DRM + weak net neutrality = digital dystopia?"The paper's conclusion summarizes his main argument as follows: "What this paper has said is simply this: three issues – a dramatic expansion of the scope, duration, and punitive nature of copyright laws; the ability of DRM to lock-down content in an unprecedented fashion; and the erosion of net neutrality–bear careful scrutiny by those who believe that the Internet has fostered (and will continue to foster) a digital revolution that has resulted in an extraordinary explosion of innovation, creativity, and information dissemination. These issues may well determine whether the much-toted "information superhighway"lives up to its promise or simply becomes the "information toll road" of the future, ironically resembling the pre-internet online services of the past.
The final version of the paper will appear in Information Technology and Libraries, Vol. 25 No. 3, 2006.
Preprint of paper: www.digital-scholarship.com/cwb/DigitalDystopia.pdf
LITA 2006Award Winners Announced
Nancy M. Cline, Roy E. Larsen Librarian of Harvard College at Harvard University, has been named the 2006 winner of the Hugh C. Atkinson Memorial Award. Named in honor of one of the pioneers of library automation, the Atkinson Award recognizes an academic librarian who has made significant contributions in the area of library automation or management, and has made notable improvements in library services or research. "Nancy Cline is an exceptional leader,"said Karen Williams, award committee chair. "She has the professional knowledge and capacity to think strategically and to help shape the future,rather than simply arrive there. She has helped to shape two premier research libraries at Harvard and Penn State, and a number of professional organizations including the Association of Research Libraries, JSTOR, the Research Libraries Group, the Association of American Colleges and Universities, and the Digital Library Federation." Four divisions of the American Library Association,including the Library and Information Technology Association (LITA), the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), the Library Administration and Management Association (LAMA), and the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services (ALCTS), jointly sponsor the Hugh C. Atkinson Award.
Ching-chih Chen, professor at Simmons College, is the winner of the Frederick G. Kilgour Award for Research in Library and Information Technology for 2006. OCLC (Online Computer Library Center, Inc.) and the LITA, a division of the American Library Association, sponsor the award, which was established to honor the achievements of Frederick G. Kilgour, the founder of OCLC and a seminal figure in library automation. "The Kilgour Award Committee takes great pleasure in acknowledging the important work and contributions of Ching-chih Chen, whose research has led to significant achievements in the areas of global digital libraries, multimedia technology, digital imaging, interactive videodisc technology, global information infrastructure, and information management,"said Qiang Jin, chair of the award committee. Among Dr Chen's latest achievements is the Global Memory Net – a gateway to world cultural,historical, and heritage multimedia resources – supported by the National Science Foundation's International Digital Library Program. An integrated world digital image library or portal which is seamlessly linked to all relevant multimedia sources – audio files, videos, and texts – Global Memory Net will be launched for universal access at the end of June 2006.
Chris Zagar is the 2006 recipient of the LITA/Brett Butler Entrepreneurship Award. Zagar is a librarian who, currently, serves as a systems librarian at the Estrella Mountain Community College, a part of the Maricopa Community Colleges in Arizona. Sponsored by Thomson Gale and the LITA, the award recognizes exemplary entrepreneurship that provides an innovative product or service designed to meet the needs of the library world. In 1999 Zagar authored EZproxy,a software program now used by 1,800 libraries in 46 countries to provide a seamless access environment for their users. "Chris Zagar has gathered quite a loyal group of clients who appreciate the usefulness and reliability of his EZproxy software and the excellent level of support he provides," said Judith Carter, award committee chair. "The LITA/Brett Butler Entrepreneurship Award Committee was enthusiastic in selecting Chris Zagar as the 2006 Award recipient."
Patricia R. Harris has been named the winner of the 2006 LITA/Library Hi Tech award for Outstanding Communication in Library and Information Technology. Emerald and the LITA, a division of the American Library Association, sponsor the award. The award recognizes outstanding achievement in communicating to educate practitioners within the library field in library and information technology. Since 1983 Patricia R. Harris has served as the Executive Director of the National Information Standards Organization (NISO). In her role as executive director she worked with leaders in the library, vendor, and publishing communities to establish a community of partners dedicated to the development, promotion and support of information standards. Through her efforts librarians have become key players in the development of information technology standards. Harris also worked tirelessly to communicate to a wide and diverse audience about the importance of standards in an increasingly complex information environment. The many publications produced by NISO, including introductory materials and newsletters, were particularly effective in "translating"the jargon of the standards community into language that was understandable and meaningful to a broader audience. In addition, Harris has emphasized the education of information professionals in the importance of standards to their organizations and user communities.
University of Buffalo LIS StudentsCreate Firebrary Digital Library
Students in the Library and Information Studies Department of the School of Informatics at the University of Buffalo recently completed work on The Firebrary: The Buffalo Fire Historical Society Digital Library as a gift to the Buffalo Fire Historical Society Museum in Buffalo, New York. The digital library contains images of two of the museum's collections as well as audio files linked to some of ht items that contain oral histories provided by the museum's volunteers, including many former firefighters.
This example of graduate student work fully documents the process of creating a digital library, including collection development policy, content and copyright policy, organization and metadata policy, interface policy,digitization policy.
Project documentation: http://soistudent.sis.buffalo.edu/lis563/policies.html
Project process: http://soistudent.sis.buffalo.edu/lis563/making.html
University of Buffalo LIS web site: http://informatics.buffalo.edu/lis/
