New & noteworthy
Cornell University LibraryPartners with Microsoft on Large Scale Digitization Project
Cornell University Library will soon be able to offer more of its exceptional resources to scholars worldwide, thanks to a long-term partnership with Microsoft to digitize a significant number of its books and to put the volumes online using Live Book Search service. The initiative will focus on works already in the public domain and allow students, researchers, and scholars to use Live Book Search to locate and read books from Cornell University Library's outstanding collections regardless of where they reside in the world. It supports both the library's long-standing commitment to make its collections broadly available and Cornell President David Skorton's goal to increase the impact of the university beyond campus boundaries.
Cornell and Microsoft will be teaming with Kirtas Technologies in Victor, New York to digitize the materials for Live Book Search. Kirtas is a recognized pioneer of revolutionary solutions that enable high-quality, non-destructive bound document digitization at up to 2,400 pages per hour. Kirtas' APT BookScan 2400 coupled with the BookScan Editor PRO software delivers superior image quality with a book handling that is gentler than the human hand. Furthermore,Kirtas' Service Bureau has mastered a proprietary digitization process that guarantees an overall error rate lower than 1 per 10,000 pages, ensuring a quality mass digitization that will meet the highest standards.
Cornell University Library is playing a key role in book selection and in setting quality standards for the digitized materials. This will ensure that scholarly materials that support Cornell's academic programs are available in digital form on the Web over time.
Some of the subject areas to be digitized include agriculture, US history,English literature, astronomy, food and wine, general engineering, the history of science, home economics, hospitality and travel, human sexuality, labor relations, Native American materials, ornithology, veterinary medicine, and women's studies.
Microsoft will give the Library high-quality digital images of all the materials, allowing the Library to provide worldwide access through its own digital library and to share the content with non-commercial academic initiatives and non-profit organizations.
Microsoft's Windows Live is a new set of personal Internet services and software designed to bring together in one place all the relationships,information and interests people care about most, with enhanced safety and security features across their PC, devices and the web. Some Windows Live services entered an early beta phase on November 1, 2005; these and future beta updates can be found at http://ideas.live.comWindows Live is available at www.live.com
Kirtas Technologies was founded in 2001 with the vision of bringing to the digital realm the massive knowledge sitting on library shelves, government archives and corporate storerooms. The company's revolutionary technology redefines digitization of all bound documents, delivering gentler handling and higher image quality faster, with fewer errors, and at a lower cost. For more information, visit www.kirtastech.com
Cornell University Library: www.library.cornell.edu
UW-MadisonJoins Massive Google Book Project
The University of Wisconsin-Madison and Google have announced an agreement to expand access to hundreds of thousands of public and historical books and documents from more than 7.2 million holdings at the UW-Madison Libraries and the Wisconsin Historical Society Library. The university is the eighth library to join Google's ambitious effort to digitize the world's books and make them searchable on Google Book Search.
The combined library collections of UW-Madison and the Wisconsin Historical Society comprise one of the largest collections of documents and historical materials to be found in the USA. The collections are ranked 11th in North America by the Association of Research Libraries in Washington, DC.
Other libraries that are currently working with Google to digitize portions of their collections include: Harvard, Michigan, New York Public Library,Oxford, Stanford, the University of California system, and, most recently,Madrid's Complutense University, the largest university library in Spain. The Library of Congress is also conducting a pilot project with Google.
An individual looking for information will be able to use Google Book Search to search the full text and locate the printed works digitized from the UW-Madison and WHS collections. Google has specifically designed Book Search to comply with copyright law. Anyone will be able to freely view, browse and read the UW-Madison's public-domain books, including many of the treasures in the libraries' historic and special collections. For books in the Google Book Search service that are protected by copyright, users just get basic background (such as the book's title and the author's name), at most a few lines of text related to their search, and information about where they can buy or borrow a book. If publishers or authors do not want to have their books digitized, they will be excluded.
The Wisconsin project will initially focus on library collections that are free of copyright restrictions. Most books published before 1923 and publications of the US Government are in the public domain by law. In addition to public documents, the UW-Madison digitizing program will target other high-use collections, such as history of medicine, patents and discoveries,history of engineering, early publications of scientific societies, US and Wisconsin history, genealogical materials, Wisconsin state documents, decorative arts, visual/material culture, maps and sheet music.
Full press release: www.news.wisc.edu/13010.html
GoogleAnnounces Education News at EDUCAUSE 2006
At the EDUCAUSE 2006 annual conference in Dallas, Google introduced new ways that educational institutions can use Google technologies to power communication, collaboration and search for their campus communities. The updates include new features of Google Apps for Education, as well as new partnerships for Google search products.
Since launching Google Apps for Your Domain at the end of August, tens of thousands of businesses and schools have begun using Google's communication applications for free. The service requires no hardware or software other than a standard internet browser, and the user interfaces can be customized easily by each organization. In one of the largest implementations of Google Apps for Education, Arizona State University is transitioning the university's campus community of more than 65,000 students to Google's customizable e-mail, calendar and instant messaging tools.
At EDUCAUSE, Google also announced the beta release of APIs that make it easier for organizations to integrate their user directory, single sign-on systems, and mail gateways with Google Apps for Education. Schools such as Arizona State University have already integrated into Google Apps for Education through this API.
More information about Google Apps for Education: www.google.com/a/edu/
Beyond the OPACFuture Directions for Web-Based Catalogues
Although online catalogues have migrated to the Web environment, their scope,functionality, and displays have undergone very little change in recent years. If OPACs do not evolve in order to meet the demands and expectations of the next generation of users, they run the risk of being bypassed for search engines like Google. Cataloguing rules and OPAC functionality should work together in harmony to bring about the best results for our users. However, in many cases OPAC functionality and design do not exploit the full potential of the catalogue record as created by the cataloguer. Conversely, cataloguing rules carry the legacy of previous manifestations of the catalogue – in particular the card catalogue – and are not always compatible with the online product.
In September, the Australian Committee on Cataloguing presented a full-day seminar to explore the ideas and issues to take the web-based catalogue into the next stages of its development. Full text of papers, PowerPoint presentations,and audio files from the seminar are now available at: www.nla.gov.au/lis/stndrds/grps/acoc/papers2006.html
SPARCTeams with Public Knowledge Project
Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) has announced a partnership with the Public Knowledge Project, an open source publishing initiative funded by the Canadian government and based in the Faculty of Education, University of British Columbia (UBC), and the Simon Fraser University Library. Since 2001, the Public Knowledge Project (PKP) has offered free, open source software for the management and publishing of journals and conference proceedings. PKP software reduces publishing costs, improves management,enhances indexing, and increases access to knowledge.
PKP software includes three proven solutions. Open Journal Systems (OJS)provides a journal management system that supports every stage of the refereed publishing process, from submissions to online publication and indexing. Open Conference Systems (OCS) supports the management of conference paper review process as well as the scheduling and release of materials, from abstracts to full papers, with online posting and indexing. PKP Harvester (PKPH) harvests the metadata of OAI-PMH compliant sites, including OJS journals and OCS conferences.
PKP's open source software technologies are used in digital publishing programs at Rutgers University Library, University of Toronto Library, City University of New York Grad Center, and others. More than 800 journals currently use OJS software; a sample of the journals using OJS is at http://pkp.sfu.ca/ojs-journals
Public Knowledge Project: http://pkp.sfu.ca/
SPARC web site: www.arl.org/sparc/
Open Archives InitiativeAnnounces Object Reuse and Exchange (ORE)
The Open Archives Initiative (OAI) has announced a new effort as part of its mission to develop and promote interoperability standards that aim to facilitate the efficient dissemination of content. Object Reuse and Exchange (ORE) will develop specifications that allow distributed repositories to exchange information about their constituent digital objects. These specifications will include approaches for representing digital objects and repository services that facilitate access and ingest of these representations. The specifications will enable a new generation of cross-repository services that leverage the intrinsic value of digital objects beyond the borders of hosting repositories.
The goals of ORE are inspired by advances in scholarly communication and the growth of scholarly material that is available in scholarly repositories including institutional repositories, discipline-oriented repositories, dataset warehouses, and online journal repositories. This growth is significant by itself. However, its real importance lies in the potential for these distributed repositories and their contained objects to act as the foundation of a new digitally-based scholarly communication framework. Such a framework would permit fluid reuse, refactoring, and aggregation of scholarly digital objects and their constituent parts – including text, images, data, and software. This framework would include new forms of citation, allow the creation of virtual collections of objects regardless of their location, and facilitate new workflows that add value to scholarly objects by distributed registration,certification, peer review, and preservation services. Although scholarly communication is the motivating application, they imagine that the specifications developed by ORE may extend to other domains.
The ORE two-year work plan includes:
Formation of an international advisory committee, consisting of leaders in e-Science, institutional repositories, publishing, library, and educational technology communities.
Formation of an international working group that will meet over the two year period and develop the set of ORE specifications.
Establishment and management of an experimental deployment community that will exercise the developed standards in a variety of contexts.
Establishment of a sustainable community to support the widespread deployment and management of the standards fabric.
OAI-ORE will co-exist within the Open Archives Initiative with the Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH), the widely deployed standard for exchange of metadata. It is expected that the naturally more expressive digital object focus of OAI-ORE will complement the narrower metadata focus of OAI-PMH. OAI-ORE will benefit from the interoperability experience and depth of the international OAI community. ORE is funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for two years beginning October 2006. It is coordinated by Carl Lagoze of Cornell University,Information Science and Herbert Van de Sompel of the Los Alamos Research Library.
OAI-ORE web site: www.openarchives.org/ore/
New From NISOZ39.93 The Standardized Usage Statistics Harvesting Initiative (SUSHI) Protocol Released as Draft Standard
The National Information Standards Organization (NISO) set a new record with the release of Z39.93 The Standardized Usage Statistics Harvesting Initiative(SUSHI) Protocol, as a Draft Standard for Trial Use, after a mere 14-month development cycle. The DSFTU meets the need of libraries to collect Counting Online Usage of Networked Electronic Resources (COUNTER) usage statistics more efficiently. SUSHI represents a web-services approach to solving the challenges of COUNTER statistics retrieval and consolidation. Launched in 2002, Project COUNTER is designed to help librarians and publishers in the recording and exchange of usage statistics for electronic resources. By following COUNTER's Code of Practice, vendors can provide libraries with data using standardized formats and data elements. The SUSHI protocol is a Simple Object Access Protocol(SOAP) request/response web services "wrapper" for the XML version of COUNTER reports.
NISO is issuing the SUSHI protocol as a DSFTU to gain field experience before it takes it to ballot. The SUSHI trial period runs from September 20, 2006-May 20, 2007. NISO welcomes participation in this trial; information on participating in the trial is available at www.niso.org/committees/SUSHI/SUSHI_comm.html
"The technical precision of the SUSHI protocol is impressive, but equally impressive is the vision of the working group in anticipating next-generation needs," noted Todd Carpenter, Managing Director of NISO. "For example,although the group initially conceived of a protocol only for COUNTER reports,SUSHI can also accommodate non-COUNTER reports."
Technical details: In the protocol, a transaction begins when a client service running as part of an application developed by a library – or running as part of a usage data consolidation service or ILS/ERM system –identifies itself, identifies the customer whose statistics are being requested,and specifies the desired report to the SUSHI server service running at a data provider. In response, the server provides the report in XML format, along with the requestor and customer information – or an appropriate error message. The SUSHI developers envision a system in which the client system is programmed to retrieve reports automatically for all the COUNTER-compliant vendors with which the library does business.
Best practices for designing web services in the library context
The National Information Standards Organization (NISO) web services and Practices working group, composed of experts from 19 companies and academic institutions, has completed NISO RP 2006-01, Best Practices for Designing Web Services in the Library Context. This new Recommended Practice publication covers the following areas: HTTP caching, filtering of user input, reuse of output formats, security, and throttling. The document also describes typical output formats used in web services – DTD, XML schema, RDF, Relax NG, and DSD. For those implementing web services in a library context, an appendix provides an overview of typical services: discover, locate, request, deliver,and common web services. The appendix also includes a brief introduction to interoperability issues. The report is freely available in pdf format from the NISO web site: www.niso.org/standards/resources/rp-2006-01.pdf
Before disbanding, the group recommended that NISO continue to monitor,evaluate and engage in the development of standardized system frameworks and architectures for web services. There was consensus that NISO should work with existing efforts like the UK-based e-learning efforts and others in development.
This Recommended Practice publication is the first to be released under NISO's new RP designation. These documents are intended to provide guidance in emerging areas where formalized standards may inhibit innovation. "The creation of the RP Series is part of NISO's larger strategy to develop a more robust and flexible standards development process," said Todd Carpenter,NISO's Managing Director. NISO will also be reassigning several existing documents to this new designation.
NISO web site: www.niso.org
Ex Libris and MPSPerform SUSHI Usage Data Transfer
Ex Libris and MPS Technologies, a part of the Macmillan group of companies,have announced a successful transfer of Yale University usage data between their systems using the automated Standardized Usage Statistics Harvesting Initiative(SUSHI) protocol. This test has been made in preparation for future integration of ScholarlyStats usage data into Verdi1, the Ex Libris electronic resource management (ERM) system. This will provide Verde libraries with access to a suite of integrated reports combining usage data with other subscription,holdings, and pricing information.
The emerging SUSHI standard (www.niso.org/committees/SUSHI/SUSHI_comm)was the natural technology choice for delivering data collected and cleaned up by ScholarlyStats into Verde. The delivery of ScholarlyStats reports will make it possible for Verde to automatically integrate the latest usage data from over 35 major vendor platforms with other subscription information.
Ex Libris: www.exlibrisgroup.com/verde.htm
MPS Technologies www.mpstechnologies.com
ScholarlyStats: www.scholarlystats.com
eSerials Holdings ServiceOCLC Partners with Major Serials Management Providers
OCLC is partnering with EBSCO, Serials Solutions and TDNet to automate the process of setting and maintaining holdings for ISSN-based electronic serials in WorldCat without adding to a library's cataloging workload. The eSerials Holdings service offers a number of features to make electronic serials holdings more visible, manage ILL requests, and link to serials' full text through and OpenURL resolver or A to Z list.
For libraries with an unlimited subscription to WorldCat on FirstSearch, the eSerials Holdings service exposes electronic serials records to searchers on the public Web through WorldCat. WorldCat makes records of library-owned materials available on popular internet search, bibliographic and bookselling sites. Links to content in library collections appear alongside links to traditional web content, making the library and its collections more accessible to users. Additionally, library staff will see the journal title level holdings for their collection through Connexion, OCLC FirstSearch, the WorldCat Resource Sharing service, the WorldCat Collection Analysis service and Group Catalog.
By adding electronic serials holdings to WorldCat, libraries increase the visibility of their collections to interlibrary loan librarians everywhere in the OCLC cooperative. Through the WorldCat Resource Sharing service,interlibrary loan staff will quickly see which electronic serials the library subscribes to so they can fulfill more requests from the library's collection,decreasing the need to borrow and increasing the value of the library's electronic serials collection. Through the WorldCat Resource Sharing service,the library can control which requests the library receives by setting preferences in the OCLC Policies Directory. The library can choose to:
automatically deflect all electronic serials requests to the next library in the lender string;
fulfill ILL requests from only specific libraries in pre-existing groups; or
accept all requests for review.
The eSerials Holdings service also enables users and staff to see what ISSN-based electronic serials the library holds while they search WorldCat in FirstSearch and other OCLC services. By registering your OpenURL link resolver with OCLC, authenticated users and staff can click on the link to the resolver to see where they have access to full text and link to the most appropriate copy. In this way, the library can leverage the investment made in the resolver and connect users directly to the content they are looking for.
eSerials Holdings Service: www.oclc.org/eserialsholdings/
WikipediaNew Online Encyclopedia Project to Challenge Wikipedia
A major new encyclopedia project will soon attempt to unseat Wikipedia as the go-to destination for general information online. Like Wikipedia, the Citizendium (sit-ih-ZEN-dee-um), or "the Citizen's Compendium," will be a wiki project open to public collaboration. But, unlike Wikipedia, the community will be guided by expert editors, and contributors will be expected to use their own names, not anonymous pseudonyms. The initiative is being spearheaded by Wikipedia's co-founder, Larry Sanger, who, after leaving the well-known wiki project, became one of its more vocal critics. Sanger first announced the effort on September 15 at the Wizards of OS conference in Berlin. Sanger, who holds a PhD in Philosophy from The Ohio State University, has taken a leave of absence from the Digital Universe Foundation in order to lead the new project.
In October 2006, the fledgling Citizendium Foundation will launch a six-week pilot project open to potential contributors by invitation (see www.citizendium.org/cfa.html).
"Wikipedia has accomplished great things, but the world can do even better," said Sanger. "By engaging expert editors, eliminating anonymous contribution, and launching a more mature community under a new charter, a much broader and more influential group of people and institutions will be able to improve upon Wikipedia's extremely useful, but often uneven work. The result will be not only enormous and free, but reliable."
The Citizendium will begin by "mirroring" Wikipedia's content, which its license, the GNU Free Documentation License, permits. Contributors will then be able to edit articles under the new system. The eventual goal will be to either improve or replace all Wikipedia-sourced content. The Citizendium's expert editors will also be able to bless versions of articles as "approved,"but without freezing further article development on the wiki. Participants hope a giant body of trustworthy free content will result.
The Citizendium is ramping up organizational work quickly and a number of people have already put in many hours on the project. Since its initial announcement, the project has added over 340 members to its main e-mail discussion list, where discussions have focused on what policies the new project should follow. There is also an active web-based forum and a planning wiki. The pilot project will be invitation-only. During this time, editors, community managers called "constables," as well as rank-and-file authors will together develop the rules of the project. They will also actually get to work editing and creating new articles. Project leaders have launched a contributor recruitment drive to attract college students and professors, research scientists, independent scholars, and people who simply like to read books. The project will also be reaching out to professional and academic organizations. After initial work, the project will be opened up to public view, and to contribution by anyone who supplies his or her real name, a working e-mail address, and a statement of commitment to the Citizendium's "social contract," or basic policies.
For the pilot project, Steadfast Networks of Chicago is providing a server and bandwidth free of charge. Three experienced system administrators, including Peter Hitchmough of the UK and Greg Sabino Mullane and Jason Potkanski of the USA, are leading the Citizendium's technical efforts. The Chief Constable for the project is Ruth Ifcher, who played early, key roles in the Citizendium's predecessors, Nupedia and Wikipedia. The project mailing lists are being hosted by Purdue University, and the main mailing list moderator is Australian Phil Wardle.
The Citizendium Foundation has started the process of applying for 501(c)(3)status. The organization has received a firm commitment for a significant seed grant from a foundation, as well as small personal donations. Finally,discussions are under way with a major computer manufacturer about the possibility of project support.
The project will launch initially in the English language. There is some interest in similar Wikipedia branches in other languages, so some may be launched next year. Project participants are also interested in pooling their resources for related projects in the future.
Citizendium Project web site: http://citizendium.org/
Five Weeks to a Social Library
Five Weeks to a Social Library is the first free, grassroots, completely online course devoted to teaching librarians about social software and how to use it in their libraries. The course was developed to provide a free,comprehensive, and social online learning opportunity for librarians who do not otherwise have access to conferences or continuing education and who would benefit greatly from learning about social software. The course will be taught using a variety of social software tools so that the participants acquire experience using the tools while they are taking part in the class. The course will make use of synchronous online communication, with one or two weekly Webcasts and many IM or Skype chat sessions made available to students each week. By the end of the course, each student will develop a proposal for implementing a specific social software tool in their library.
Five Weeks to a Social Library will take place between February 12 and March 17, 2007 and is limited to forty participants. However, course content will be freely viewable to interested parties and all live Webcasts will be archived for later viewing. The course will cover the following topics:
Blogs.
RSS.
Wikis.
Social Networking Software and SecondLife.
Flickr.
Social Bookmarking Software.
Selling Social Software @ Your Library.
Eye4You AllianceTo Offer Virtual Library Services to Teens
The Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County (PLCMC) and the Alliance Library System have announced a partnership to collaborate on the "Eye4You Alliance," an island in Teen Second Life that will offer virtual library services to teens.
Teen Second Life is a 3D, international gathering place on the Internet where teens 13-17 can make friends, play, learn and create. Teens create a digital version of themselves, called an avatar, that they use to travel around the"virtual world," meet new people and participate in a variety of activities.
The goal of "Eye4You Alliance" is to create an interactive and informative space for young adults within the Teen Second Life virtual world and to collaborate with other educators who serve youth and are already present in Teen Second Life and in real life.
The project hopes to build teen developmental assets, encourage collaboration and promote active learning that will prepare teens for future learning. PLCMC and Alliance Library System leaders believe this environment has significant learning potential by being a web interface that can challenge teen users to figure things out for themselves. Both library systems will provide the leadership and expertise in extending their outstanding real-life programs and services to the virtual world.
Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County: www.plcmc.org/
Alliance Library System: www.alliancelibrarysystem.com/
Teen Second Life: http://teen.secondlife.com/
Being Net SavvyTwo New Papers from EDUCAUSE
The web – and how we interact with it – has become part of our culture. The internet is now the information universe, and we expect instant access. Content is created and co-created by amateurs as well as experts. More than ever, we choose what, when, and where to use information. What it means to be "net savvy" is changing because the nature of information itself has changed. This topic is examined in a new paper from EDUCAUSE entitled "How choice, co-creation, and culture are changing what it means to be net savvy",available at: www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI3008.pdf
Net Generation students may know the internet, but they are not necessarily"net savvy." Exposed to huge quantities and multiple formats of information online, they are constantly challenged to sort valid from inaccurate information. Moreover, students are creating information, not just consuming it. This paper explores the challenges students face online in effectively finding information, using technology, and thinking critically.
"Ensuring the net generation is net savvy": www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI3006.pdf
The Future of the Internet IINew Pew Survey of Internet Leaders
A survey of internet leaders, activists, and analysts shows that a majority agree with predictions that by 2020:
A low-cost global network will be thriving and creating new opportunities in a "flattening" world.
Humans will remain in charge of technology, even as more activity is automated and "smart agents" proliferate. However, a significant 42 percent of survey respondents were pessimistic about humans' ability to control the technology in the future. This significant majority agreed that dangers and dependencies will grow beyond our ability to stay in charge of technology. This was one of the major surprises in the survey.
Virtual reality will be compelling enough to enhance worker productivity and also spawn new addiction problems.
Tech "refuseniks" will emerge as a cultural group characterized by their choice to live off the network. Some will do this as a benign way to limit information overload, while others will commit acts of violence and terror against technology-inspired change.
People will wittingly and unwittingly disclose more about themselves,gaining some benefits in the process even as they lose some privacy.
English will be a universal language of global communications, but other languages will not be displaced. Indeed, many felt other languages such as Mandarin, would grow in prominence.
At the same time, there was strong dispute about those futuristic scenarios among notable numbers of 742 respondents to survey conducted by the Pew Internet and American Life Project and Elon University. Those who raised challenges believe that governments and corporations will not necessarily embrace policies that will allow the network to spread to under-served populations; that serious social inequalities will persist; and that "addiction" is an inappropriate notion to attach to people's interest in virtual environments.
The experts and analysts also split evenly on a central question of whether the world will be a better place in 2020 due to the greater transparency of people and institutions afforded by the internet: 46 percent agreed that the benefits of greater transparency of organizations and individuals would outweigh the privacy costs and 49 percent disagreed.
PDF of the report: www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_Future_of_Internet_2006.pdf
Public Libraries and the Internet 2006
US Public libraries began interacting with and using the internet in the early 1990s. Since 1994, there have been eight studies conducted that track the level of involvement, key issues, trends, and other aspects of public library Internet use. The 2006 study is the most recent completed survey of public libraries and the internet conducted by the Information Use Management &Policy Institute of the College of Information at Florida State University. The data provided through this survey serve to inform a broad cross section of the library community and policy makers making decisions related to library funding and technology.
The 2006 Public Libraries and the Internet study collected data through two integrated approaches: a national survey of public library internet connectivity, use, services, involvement, and sustainability issues; and a case site component which sought to identify successfully networked public libraries and how these libraries meet and resolve the challenges with maintaining,enhancing, and continually moving forward their networked services and resources. Together, the survey and case site data provide substantial information regarding public library internet connectivity and the issues associated with maintaining and enhancing public library public access computing and Internet services.
Full text version of the 2006 report available from: www.ii.fsu.edu/plinternet_reports.cfm
Access 2006 ConferencePresentations, Podcasts, Hackfest Results
The Access Conference is the pre-eminent Canadian library technology conference, where an eclectic group of technically savvy people get together every year to share fresh challenges, projects and solutions related to advances in information and library communities.
Speaker presentations and podcasts from the 2006 conference held in Ottawa,Ontario in October are now available at www.access2006.uottawa.ca/?page_id=10
In association with Access 2006, Hackfest 2006 is a day-long adventure in which coders and library-side folks get together in a relaxed and non-pressure atmosphere to tackle challenges and find solutions, in a mash-up sort of way. Results of this year's Hackfest are available at http://hackfest.kicks-ass.net/
Web Analytics AssociationAnnounces New Public Sector Committee
Web Analytics is the measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of Internet data for the purposes of understanding and optimizing Web usage. The Web Analytics Association (WAA) was founded in 2005 to unite and foster the interests of industry practitioners, vendors, consultants and educators involved in measuring the success of their online business initiatives.
The WAA is actively seeking passionate and capable professionals to join the WAA and serve as members of its nine active committees. The WAA has recently organized a Public Sector Web Analytics Committee to be the primary resource for public, non-profit and academic organizations in the area of web analytics. The committee grew from a perception that much of the research and development in the web analytics field was oriented towards private sector and e-commerce related issues (notably, a strong focus on web site ROI and the use of cookies– two issues which play differently in the public sector context). The Public Sector Web Analytics Committee supports the development of innovative approaches for valuing the web and its contribution to the business objectives of public, non-profit and academic organizations.
Key activities of the Public Sector Web Analytics Committee will include:
Developing public sector web analytics best practices, reference models,analysis methodologies, and professional ethics.
Developing courseware that serves the needs of the public sector (in association with the Education Committee).
Promoting effective means of communicating the impact of analytics to senior levels of management.
Facilitating dialogue between analytics solutions vendors and public sector end-users to increase awareness of the public sector's needs.
Additional information: www.webanalyticsassociation.org/
Planets ProjectTo Address the Challenge of Preserving Digital Information
Digital media have become the dominant way that we create, shape, and exchange information. Unlike paper, however, we have very limited abilities to ensure that today's digital information will be accessible in ten, 50, or 100 years. Unless we act now, we will lose access to the first decades of the digital era, and future generations will see a gaping hole in their cultural and scientific record.
The Planets project brings together European National Libraries and Archives,leading research institutions, and technology companies to address the challenge of preserving access to digital cultural and scientific knowledge. The four year project is funded by the European Commission Information Society Technologies Framework Programme 6 Call 5 (FP6 Call 5).
To achieve these objectives, Planets will:
Develop Preservation Planning services that will empower organisations to define, evaluate, and execute preservation plans. The plans will reflect the organisation's preservation policies, as well as the content in its collections,and the way the content is used.
Develop methodologies, tools and services for the characterisation of digital objects in order to identify the best preservation plans.
Evaluate existing tools and services to support Preservation Actions and the development of innovative solutions based on the integration of existing tools and on the design and implementation of new tools where an unfulfilled requirement can be demonstrated.
Establish a preservation test bed to provide a consistent and coherent evidence-base for the objective evaluation of different preservation protocols,tools and services and for the validation of the effectiveness of preservation plans.
Implement an interoperability framework, within which the deliverables from each of Planet's sub-projects can be seamlessly integrated with each other in a distributed service network.
Undertake dissemination and take-up activities, to ensure the widest possible adoption of Planets deliverables among commercial tool and service providers as well as within the user community.
During October and November, a questionnaire on the Planets website invited the research and practitioner community to contribute to shaping the design of the PLANETS Digital Preservation Testbed. The intention is to make the PLANETS Testbed available for use by the preservation community by the Autumn of 2007.
Planets project: www.planets-project.eu/
ALCTSAccess to Non-English Materials Report Available
The Association for Library Collections and Technical Services (ALCTS), a division of the American Libraries Association, has announced the availability of a report on providing access to non-English materials in libraries. The report was the result of action introduced at the 2005 ALA Annual Membership Meeting and ALA Council on the topic. The ALCTS Task Force on Non-English Access, chaired by Beth Picknally Camden, was charged in October 2005 by the ALCTS Board of Directors to review past and current activities in providing access to materials in non-English languages, and make recommendations for future actions by ALCTS and others.
The Task Force gathered information from ALCTS and American Library Association groups, the Library of Congress, the bibliographic utilities (OCLC and RLG), other library organizations, and library systems and authority vendors. The task force found that substantial activity has taken place over many years to address the complex issues associated with multiscript and multilingual access. The task force report also includes recommendations for specific actions concerning technical specifications, cataloging guidelines,continuing education, communication, and staffing. These findings and recommendations are summarized in the report of the task force available on the ALCTS web site: www.ala.org/ala/alcts/newslinks/NewsLinks.htm#issues
In order to further the discussion of this report and other issues related to non-English access, a discussion list has been established. To subscribe go to the non-English Access discussion list homepage: http://lists.ala.org/wws/info/nonenglishaccess
ALCTS Non-English Access Report: www.ala.org/ala/alcts/newslinks/currentissues/nonenglishaccess/NonEnglishTF_finalreport_0918.pdf
