Digitization 101

Article: Antitrust and the Google Books Settlement: The Problem of Simultaneity

2009-07-15T10:10:00.000-04:00

The 26-page paper is available for download (free). I'm putting it on my "to read" list and hope to get to it soon.

By the way, Eric Fraser holds both an MBA and a JD from the University of Chicago.

Fraser, Eric M., Antitrust and the Google Books Settlement: The Problem of Simultaneity (June 10, 2009). Available at the Social Science Research Network: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1417722

ABSTRACT:

Google Books represents the latest attempt at the centuries-old goal to build a universal library. In 2004, Google started scanning books from libraries around the world. Although it made copyright licensing agreements with some publishers, it did not obtain permission from each rights-holder before scanning, indexing, and displaying portions of books from the stacks of libraries. Unsurprisingly, authors and publishers sued for copyright violations. Google settled the class action lawsuit in a sweeping agreement that has raised suspicion from librarians, users, and the government. In this paper, I analyze the antitrust and competition issues in the settlement agreement. I find that the simultaneous aspects of agreements and pricing pose serious antitrust problems. The settlement effectively gives Google simultaneous agreements with virtually all the rights-holders to in-copyright American books. It also requires that Google set prices for books simultaneously. In a competitive market, both agreements and pricing would occur independently. Under current law, however, no potential competitor can make agreements with the rights-holders to orphan works. The simultaneity, therefore, concentrates pricing power, leading to cartel pricing (a problem under § 1 of the Sherman Act) and monopolization (a § 2 problem).

Technorati tags: Copyright, Google

Bagit: Transferring Content for Digital Preservation (video)

2009-07-14T08:59:00.003-04:00

The Library of Congress, along with the California Digital Library and Stanford University, have "developed guidelines for creating and moving standardized digital containers, called “bags.” A bag functions like a physical envelope that is used to send content through the mail but with bags, a user sends content from one computer to another." In order to explain BagIt, the LOC has released a video on its web site and a transcript of the video is also available.

The tools are available for download via SourceForge. Documentation is available on the LOC web site.

Technorati tag: Digital Preservation

Problems and resolution with the Paper of Record (Google)

2009-07-13T16:50:00.001-04:00

Back in Dec. 2008, I noted that Google has purchased the Paper of Record. At that time, the Paper of Record had 20 million digitized historical newspaper pages. This came a few months after Google announced a newspaper digitization project with ProQuest and Heritage Microfilm (post, post). The April 2009 Google Book Search newsletter said:

Try a search for "Americans walk on moon" on Google News Archive Search, and you'll be able to find and read an original article from a 1969 edition of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Not only will you be able to search these newspapers, you'll also be able to browse through them exactly as they were printed -- photographs, headlines, articles, advertisements and all.

While this alerted (or re-alerted) people to the fact that Google was adding newspaper content, at least one email discussion list began talking about this in January and the effect the acquisition was having on research. At some point, the PaperOfRecord.com web site was redirected to http://news.google.com/archivesearch. Although that seems minor, researchers from around the world noted that content once available through the Paper of Record was missing from the Google site.

In February, a Google employee said in email (as part of the discussion):

We're currently working on the most effective way to search and browse this valuable content. We're doing our best to find a solution to include as much of the acquired content as possible.

While a lot of this content has been made available through Archive search, we're still refining processes to include incompatible newspaper images in our index. We're also working with certain publishers to acquire the rights to display their content. All of this takes time, and we appreciate your patience. We're constantly making improvements to ensure the best user experience.

Researchers wondered by Google had not left the old PaperOfRecord.com site available while it when through this transition. Google's blindness to Paper of Record users made matters worse. Several things happened between February and June when things seemed to get resolved (article). In his article on the topic, Robert B. Townsend said:

Regrettably, this proves yet again Roy Rosenzweig’s warning to the profession six years ago about the “the fragility of evidence in the digital era.” While it may be beyond our capacity to adjust copyright laws and the behavior of large corporations (however well meaning), as a profession we can and perhaps should develop new habits for working with digital materials—by copying down information when we see it online, and not becoming overly dependent on any one data source or having illusions about its permanence.

In early June, a Google employee provided this information on the content from the Paper of Record:

4.91M articles representing 522 titles obtained from Paper of Record are now live on Google News Archive search. This includes previously live content as well as content added as of this week from Paper of Record, all free of charge. Please note that all articles from these titles may not be comprehensively available, but will otherwise be made available in browse-only mode within 3 months. The full list is here [2].
~0.5M pages representing 381 titles obtained from Paper of Record will be made available in browse-only mode within 3 months, also free of charge. The full title list is here [3]. Many of the images we obtained were of low quality, and we were therefore unable to get quality text after following the OCR process. We are working to put up content from these titles so that they can be browsed.
Finally, for these 10 titles here [4], we don't have the rights to display these newspapers. We've reached out to the publishers who hold rights to these papers, but not all want to participate in Google's programs. To access these, you may need to travel to a library if you can't find an online source, or contact the publisher directly.

So, nine months after announcing the acquisition of the Paper of Record (and actually three years after it had secretly acquired the database), Google finally was able to provide information that users needed. In between, Google frustrated researchers who wrote blog posts, articles, and letters of protest. Google's inability to be customer focused left a bad taste in many people's mouths.

I heard today that there is one remaining question - Will the Paper of Record (or WorldVitalRecords.com which seems to have access to the same content) make institutional access available to historical and genealogical societies. Evidently societies have inquired about this, but have not received a response. I believe (and please correct me if I'm wrong) that part of the issue is that the Google search interface is not robust enough.

Finally, while some people saw the acquisition as moving Google one step closer to world domination, what it really showed was:

Google can be sneaky in its dealings.
Google doesn't have the users' best interests in mind.
We cannot have an illusion over the permanence of any content.

Sadly, every day we all become more reliant on Google. Google, however, is not some government agency that receives public oversight. Google is a large for-profit company. If it becomes the center of all of our universes (whether we like it or not), it will make a profit.

BTW on the gossipy side of things, this blog, Gawker, carries news tidbits about Google that some might find interesting (e.g., which executives are leaving the company like Doug Bowman).

Thanks to Rod Nelson for alerting me to the Paper of Record story. Rod, sorry that it took me so long to dig into it.

Technorati tags: Google, Newspaper

First Monday Podcast: Maureen O'Sullivan on Copyright

2009-07-13T08:55:00.001-04:00

Last year, Maureen O'Sullivan, author of “Creative Commons and Contemporary Copyright”, was interviewed by the First Monday Podcast team to discuss copyright and the potential of the Creative Commons. Both the podcast (7.76MB, 16:58) and the transcript are available online.

Although recorded in the UK, the podcast talks mentions situations in the U.S. The 17 minutes go fast and you might find yourself "rewinding" in order to take a second listen.

Technorati tag: Copyright

Newspaper digitization

2009-07-10T09:10:00.000-04:00

I'm going through notes from various conferences I attended this spring and have come across notes from a session at the Society of Ohio Archivists Annual Conference where members of the Ohio Historical Society talked about newspaper digitization. They began this past winter on a two-year newspaper digitization program under the auspices of "Chronicling America". Here are my notes:

Newspapers have not had a standard format over the years, which makes them more difficult to digitize.
Chronicling America is using a standard set of practices that were outlined by the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP).
Ohio Historical Society is selecting one newspaper from each of its 10 regions.
Difficulties have included copyright on the microfilm as well as some technology concerns.
They are doing three levels of quality control.
Scanning at 300-400 dpi, grayscale. They are creating TIFF file (master), then derivative files (PDF and JPEG200 files) as well as OCR'd text.
Metadata is being embedded into the files themselves so that the metadata can travel with the files. (As much metadata is embedded as possible.)
They are using descriptive, structural, administrative, technical and preservation metadata.
Rather than plain OCR, they are doing optical word recognition (OWR) which tries to predict what the word is not just what the characters are.

If this topic interests you, the Documents section of the project wiki contains links to both presentations the team did at the SOA Annual Conference.

Technorati tag: Digitization, Newspaper

Ohio Newspaper Digitization Project Wiki

2009-07-10T08:50:00.002-04:00

Using a wiki is not unique for documenting a project. However, if you've not thought about how to use one, then viewing this by the Ohio Newspaper Digitization Project may provide some inspiration. And if you surf the site, be sure to look under Documents for pointers to presentations and other materials.

Please note that this project is a work-in-progress. The first roll of microfilm (a sample) was digitized in December 2008.

Technorati tag: Digitization

New videos about Central Florida Memory

2009-07-09T09:55:00.000-04:00

I've blogged about Central Florida Memory before and the promotional video they created. Since then, the Orange County Library System (OCLS) has brought the Central Florida Memory project to a new audience through an interactive exhibit built within the virtual world of Second Life (teleportation URL). OCLS has also created two videos about Central Florida Memory's presence in Second Life, which are below. In the videos:

Viewers follow the adventures of Nik Mortenwold (real world OCLS employee Nick Martinolich) as he explores a turn of the century Florida homestead complete with cracker house, barn, school house, and more. Nik interacts with the residents of the exhibit to learn more about their daily lives and routines.

It's nice to see Central Florida Memory to continue to think creatively!

Technorati tag: Digitization, Second Life

Blog post - DH2009: Digital Curiosities and Amateur Collections

2009-07-08T10:26:00.000-04:00

This session at Digital Humanities 2009 was also blogged by Jeanne Kramer-Smyth. Session description:

Review of 100 virtual museum websites and multiple flickr groups plus surveys of amateur website creators, memory institutions and Arts & Humanities academics leads to new perspective on digitization and creation of collections online by dedicated enthusiasts.

Kramer-Smyth notes that many of the amateur sites reviewed "get more traffic than most standard museum sites. More than 50% of museum digitized images are never visited."

Later in the post, she wrote:

This session considers the ways cultural memory institution can take advantage of the web by looking at what the successful enthusiasts are achieving. This research-backed approach confirms what I would have expected. Libraries, museums and archives are leaving a lot on the table when it comes to putting their collections online. Sites run by non-professionals are doing an amazing job of drawing in new audiences, keeping people around and then initiating conversation within that audience.

Kramer-Smyth's notes are extensive and will get your thinking about what programs could be doing.

Technorati tags: Digitization, Digital Libraries

Blog post - DH2009: Digital Lives and Personal Digital Archives

2009-07-08T10:01:00.000-04:00

Jeanne Kramer-Smyth blogged about the Digital Humanities 2009 conference, including the session "Digital Lives: How people create, manipulate and store their personal digital archives." The Digital Lives project sought to create "a better understanding of how people manage digital collections on their laptops, pdas and home computers." The research was conducted by interviewing 25 people in-depth.

Kramer-Smyth did a nice summary of the session (which I cannot in good faith summarize even further) and provides links to additional information.

Technorati tags: Archives, Digital Repositories

Book: Free by Chris Anderson

2009-07-07T09:05:00.001-04:00

Chris Anderson, who gave us The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More, has released his latest book entitled Free. While we'll have opportunities to purchase the book, he is also giving it away for free in a variety of formats. Not all formats will be free forever, so watch his blog for announcements.

The online format below is so easy to read that I immediately started reading it! (Embedded with permission.) This paragraph on page 4 provides a peek into what the book is about:

Thus this book, an exploration of a concept that is in the midst of radical evolution. As I came to learn, Free is both a familiar concept and a deeply mysterious one. It is as powerful as it is misunderstood. The Free that emerged over the past decade is different from the Free that came before, but how and why are rarely explored. What's more, today's Free is full of apparent contradictions: You can make money giving things way. There really is a free lunch. Sometimes you get more than you pay for.

FREE (full book) by Chris Anderson

BTW I'll be looking for discussions that might spring up around the book. I think just the way he is releasing it will be worthy of conversation.

Technorati tags: Book Recommendation, Marketing

Are digitization providers in financial trouble?

2009-07-06T10:23:00.000-04:00

I've been hearing from people whose ears are to the ground and who are raising concerns about some digitization providers. If you are making a huge investment, then you want to know that company is going to be around for a number of years. (You might want the company to be around for the length of your project or for the length of the warranty, for example.) The question becomes do you know how your service or hardware provider is really doing? Here are some suggestions:

Ask for references and then talk to the people/organizations that are on the list. Ask them about the company, its products and services, changes it has seen in the company, etc. (Have there been a lot of personnel changes?) Be sure to ask if they know of any other customers and then talk to them. How many reference do you need to check? I don't want to create a rule, but start with three that the company has given you and then see if you can talk to three who are not on the list. Perhaps you can even find organizations who used to use that vendor and have switched to someone else. (And why did they switch?)
Check the news for any tidbits about the company. The key here is to check the news media in that company's geographic location. Check using any news databases that you have access to as well as news sites on the Internet. The local business journal may have written stories on the company, so be sure to check that source. In general, check for stories from the last 1-2 years.
Consider contacting the reporter who wrote a story about the company and asking if they have any additional (more current) information. Do they have an idea of how the company is really doing?
When checking for news, check for the company's name, product names, and its top executives. Check for stories from the last 1-2 years.
Organizations in the U.S. such as the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and Chamber of Commerce may be of some help. However, the BBB only knows about those companies that have registered with them and who have received complaints. The Chamber generally only knows about its members and may not want to tell you if a member is in trouble.
The local court (city/town or county) should have records of any judgments against the company (if indeed any have occurred).
If the company is in your geographic region, then stop by and look at the facility. Make an unannounced visit! I would also advocate talking to other businesses in the area and asking what they know. (Fast food joints and coffee shops might know more then you think.)
A private company does not have to release its financial statements. Any financials they tell you have not been independently audited like those for public companies. Therefore, don't take as being completely true any financials you are given (e.g., sales figures or growth rate).
Don't immediately dismiss any rumors that you hear. I learned many years ago that 80% of rumors are true. Now that could mean that 80% of all rumors are true or that 80% of any rumor is true! Keep track of rumors and then see if the information can be verified. Do not base your decisions solely on rumors.
If the vendor is not in your geographic region, or if information is being published in a language that is not your own, consider working through your colleagues in that region for help. These are people that you know through your professional associations, conferences, etc. While they may not be able to dedicate a lot of time to your efforts, they may be able to gather a few pieces of information for you.
Talking to former employees (if you happen to stumble across any) can be useful, but keep in mind that they may have an ax to grind. Therefore, be ready look for information that supports or refutes their claims.
You might want to post questions on appropriate email discussion lists or social networking sites asking for information. This may surface rumors and facts, and it will be important to be able to tell the difference and do some additional research, if warranted.

I can hear you saying that you don't want to do this research and that it would take too much time. If you are not establishing a long-term relationship with the vendor, then this may be overkill. If you are expecting no long-term support from the vendor, then this is not needed. However, if you are working on a project that requires your vendor to be around (and healthy) for a long time, then spending time to investigate the vendor is warranted.

While this type of research won't take a long time, it may be a more time that you have available, therefore, consider using a library science student to help with it. Given the economy, you might have the student compile information on all of your vendors in an effort to discern if any are in vulnerable positions. Not only would this be worthwhile information for you, but it would be a great project for a student.

If you find information that you want to discuss with the vendor, please do so. Hearing the company's perspective is important, but remember that it is one piece of complete the story.

Finally, a company (vendor) should not dissuade you from doing this research. A company that is in good standing and that has nothing to hide will want you to know how good they are. A company that is on shaky ground may encourage you to forego any check of their background. If the company seems to protest too much, that may be a clue.

Technorati tags: Digitization, Planning

Event: International Conference on Digital Libraries (ICDL 2010)

2009-07-03T09:34:00.001-04:00

Call for papers received via email.

International Conference on Digital Libraries (ICDL 2010)
Shaping the Information Paradigm
New Delhi * 23 – 26 February 2010

Venue: Conference at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi • 24–26 February 2010
Tutorial at IGNOU, Convention Centre, New Delhi • 23 February 2010

Continuous capacity development and awareness programmes are necessary to achieve the objective of transforming the novice into digital librarians of future. The success of ICDL 2004 and ICDL 2006 has encouraged and motivated TERI in partnership with IGNOU (Indira Gandhi National Open University) and in Association with ISIM and SLA to conduct of the ICDL 2010 which will provide yet another stimulating forum for DL professionals to share their knowledge, experience and wisdom.

Objectives

Provide a platform and enable interaction among DL experts and researchers
Facilitate creation adoption, implementation and utilization of DL‘s, and their future implications
Bridging the digital divide through knowledge sharing

Who should participate?

Information professionals
IT and knowledge service providers
Policy makers
Academicians, students and distance learner
E-publishers and virtual communities
Other stakeholders

Call for papers

Original papers focusing on the theme of the conference—Digital Libraries: Shaping the Information Paradigm are invited for the conference poster and tutorial. Some of the topics are listed below:

DL development, architecture, and management
Contents management in DL
Multi-linguality and interoperability issues
Digital rights management
Digital preservation and access management
Semantic web
KM (knowledge management) and organizational repositories
E-learning and e-publishing
DL standards and policy
Open archives initiatives
ODOL (Open distance online learning)
Multimedia content
Virtual support to distance learners
E-resources management for distance learners
Access management
m-learning technology

For details of paper submission guidelines and submission process, visit www.teriin.org/events/icdl .

Important dates

Submission of full papers 15 September 2009
Notification of acceptance of paper with comments 30 October 2009
Submission of the final paper after incorporating comments 30 November 2009

For Early–bird registration offer please visit http://www.teriin.org/events/icdl/registration.php 10% special discount to SLA members in registration.

Technorati tag: Digital Libraries

Kevin Kelly on "movage"

2009-07-02T10:38:00.000-04:00

Late last year, Kevin Kelly, the founding editor for Wired magazine, wrote a blog post on "Movage." Kelly argues for the continuous moving of digital assets (or what we might call refreshing and migrating) rather than storage. He says:

This movic rythym [sic] of refreshing content should be as smooth as a respiratory cycle -- in, out, in, out. Copy, move, copy, move.

While this concept is not new, what the blog post did was to make me think about the term "storage". When I store something, I tuck it away and likely won't touch it again until I decide to finally use it or throw it out. However, we don't want to tuck our digital assets away and ignore them. They need to be touched, maintained, and moved. The word "store" and its permutations don't convey that. Movage may not be the correct work, but it is interesting.

Technorati tag: Digital Preservation

Digital Curation (definition)

2009-07-01T15:23:00.003-04:00

Digital curation is not a term that is broadly used yet. What is it? (emphasis added)

Digital curation, broadly interpreted, is about maintaining and adding value to a trusted body of digital information for current and future use. (DCC)

The term digital curation is...the actions needed to maintain digital research data and other digital materials over their entire life-cycle and over time for current and future generations of users. (DCC)

... it is the active management and appraisal of digital information over its entire life cycle. (Pennock)

Technorati tag: Digital Curation

Resources on Digital Curation

2009-07-01T15:20:00.004-04:00

Last week, a colleague asked me for a few resources on digital curation in advance of some meetings he was going to attend. After emailing this list off to him, I thought it might also be useful to you.

Digital Curation Blog, http://digitalcuration.blogspot.com/
International Journal of Digital Curation, http://www.ijdc.net/index.php/ijdc/index
4th International Digital Curation Conference "Radical Sharing: Transforming Science?" Accepted Papers, http://www.dcc.ac.uk/events/dcc-2008/programme/accepted-papers
Proceedings of DigCCurr2009: Digital Curation: Practice, Promise, and Prospects (download for free), http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/proceedings-of-digccurr2009-digital-curation-practice-promise-and-prospects/6800574

Digital Curation: A Life-Cycle Approach to Managing and Preserving Usable Digital Information, http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/ukoln/staff/m.pennock/publications/docs/lib-arch_curation.pdf
Managing the Digital World: the Role of Digital Curation, http://www.imls.gov/pdf/JRay_Edinburgh.pdf

If there are others that are your "short list" for this topic, please leave a comment and tell us what they are. Maybe some that you feel are more appropriate?

Technorati tag: Digital Curation

Google Book Search Bibliography

2009-06-29T09:16:00.002-04:00

Charles W. Bailey, Jr. has created "Google Book Search Bibliography" (v. 4) . I believe the bibliography contains all articles (no blog posts). It's an extensive list and worth bookmarking if this topic interests you.

Technorati tags: Digitization, Google

Lesk on book digitization

2009-06-29T08:50:00.004-04:00

Given what has occurred in recent years, I found this text to be of interest. In his 2004 book, Understanding Digital Libraries (Second Edition), Michael Lesk wrote (p. 86):

Lemberg's (1995) thesis goes into digitization costs for all US library holdings in some detail and suggests that over the next 100 years there is a savings of roughly $44 billion to be archived by digitizing some 22 million documents (and discarding more than 400 million duplicate paper copies of them)...Also, he assumes that libraries would make no copyright payments for electronic documents, just as they do not now pay extra to loan a paper document.

This text in within a chapter that has compared the cost of digital collections to book (paper) collections held in a library. He gives cost estimates for digital book collections, campus library collections and off-site storage. There is a point when digital collections are more cost effective. He acknowledges that the costs become more attractive when many libraries can share in the costs of digitizing materials. As we can see above, those shared collections can have a positive impact on operating budgets if the paper copies are discarded and if the users are comfortable using the digital surrogates. Those are big if's.

Of course, this text jumped off the page for me because of the Google Book Settlement. Under the proposed terms of the settlement, public libraries will be able to access the digitized books. While this is a benefit because it will expand every library's collection, what if those libraries also eliminated books from their shelves that were now available digitally? It would be a tremendous act of faith for some libraries and it could be a money saver.

Technorati tags: Digitization, Google, Book

Event: Copyright Workshops

2009-06-26T11:43:00.000-04:00

The Center for Intellectual Property has the upcoming following programs that may be of interest to you:

In addition, the CIP has a new certificate program called Copyright Leadership in Higher Education.

For more information, follow the links above.

Technorati tag: Copyright

Book: Tribes - We Need You to Lead Us

2009-06-25T20:15:00.000-04:00

Every digitization program and digital libraries wants followers. As Seth Godin would say, they want a tribe. In his book, Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us, Godin explains that:

A tribe is a group of people connected to one another, connected to a leader, and connected to an idea.

In the book, Godin talks about leadership and the creation of tribes. Tribes do not happen accidentally and they do not sustain themselves automatically. Communication is important among tribe members. Without communication, a tribe is just a crowd.

When we mount new services, we often are charged with creating a following for that service. Often we don't know how to do that. We do advertisements and some promotions, and then are thankfully for whatever user-base we achieve. This book will make you think about building a following -- a tribe -- differently.

Godin includes some principles in his book for leading a tribe. One of his principles will make people stop and think. It is "Exclude outsiders." In other words, knowing who isn't a part of your movement (your tribe) is as important as knowing who is. If you are trying to lead a group, who do you want to be part of that group? And who is the group not for? That clarity can be very important, because you cannot be all thing for all people.

It is very cool that Seth Godin practices what he preaches. Before Tribes was released, he began to gather a tribe. Once the book was published, he did something incredible. Everyone in his tribe had already ordered a copy of the book, but Godin sent them a second copy and ask that they share it with a friend. His tribe instantly doubled.

Let's look at this again. Godin created a message. Found people who were interested in the message and got them to join his tribe. Then he got them to influence others to read the message. And yes, he did this all online without any ads.

This is a very readable book (151 pages). I enjoyed reading it and being inspired by it, and I know others have found it inspiring as well. Is it a hardcore marketing book? No, and if it was, you wouldn't read it. Instead this is a book that you'll read and then pass along to your colleagues.

Technorati tags: Book Recommendation, Marketing

Google Book Settlement Discussion

2009-06-23T09:05:00.001-04:00

SharedBook Inc. is using its custom publishing platform to host an ongoing discussion on the Google Book Settlement. Using their platform, people can read and review the settlement document, and then add their own comments or annotations. Besides the entire text of the settlement, the site has the complete text of the amicus brief filed by ALA, ACRL and ARL (collectively known as Library Associations).

For additional information on the settlement, check the extensive links in More on the Google settlement: Is it all good?

Technorati tags: Copyright, Digitization, Google, Book

Audio recordings/podcasts on the Google Book Search Settlement

2009-06-22T09:22:00.000-04:00

If you are interested in the Google Book Search Settlement, then you may be interested in this two items.

First, the Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) did a webinar on April 14, 2009 entitled "The Authors Guild, AAP, Google Settlement: What Authors & Publishers Need to Know as May 5th Approaches". This one-hour webinar is available for anyone to listen to (playback) for free.

By the way, since then, the opt-out deadline for authors and the fairness hearing have been delayed to September 4, 2009 and October 7, 2009 respectively.

Second, the CCC in its blog, Beyond the Book, did a 30-minute audio interview with Michael Healy on "Authors Guild, AAP, Google Settlement". Healy is currently executive director of the non-profit Book Industry Study Group (BISG) and is expected to become the executive director of the Book Rights Registry (BRR). This June 18th interview, he discusses the positives of the settlement on libraries and authors, and the new environment that this settlement is creating.

Technorati tags: Copyright, Google

Jill's Schedule: A quick update about Florida and Switzerland

2009-06-22T08:45:00.001-04:00

Sad news -- I just realized yesterday that I had not removed the June 24th workshop from the calendar on the left side of this blog. PLAN in Panama City Beach, FL had to cancel due to low registration numbers. (I wonder if that's due to the weather -- hurricane season or summer -- or the economy?) The workshop may be scheduled for later in the year.

Good news -- I'll be giving a digitization workshop on Nov. 9, 2009 in Geneva, Switzerland for the Association of International Librarians and Information Specialists (AILIS). I am looking forward to this workshop, teaching them and learning from them about their perspective, and seeing a small slice of Switzerland!

I know it will be a quick trip to Europe, but I wonder if I'll have a changce to see some of you there?

Technorati tags: Digitization

Book: Understanding Digital Libraries, Second Edition

2009-06-18T11:51:00.000-04:00

Michael Lesk, a professor at Rutgers University, has written a book that is widely used entitled Understanding Digital Libraries (Second Edition). Lesk has had a long career including stints at the National Science Foundation and Bell Labs. He is a computer scientist who has built retrieval systems. Lesk brings that perspective to the topic.

Understanding Digital Libraries is divided into two parts. The first part of the book addresses what (chapters 1 - 7) and the second half discusses how (chapters 8 - 14), or in other words, what digital libraries contain and how they operate. At 400+ pages including figures, tables, references and index, this is a book chocked full of information.

I'll be using this book during the fall when I teach Digital Libraries at Syracuse University (IST 676). I see this book as laying groundwork for an interesting conversation that will include the questions: "So what is a digital library?" and "So what?" Given what are named digital libraries on the Internet, I think the "what" will be a lively conversation. And then thinking about the benefits of these entities...what rewards are we reaping from these things?

By the way, Dr. Lesk spoke at Syracuse University this past April and the video is available online (1 hr. 40 min.) Lesk talks about book scanning and gives his opinion of some of the machines, etc., in use today. Likely worth watching more than once.

Technorati tags: Book Recommendation, Digital Libraries, Book, Digitization

SLA2009: Funding for the Future: Preserving the Past

2009-06-16T09:57:00.002-04:00

This session at the Special Libraries Association Annual Conference -- Funding for the Future: Preserving the Past -- was a wonderful session for understanding some of the funding opportunities available from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, National Endowment for the Humanities, and the National Historical Publications and Records Commission. All three organizations have funding available for digitization and digital preservation (see their web sites for specific information and requirements). What interested me most was that these organizations are expecting well-thought-out proposals that consider sustainability, dissemination, and national impact.

Sustainability means that the project (program) will live on after the grant is completed. The organization needs to think upfront about funding, staffing and processes to ensure that occurs. The person from the IMLS specifically noted that they look at the sophistication and complexity of the digital preservation plans. Preservation of the assets should include the "rule of three". That means that there are at least three backups kept in geographically diverse locations. With backups spread across the U.S., for example, a environmental disaster in one area would not eliminate all of the backups.

Dissemination means that information about the project from is planning stage through to completion are made available to others. This level of transparency ensure that we all learn from the projects that are occurring. This information -- which might take the form of documents, reports, or presentations -- need to be accessible for the long-term, just like the digital assets that are created.

National impact means that the organization understand what their content and program means to a broader audience. For example, how does the material inform what we know about our history? How does the material improve our knowledge-base? What audience, outside of those that are known, will be interested in this material and how will they learn that the material exists?

Finally, each speaker talked about how proposals are reviewed. Applicants need to be aware that proposals are critically reviewed by experts and the the reviewers recommend which projects should be funded. IMLS will review drafts as well as talk to applications about the requirements, etc., and they encourage potential applications to contact them for assistance. I believe that the other two organizations can also provide additional information, if not some assistance. Applications should look not only at the grant requirements (and please read them before you start asking questions), but should also look at any information available on past award winners, since much can be learned about requirements by seeing what others have done.

I appreciated this session and hope that others blogged it, I'm sure we all took away different notes. If yes, I'll link to those blog posts when I find them.

Technorati tags: SLA2009, Digital Preservation

Book: You Don't Look Like a Librarian

2009-06-11T09:35:00.000-04:00

In honor of the SLA conference next week, I want to bring your attention to this book, You Don't Look Like a Librarian: Shattering Stereotypes and Creating Positive New Images in the Internet Age. It's author, Ruth Kneale, is one of my favorite librarians because of her interest in librarian stereotypes. I heard Kneale speak at the SLA conference in 2002 and I found myself intrigued by the topic. It's a topic often whispered about and now talked about more openly, in part due to Kneale's efforts.

So why should you care about this book? The library stereotype can be seen all over the place, but likely you don't realize it: ads, movies, toys, books, comics and more. And while we might want to ignore the stereotype, those around us aren't. In fact, they're using it because there is a coolness to it.

The book also contains information on people and organizations that are breaking the stereotype. (Full disclosure, I'm on pp. 93-94.) If you are new to the profession and wondering whose not looking like a librarian, this section will help!

It's important to note that the book is built on solid research. Kneale doesn't take this subject lightly. You'll be impressed with the appendices, notes, and references.

The book does have a companion web site which Ruth Kneale maintains in addition to her blog.

If you are going to the SLA conference, look for the book in the Information Today booth in the Info Expo and ask about the book signings on Monday and Wednesday.

Technorati tag: Book Recommendation