techMETRO

METRO Holds First President's Forum on Digital Preservation

With the tremendous amount of digital information resources being used and created in libraries today, it's understandable that digital preservation has become the elephant in the room. Where can we turn for existing digital preservation models? What kind of obstacles can we anticipate as we think about developing institutional policy on digital preservation? What roles can collaboration play in digital preservation initiatives? These were some of the main issues addressed at The Metropolitan New York Library Council's first President's Forum moderated by James Neal, Vice President for Information Services and University Librarian at Columbia University. Lars Meyer (Emory University Libraries) kicked off the forum discussing preliminary findings of research he has been conducting as Visiting Program Officer at Association of Research Libraries -- which will be released in 2009 by ARL. June Besek (Kernochan Center for Law, Media and the Arts) addressed some of the challenges presented by pending legislation (Section 108, Orphan Works Bill) and the recent Google Books settlement with publishers. Eileen Fenton (Portico) concluded the afternoon with a discussion of collaborative models for digital preservation initiatives; including cross-institutional initiatives (LOCKSS) and third-party projects like Portico.

The forum, spearheaded by METRO's Board President Heike Kordish, is designed to specifically address policies and decision-making surrounding major issues of institutional policy. The inaugural forum drew over 45 attendees from libraries throughout the region. The Forum also featured a collection of online resources for further reading on digital preservation concerns that can be accessed here.  

Recent Ithaka Study on Scholarly Communcation

An ARL-commissioned study run by Ithaka was recently published identifying new models for scholarly communication. In addition to identifying digital resources on which scholars are relying, the study shows that significant changes are occurring in the way scholars approach their communicative practices. Naturally, libraries will need to address and adapt such changes. The full report may be read here.

From the executive summary:

The final report identifies eight principal types of digital scholarly resources:

• E-only journals
• Reviews
• Preprints and working papers
• Encyclopedias, dictionaries, and annotated  content
• Data
• Blogs
• Discussion forums
• Professional and scholarly hubs

This report profiles each of these eight types of resources, including discussion of how and why the faculty members reported using the resources for their work, how content is selected for the site, and what sustainability strategies the resources are employing. Each section draws from the in-depth interviews to provide illustrative anecdotes and highlight representa­tive examples. Among the findings of this study were:

• While some disciplines seem to lend themselves  to certain formats of digital resource more than others, examples of innovative resources can be found across the humanities, social sciences, and scientific/technical/medical subject areas.
• Traditions of scholarly culture relating to estab­lishing scholarly legitimacy through credential­ing, peer review, and citation metrics exert a powerful force on these innovative online proj­ects. Almost every resource suggested by the interviewed scholars incorporates peer review or editorial oversight. Though some born-digital journals are beginning to experiment with open peer review, the examples we observed were still in early stages.
• Many digital publications are directed at small,  niche audiences. There appears to be a very long tail in the field of digital scholarly re­sources with many tightly-focused publications directed at narrow audiences and capable of running on relatively small budgets.
• Some of the resources with greatest impact  are those that have been around a long while. Given the importance of longevity in establish­ing scholarly reputation, the necessity of build­ing an audience to attract high-quality content, and the time it takes to fine-tune a digital re­source, even excellent new digital publications may need years to establish their place in their scholarly community.
• Innovations relating to multimedia content and  Web 2.0 functionality appear in some cases to blur the lines between resource types. We observed “video articles,” peer-reviewed reader commentary, and medieval illuminated texts coded as data – all evidence of the creative for­mat mash-ups that challenge us to re-think the definitions of traditional content categories.
• Projects of all sizes are still seeking paths to  sustainability. For open access sites – the vast majority of the resources studied here – the challenges can be great, since subscription fees are not an option. Nearly all of the publications that emerged in our survey are experimenting to find economic models that will support their work.

Planning for Institutional Repositories

OCLC hosted a webinar yesterday about institutional repositories and the role they plan collecting, storing, managing, disseminating, and preserving intellectual and creative assets within our institutions. Greg Zick led the first half of the webinar surveying the IR landscape and was followed by Ron Gardner discussing CONTENTdm as one out-of-the-box IR solution.

The entire webinar was recorded and archived online here.

CLIR Papers from Symposium on Digital Scholarship

Papers have been published from the CLIR/NEH symposium "Promoting Digital Scholarship: Formulating Research Challenges in the Humanities, Social Sciences and Computation" Visit here for the symposium page and links to the papers.

Here is the list of papers:

Tools for thinking: ePhilology and Cyberinfrastructure by Gregory Crane, Alison Babeu, David Bamman, Lisa Cerrato, and Rashmi Singhal

Social Attention in the Age of the Web by Bernardo A. Huberman

The Changing Landscape of American Studies in a Global Era by Caroline Levander

Art History and the New Media; Representation and the Production of Humanistic Knowledge by Stephen Murray

A Whirlwind Tour of Automated Language Processing for the Humanities and Social Sciences by Douglas W. Oard

Information Visualization: Challenge for the Humanities by Maureen Stone

[via CNI]

[Free Webinar] "A Space of One's Own: Learning Environments Derived from User-Centered Discovery Techniques"

On Friday, November 21, from 1-2pm U.S. Eastern Time, Steve Worona will be hosting Crit Stuart, Director for Research, Teaching, and Learning, Association of Research Libraries (ARL). Crit's talk is called, "A Space of One's Own: Learning Environments Derived from User-Centered Discovery Techniques".  There is no charge, but registration is required.

Summary:
Academic libraries are committed to delivering new or improved learning spaces for students. Information/learning commons are de rigueur for libraries seeking to refresh and deepen their engagements with undergraduate learners. The most noteworthy learning environments provide enhanced productivity capacities; exposure to collections and digital information; skills training for knowledge creation; and development of information, verbal, written, and multimedia fluencies.

While it is tempting to mimic learning space solutions delivered by other libraries, such appropriation circumvents staff-owned discovery processes that create a deep understanding of, and commitment to, what is being built.

Smart preprogramming assessment techniques that tap into user wisdom, learning habits, and research needs provide a helpful framework for identifying needed solutions. This presentation will review a number of user-centered programming assessment techniques that are field-tested, easy to modify and extemporize on, and reliable in producing excellent data for constructing informed building programs.

[via CNI listserv]

Shift Happens

November Tech Classes at METRO

I'm excited about this month's line-up of classes here at METRO -- so much so, that I thought I'd share them here. November finds us offering a host of courses geared toward helping librarians, archivists, and information professionals learn how to not only create and manage digital collections, but also to understand the impact that open access and open source technologies are having on our libraries. Please read on for details about these professional development opportunities


11.04 - The Open Movement and Libraries

"Openness", which has become a hallmark of the new Web, has long been a mission in libraries. The philosophy of free and open access to information and technology has become a critical subject for information and technology leaders and practitioners. This workshop will give an overview of open source technologies (such as content management systems and ILS programs) which are being used by libraries today, explore the latest efforts of the open access movement, open courses and learning initiatives, open conferences and “camps”, and open licenses (like GPL and Creative Commons).

Instructor: Elyssa Kroski
Complete course information and details:
http://tinyurl.com/3vhfye

11.05 - Introduction to Koha: Where Open Source and ILS Intersect

Koha is rapidly becoming the open source ILS solution, and a number of NYC libraries are poised to roll out their new Koha systems soon. This session will give participants a fundamental understanding of open source software, why it's a reliable choice for the library ILS, and examine in-depth how Koha compares with other systems
Instructor: Joshua Ferraro
Complete course information and details:
http://tinyurl.com/4d2wff

11.06 - Building a Digital Library Using PHP and MySQL (a 3-day workshop)

It is almost unimaginable for an interactive, dynamic and fully functional web site or digital library to be designed and built without using server-side technologies. PHP and MySQL are among the most popular server-side technologies because of their flexibility, power and reliability. This three-day workshop will provide a general introduction to developing web-based applications using PHP and MySQL.
Instructor: KB Ng
Complete course information and details:
http://tinyurl.com/4mxvj5

11.13 - Advanced CONTENTdm: Bringing Your Collection to the Next Level

This intermediate/advanced CONTENTdm class builds upon the introductory class, “How to Create Digital Collections Using CONTENTdm.” Through a series of demonstrations and hands-on exercises, you will expand your breadth of CONTENTdm knowledge.
Instructor: Joyce Rambo
Complete course information and details:
http://tinyurl.com/5yfyz9

11.19 - Preserving the Sound of History: An Introduction to Archiving Sound Recordings

This 2 will begin with a brief review of the physics of sound and how that is captured (in analog and digital); survey the most common carriers of sound recordings and their preservation strengths and weaknesses; translate digitization specifications in library-speak; weigh the options for digital storage; discuss metadata standards (or lack thereof); plan for migration; review current initiatives in the field.
Instructor: George Blood, Safe Sound Archives
Complete course information and details:
http://tinyurl.com/53nquq

 If you have questions or need assistance with registration,
please contact Aleksi Merilainen @ 212-228-2320 x 19 or amerilainen@metro.org