The Source: news about digital libraries and library innovations from around the web

Introducing The Source

Arts content for the digital era

From the Australia Council for the Arts website

Developed in response to the current and anticipated future impact of digital technologies on the arts sector, artists and arts audiences, this is the Australia Council’s blueprint for supporting arts content and its creators in the digital era. The strategy addresses:
•How digital infrastructure will affect where and when artists engage with their audiences
•How traditional artforms - from Indigenous music to literature and the performing arts can use digital technology to push their creativity into new domains and construct engaging audience experiences
•The new business capabilities required to navigate the emerging business models of the 21st century, to ensure a sustainable future for Australian arts and culture
•How our arts heritage will be preserved in a digital environment and how it can be made more accessible for future ‘digital native’ generations


The Cloud, the Crowd, and Public Policy

From the Issues in Science and Technology Online website

A new age of more flexible, less expensive, and more secure computing will emerge soon if governments act wisely.


The digital melting pot: bridging the digital native-immigrant divide

From the First Monday website

Educational technology advocates claim today’s students are technologically savvy content creators and consumers whose mindset differs from previous generations. The digital native-digital immigrant metaphor has been used to make a distinction between those with technology skills and those without. Metaphors such as this one are useful when having initial conversations about an emerging phenomenon, but over time, they become inaccurate and dangerous. Thus, this paper proposes a new metaphor, the digital melting pot, which supports the idea of integrating rather than segregating the natives and the immigrants.


The role of digital identity management in the internet economy: a primer for policy makers

From the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) website

This report aims to provide policy makers with a broad-brush understanding of the various dimensions of digital identity management. It introduces, in non-technical terms, the basic concepts and issues raised by IdM and points to additional sources where policy makers may gain a deeper understanding of the topic. Consistent with the OECD’s Seoul Ministerial Declaration, it also aims to support efforts to address public policy issues for securely managing and protecting digital identities, with a view to strengthening confidence in the online activities crucial to the growth of the Internet Economy.


International collaboration steers future of mass digitisation

From the British Library website

Feeding into the EU's i2010 vision to significantly improve access to Europe's cultural heritage, the British Library and the University of Salford have teamed up with a group of 15 institutions from across the continent as part of the four-year IMPACT project - IMProving ACcess to Text - to remove the barriers that stand in the way of the mass digitisation of the European cultural heritage. Led by the Koninklijke Bibliotheek, the IMPACT project aims to share expertise from across Europe and establish international best practice guidelines with a view to speeding up, standardising and enhancing the quality of mass digitisation through establishing a Centre of Competence for text-based digitisation. As one of the main participants, the British Library has taken the lead on one of IMPACT's four sub-projects, establishing the operational context of the work carried out by contributors to the project.


Public library revitalization in India: Hopes, challenges, and new visions

From the First Monday website

With India’s growing economy and status as an emerging world power, a new consciousness is developing in the country about the need to reinvest in public services. The National Knowledge Commission (NKC) is an advisory body constituted by the Prime Minister to provide recommendations for improving India’s knowledge infrastructure. As part of this Commission, a set of recommendations has been developed to improve India’s long neglected library system. This article explores the implications of these recommendations, with a specific focus on India’s public library system and the social development gains that are often associated with public libraries. The potential of India’s public libraries to serve as community information centres (CICs) is highlighted, as well as the challenges that lie ahead in implementing a new vision for public library revitalisation. The article serves as an invitation for concerted action, reflection, and dialogue with regard to this important and pressing issue.


Virtual Competence Is Vital in the Workplace: Online Communication Tools, Such as Facebook, Develop Important Work Skills
[Scroll down to the entries for Thursday July 2]

From the Ascribe website

When the Ontario government banned thousands of its employees from using the social networking site Facebook during work a couple of years ago, opponents of the move argued the workers were deprived of a powerful tool. Recent research from Nicole Haggerty, an assistant professor of information systems at the Richard Ivey School of Business, now shows that online activities, such as communicating on Facebook, result in skills that are valuable in the workplace.


The edgeless university

From the Demos website

British universities have world-class reputations and they are vital to the country’s social and economic future, yet they are under siege. This report argues that this can be a moment of rebirth.
The huge public investment that sustained much of the sector is in jeopardy and the current way of working is not sustainable. Some are predicting the end of the university as we have known it. Technology is changing universities as they become just one source among many for ideas, knowledge and innovation. But online tools and open access also offer the means for their survival. Their expertise and value is needed more than ever to validate and support learning and research. Through their institutional capital, universities can use technology to offer more flexible provision and open more equal routes to higher education and learning. We need the learning and research that higher education provides. This will take strategic leadership from within, new connections with a growing world of informal learning and a commitment to openness and collaboration. By exploiting this role, universities can harness technology as a solution and an indispensable tool for shaping their vital role in the future.