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

Introducing The Source

From New Zealand to Mongolia: Co-Designing and Deploying a Digital Library for the World’s Children

From the Human-Computer Interaction Lab website

The Internet has led to an explosion of users throughout the world. Low-cost computing options are now emerging for developing countries that are changing the world’s educational landscape. Given these conditions, there is a critical need to understand the obstacles and opportunities in designing and deploying technologies for children worldwide. This paper discusses seven years of strategies and methods learned in co-designing and deploying the International Children’s Digital Library with children in multiple countries.


British Library warns of ‘black hole’ in history

From the Mail Online website

Historians face a ‘black hole’ of lost information if we do not preserve websites and other digital records, the head of the British Library has warned. Chief executive Lynne Brindley said cultural heritage is at risk as the internet evolves and technologies become obsolete.Even family photographs could die with those who took them if digital pictures are not transferred earlier to a relative’s computer or printed.


Sustaining the Digital Investment: Issues and Challenges of Economically Sustainable Digital Preservation (Note: PDF)

From the Blue Ribbon Task Force on Sustainable Digital Preservation and Access website

In many institutions and enterprises, systemic challenges create barriers for sustainable digital access and preservation. These include:
• Inadequacy of funding models to address long-term access and preservation needs
• Confusion and/or lack of alignment between stakeholders, roles, and responsibilities with respect to digital access and preservation
• Inadequate institutional, enterprise, and/or community incentives to support the collaboration needed to reinforce sustainable economic models
• Complacency that current practices are good enough
• Fear that digital access and preservation is too big to take on
It is clear that institutional, enterprise, and community decision makers must be part of the access and preservation solution. Decision makers must make access and preservation a strategic and actionable priority, incorporating it into their planning, economic models, and interactions with constituent communities. Without their participation, it will be difficult to build on the critical foundation of digital information required for leadership and competitiveness in the information age.


2009 Horizon Report

From the EDUCAUSE website

The annual Horizon Report is a collaborative effort between the New Media Consortium (NMC) and the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI). Each year, the report identifies and describes six areas of emerging technology likely to have a significant impact on teaching, learning, or creative expression in higher education within three adoption horizons: a year or less, two to three years, and four to five years.
The areas of emerging technology cited for 2009 are:
• Mobiles (i.e., mobile devices)
• Cloud computing
• Geo-everything (i.e., geo-tagging)
• The personal web
• Semantic-aware applications
• Smart objects


FREE OUR LIBRARIES! Why We Need A New Approach to Putting Library Collections Online (Note: PDF)

From the Boston Library Consortium website

Google and other businesses are scanning millions of books from the world’s great libraries and offering access to them on the Web. This conjures up the vision of a vast, free, Internet public library of accumulated knowledge. It seems like a marriage made in heaven - the union of corporate capital and enormous library collections, carrying knowledge into virtually every home and workplace. Unfortunately, it’s not.


Living and Learning with New Media: Summary of Findings from the Digital Youth Project (Note: PDF)

From the Digital Youth Research website

This white paper summarizes the results of a three-year ethnographic study, examining young people’s participation in the new media ecology. The study was motivated by two primary research questions: How are new media being integrated into youth practices and agendas? How do these practices change the dynamics of youth-adult negotiations over literacy, learning, and authoritative knowledge?


Mobile Technologies, Mobile Users: Implications for Academic Libraries

From the Association of Research Libraries website

Joan K. Lippincott, Associate Executive Director, Coalition for Networked Information, discusses mobile technologies, learning, and libraries. Lippincott provides examples of innovative ways in which a limited number of academic libraries are already designing services around mobile technologies and mobile users and lays out the issues that should be discussed on individual campuses that would like to examine their role in the move to mobile.

Getting Closer to Your Users With OpenSearch

Not so long ago we used to say "with only a couple of clicks" to mean effortlessly.

And when compared with catching a train to Wellington, walking into the 1st floor of the Alexander Turnbull Library, booking the reel of microfilm you need, waiting an hour for it to be delivered on a trolley, carefully feeding it into the microfilm reader, and fast forwarding to the frames you are interested in, it does still seem so.

As regular readers of this blog know, we have digitised 100,000 pages from the McLean Papers and over 60,000 images of pictorial material from the Alexander Turnbull Library, and made it all available to you, for free, on the new Manuscripts & Pictorial website. Yet still we do not rest.

A number of us here in the National Digital Library are never happier than when we are imagining new ways to get our collections even closer to our users. We think that two clicks away is one click too many. And so, today, we introduce to you the very simple, low-tech but quite marvellous thing that is OpenSearch, and offer up some search plugins for Manuscripts & Pictorial, Papers Past and even DigitalNZ, as well as a "general purpose solution" if you're a Firefox user.

So. It's a little-known fact that what we might refer to as "the google search box" in the top right corner of your browser can be configured to use any search engine you like. It has some options built in - if you're using IE or Firefox, click to the left of the search field and you'll find a pop-up list of search engines to try - but you can also add search engines to it, and most importantly you can add our search engines to it, and therefore never have to be more than one click away from our digitised collections ever again.

Here's how. Below are links to a number of search plugins that we have created for you; just click on any or all that you would like and your browser ought to give you the option to install them. You can easily remove them later by clicking or right-clicking in the search box, so don't be afraid. To use, just select the one you want from the list of options in your search box, type a word or two and press return.

Manuscripts & Pictorial
search all of the digitised Manuscripts & Pictorial Collections.

Manuscripts & Pictorial in Te Reo Maori
As above, but using the Te Reo Maori interface.

Manuscripts & Pictorial: McLean Papers
Search the papers of Sir Donald McLean within Manuscripts & Pictorial.

Manuscripts & Pictorial: Photographic Archive
Search the photographic archive within Manuscripts & Pictorial.

Papers Past
Search digitised copies of historic New Zealand newspapers.

DigitalNZ
Search New Zealand's digital content.

If you find these plugins handy, you might like to check out the Firefox Plugin Add to Search Bar which lets you add almost any website you like to your search box.

Lastly, you'll notice that I've provided a number of options for searching Manuscripts & Pictorial. If you'd like one that automatically searches a particular aspect of Manuscripts & Pictorial (eg Ephemera, showing 200 results at a time, sorted by date, using the Te Reo Maori interface) let me know by commenting below.

In the future, the plugins may also be offered to you automatically (through "autodiscover") when you visit our websites.

OpenSearch. Like a widget but without all the fuss.

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

Introducing The Source

20 Reasons Why 2009 Will Be The Year of the Ebook

From the Gutenberg.com website

According to a California State Board of Education study, the average weight of a high school student’s backpack is 20 pounds and contains about 6 textbooks. In comparison, the average weight of an ebook reader, capable of holding hundreds of books and instantly accessing hundreds of thousands more, is less than a pound. It doesn’t take a genius to see where this is all going.Backpacks are not going to disappear in 2009; that may take a couple years because of the unique aspects of educational textbooks and the school system. However, this is one concrete example of why the book is on the way out, and the ebook is on the way in.


Digital economy future directions paper

From the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy website

This paper aims to identify the themes and suggestions that will inform the action plan of the forthcoming future directions paper for Australia's digital economy.


A Reading Strategy for a UK university: Reviewing the literature on reading, literacy and libraries, with particular regard to the HE sector

From the Loughborough University Library Open Journals website

This paper represents a starting point in an information literacy research project by academic librarians in a UK university. The research project explores ways of enabling and encouraging quality student reading through the development of a University Reading Strategy, a set of best-practice ideas and guidelines drawn from discussions with academics, support staff and librarians.
The purpose of the paper is to review current issues around reading, particularly in the HE sector, in contemporary literature. The literature review is intended to provide a backdrop for the research project, giving benchmark information against which the developing Reading Strategy may be considered.


Books and Libraries in the Digital Age (VIDEO - Running Time: 1:54:12)

From the MIT World website

Perhaps because he is a historian rather than librarian by training, Robert Darnton regards the vast ocean of digital information that civilization has begun accumulating with relish rather than anxiety. Darnton delves into European archives to find raw material, boxes of cast-off 'ephemera,' for his stories of how people lived hundreds of years ago. No wonder he believes 'it's important to preserve as much as you can because you don't know what will turn out to be significant'. In conversation with David Thorburn and audience members, Darnton lays out why he finds more promise than peril in rapidly expanding digital collections.


How libraries can survive in the new media ecosystem

From the Pew Internet & American Life Project website

A presentation by Lee Rainie, Director, Pew Internet Project, to the HELIN Library Consortium in Rhode Island. This speech pulls together Pew Internet Project data about how people's use of the internet and cell phones has fundamentally changed the "information ecosystem" in 10 ways. Lee discusses how this has changed the role of libraries in the digital age and he points out ways that libraries can adapt to meet the expectations and demands of patrons.


New Intersections for Student Engagement in Libraries: A Qualitative Exploration of Collaborative Learning with Multimedia Technologies

From the University of Alberta Libraries' electronic journal hosting service

The purpose of this study was to explore new ways librarians can provide meaningful learning experiences for students beyond the traditional classroom assignment and the one-hour library instruction session. Findings illustrate the benefits of collaborative approaches for enhancing the learning experiences of students in the library, in this case with multimedia. The data also suggest promising new ways for librarians to facilitate learning and to engage students in the library.


Cooperation or Control? Web 2.0 and the Digital Library

From the Journal of Digital Information, supported by Texas A&M University Libraries

The Web 2.0 trend has placed a renewed emphasis on interoperability and cooperation between systems and people. The digital libraries community is familiar with interoperability through technologies like OAI-PMH, but is disconnected from the general Web 2.0 community. This disconnect prevents the digital library from taking advantage of the rich network of data, services and interfaces offered by that community. This paper presents a case study of a collection within the Texas A&M Repository that was improved by adopting the principles of cooperation embodied by the term Web 2.0.


IM a Librarian: Extending Virtual Reference Services through Instant Messaging and Chat Widgets (Note: PDF)

From 'Partnership: the Canadian Journal of Library and Information Practice and Research', hosted by the University of Guelph Library

This paper reports the findings of a study developed to evaluate the suitability and potential of Instant Messaging (IM) for the Novanet Live Help service. Both IM and the existing commercial Virtual Reference (VR) software were offered in tandem for one semester. The services were evaluated through a combination of statistical reports and survey data gathered from both the users and service providers. Comparison of statistics revealed a 44% increase in online sessions, with 22% more sessions received by the IM service. Although users displayed satisfaction with both of the online services, they preferred IM over the VR software. The IM chat widget was reported as the most preferred method for receiving library reference services overall, including face-to-face, telephone and email.


Sharing Functionality on the Web: A Proposed Services Infrastructure for The European Library

From the D-Lib Magazine website

There is existing functionality on the web that users may want to have integrated in portals like the European Library portal [TEL]. This requires the user to notify the portal on how that functionality or services are to be used. For this purpose we have developed a data model for describing functionality on the web. These service descriptions can be exchanged between users and service integrators like the European Library. In this article, we discuss these service descriptions and demonstrate them by means of a demonstrator portal.


A Policy Checklist for Enabling Persistence of Identifiers

From the D-Lib Magazine website

One of the main tasks of the Persistent Identifier Linking Infrastructure (PILIN) project on persistent identifiers was to establish a policy framework for managing identifiers and identifier providers. A major finding from the project was that policy is far more important in guaranteeing persistence of identifiers than technology.
To make an informed decision about what to identify, information modelling of the domain is critical. The PILIN project has formulated a six-point checklist for integrating identifiers into information management.

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

Introducing The Source

Got Data?: a Guide to Data Preservation in the Information Age

From the ACM Portal

The article discusses data preservation, exploring the issues and trends associated with preserving digital data. The author also examines the manner in which such data can be kept manageable, available, accessible, and secure. Examples of vital information stored digitally include medical records, financial data, and photos. Other topics include cyberinfrastructure (CI), defined as the distributed computer, information, and communication technology in a system, and the fact that there is more data being created than there is storage to host it.


Reading on the Rise: A New Chapter in American Literacy (Note:PDF)

From the National Endowment for the Arts website

"Reading on the Rise", the National Endowment for the Arts’ new report, documents a significant turning point in recent American cultural history. For the first time in over a quarter-century, our survey shows that literary reading has risen among adult Americans. After decades of declining trends, there has been a decisive and unambiguous increase among virtually every group measured in this comprehensive national survey.


Always on: Libraries in a world of permanent connectivity

From the First Monday website

Mobile communication has been more widely adopted more quickly than any other technology ever. It represents a diffusion of communications and computational capacity into a growing part of our research, learning and social activities. Libraries have been working to develop network-ready services; mobile communication intensifies this activity and adds new challenges as they look at what it means to be mobile-ready. This has organizational implications as a shift of emphasis towards workflow integration around the learner or researcher creates new relationships with other service organizations on campus. It also has implications for how space is used, for library skills, and for how collections are developed.


We Love Open Source Software. No, You Can’t Have Our Code

From the Code4Lib Journal website

Librarians are among the strongest proponents of open source software. Paradoxically, libraries are also among the least likely to actively contribute their code to open source projects. This article identifies and discusses six main reasons this dichotomy exists and offers ways to get around them.


Service Equality in Virtual Reference (Note: PDF)

From the dLIST (Digital Library of Information and Technology) website

Research is divided about the potential of e-service to bridge communication gaps, particularly to diverse user groups. According to the existing body of literature, e-service may either increase or decrease the quality of service received. This study analyzes the level of service received by different genders and ethnic groups when academic and public librarians answer 676 online reference queries. Quality of e-service was evaluated along three dimensions: timely response, reliability, and courtesy. This study found no significant differences among different user groups along any of these dimensions, supporting the argument that the virtual environment facilitates equitable service and may overcome some challenges of diverse user groups.

January update on The Commons on Flickr

The Commons goes on ... and new champions emerge

As many know, George Oates, the driving force behind The Commons on Flickr, was laid off by Yahoo last December (Seb Chan's blog post spoke for many of us in cultural institutions who have been inspired by George's enthusiasm and generosity).

Other Flickr staffers have stepped into the gap, and The Commons seems to be moving forward, with the New York Public Library joining the ranks.

The news of George's departure also triggered the creation of a new Flickr Commons group (see Shelley Bernstein's blog post on the topic). Led by some long-time and extremely active Flickr members, the group really demonstrates the passion of the community for The Commons, with its research, then and now, and theme (parades; delivering the mail) strands.

I've been following and contributing to the group with great interest, and am really excited that they've just launched a blog: http://www.indicommons.org. I think the group, and now the blog, have already done so much to move The Commons along; it now feels like even more of a shared activity and community.

National Library keeps going on too

After the very positive early response to our debut on The Commons (and buoyed by the report released by the Library of Congress), the decision has been made to keep adding more photos to our Commons stream. We'll be adding a new batch of images (about a dozen at a time) every week or two.

The first batches off the block were these photos taken in Samoa in the 1880s-1890s (including Robert Louis Stevenson's birthday party in 1893, shown below) and a selection of Samuel Heath Head's photographs of automotive trade shows (plus this very appealing shot of a motorcycle rally on New Brighton beach).



New mash-up from Paul Hagon

After Paul Hagon released his before and after mash-up of our Commons photos with Google street maps, I've been very conscientiously geo-tagging as many images as possible with precise coordinates. One of the next batches I'll be loading will increase the number of photos of urban locations in the panorama set.

Paul's just released another mash-up, using the NYPL's photos. As he explains in his post about the mash-up:

The process for this has been a little bit different to the previous then and now demonstrations. The images that have been posted don’t have any geo-location metadata (a latitude or longitude) so they can’t be placed directly on a map in the same manner as other Commons photographs. What they do have instead, is very good street addresses in their titles.

The google maps API has geocoding API call that translates a human readable address into a latitude and longitude. So if we pass the title of a photo into the API - let’s say "Willow Street, No. 113, Brooklyn", it returns the latitude and longitude of "40.6978614, -73.9955804".