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

Introducing The Source

Considerations for the Preservation of Blogs (Note: PDF)

From the DigitalPreservationEurope(DPE) website

Blogs, it seems, are everywhere these days, but what about the next day (and the next and the next ...). Opinions vary on whether or not blogs merit preservation beyond the actions of a blog’s respective authors. This briefing paper does not contribute to that dialogue. Rather, it provides an overview of issues to be considered by organizations planning blog preservation programs. Blogs are the product of a network of players, including blog authors, service providers, and readers. Discussed here are some key attributes of blogs, and the characteristics and behaviours of these players, which may impact preservation activities.


Employment in the Cultural Sector (Note: PDF)

From the New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage website

"Employment in the Cultural Sector" is one report in a series produced by the New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage, as part of the Cultural Statistics Programme. The aim of the programme is to improve the range and quality of statistical information about the cultural sector - for the development of cultural policy by both central and local government, for monitoring the sector’s progress and performance, and for future planning.


The Library Web Site of the Future

From the Inside Higher Ed website

Academic librarians want their Web sites to attract faculty and students the way flowers invite insects for a visit. The urge to plunge into the cornucopia of electronic riches that lies waiting in the library’s highly organized portal should be irresistible. Exclusive research databases, costly electronic journals and digital books and treasures lay in wait for those who need and are willing to seek them out.It should be a scholar’s dream, but there’s trouble in paradise. In August 2008 the Ithaka Group released a report, "Studies of Key Stakeholders in the Digital Transformation in Higher Education" on the relationship between faculty members and their libraries’ electronic resources. As librarians already knew well, Ithaka’s report showed that faculty perceived the library’s collective electronic resources, particularly in business, science and technology, as far more critical to scholarship than print collections are. But there is a significant disconnect when it comes to faculty use of the library’s website as a gateway, or portal, to access that wealth of electronic content.


Public Media 2.0: Dynamic, Engaged Publics (Note: PDF)

From the Center for Social Media website

This white paper lays out an expanded vision for “public media 2.0” that places engaged publics at its core, showcasing innovative experiments from its “first two minutes,” and revealing related trends, stakeholders, and policies. Public media 2.0 may look and function differently, but it will share the same goals as the projects that preceded it: educating, informing, and mobilizing its users.


7 Things You Should Know About QR Codes (Note: PDF)

From the Educause website

QR codes are two-dimensional bar codes that can contain any alpha-numeric text and that often feature URLs that direct users to sites where they can learn about an object or place (a practice known as “mobile tagging”). Decoding software on tools such as camera phones interprets the codes, which are increasingly found in places such as product labels, billboards, and buildings, inviting passers-by to pull out their mobile phones and uncover the encoded information. QR codes link the physical world with the virtual by providing on-the-spot access to descriptive language and online resources for objects and locations. In this way, the codes support experiential learning, bringing scholarship out of the classroom and into physical experience. The greatest importance of QR codes could lie not in their specific use but in the opportunities they offer for moving away from keyboards as input devices in learning environments.

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

Introducing The Source

An Introduction to Digital Audio

From the JISC Digital Media website

A guide to the theory of digital audio, explaining the process of analogue to digital conversion and how sound is represented and stored in digital form.


Digital Britain: The Interim Report (Note: PDF)

From the UK Department for Culture, Media and Sport website

The UK Government has published a plan to secure Britain's place at the forefront of the global digital economy. The interim report contains more than 20 recommendations, including specific proposals on:
* next generation networks
* universal access to broadband
* the creation of a second public service provider of scale
* the modernisation of wireless radio spectrum holdings
* a digital future for radio
* a new deal for digital content rights
* enhancing the digital delivery of public services


Smart 2020: Enabling the low carbon economy in the information age (Note: PDF)

From the Climate Group website

This report is the world’s first comprehensive global study of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector’s growing significance for the world’s climate. The report’s supporting analysis shows that while ICT’s own sector footprint - currently two per cent of global emissions - will almost double by 2020, ICT’s unique ability to monitor and maximise energy efficiency both within and outside of its own sector could cut CO2 emissions by up to five times this amount. Although tele-working, video-conferencing, e-paper, and e-commerce are increasingly commonplace, the report notes that replacing physical products and services with their virtual equivalents is only one part of the estimated low carbon benefits the ICT sector can deliver.


Information literacy the 'democratic right' of every learner (Note: PODCAST)

From the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) website

Information literacy has become a key concern of many in the education sector and beyond. In this podcast interview, John Crawford and Christine Irving of the Scottish Information Literacy project, talk to Philip Pothen about their work in the education sector, in the workplace, with libraries, and with government agencies and argue that information literacy is the 'democratic right' of every learner, and a central element of lifelong learning.


The state of the nation: A snapshot of Australian institutional repositories

From the First Monday website

This paper provides the first full description of the status of Australian institutional repositories. Australia presents an interesting case because of the government’s support of institutional repositories and open access. A survey of all 39 Australian universities conducted in September 2008 shows that 32 institutions have active repositories and by end of 2009, 37 should have repositories. The total number of open access items has risen dramatically since January 2006. Five institutions reported they have an institution-wide open access mandate, and eight are planning to implement one. Only 20 universities have funding for their repository staff and 24 universities have funding for their repository platform, either as ongoing recurrent budgeting or absorbed into their institutions’ budgets. The remaining are still project funded. The platform most frequently used for Australian repositories is Fedora with Vital. Most of the remaining sites use EPrints or DSpace.


Shared Print Policy Review Report: RLG Partnership Shared Print Collections Working Group (Note: PDF)

From Lorcan Dempsey's blog

A review of selected policy documents related to collaborative management of library print collections was undertaken by the RLG Shared Print Working Group in early 2008, with the goal of identifying common elements that might form the basis of a policy framework based on pragmatic examples of inter-institutional cooperation.
While other studies have explored the motivations, intent and institutional practices associated with library print collection sharing, our more narrowly-scoped exercise focused instead on a close reading of the joint agreements that memorialise shared intent by formalizing institutional commitments and terms in writing. Following on a previous study that examined current practices in the off-site storage of library collections and identified opportunities for deeper collaboration within and across shared print archives, our policy review project was intended to measure the gap between principled statements of community interest and the binding partnership agreements that put those commitments to the test.


Transformational Times: an Environmental Scan prepared for the ARL Strategic Plan Review Task Force

From Stephen Abram's blog

This is a step in the Association of Research Libraries' (ARL) 2009 project to renew their strategic plan to guide the Association in setting priorities and organising its activities for the next several years, a time that is expected to present unprecedented challenges and concomitant opportunities to research libraries. Rather than comprehensively summarizing trends in the scholarly communication system as a whole, the trends identified here were selected because of their particular relevance to the research library.


Overcoming inequality: why governance matters (Note: PDF)

From the UNESCO website

Education is a basic human right. Yet across the world there are vast disparities in education based on wealth, gender, location, language and other markers for disadvantage. These disparities threaten to undermine efforts to achieve the six Education for All (EFA) goals agreed by over 160 governments in 2000. Failure to place strategies for greater equity at the centre of the EFA agenda will deny millions of children, youth and adults the education and learning opportunities they need to realize their potential, escape poverty and participate fully in society.
This is the seventh edition of the EFA Global Monitoring Report and documents progress towards the EFA goals. The Report includes statistical indicators on all levels of education in some 200 countries and territories, and serves as an authoritative reference guide.


Twitter and status updating (Note: PDF)

From the Pew Internet & American Life Project website

In the past three years, developments in social networking and internet applications have begun providing internet users with more opportunities for sharing short updates about themselves, their lives, and their whereabouts online. Users may post messages about their status, their moods, their location and other tidbits on social networks and blogging sites, or on applications for sending out short messages to networks of friends like Twitter, Yammer and others.
As of December 2008, 11% of online American adults said they used a service like Twitter or another service that allowed them to share updates about themselves or to see the updates of others.

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

Introducing The Source

Making the intangible tangible: the economic contribution of Australia's copyright industries (Note: PDF)

From the Australian Copyright Council website

This report looks at the economic contribution of Australia's copyright industries. The key findings include:
• Copyright is a key piece of infrastructure that supports the industries that comprise a modern economy
• Copyright industries comprise a substantial proportion of the Australian economy
• Australia’s copyright industries have grown considerably over the past 12 years
• Productivity growth in Australia’s copyright industries has resulted in significant real wages growth
• Australia remains a significant net importer of copyright goods and services
• Australia’s economy has a relatively high dependence on copyright industries


Google Book Search Now Available for Mobile Users

From the "Inside Google Book Search" blog

What if you could access literature’s greatest works, such as 'Emma' and 'The Jungle Book', right from your phone? Or, some of the more obscure gems such as Mark Twain’s hilarious travelogue, 'Roughing It'? A mobile version of Google Book Search has opened with over 1.5 million mobile public domain books to browse.While these books were already available on Google Book Search, these new mobile editions are optimized to be read on a small screen.


Project Gutenberg Release Mobile Edition eBooks

From the Project Gutenberg News website

PG Mobile is going to be a new addition to gutenberg.org, which will allow mobile/cell phone users to download and read eBooks. The files will be available on the normal download page of any PG eBook.


The Research Library’s Role in Digital Repository Services (Note: PDF)

From the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) website

Digital repositories are developing rapidly as a key element of research cyberinfrastructure. Even when research institutions are grappling with difficult budget decisions in the current economic environment, they need to have a strategy for providing repository services.
Libraries are making diverse contributions to the development of many types of digital repositories, particularly those housing locally created digital content - including new digital objects or digitized versions of locally held works. In some instances, libraries are managing a repository and its related services entirely on their own, but often they are working closely with other stakeholders at their institutions to jointly develop repository services.


Future Directions in Metadata Remediation for Metadata Aggregators (Note: PDF)

From the Digital Library Federation website

This report identifies and evaluates tools that can be used to normalise and enhance metadata.



Understanding PREMIS (Note: PDF)

From the Library of Congress website

This guide is a relatively brief overview of the PREMIS preservation metadata standard, giving you some idea of what PREMIS is all about. For readers who do need to master the PREMIS Data Dictionary for Preservation Metadata, this guide may serve as a gentle introduction that makes the larger document feel more familiar.

February Flickr Commons update

The temperature on The Commons has been set at a rolling boil this month, and so this update is mainly to point you to some of the awesome things that have been going on.

Flickr has reached 100 million geo-tagged images. I feel I have made a (very!) modest contribution, with 140 of the 149 images we've so far added to The Commons having location info. You can enjoy these even more with the new "nearby" feature.

The Indicommons team has been busy: for starters, there's a new bibliography of papers, presentations and articles about The Commons.

Indicommons member clickykbd has not only written a Greasemonkey script that lets you stay inside The Commons photos while searching Flickr, but done some awesome stuff with RSS feeds. For example, here's the feed of geo-tagged Commons images on a Google map.

Commons founder George Oates presented at a British Library conference recently - via Second Life - and as ever had wise words to impart on the topic of institutions and long-term relationships with online service providers.

Showing that it's not just me that's enthused about all this, The Commons on Flickr has been nominated for a Museums and the Web 2009 Best of the Web award in the Best Community | Service site category. Deservedly, the Indicommons team has been nominated in the same category, and Paul Hagon's up for the gong in the Best Innovative site category for his Then & Now mashup.

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

Introducing The Source

Google & the Future of Books

From the New York Review of Books website

How can we navigate through the information landscape that is only beginning to come into view? The question is more urgent than ever following the recent settlement between Google and the authors and publishers who were suing it for alleged breach of copyright. For the last four years, Google has been digitizing millions of books, including many covered by copyright, from the collections of major research libraries, and making the texts searchable online. The authors and publishers objected that digitizing constituted a violation of their copyrights. After lengthy negotiations, the plaintiffs and Google agreed on a settlement, which will have a profound effect on the way books reach readers for the foreseeable future. What will that future be?


Best Practices for Access to Images: Recommendations for Scholarly Use and Publishing (Note: PDF)

From the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science website

Publishing practices in the sciences and the humanities are rapidly diverging. The sciences are increasingly moving toward forms of international e-publishing, leaving behind the world of traditional print publications. At present, the humanities are ill-prepared to adopt new publishing practices championed by the sciences, in spite of the potential these new practices offer for innovative scholarly work in the humanities and sciences alike. Scholars in the humanities, especially those concerned with images, face a bewildering array of restrictions. A confusing patchwork of policies regarding access to images, image reproduction, and cultural heritage citation is hindering new research and publication in the humanities.


Generations Online in 2009 (Note: PDF)

From the Pew Internet & American Life Project website

Over half of the adult internet population is between 18 and 44 years old. But larger percentages of older generations are online now than in the past, and they are doing more activities online, according to surveys taken from 2006-2008.
Contrary to the image of Generation Y as the “Net Generation", internet users in their 20s do not dominate every aspect of online life. Generation X is the most likely group to bank, shop, and look for health information online. Boomers are just as likely as Generation Y to make travel reservations online. And even Silent Generation internet users are competitive when it comes to email (although teens might point out that this is proof that email is for old people).


Promoting Reading Using This 2.0 Stuff (Note: PDF)

By Stephen Abram on the SirsiDynix website

Reading is a social activity. There, I said it. I know a lot of people see it as solitary, introverted, internalized, quiet, and even as anti-social! And frankly it isn’t.


Economic Implications of Alternative Scholarly Publishing Models: Exploring the Costs and Benefits (Note: PDF)

From the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) website

Sharing research information via a more open access publishing model would bring millions of pounds worth of savings to the higher education sector. This is one of the key findings from a new research project commissioned by JISC.
The research centred on three models which include:
* Subscription or toll access publishing which involves reader charges and use restrictions
* Open access publishing where access is free and publication is funded from the authors’ side
* Open access self-archiving where academic authors post their work in online repositories, making it freely available to all Internet users