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Ariadne presents a brief summary of news and events.

TASI Workshops in November & December

There are currently places available on the following Nov/Dec workshops:

Full details of these and all TASI workshops are available from the Training page http://www.tasi.ac.uk/training/training.html
or:
You can now receive news of forthcoming TASI workshops by subscribing to the new RSS feed: http://www.tasi.ac.uk/rss.html

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JIBS Workshop: ‘Is Library 2.0 a Trivial Pursuit?’

21 November 2007
Diskus Centre, London
http://www.jibs.ac.uk/events/workshops/web2.0/

This question will be addressed by a JIBS workshop to be held in London on Wednesday 21 November. Speakers will review what Library 2.0 means and will present case studies of Library 2.0 developments in their libraries. The day will conclude with a debate on the proposition put forward in the workshop title, in which Internet consultant Phil Bradley (a regular contributor to Ariadne on search engines) will take part.

The workshop is free to those whose institutions are members of JIBS; for others, there is a fee of £50.

For more details and a booking form, go to: http://www.jibs.ac.uk/events/workshops/web2.0/

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Joint DCC and SCRIPTed Workshop

Legal Environment of Digital Curation
23 November 2007
University of Glasgow
http://www.dcc.ac.uk/events/legal-env-dig-cur-2007/

The Digital Curation Centre (DCC) and SCRIPTed online journal have announced that they will be delivering a joint one-day workshop. This event will take place at the University of Glasgow on Friday 23 November 2007 and will provide a useful overview of legal considerations for non-legal professionals who work with data. The day will consist of talks by experts in the areas of:

This will be followed in the afternoon by group discussion in each of the above areas.

Intended Audience:
The intended audience for this event are people who:

Programme:
To view the programme for this event, please see
http://www.dcc.ac.uk/events/legal-env-dig-cur-2007/Legal_Programme_2007.pdf

Venue:
This event will take place in Charles Wilson Building, University of Glasgow. This is building E15 on the following map:
http://www.gla.ac.uk/about/locationmapsandtravel/mapsandtravel/campusmap/

Registration:
http://www.dcc.ac.uk/events/legal-env-dig-cur-2007/register
Registration fees are £30 for DCC Associates Network members and £60 for non-members.

Membership of the DCC Associates Network is FREE! For more information on becoming a member, see our Associates Network page at http://www.dcc.ac.uk/associates/

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DCC/DPE/DRIVER/Nestor Joint Workshop

Practices and Challenges in Preservation and Access for Scientific and Scholarly Digital Repositories
27-28 November 2007
Campus Adlershof, Humboldt University Berlin
http://www.wepreserve.eu/events/dr-2007/

The Digital Curation Centre (DCC), Digital Preservation Europe (DPE), Digital Repository Infrastructure Vision for European Research (DRIVER), and Network of Expertise in Long-Term Storage of Digital Resources (nestor) announce they will be delivering a joint workshop on the long-term curation of scientific and scholarly digital repository content. This event will be held over one and a half days at the Campus Adlershof, Humboldt University in Berlin on 27-28 November 2007. This event is being organised as a follow-up to the 2005 DCC workshop on long-term curation within digital repositories which was held in Cambridge, UK.

Scientific and scholarly content such as articles and data are increasingly deposited in institutional and subject-based repositories. These developments pose practical, conceptual and organisational challenges for accessing these contents now and in a future-proof manner. The long-term survival, value and usability of the information stored within digital repositories depends on numerous criteria such as the formats selected for storage, the capture of associated metadata, proactive preservation measures, and the perceived trust in the repository itself. This workshop will highlight current practices and shall provide insights into current initiatives and technical systems being developed.

Format

The workshop will be delivered over six sessions and will cover the following areas:

Each session will be chaired by a leading expert on the topic. The chair will begin the session by placing the topic in the context of digital curation and provide references to international efforts in the area. Following this introduction, each presentations will highlight specific tools, practical approaches and emerging standards. Each session will conclude with an open question period which will be moderated by the session chair.

Key themes include:


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ONLINE EDUCA BERLIN

13th International Conference on Technology Supported Learning and Training
28-30 November 2007
Hotel InterContinental Berlin, Budapester Str. 2, D-10787 Berlin, Germany
http://www.online-educa.com

This conference aims to meet the networking needs of the international e-learning and distance education industry. It is a major event for strategists and practitioners from all over the world. Participants of the conference are high-level decision makers from education, business and government sectors. The conference is accompanied by an exhibition.

Further information:

Organiser: ICWE GmbH
Leibnizstr. 32,
D-10625 Berlin
Germany
Tel.: +49-30-310 18 18 0
Fax: +49-30-324 9833
Contact: Rebecca Stromeyer
Email: info@online-educa.com


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3rd International DCC Conference

Registration is now open for the 3rd International Digital Curation Conference on 11-13 December 2007. “Curating our Digital Scientific Heritage:a Global Collaborative Challenge” will focus on emerging strategy, policy implementation, leading-edge research and practitioner experience.

Keynote speakers include:

Professor Carol Goble, School of Computer Science, University of Manchester
Rick Luce, Vice Provost and Director of Libraries at Robert Woodruff Library, Emory University
Clifford Lynch, Executive Director of the Coalition for Networked Information (CNI)
Professor John Wood, Principal, Faculty of Engineering, Imperial College London

http://www.dcc.ac.uk/events/dcc-2007/


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UKeiG Course: Information Law for Information Professionals

What you need to know about Copyright, Data Protection, Freedom of Information and Accessibility and Disability Discrimination Laws
19 February 2008, 9.30-16.30
CILIP, 7 Ridgmount Street, London, WC1E 7AE

Course Outline

In particular, four key legal areas currently affect the work of many information professionals in the digital environment - copyright, data protection, freedom of information, and disability discrimination and accessibility. This one-day introductory course will chart a path through the complexities of these subjects. Each area will be succinctly overviewed and the key aspects of the legal regime and requirements in each area will be outlined and explained. Delegates will be taken step-by-step through the fundamentals of each area. An understanding of each topic will be illuminated by real-life examples or scenarios explaining the application of the laws in a wide range of contexts. The day will also highlight the inter-relationships between each of these important areas of information law. There will be opportunities for discussion and exchanges of experience. The day will close with a presentation on how to manage actively legal compliance in these areas in an institutional or organisational context.

The sessions will include:

Within each area a wide range of topics/problems will be used to shed light on the problems faced by information professionals, or how the laws can be used by them in appropriate contexts.

The course will be led by presentations but will include real-life problems and scenarios for discussion, and plenty of opportunity for questions and answers.

Course Presenter

Laurence Bebbington is Law Librarian and Information Services Copyright Officer at the University of Nottingham.

Costs (including lunch and refreshments):
UKeiG members £130 + VAT (£152.75); others £160 + VAT (£188.00)

Contact:

Christine Baker
Piglet Cottage
Redmire
Leyburn
North Yorkshire
DL8 4EH
. Tel & Fax: 01969 625751
Email: cabaker@ukeig.org.uk


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UKeiG Training and Seminar Programme for 2008

http://www.ukeig.org.uk/

The UKeiG training and seminar programme for 2008 is designed to reflect the needs of all those involved with managing electronic information resources in the public as well as private sector. The programme covers the general management of e-resources as well as exploring specific types of electronic information.

Bookings are open for the following meetings:

Plus regular Intranet Forum meetings for UKeiG members

Other meetings planned for 2008 include:

For further information please contact:

Christine Baker
Piglet Cottage
Redmire
Leyburn
North Yorkshire
DL8 4EH
. Tel & Fax: 01969 625751
Email: cabaker@ukeig.org.uk


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Open Repositories 2008

1-4 April 2008
University of Southampton, UK
http://or08.ecs.soton.ac.uk/

Repositories are being deployed in a variety of settings (research, scholarship, learning, science, cultural heritage) and across a range of scales (subject, national, regional, institutional, project, lab, personal). The aim of this conference is to address the technical, managerial, practical and theoretical issues that arise from diverse applications of repositories in the increasingly pervasive information environment.

A programme of papers, panel discussions, poster presentations, workshops, tutorials and developer coding sessions will bring together all the key stakeholders in the field. Open source software community meetings for the major platforms (EPrints, DSpace and Fedora) will also provide opportunities to advance and co-ordinate the development of repository installations across the world.

Developers, researchers and practitioners are invited to submit papers describing novel experiences or developments in the construction and use of repositories. Submissions of up to 4 pages in length are requested in PDF or HTML format.

Submissions for panel discussions are also requested.

Important dates and contact information:

Submission Deadline: Friday 7th December 2007
Notification of Acceptance: Monday January 21st 2008
Submission of DSpace/EPrints/Fedora User Group Presentations: t.b.a.
Conference: April 1-4, 2008. University of Southampton, UK.

Enquiries to:

Program Committee Chair (e.lyon– ukoln.ac.uk) or General Chair (lac – ecs.soton.ac.uk)

Conference Themes:

The themes of the conference include the following:

Transformational change in the knowledge workplace

- Embedding repositories in business processes and individual workflow.
- Change Management
- Advocacy and Culture Change
- Policy development and policy lag.

Professionalism and practice

- Professional Development
- Workforce Capacity
- Skills and Training
- Roles and Responsibilities

Sustainability

- Economic sustainability and new business models,
- Technical sustainability of a repository over time, including platform change and migration.
- Technical sustainability of holdings over time. Preservation. Audit, certification. Trust. Assessment tools.
- Managing sustainability failure - when a repository outlives its organisation or its organisational commitment.

Legal issues

- Embargoes
- Licensing and Digital Rights Management
- Mandates
- Overcoming legislative barriers
- Contractual relationships - facilitating and monitoring
- International and cross-border issues

Successful interoperability

- Content standards - discipline-specific vs general
- Metadata standards and application profiles
- Quality standards and quality control processes
- Achieving interchange in multi-disciplinary or multi-institutional environments
- Semantic web and linked data
- Identifier management for data and real world resources
- Access and authentication

Models, architectures and frameworks

- Beyond OAIS
- Federations
- Institutional Models - uber- or multi-repository environments
- Adapting to changing e-infrastructure: SOA, services, cloud computing
- Scalability

Value chains and scholarly communications

- Multi-stakeholder value: preservation, open access, research, management, admninistration
- Multi-agenda, multi-function, multi-purpose repositories
- Usefulness and usability
- Reference, reuse, reanalysis and repurposing of content
- Citation of data / learning objects
- Changes in scholarly practice
- New benchmarks for scholarly success
- Repository metrics
- Bibliometrics: usage and impact

Services built on repositories

- OAI services
- User-oriented services
- Mashups
- Social networking
- Commentary / tagging
- Searching / information discovery
- Alerting
- Mining
- Visualisation
- Integration with Second life and Virtual environments

Use cases for repositories

- E-research/E-science (e.g., data and publication; collaborative services)
- E-scholarship
- Institutional repositories
- Discipline-oriented repositories
- Scholarly Publishing
- Digital Library
- Cultural Heritage
- Scientific repositories / data repositories
- Interdisciplinary, cross-disciplinary and cross-sectoral repositories


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Digital Futures: From Digitization to Delivery

7 - 11 April 2008
King’s College London
http://www.digitalconsultancy.net/digifutures/

King’s College London is pleased to announce the Digital Futures 5-day training event for 2008. Led by experts, Digital Futures focuses on the development, delivery and preservation of digital resources from cultural and memory institutions. Digital Futures is designed for managers and other practitioners from the library, museum, heritage and cultural sectors looking to understand the strategic and management issues of developing digital resources from digitisation to delivery.

Digital Futures will cover the following core areas:

- Planning and management
- Fund raising and sustainability
- Copyright and IPR
- Visual and image based resource development and delivery
- Metadata - introduction and implementation
- Implementing digital resources
- Digital preservation

There will be visits to 2 institutions, which have previously included the National Gallery, the National Archives and the Imperial War Museum.

The agenda:

http://www.digitalconsultancy.net/digifutures/digiprog.htm

Digital Futures aims for no more than 25-30 delegates and every delegate will have the opportunity to also spend one-to-one time with a Digital Futures leader to discuss issues specific to them.

Digital Futures will issue a certificate of achievement to each delegate.

The Digital Futures leaders are:

Simon Tanner, Director of King’s Digital Consultancy Services, King’s College London and Tom Clareson, Program Director for New Initiatives, PALINET, USA.
Other experts will be invited to speak in their areas of expertise.

Cost: £770 (VAT not charged, excludes accommodation)

To register, go to:
http://www.digitalconsultancy.net/digifutures/digireg.htm


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ELPUB 2008

Open Scholarship: Authority, Community and Sustainability in the Age of Web 2.0
12th International Conference on Electronic Publishing
25 to 27 June 2008
Toronto, Canada
http://www.elpub.net

Scholarly communications, in particular scholarly publications, are undergoing tremendous changes. Researchers, universities, funding bodies, research libraries and publishers are responding in different ways, from active experimentation, adaptation, to strong resistance. The ELPUB 2008 conference will focus on key issues on the future of scholarly communications resulting from the intersection of semantic web technologies, the development of cyberinfrastructure for humanities and the sciences, and new dissemination channels and business models. The conference welcomes a wide variety of papers from members of these communities whose research and experiments are transforming the nature of scholarly communications. Topics include but are not restricted to:

Key Dates:

January 20th 2008: Deadline for submission of abstracts (in all categories)

February 28, 2008: Authors will be notified of the acceptance of submitted papers and workshop proposals.

April 11th, 2008: Final papers must be received. See website for detailed author instructions.


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New OCLC Study on Social Networking and Privacy on the Web

OCLC has released the third in a series of reports that scan the information landscape to provide data, analyses and opinions about users’ behaviours and expectations in today’s networked world. The report, entitled Sharing, Privacy and Trust in Our Networked World explores social spaces online, and where the library might fit in the new social framework. It examines four primary areas:

Over 6,100 respondents, ages 14 to 84, from Canada, France, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States, were surveyed. The surveys were conducted in English, German, French and Japanese. 382 U.S. library directors were also surveyed.

Among the report highlights:

Cathy De Rosa, Global Vice President of Marketing, OCLC, and principal contributor to the report said she hoped the new report would spark discussion and interest in libraries and among library professionals. Ms. De Rosa will be speaking about the study and its findings at a symposium at London Online which OCLC is hosting for the first time outside the US. For further information see: http://www.oclc.org/info/londononline/

Sharing, Privacy and Trust in Our Networked World is available for download free of charge at http://www.oclc.org/reports/sharing/

Print copies of the 280-page report are also available for purchase from the same site.

[Source: OCLC]

[Received: October 2007]
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Workforce Skills Scheme to Boost Archive Services

The successful applicants for three innovative nationwide schemes, designed to develop vital workforce skills as part of the Action for Archives Programme, have been announced by the MLA Council.

The three programmes are:

The Fundraising Mentor Scheme: This scheme is running in London, the West Midlands and the South West - enables participants to develop the essential skills and organisational focus to implement a sustainable fundraising strategy. This is key in a sector which has previously been hesitant to approach external bodies for funding for new and innovative projects

Strategic Planning and Influencing: This programme will provide eight places in the East of England, North East, South East and Yorkshire. Workforce development in the field of strategic planning and the ability to influence decision-making has long been a key tool in the building of a successful organisation. The programme will use a combined approach of mentoring, e-learning and group activities

The Young Cultural Creators Programme: This programme develops the skills of archive professionals to appreciate and interpret the material in their unique collections. Working with artists, authors and other creative practitioners on a scheme which has already resulted in a successful programme in the London region, the consultants will work in the East Midlands and North West to develop the skills and confidence required to construct and deliver sustainable learning programmes with children and their teachers.

For a full list of successful applicants, please see: http://www.mla.gov.uk/website/programmes/action_for_archives/intro/

[Source: MLA]

[Received: October 2007]
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DataShare State-of-the-Art Review on Data Sharing

As part of the JISC-funded DISC-UK DataShare Project in the UK, a State-of-the-Art Review has been written, marking out the current scene on data sharing at the beginning of the project. While the report is UK-focused, it may be of wider interest, and has a very thorough bibliography.

DISC-UK is a UK consortium of data support professionals working in departments and academic libraries in universities (Data Information Specialists Committee-United Kingdom). The project is about working with academics and institutional repository managers at the four partner institutions to provide exemplars for sharing research data within institutional repositories (based on EPrints.org, DSpace and Fedora software).

Deliverables so far:

DISC-UK DataShare: State-of-the-Art Review
http://www.disc-uk.org/docs/state-of-the-art-review.pdf
by Harry Gibbs

Data Sharing Continuum
http://www.disc-uk.org/docs/data_sharing_continuum.pdf
by Robin Rice

Feedback on these very welcome. More deliverables will be added as the project continues, at http://www.disc-uk.org/deliverables.html

The project also maintains social bookmarks on this topic at http://faves.com/users/DataShare

Background to the Project:

The project’s overall aim is to contribute to new models, workflows and tools for academic data sharing within a complex and dynamic information environment which includes increased emphasis on stewardship of institutional knowledge assets of all types; new technologies to enhance e-Research; new research council policies and mandates; and the growth of the Open Access / Open Data movement.

Objectives:

  1. Build capacity of institutional repositories in UKHE to respond to the unique requirements of research datasets as a new ‘document type’
  2. Use a range of open source software repository solutions - Eprints, DSpace, Fedora - to provide exemplars and add-on tools for managing datasets as institutional repository items
  3. Produce and disseminate findings - in cooperation with the Repositories Support Project (RSP) and the Repositories Research Team (RRT) - to inform library and repository managers about the organisational and technical issues associated with the deposit of research data
  4. Work with the RSP, Digital Curation Centre (DCC) and others to identify training needs and solutions for increasing skills of information professionals in UKHE for managing research data.

For further information see http://www.disc-uk.org/datashare.html

[Source: DISC-UK DataShare Project]

[Received: October 2007]
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Dioscuri: The Emulator for Digital Preservation

The Koninklijke Bibliotheek - national library of the Netherlands - and the Nationaal Archief of the Netherlands have announced the world’s first modular emulator designed for digital preservation: Dioscuri.

Dioscuri is capable of emulating an Intel 8086-based computer platform with support for VGA-graphics, screen, keyboard, and storage devices like a virtual floppy drive and hard drive. With these components Dioscuri successfully runs 16-bit operating systems like MS-DOS and applications such as WordPerfect 5.1, DrawPerfect 1.1 and Norton Commander. Furthermore, it is capable of running many nostalgic DOS-games and a simple Linux kernel. And when you finally open your long-forgotten WP5.1-files you can extract the text from the emulated environment into your current working environment using a simple clipboard-feature.

Designed for digital preservation:

Dioscuri is built on top of a virtual layer, called a virtual machine (VM) thereby reducing dependence on the actual hardware and software it runs on. This approach offers better portability to other platforms, which ensures longevity when a platform fails to survive over time.

Flexibility is gained by a component-based architecture. Each component, or module, imitates the functionality of a particular hardware component (i.e. processor, memory, hard disk, etc.). By combining these modules any computer emulation can be created. Configuring Dioscuri is done by a user-friendly graphical interface which stores the settings in an XML file.

Next steps are already in progress. Since July 2007 development of Dioscuri has continued under the umbrella of the European project Planets. Future work will consist of extending Dioscuri with more components to emulate newer x86 computers (286, 386, 486 and Pentium) which will make Dioscuri capable of running operating systems like MS Windows 95/98/2000/XP and Linux Ubuntu.

Dioscuri version 0.2.0 is now available as open source software for any institution or individual wishing to see their old digital documents again. Download Dioscuri from: http://dioscuri.sourceforge.net

Mailing list and contact:

If you would like to be kept up to date about new developments of Dioscuri, please register for the Dioscuri news mailing list: https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/dioscuri-news

To get in touch with the project team, please contact:

Nationaal Archief of the Netherlands
Remco Verdegem, project manager Dioscuri:
Email: remco.verdegem@nationaalarchief.nl

Koninklijke Bibliotheek
Jeffrey van der Hoeven, co-developer and tester:
Email: jeffrey.vanderhoeven@kb.nl

Tessella Support Service plc
Bill Roberts, coordinator Development Team
Email: bill.roberts@tessella.com

[Source: Koninklijke Bibliotheek - Netherlands National Library]

[Received: October 2007]
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Digital Lives Research Project

The Web pages and blog of the Digital Lives Research Project have gone live on the British Library Web site.

The Digital Lives Project is designed to provide a major pathfinding study of personal digital collections. The project team drawn from the British Library, University College London and University of Bristol is led by Neil Beagrie of the British Library (the lead partner) and funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).

The research for Digital Lives commenced in September 2007 and will run for 18 months to March 2009. Outcomes from research are expected to be of significant interest within the Arts and Humanities and the libraries, archives, and information sector. It will also be of potential interest to researchers exploring applications of digital memory in other areas such as health and ageing populations and for individuals who wish to manage their own personal digital collections for family history or other purposes.

The Web pages provide access to further information on the project, the latest project news and developments via the Blog, and publications and other research outputs from the project as they are finalised and released. You can subscribe to feeds from the Blog to keep up to date with developments in the project and related initiatives worldwide.

If you are undertaking similar or related research we will be very pleased to hear from you and exchange information.

Further information:

Digital Lives http://www.bl.uk/digital-lives/

Contact:

Neil Beagrie
The British Library
96 Euston Road
London
NW1 2DB
Email: neil.beagrie@bl.uk

[Source: British Library]

[Received: October 2007]
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Love Libraries Award Winner

Get It Loud in Libraries, the groundbreaking project from Lancaster Library has won the Love Libraries Award 2007, beating off tough competition from four rivals in a public vote.

The Love Libraries Award, run by Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) celebrates the work library services do to inspire teenagers and young people under the age of 25. Lancaster Library is breathing new life into the service, with some of the latest bands performing exclusive gigs in the library and bringing in diverse crowds.

Representatives from each of the five finalist projects attended an awards ceremony at the British Library in London on 3 October 2007, where the results of the public vote were announced by Roy Clare CBE, Chief Executive, MLA Partnership. Lancaster Library was awarded a trophy and £2,000 towards its project.

[Source: MLA]

[Received: October 2007]
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Laying the Foundations for the European Digital Library

A project has begun to bring the European heritage online through a single portal. Seventy senior managers and technical experts from museums, archives, audio-visual collections and libraries across Europe came together to plan the European Digital Library. The meeting took place at the National Library of the Netherlands.

The initiative stems from the call by Viviane Reding, the European Commissioner for Information Society and Media to ‘make the wealth of material in Europe’s libraries, museums and archives accessible to all’.

This reflects growing user interest in major digitisation projects that are creating large-scale online heritage resources. However, this is the first initiative to focus on providing a multilingual interface to digital artefacts, texts and media from across the European heritage.

Such collaboration between the archival, library, audio-visual and museum domains on this scale is a significant new move. Claudia Dillmann, director of the Deutsches Filminstitut and President of the Association des Cinémathèques Européennes said ‘We recognise that researchers and people learning about European history and culture need to explore all sorts of media, including films, sounds, photos and papers. Their expectation of the internet is that it can give them integrated access to all these things. It’s vital that the different domains work together to collaborate on the technical solutions to enable research across different media.’

The project - the European Digital Library network (EDLnet) - runs for two years, and will develop a prototype that demonstrates proof of concept, bringing together content from some of Europe’s major cultural organisations. The project will be run by The European Library together with the National Library of the Netherlands.

The project will look at the political, human, technical and semantic issues that will contribute to the creation of an interoperable system able to access fully digitised content. It will invite feedback from different types of users in order to create a service that enriches the widest public and answers the needs of researchers, students, teachers and the creative industries.

Further information:

EDLnet http://www.europeandigitallibrary.eu/edlnet/

[Source: The European Library]

[Received: October 2007]
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Publication Date: 30-October-2007 Publication: Ariadne Issue 53
Originating URL: http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue53/newsline/