Shaping our Future: Digitization Partnerships Across

Libraries, Archives, Museums

Ingrid Parent, University Librarian

University of British ColumbiaIngrid.parent@ubc.ca

Enhancing the Culture of Reading and Books in the Digital Age

 

National Diet LibraryTokyo, Japan

December 2, 2010

Introduction: Vision

“The number one benefit of information technology is that it empowers people to do what they want to do. It lets people be creative…It lets people learn things they didn't think they could learn before, and so in a sense it is all about potential.”

Steve Ballmer, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Microsoft Corporation

- Collections of the future will integrate access to traditional print, museum and archival materials, with digital and three-dimensional objects, media formats and onsite broadcasting and telecommunications.

- Collections of the future will reach across traditional boundaries of libraries, archives and museums

Five Trends in Digital Information and Digitization

1.Convergence Through Collaboration

2. Inspiring New Kinds of Research

3.Open Source, Open Access

4.Moving Beyond Print

5.Changing Professional Competencies in the Digital

Realm

Trend: Convergence Through Collaboration

Library Archives Canada.

Trend: Convergence Through Collaboration

From: Zorich, Waibel, Erway. (2008). Beyond the Silos of the LAMS: Collaboration among libraries, archives and museums.

Trend: Convergence Through CollaborationExamples of Convergence in Digitization Projects

UBC’s Museum of Anthropology has launched the Reciprocal Research Network (RRN) in partnership with First Nations groups, to digitally repatriate cultural objects and share with institutions around the globe

http://www.rrnpilot.org/

Trend: Convergence Through CollaborationExamples of Convergence in Digitization Projects

Reciprocal Research Network, http://www.rrnpilot.org

Trend: Convergence Through CollaborationExamples of Convergence in Digitization Projects

World Digital Library, http://www.wdl.org

Trend: Inspiring New Kinds of Research

• Digital aggregations have become more valuable to

research than the original individual item

• We can extract data and make new connections

“The Semantic Web provides a common framework that allows data to be shared and reused across application, enterprise, and community boundaries.” - World Wide Web Consortium, W3C Semantic Web Activity

"Basic semantic web technologies have been defined and are starting to be more widely deployed…however there has been little work in understanding the impact of this new capability: how it truly enables the connections of the Web of people who will use it." 

- Hendler and Berners-Lee, (2009)

Trend: Inspiring New Kinds of Research

Trend: Inspiring New Kinds of ResearchExamples of Research

Sloan Digital Sky Survey, http://www.sdss.org/

Trend: Inspiring New Kinds of ResearchExamples of Research

Enrich Manuscript Project, http://enrich.manuscriptorium.com

Trend: Open Source, Open Access

• Open source and Open Access are a part of the information consumption trends now and in the future: information can and should be freely available wherever possible

• Europeana, http://www.europeana.eu/portal/

• “Copyright enforcement is often entangled in sensitive questions about privacy, data protection or even net neutrality.” – Neelie Kroes, European Commissoner

• Information consumers are shifting into “prosumers.” These hybrid users are both producing, classifying, and distributing content as well as consuming content from others. (Evens, 2009)

Creative Commons, http://creativecommons.org

Trend: Open Source, Open AccessExamples of Open Access

Creative Commons, http://creativecommons.org

SIOC, http://sioc-project.org/

Trend: Moving Beyond Print

• Digitization of objects, ephemera, art, audio files is increasing

• Contextualization of the digital object in relation to the original and other components in the digital “package”

• Libraries of all sizes and other cultural institutions do collaborate and work together so that dying languages, fragile clay pots and 3D art can be digitized and preserved

Mataphi, http://www.matapihi.org.nz/

Trend: Moving Beyond PrintExamples of non-print Digitization projects

Sample audio: http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/country-schooling/3/3

Trend: Moving Beyond PrintExamples of non-print Digitization projects

Trend: Changing Professional Competencies in the Digital Realm

“We are currently preparing students for jobs that don’t yet exist…using technologies that haven’t been invented…in order to solve problems we don’t even know are problems yet.” - Did You Know? (2009)

Examples of new skill sets needed

• Collaboration requires new and flexible skill sets

• Librarians must learn about archival rules, archivists must become curators, and curators must become librarians

“We must all become librarians, archivists and museum curators”

- Sayeed Chodury, Director, Digital Research and Curation Center at Johns Hopkins University

• Careers in digital technologies are growing• 26 of the top 100 careers are in information

technology:• Software engineering

• Database administration

• Information system design and maintenance

• For the library field:• Metadata librarians

• Digital initiatives librarians

• Information architecture experts

• User interface designers

Careers

IFLA’s Role in Global Digitization Efforts

• Encourage partners and users to maximize the potentials of digital technology

• Provide libraries with tools and training to implement digital activities

• The Manifesto for Digital Libraries aims to make our cultural and scientific heritage accessible to all: http://www.ifla.org/publications/ifla-manifesto-for-digital-librariesIt aims at Bridging the Digital Divide

Conclusion

We as LAMs must continue to be open to collaboration and convergence as we move forward with digitization projects globally. Information is global, and digitization projects can and should be linked to each other to facilitate access to that information by all who require it.

Domo Arigato!

Ingrid Parent, University Librarian

University of British Columbia LibraryIngrid.parent@ubc.ca

References and Image Credits

•Evens, T. (2009). Conference proceedings from Digital Strategies for Heritage (DISH) conference: Use of open content licenses in cultural heritage institutions in Flanders. Rotterdam, Netherlands. Retrieved from: http://www.slideshare.net/DISH09/day-2-papers-5-tom-evens

-Did You Know? 3.0, 2009 version, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHmwZ96_Gos

•Fodie, Sally. Country School: Memories of Boarding School. Radio New Zealand Sound Archives Ngā Taonga Kōrero. http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/country-schooling/3/3

•Hendler, J. and Berners-Lee, T. (2009). Artificial Intelligence, 174, 156-161.

•World Wide Web Consortium (2010-02-06). "W3C Semantic Web Activity". Retrieved from: http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/

•Zorich, D. M., Waibel, G. and Erway, R. (2008). “Beyond the Silos of the LAMs: Collaboration Among Libraries, Archives and Museums.” Report produced by OCLC Programs and Research. Published online at: http://www.oclc.org/programs/reports/2008-05.pdf

•Artifact images courtesy of Library Archives Canada.

•UBC images courtesy of UBC Library