Published by rwatstein June 21st, 2008
in digital, archives and preservation.
In September 2005, library directors from 17 universities and colleges met to discuss the current state of electronic journal preservation and endorsed a statement calling for ‘Urgent Action’ to preserve scholarly e-journals. Over two years later in January 2008, Portico and Ithaka invited 1,371 library directors of four-year colleges and universities in the US to respond to a survey examining current perspectives on the preservation of e-journals. Both parties have now released the results of the Digital Preservation Survey of US library directors. The survey finds widespread agreement that the potential loss of e-journals is unacceptable, and a significant majority of library directors believe their own institution has a responsibility to take action to prevent intolerable loss of scholarly records.
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In a dimly lit back room on the second level of the University of Michigan library’s book-shelving department, Courtney Mitchel helps a giant desktop machine digest a rare, centuries-old Bible. Mitchel is among hundreds of librarians from Minnesota to England making digital versions of the most fragile of the books to be included in Google Book Search. The manual scanning is much slower than Google’s normal process.
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Our cultural treasury, preserved by the Library of Congress, is vast and unpredictable. It includes “Casablanca” with Bogie and the only live concert recording of jazzmen Thelonious Monk and John Coltrane. But there’s also Bea Arthur as an alien cantina chanteuse in a legendarily awful “Star Wars” TV special from 1978. And in recent years, Islamic recordings via the al-Jazeera channel. regory Lukow, chief of the library’s Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division, has overseen the centralization of 5.7 million such audio and visual artifacts at a repurposed Cold War-era government bunker in Culpeper. This new National Audio-Visual Conservation Center, in addition to its temperature-controlled vaults, features a specially developed robotic preservation system that will make items available faster to scholars and the public.
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More than 100 local war veterans are sharing their tales of hardship and survival with Paradise High School students this month. The videotaped interviews will go into the database at the Library of Congress as part of the nationwide Veteran’s History Project, preserving history for years to come. Tom Sealy, 88, of Magalia, is one of the veterans sharing his story for the sake of preserving history. The World War II veteran said he fought fires on destroyers at Pearl Harbor, and was the sole survivor when his shipped capsized in the Pacific Ocean. He watched as his fellow crew members were eaten by sharks or passed away mid-conversation. Sealy was a 22-year-old civilian on his way to Wake Island on Dec. 7, 1941 when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. He said he volunteered to help in the mist of chaos.
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Published by rwatstein February 25th, 2008
in digital and preservation.
A new study from the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR), funded by the Andrew W. Mellon foundation suggests that in an age of mass digitization it is time to reassess best practices and put forth a practicable preservation strategy. Preservation in the Age of Large-Scale Digitization: A White Paper, by Oya Rieger, interim assistant university librarian for digital library and information technologies at the Cornell University Library, examines four “large-scale digitization initiatives (LSDIs)” (Google Book Search, Microsoft Live Search Books, Open Content Alliance, and the Million Book Project) to identify issues that will influence the long term availability and usability of the digital books these projects create.
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Published by rwatstein January 26th, 2008
in digital and preservation.
International leaders holding a variety of interests and areas expertise have been named to a Blue Ribbon Task Force to develop actionable recommendations for the economic sustainability of, preservation of, and persistent access to, digital information. The Blue Ribbon Task Force on Sustainable Digital Preservation and Access is co-chaired by Fran Berman, director of the San Diego Supercomputer Center at University of California, San Diego and a pioneer in data cyberinfrastructure; and Brian Lavoie, a research scientist and economist with OCLC, a library service and research organisation.
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Published by rwatstein December 1st, 2007
in digital, archives and preservation.
Storing and curating authentic academic literature and making it accessible for the long term has been a time-honored task of national libraries. By guarding existing knowledge and facilitating its use to produce new insights, national and university libraries have formed an integral part of the research environment, complementing the roles of other stakeholders such as researchers, publishers and funders. However, recently the digital revolution has modified fundamentally the way that research results are circulated, reviewed, accessed and preserved. Hitherto established models of market dynamics and stewardship need to be rethought and part of the responsibilities of national libraries redefined. This document examines key determinants of the sustainable digital preservation of scholarly records, with specific reference to developing a robust approach to the archiving of such records at the Koninklijke Bibliotheek in The Netherlands.
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The Library of Congress has awarded a $590,000 grant to Rochester Institute of Technology, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Stanford University, University of Maryland and Linden Lab, the creators of Second Life, to explore the issue of digital preservation of video games and virtual worlds. The Preserving Creative America Initiative will fund the Preserving Virtual Worlds project, administered by the Library of Congress under the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIPP).
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