the shoulders of giants: leveraging existing technologies for the digital public library of america

Martin R. Kalfatovic / 14 June 2011

The Shoulders of GiantsLeveraging Existing Technologies for the DPLA

DPLA Technical MeetingLibrary of CongressWashington, DC

El Dorado County Public LibrarySouth Lake Tahoe, CATravelin' LibrarianFlickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/travelinlibrarian/176011378/

What Descartes did was a good step. You have added much several ways, and especially in taking the colours of thin plates into philosophical consideration. If I have seen a little further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants.

- Issac Newton, 1676

Google estimates about130,000,000 books

Smithsonian collections137,000,000 objects, specimens, artifacts

National ArchivesBillions of documents

100 characters (Western European languages, plus spaces and some punctuation)Each line has 50 spacesEach page is 40 lines longEach book is 500 pages longTotal Books: 100 1,000,000Googolplex: 1 followed by a googol (10100) zeros

Vast … but not infinite

Oh time, thy pyramids dsoydrebnefdsellnhvaaipevls oadisaedhoholnarmea dlhecrositnsoritln gdustoaeaeb ossibrseltlmlie ey f tkstmdd eoiicai ytjtymniemruincrerlrc kym sdgklemy ecc poslr nnpz lrmpdcgeebf tetlealnm ceekctn sa oseesese erlsede c rotoire nhndlidd irb nwsrpeedsrc tey a lbneeu epon e cv mm tjn tarreohaaosimnicuse lvyubsu gurec egrll gnruveielrreuie w izbegii tckrne aseieoogrmia hmiuhtydaesdat uketwe te mnha egs foueirr tirstnnyriytuodnar inaon itaonlaai osn ral fd nurroysceo rteepcrn nrswrdstlr dt beeod sracpope Oh tiempo tus pirámides irhesrksesan ueada cte osamnec u gn bri seo aaircdgir kgielddaltneasfsdi n rwtlira etgtu erdoi nnte poycd rmogn t rdaebodpc ha tcl asrlceao usc tiosdrbaesci retiigvnooneeoe e m a b y fcoiihlha dcguo cdiem o pnz aitfehn sigtssipc isa seemue edk aerbgelgninbe n d aboaarlsdpd ele felr

What existing collections are there?What are the proven technologiesEncourage "boutique" and "cottage"

scanning at local levels to augment mass scanning

Denver Art Museum &Denver Public Library

Digitizing Vendors

Digitizing Partners

Ben FranklinAvatar for the DPLA

Now, let's discuss

Martin R. KalfatovicTwitter: udcmrkBlog: udc793.blogspot.com

“Shoulders of Giants” and “Join or Die” from the Library of Congress