joint conference on digital libraries – june 2005 the sum of the parts: turning digital library...

JOINT CONFERENCE ON DIGITAL LIBRARIES – JUNE 2005

The Sum of the Parts: Turning Digital Library Initiatives in a Great Whole

THE SUM OF THE PARTS: Turning Digital Library Initiatives

into a Great Whole

THE SUM OF THE PARTS: Turning Digital Library Initiatives

into a Great Whole

Keynote Address to the Joint Conference on Digital LibrariesDenver, Colorado, 8 June 2005

Deanna B. MarcumAssociate Librarian for Library ServicesLibrary of CongressWashington, DC



Announcement fromAnnouncement from

“. . . the future of the library is that there is no library -- at least not as we know it today

. . . the always-on Millennial generation is knocking on the workforce door in ever-increasing numbers with expectations that are further rocking the floorboards of the enterprise.”

Outsell, Inc., “TrendAlert: Google’s Impact on Libraries,”

InfoAboutInfo Briefing, vol. 8 (April 15, 2005): 10.



“The Infinite Library”“The Infinite Library”

“If you’re over 30, today’s libraries are probably nothing like the ones you remember ... Enter any major library today and you’ll find an armory of computers and a platoon of specialists, from the reference librarians who are expert at accessing online resources to the acquisitions officers who decide which books, CDs, DVDs, and subscriptions to purchase, to the computer geeks who keep the building’s network running.”

Wade Roush, “The Infinite Library,” MIT Technology Review (June 2005): http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/05/05/issue/feature_library.asp, pg. 5.



A Decade of Digital Library ProjectsA Decade of Digital Library Projects



American Memory – 3.4 Billion HitsAmerican Memory – 3.4 Billion Hits



Global Gateway – International ProjectsGlobal Gateway – International Projects



Prints and Photographs Online CatalogPrints and Photographs Online Catalog



Veterans History ProjectVeterans History Project



Library of Congress ExhibitionsLibrary of Congress Exhibitions



A Comprehensive Digital Library?A Comprehensive Digital Library?

American Memory Digital Collections

Global Gateway International Collections

Prints and Photographs Catalog

Veterans History Project Collections

Online Exhibitions and Wise Guide

“Born Digital” Collections911 Digital ArchiveStoryCorps Oral HistoriesMali Manuscripts



Same Trends in Research LibrariesSame Trends in Research Libraries

Grant driven project development

Projects proliferated in library, IT shop, and

“in the wild”

Virtual education and scholarly communication

DSpace at MIT… a newly developed digital repository created to capture, distribute and preserve the intellectual output of MIT.



Research Library Digital ProjectsResearch Library Digital Projects



More than 600 “public access collections”More than 600 “public access collections”

Yale’s database for Biblical scholars

U. of Washington’s 19th- century actors collection

U. of Chicago’s dictionary of Urdu, classical Hindi, and English

U. of Southern California’s East Asian maps

U. of Minnesota’s stereoscopic views of India

More digital projects are continuously added by research libraries here

and around the world.



European Efforts to CoordinateEuropean Efforts to Coordinate

Conference of European National LibrariansTEL -- The European Library

Launched March 17 by 9 participating libraries

11 million digitized items from 150 collections “The European Library

exists to open up the universe of knowledge, information, and cultures of all Europe’s

national libraries.”



Project Aquifer: Digital Library FederationProject Aquifer: Digital Library Federation



Project Aquifer: 3 PhasesProject Aquifer: 3 Phases

1. Access to digital collections of participating institutions through a collaborative portal

2. Develop or enhance special services for users

3. Make “deep sharing” possible Access to contents of multiple digital libraries’

collections Ability to modify and redeposit collections for local

purposes



Summing up the DecadeSumming up the Decade

Digital library work began a decade ago

There was much experimentation, from which libraries have learned a great deal

Libraries have produced many unconnected products and projects

New initiatives are beginning to bring individual digital libraries together through portals

Special services are making it possible to reuse digital library content in new and exciting ways



Is Something More Ambitious Possible? Is Something More Ambitious Possible?

Could The European Library and the Digital Library Federation successfully come together in coordinated access systems?

Can the dream of a universal collection become a reality?

Does digital technology make a universally accessible collection possible?

A library of all the world’s resources, accessible to all the world!



Making the Dream a RealityMaking the Dream a Reality

Is the “universal digital library” achievable?

How could we create universal access to the libraries of the world?

What would it take to provide electronic access to library resources for all from everywhere? We can make the dream a

reality if we do four major things…



1: Update Copyright Regulations1: Update Copyright Regulations

Legal restrictions to access are “fencing the commons of the mind”

Contents of digital libraries are largely “public domain” materials

Author’s lifetime + 70 years was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2003

“…contractual licenses are supplanting copyright laws, with content owners mandating more restrictions on who uses resources and how these resources may be used.” -- Association of Research Libraries




Library consortia can hold down costs of licensing digital commercial databases

ALA and others are trying to prevent further expansion of intellectual property rights and further erosion of “fair use”

Librarians and scholars are developing new “open access” resources



2: Ensure Long-Term Preservation2: Ensure Long-Term Preservation

Digital media may deteriorate substantially within five to thirty years

Digital media can be rendered unreadable due to obsolescence of hardware and software

Migration of data to new media and systems can prolong the life of digital library resources

We must be able to make online access perpetual in order to achieve more than a short-term payoff for the substantial investment made in digitizing the world’s libraries



2: Ensure Long-Term Preservation2: Ensure Long-Term Preservation

National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP) created in 2002 Architectural model for federated digital preservationPlan for preservation research and development

Research grants totaling $3 million awarded:University of California San Diego (2 grants)University of MarylandDrexel UniversityUniversity of ArizonaUniversity of MichiganOld Dominion UniversityUniversity of Tennessee at KnoxvilleUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel HillJohns Hopkins University



3: Link Libraries and Digital Collections3: Link Libraries and Digital Collections

Activities of the Digital Library Federation: Collection-planning framework - activities required to

plan and build specific collections for online useTools for data mining, metadata enrichment, and other

technical activities to help “curators” develop focused collections for specialized user groups

Semantic analysis, thesaurus representation, protocols for interrogation

Digital filestores, repository options, access controls, and rights management approaches



3: Link Libraries and Digital Collections3: Link Libraries and Digital Collections



4: Find More Funding4: Find More Funding



4: Find More Funding4: Find More Funding

Funding is needed for mass digitization

Google “print” will pay for digitizing and provide access through search

“most librarians and archivists are ecstatic about the announcement, saying it will likely

be remembered as the moment in history when society finally got serious about making

knowledge ubiquitous.”

Wade Roush, “The Infinite Library,” MIT Technology Review (May 2005): http://www.technologyreview

.com/articles/05/05/issue/feature_library.asp?p=1



If society can “make knowledge ubiquitous” the benefits will be enormous!

If society can “make knowledge ubiquitous” the benefits will be enormous!

joint conference on digital libraries – june 2005 the sum of the parts: turning digital library...

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