Digital Libraries as a Tool Uniting Communities

Professor Derek LawUniversity of Strathclyde

The University of Strathclyde,founded in 1796 as “a place of useful learning”

University of Strathclyde

18th Century James Watt Steam Engine >

Industrial Revolution > Environmental Pollution and Global Warming

University of Strathclyde

James Watt 19th Century >David

Livingstone > Exploration of Africa > British Empire > Political chaos from Iraq to the Malvinas

University of Strathclyde

James Watt David Livingstone 20th Century > John

Logie Baird > television > Baywatch and Big Brother

University of Strathclyde

James Watt David Livingstone John Logie Baird 21st Century >

Arthur Van Hoff > Javascript > Pop up windows

eIFL activities

Content Consortia Infrastructure Co-operation

www.eifl.net

Activities 2003: Content

Model licenses E-books report (Jan Nikisch) Russian content established CUP, Proquest, Bioone Elsevier for six

countries APS, Highwire, IoP Survey of content required - inconclusive

Report on activities 2003: New Consortia

Macedonia Sudan Laos Cambodia China under negotiation 28 Training events/workshops

Report on activities 2003: Cooperation

Meetings with INASP, TIB, Biomed Central Stand at IFLA Link set up to ICOLC Proposals with Goethe Institute Bid with partners to develop Greenstone

Why bother getting involved?

Leave it to technology But we are user focussed

Leave it to the market? But we want to change society

Leave it to big countries? But one size doesn’t fit all Not everyone wants to share Small is beautiful from Finland to Singapore

Leave it to publishers? But they have no grandmothers

Trust Me I’m a Librarian

“People become librarians because they know too much. Their knowledge extends beyond mere categories. They cannot be confined to disciplines. Librarians are all-knowing and all-seeing. They bring order to chaos. They bring wisdom and culture to the masses. They preserve every aspect of human knowledge. Librarians rule. And they will kick the crap out of anyone who says otherwise.”

(Olson, 2000)

Underpinning philosophy

The Vesalius Conundrum This is rocket science not a plug in the wall Ease of use = “the satisfied inept” Public sector bodies are producers not just

consumers of information The Internet is AT PRESENT very flawed as

a teaching and learning tool

A history of libraries: 19th Century – towards the global community

The development of the concept of public libraries and public good

Panizzi, Dewey, Carnegie The Procrustean Bed

A history of libraries: early 20th Century – international co-operation

Cooperation and the Russian Revolution Interlending to St

Petersburg Latitude = 59º26'N      Longitude = 024º46'E

A history of libraries: late 20th century - interoperability

MARC AACR2 OCLC UAP and UBC Dublin Core

User not technology driven

The Library as place Second most used public service University space has not grown

Staff and students are library conservatives

Communities share a history Librarians can collect and interpret that Returning their history to communities Collection focussed

DLF Collection typology local digitization projects that produce surrogates for

analogue information objects; data creation projects that produce information

resources that have no analogue equivalent and are in this respect "born digital";

the selection of existing third-party data resources for inclusion in a collection either through their outright acquisition or by acquiring access under some licensing arrangement; and

the development of Internet gateways comprising locally maintained pages or databases of web-links to third-party networked information

(Greenstein)

Third Party Data and gateways

The Virtual Human, mirroring and caching strategies

Gateways: The Indian diaspora and the Welsh in Patagonia

Collection types

Surrogates of rare items: the British Library Surrogates for whole or part collections: The

Springburn Virtual Library Digitised surrogate collections assembled

from multiple repositories: the Valley of the Shadow, Red Clydeside

Collections assembled specifically to be digitised ASPECT; CAIN

Born Digital Resources

Display of treasures: the British Library

GLASGOW DIGITAL LIBRARY COLLECTIONS PEOPLE PLACES SUBJECTS DOCUMENTS

                                                                                                                                                                                             

Organised digital collections to support teaching, learning and research

                            

Aspect Access to Scottish Parliamentary Election

Candidate Materials 1999                             

Red Clydeside Political History of the Scottish Left 1910-

1922

                            

Springburn Virtual Museum Photographs from Springburn Community

Museum 1880-1987                             

Voyage of the Scotia Scottish National Antarctic Expedition

1902-04

                            

GlasgowInfo Directory information for and about Glasgow

2002                             

100 Glasgow Men Memoirs and Portraits of 100 Glasgow Men

1855-1885

                             

Virtual Mitchell Images of Glasgow by area, street or subject

1860-1980                             

Victorian Times Social, political, and economic conditions

1837-1901

Overview | Contacts | Reports | Policies The Glasgow Digital Library is based at the Centre for Digital Library Research in the University of Strathclyde. It was set up as part of the Research Support Libraries Programme, supplemented by funding from SCRAN for specific digitisation projects.

GLASGOW DIGITAL LIBRARYCOLLECTIONS PEOPLE PLACES SUBJECTS DOCUMENTS

Glasgow Digital Library

Identifying Resources for Digitisation Encouraging Electronic Content Creation Cost-cutting by City-wide Licences Mirroring heavily used content

The Virtual Human Setting and Implementing Standards A distributed regional resource -

ScoDiDiLi

Springburn

CAIN: Conflict Archive on the Internet

Red Clydeside: Restoring a collection

Information arbitrage

Identifying products Identifying value for money Is the Pareto Principle relevant? Independent, authoritative and right

Law’s Laws

1. Good Information systems will drive out bad

Law’s Laws

1. Good Information systems will drive out bad

2. User Friendly systems aren’t

Training

The satisfied inept – staff as well as students

13% get information from the Library But it’s also a:

cybersandpit dating agency learning space 7x24 chatroom Training ground

Data preservation and trusted repositories

Clearing the study Building research collections for the

future EVERYBODY has something to contribute

Digital Asset Management and Curation

Repository standards

Trusted Repositories: the five Maori tests Receive the information with accuracy Store the information with integrity

beyond doubt Retrieve the information without

amendment Apply appropriate judgement in the use

of the information Pass the information on appropriately

Where we are now

Hybrid libraries Google and the satisfied

inept Struggling with

redefinition of scholarly communication

Big deals (ending?) E-books are toys Images the next frontier?

The global village in 2003

$30 annual income 90% unemployment 18hr a day power cuts Life expectancy

declining Unlimited access to e-

journals

The future…..?

The Options

1. Stunned amazement – the Homer Simpson approach

2. Cynicism – the Rhett Butler approach

3. Aggression – the Monty Python approach

4. Be ahead of the game – the Road Runner approach

Road Runners Rool, OK

Grown up thinking Joined up networks Seamless Martini education Capitalism and communism according to

Keynes A people at ease with a knowledge society

having survived the information revolution

Conclusion

Digital libraries are a social phenomenon as much as a technical one

Communities cut across geography as well as class and function

There is a lot of money available for creating collections

Every library has – or should have – a collection to contribute

He who pays the piper may call the tune – but may not get an audience

The Scottish National Antarctic Expedition, 1902