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Publicly Available Published by De Gruyter Saur April 1, 2015

Currents and Comments

1 Projects and News

1.1 Damaged King Tut’s Mask Requires Conservation—Cairo, Egypt

The beard from King Tutankhamen’s mask was accidentally knocked off by employees in August at Cairo’s Egyptian Museum. The curators at the museum said they were ordered to immediately repair the item. As a result, the curators’ initial repair, the use of epoxy to glue the beard back on to the mask, was done hastily and caused further damage to the artifact. A team of conservators, archaeologists, and natural scientists have developed a plan to restore the item. German restoration specialist Christian Eckmann announced that the project is expected to reverse the damage caused by the initial repair.

See more at http://www.history.com/news/beard-on-king-tuts-mask-snapped-off-glued-back-on.

1.2 3D-ICON: Pilot Project Digitizes Cultural Heritage Sites in 3D—EU

The 3D-ICON pilot project is funded under the European Commission’s ICT Policy Support Program and co-coordinated by the Università degli Studi di Napoli L’Orientale.

The goal of the project is to bring together partners from across Europe with relevant expertise to digitize, in 3D, architectural and archaeological monuments and buildings identified by UNESCO. The project will contribute content to Europeana, a knowledge-sharing platform that allows users to experience Europe’s leading galleries, libraries, archives, and museums, including books and manuscripts, photos and paintings, without needing to travel the continent. The content is made available physically via printing features or just virtually. Furthermore, the 3D-ICONS pilot project seeks to become the channel for the production of 3D replicas for archaeological monuments and historic buildings which covers all technical, legal, and organizational aspects. For more on this project see http://3dicons-project.eu/eng/Guidelines-Case-Studies.

1.3 The Bank of England Archive Collaborates with the Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC) —Heslington, York, UK

The DPC joins the Bank of England Archive to make available bank business records. To date the Bank of England Archive contains over 80,000 files and individual records relating to the history of the bank and its work, dating to when it was founded, in 1694, to the present. The mission of the Bank of England Archive is to promote monetary and financial stability, thus making records available to promote their vision and further develop the value of business and economic research. For more information read http://www.dpconline.org/newsroom/latest-news/1450-the-bank-of-england-archives-joins-the-digital-preservation-coalition-dpc.

1.4 British Library Unveils Eight-Year Plan, January 2015—London, UK

The British Library has announced a new vision for its development over the next eight years, 2015–2023. The library’s “first and core purpose” is to continue to build, curate, and preserve the UK’s national collection of published, written, and digital content, and to work on solving challenges associated with saving and transforming 6.5 million audio items, supporting research by creating research spaces, and making sure onsite services meet the needs of all users. Furthermore, the British Library wants to assist in any emergency. It is common for archives and library collections to be at risk, whether by disaster or by deterioration caused by old age and use; it is up to information institutions to preserve at-risk scholarly resources by providing support to fellow institutions during difficult times (see British Library, 2020 Vision). To read more about the new vision see http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/british-library-unveils-eight-year-plan/2017897.article.

1.5 Endangered Archives Celebrates 10-Year Anniversary—London, UK

The British Library now has 4,000,000 images available online from its Endangered Archives Program (EAP) which was started in 2004, with support from the Arcadia Fund. The aim of the program is to contribute to the preservation of archival material world-wide that is in danger of destruction, neglect, or physical deterioration. This project was made possible through the award of grants in an annual competition. More information is available at the EAP website: eap.bl.uk.

1.6 The Internet Archive and UK Medical Heritage Library Team Up to Digitize Rare Medical Texts—London, UK

The Internet Archive began working with the UK Medical Heritage Library in 2014 to digitize the 19th-century book collections of ten libraries from around the United Kingdom that have strong holdings of medical books. Teams of scanners have been working at the libraries using machines called Table Top Scribes. The goal is to digitize 800 pages per hour. The Scribes use LED light and Nikon cameras to photograph two pages at once and upload the images to monitors for quality checks. Once scanned, the books are uploaded to the Internet Archive. See the collection at https://archive.org/details/ukmhl.

1.7 Codex Mendoza Digitized and Available on the Web and as iOS App—UK and Mexico

The Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, King’s College, London, and Mexico’s Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH) have collaborated on a project to digitize the Codex Mendoza (Bodleian MS. Arch. Selden. A. 1). Written by the Spanish in Mexico in 1542, the Codex uses text and images to report on the daily life, culture, and rituals of Aztec society. The manuscript has been held by the Bodleian Libraries since the 17th century. The website and iOS app feature high-resolution images, transcriptions, and translations of the work. The INAH describes the project as a “virtual repatriation,” and hopes to replicate the process with other European institutions holding Mexican codices. Read more at http://hyperallergic.com/177110/a-historic-manuscript-on-aztec-life-is-virtually-repatriated/ and the Codex Mendoza website: http://codice.manuvo.com/inicio.php?lang=english.

1.8 The Bring Your Own Heritage Project at Robert Gordon University, November 2014—Scotland, UK

A team of researchers at Robert Gordon University, including faculty in information science and visualization, launched a project to investigate how libraries can harness new technology to enhance community heritage projects. The project is known as the Bring Your Own Heritage Project, which has been awarded nearly £ 50,000 by Research Councils UK Digital Economy network “IT as a Utility.” The project outcome is to look at different ways libraries could incorporate local knowledge about significant historic sites. For more information see http://www.rgu.ac.uk/news/digital-heritage-project-looks-to-harness-new-technology.

1.9 Researchers Develop New Techniques to Read Herculaneum Scrolls—USA and France

Researchers have used new technologies to read parts of a scroll from Herculaneum without unrolling it. After successfully creating 2-D images of two Herculaneum scrolls in 2009—but not being able to detect the ink in them—Professor Brent Seales and European colleagues believe they have now identified ink in the scrolls after applying an x-ray method often used in the medical and archaeology communities. The method, called “propagation-based phase contrast imaging,” was recently featured in a Nature Communications article, “Revealing Letters in Rolled Herculaneum Papyri by X-ray Phase-contrast Imaging,” by Vito Mocella, Claudio Ferrero, Emmanuel Brun, and Daniel Delattre, who cite Seales’ earlier work on the scrolls. The scrolls were carbonized in the Mount Vesuvius volcanic eruption of A. D. 79, and later discovered in 1752 as charred clumps in the Villa of the Papyri in the ancient Italian city of Herculaneum. Attempts have been made to open the artifacts, but they would sometimes shatter beyond repair. Now a “virtual unrolling” of the scrolls will soon be possible. For more details, go to http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/01/150122114405.htm.

1.10 Fourth Version of Islandora has been released—Charlottetown, PEI, Canada, and USA

The new version of Fedora that is compatible with Islandora is now available. The project site recently revealed the new team members who are collaborating to bring out the new version known as “Islandora 7. x/Fedora 4. x.” The team members are The University of Toronto Scarborough; The University of Oklahoma; The University of Manitoba; The University of Virginia; The University of Prince Edward Island; The University of Limerick; Simon Fraser University; REUNA; LYRASIS; Common Media; and The Colorado Alliance. This team is responsible for the design and execution of this new version that will have improved functionality, making the process of migration easier than it was in earlier versions. Since the project’s launch, the Islandora Project Foundation has reached its goal of receiving over $ 100,000 thanks to supporters from LYRASIS, York University, McMaster University, The University of Prince Edward Island, The University of Manitoba, and The University of Limerick. For more project updates see http://islandora.ca/content/islandorafedora-4-project-update.

1.11 The University of California Digital Library Curation Center Publishes Curation Model and Foundations—Oakland, CA, USA

The University of California Curation Center is working on modeling the curation domain to offer a foundation for evaluating and describing technologies, policies, and activities associated with digital curation. The most recent attempt includes a model from the first principles assuming that curation is an inherently semiotic activity incorporating the many important advances of prior modeling efforts such as FRBR, OAIS, NAA, PLM, BRM, ICO, and others. The model is not finalized but its functions can be viewed in a white paper at http://wiki.ucop.edu/display/Curation/Foundations.

1.12 University of California Libraries to Team up with Archive-It, 2015—Santa Cruz, CA, USA

The University of California, California Digital Libraries, and the UC Libraries announced a partnership with the Internet Archive’s Archive-It Service. This year the CDL’s Web Archiving Service (WAS) collections and all core infrastructure activities, such as crawling, indexing, search, display, and storage, will be transferred to Archive-It. Archive-It will transition the UC and other libraries to their service. By collaborating with CDL, Archive-it can continue to increase their functionalities of web archiving and work with CDL and other colleagues to develop new tools to advance the use of Web archives.

For the rest of the story see http://blog.archive.org/­2015/01/15/university-of-california-libraries-to-partner-with-archive-it.

1.13 Radiological Society of North America to Preserve e-journals with Portico, March 2015—Oak Brook, Illinois, USA

The Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) will preserve their e-journals, Radiology and RadioGraphics, with Portico. The RSNA is a society of radiologists, medical physicists, and other medical professionals with more than 51,000 members across the globe. Through its educational resources, RSNA provides hundreds of thousands of continuing education credits toward physicians’ maintenance of certification. More than one million certificates have been awarded since 2000. Read more at http://www.portico.org/digital-preservation/news-events/news/general-news/radiological-society-of-north-america-to-preserve-e-journals-with-portico-2.

1.14 Digital Preservation Management Workshops, June 14–19, 2015—Medford, MA, USA

Digital Preservation Management (DPM) Workshops offer practical guidance on developing effective digital preservation programs to managers of digital content at all kinds of organizations. MIT Libraries is pleased to be the host institution for the Digital Preservation Management Workshop and Tutorial. This expanded program is based on the workshop curriculum initially developed and hosted at Cornell University (2003–2006), hosted at ICPSR (2007–2012), and by MIT Libraries since 2012. The National Endowment for the Humanities has supported the DPM workshops through four grants awarded since 2002. The 2015 workshop will be hosted by Tufts University. See more at http://www.dpworkshop.org/workshops/fiveday.html.

1.15 ProQuest Digitizes Rare, Historical Works from Bibliothèque nationale de France, February 2015—Ann Arbor, MI, USA

ProQuest’s recent collaboration with the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris has led to the release of the first 2 million pages in its massive digitization project focusing on European history and culture. When complete, the project will give researchers access to more than 28,000 rare European books printed from the 1400s to the 1700s, a total of 10 million pages with searchable high-resolution images. Approximately 5,800 titles are now available to researchers around the world. Explore pages from books in this collection at http://bit.ly/BnFimages.

Read more of the story at http://www.proquest.com/about/news/2015/ProQuest-Transforms-Research-with-Digitization-of-Rare-Historical-Works-from-Bibliotheque-nationale-de-France.html.

1.16 Yale Launches New Photographic Research Laboratory—New Haven, CT, USA

Yale University announces the creation of a new research facility dedicated to the classification, preservation, and conservation of physical and digital photographs and other “lens media.” The Lens Media Laboratory (LML) uses scientific methods and an interdisciplinary approach to foster innovative ways for scholars to handle issues such as authenticity and artistic intent, and to understand the composition of the photographs. The LML is part of the Yale Institute for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage, which is “dedicated to advancing the field of heritage science by improving the science and practice of conservation in a sustainable manner.” Paul Messier is the inaugural director. More at http://news.yale.edu/2015/02/19/yale-launch-lens-media-lab-photograph-research-and-conservation.

1.17 Brooklyn’s Transfer Gallery Turns Digital Work into Tangible Art—Brooklyn, New York, USA

A year ago the Transfer Gallery opened its doors in Brooklyn, New York, to a group of digital artists to provide them with space to transfer their intangible art pieces onto real walls and into real objects. The concept of the gallery comes when today’s art is digital. The project’s objective is not to devalue digital art but to confront the anxiety that is brought on by the digital age. For more information on this project go to http://thecreatorsproject.vice.com/en_uk/blog/transfer-gallery-attempts-to-crack-the-digital-art-dilemma.

1.18 Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum Launches Its New Online Collections Database—New York City, NY, USA

The Cooper Hewitt Labs team of the Smithsonian Design Museum has built state-of-the-art interactive experiences for visitors. One of the new interactive features is an application programming interface (API) that links the museum’s objects to customer databases. The API provides “every object, every designer, every nation, every era, even every color” a stable URL that can be accessed by anyone, inside the museum and elsewhere. The new applications make possible wider exposure of the museum’s design collection. Explore the collections at https://collection.cooperhewitt.org.

1.19 Cultural Center’s New Preservation ­Partnership—Dallas, TX, USA

The Black Academy of Arts and Letters (TBAAL) has formed a new partnership with the University of North Texas (UNT) to preserve the group’s archives. TBAAL, founded nearly forty years ago, focuses on the visual, literary, performing, and cinematic arts. The 50,000-item archives include photographs, costumes, videos, and other items. The UNT Libraries plan to digitize most of the items and preserve the originals. The collection will be housed at UNT and will be available to the public. Read more at http://www.wfaa.com/story/entertainment/2015/02/09the-black-academy-of-arts-and-letters-archives-will-be-preserved-by-university-of-north-texas-library/23148777.

1.20 Smithsonian Institution’s Rapid Capture Digitization Project—Washington, DC, USA

The Smithsonian Institution’s Digitization Program Office (DPO), the Numismatic Collection Team from the Museum of American History, and the National Currency Foundation have joined to digitize over 3,000 proof sheets of currency in just a week. The rapid capture technology, was developed by the DPO, produces 80 megapixel images at 600 ppi as objects are moved along a conveyer belt. Transcription of the items is performed later by more than 2,800 volunteers, who enhance records with textual and information transcription at a rate of up to 700 pages a week. A larger project—to digitize 250,000 currency proofs from 1863-1930—is also under way. Find more at http://www.smitsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/museums-are-now-able-digitize-thousands-artifacts-just-hours-180953867/?no-ist and http://americanhistory.si.edu/blog/2014/03/get-money-digitized-and-transcribed-that-is.html.

1.21 The Signal: Digital Preservation Blog Guest Post from the Field, Digital Preservation Training Needs—Washington, DC, USA

The Library of Congress’s The Signal: Digital Preservation blog featured a guest post by Jody DeRidder, Head of Digital Services at the University of Alabama Libraries. DeRidder focuses on developing and supporting practical solutions for access to primary source materials. Her research includes usability studies, linked data implementation, semantic web development, and creating interoperability solutions. The post reports on efforts in the digital preservation community, particularly those that support the Library’s Digital Preservation Outreach & Education (DPOE) Program. DeRidder has completed one of the DPOE Train-the-Trainer workshops and delivered digital preservation training online to the Association of Southeastern Research Libraries. She provides a close look into practitioners’ training needs. To read more, see http://blogs.loc.gov/digitalpreservation/2015/01/from-the-field-more-insight-into-digital-preservation-training-needs.

1.22 The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Collaborate—Washington, DC, USA

In the past century many academic books have been published in the humanities and other disciplines, but most are currently out of print. The NEH and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation collaborate to bring back outstanding out-of-print books in the humanities by turning them into freely accessible electronic books (e-books). Doing this would allow anyone in the world to have access to them as long as they have a device that permits downloading the content. These e-books will be available free of charge. More information is available at http://www.neh.gov/news/press-release/2015-01-15/humanities-open-book.

Miscellaneous

Association for Library Collections & Technical Services (ALCTS) Preservation Statistics Survey, March 2015—Chicago, IL, USA

The Preservation Statistics Survey FY2014 closed on March 20, 2015. The FY14 questionnaire focused on production-based preservation activities, including conservation treatment, general preservation activities, preservation reformatting and digitization, digital preservation, and digital asset management. The survey, now in its third year, is a project of the Preservation and Reformatting Section of the Association of Library Collections and Technical Services, of the American Library Association, and is based on the Preservation Statistics survey program coordinated by the Association of Research Libraries from 1984–2004. For more information see http://www.ala.org/alcts/resources/preservation/presstats.

2 Exhibits and Events

2.1 Yuchengco Museum Exhibits Samsung Digital Gallery Exhibit, August 7-September 8, 2014—Makati City, Philippines

The Yuchengco Museum hosted a hybrid exhibition in the Philippines known as Relative Realities, from August 7 to September 8, 2014. The exhibition was a collaboration between Samsung Electronics Philippines, digital art printmaker Ambie Abaño, painter Ernest Concepcion, painter Jason Montinola, visual artist and designer Leeroy New, visual artist Arturo Sanchez, Jr., and multimedia and performance artist Josephine Turalba. Throughout the exhibit visitors were able to interact with the artworks on display by using their Android devices. To experience the physical art pieces in a digital environment, visitors were encouraged to install an application that allowed them to point their smartphones and tablets onto an art piece, and watch it come to life with video, animation, sound, or 3D graphics. This month-long exhibit was the first of its kind in the Philippines, specifically because the exhibition was made possible by Samsung. For more information see http://yuchengcomuseum.org/art-exhibits/relative-realities-creating-new-dimensions-art-technology.

2.2 Digital Museum Expo 3D Technology in Cultural Heritage, March 12-13, 2015—Brussels, Belgium

A digital museum exhibition was hosted in Brussels at the Royal Museum for Art and History. The theme of the exhibition was Beyond 3D Digitization: Applications of 3D Technology in Cultural Heritage, taking a closer look at the impact of 3D digital assets for cultural heritage. The Digital Museum Expo consisted of a colloquium and workshop focusing on Digitization of museum objects and the benefits of research, conservation, and interpretation. New visualization technologies were also explored. The colloquium’s first day featured digital heritage experts from Belgium, the Netherlands, and Italy who presented different applications of 3D digitization and virtual reconstruction in research, collection management, and publication.

To read more about the expo see http://keys2rome.eu/eng/expo.html.

2.3 Society of Motion Picture & Television Engineers (SMPTE) Forum, May 7-8, 2015—Berlin, Germany

The Society of Motion Picture & Television Engineers will host a forum in Berlin, Germany, on May 7–8, 2015. This year’s theme is “Entertainment Technology in the Internet Age: A European Perspective.” Among those expected to attend are European broadcasters and studios exploring the new landscape of Web-delivered media while new media players join the market. The conference will address what this means for the traditional content creators and distributors and what the expected technological impact is. Other areas the conference will explore relate to EU policy, net neutrality, copyright, and mining “Big Data,” which topics are currently shaping the industry. Furthermore the conference invites professionals to engage as an audience, to discuss what is to come for the world of Web media. The forum is for engineers, creative artists, and researchers whose focus is on the future of media over the Internet. For more information see the main forum page https://www.smpte.org/forum2015.

2.4 The UK’s Digital Curation Centre to Offer Three Webinars on Digital Curation, April and May 2015—London, UK

The Digital Curation Centre is hosting a series of free online training sessions covering a wide range of digital preservation, curation-related topics. The sessions will be one hour and will introduce participants to current issues. See more at http://www.dcc.ac.uk/events/workshops/digital-curation-webinars-we-are-running-3-webinars-range-topics-april-and-may#sthash.myYN3hTZ.dpuf.

2.5 University of San Diego Digital Initiatives Symposium, April 29, 2015—San Diego, CA, USA

On April 29, 2015, at the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice, the University of San Diego and the University of San Diego’s Copley Library will host a day-long event focused on the digital elements of library ecosystems and institutional repositories as well as a Bepress Digital Commons user group meeting. Featured keynote speakers are Heather Joseph, Executive Director of SPARC, and Kenneth D. Crews, attorney, Gipson Hoffman & Pancione, and faculty, Columbia University Law School. For more information see the program at http://www.sandiego.edu/library/documents/dis2015.pdf.

2.6 Phase Two of Preserving Digital Objects with Restricted Resources: Extending the Reach of Digital Preservation Workshops, 2015—DeKalb, IL, USA

The Digital POWRR Project will offer six workshops across the U. S. in 2015-2016 to provide practical, hands-on solutions for information professionals from small and under-funded institutions looking to begin digital preservation initiatives. The workshops are made possible by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities Division of Preservation and Access. The POWRR project is managed by librarians and archivists at five universities in Illinois. For more information visit http://digitalpowrr.niu.edu/phase-two-powrr-extending-reach-digital-preservation-workshops.

2.7 The Collections Trust Seminars, March-November 2015—UK

The Collections Trust Seminars, funded by the Arts Council in England, are one-day interactive workshops for professionals working in collections management in small and medium-sized UK museums. Seminar topics include effective advocacy for impact of collections management in the following areas: how to use collections management to help museums improve services and sustainability; museums accreditation; SPECTRUM as the standard for collections management; and how to develop strategic approaches to collections and digital work. Seminars will be hosted from March to November 2015, in London, Manchester, Brighton, York, Exeter, and Colchester. For more information see http://www.collectionstrust.org.uk/upcoming-events.

3 Conferences

3.1 Fifth International Conference on Digital Presentation and Preservation of Cultural and Scientific Heritage, September 28-30, 2015—Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria

The Fifth International Conference on Digital Presentation and Preservation of Cultural and Scientific Heritage—DiPP2015 will take place in Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria, from September 28-30, 2015. The conference will present results of research projects and applications in digital preservation, with an emphasis on several sub-themes, e. g., archiving and preservation of global and national tangible and intangible cultural and scientific heritage. The conference will showcase innovative technologies and prototypes which result from established practices in the field. There will also be a workshop on open access to scientific publications and data, which will focus on the following areas: open access indicators; partners’ best practices; research problems in the field; establishing a network of open-access repositories; contributing to the problems of the harmonization of national legislation and practices; and the possibilities of developing training courses for creators and managers of scientific digital repositories to insure interoperability. For more information see http://dipp2015.math.bas.bg.

3.2 The International Symposium of Information Science (ISI) Inventing Information Science in the Networked Society, May 19-21, 2015—Zadar, Croatia

The International Symposium of Information Science (ISI) is a bi-annual scholarly meeting at which researchers and students from Europe and around the world explore topics in critical information issues in contemporary society. This year’s 14th edition of the International Symposium of Information Science (ISI 2015) will take place in Zadar, Croatia, May 19–21, 2015, and will be co-organized by the Department of Information Sciences at the University of Zadar and the German Academic Association for Information Science, in association with the Association of Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T). To view the conference program see http://isi2015.de/?page_id=176.

3.3 The International World Wide Web Conference, May 18-22, 2015—Florence, Italy

The 24th International World Wide Web Conference (WWW 2015) will be held in Florence, Italy, at the Fortezza da Basso Convention Center, May 18–22, 2015. The forum will present and discuss progress in research, development, standards, and applications of the topics related to the Web. A keynote talk, “Dilemmas of Digitization” by Jeanette Hofmann, and a workshop on using the social web for disaster management will be of interest to PDT&C readers. For more information see the conference page at http://www.www2015.it.

3.4 The IASA 2015 Annual Conference of Sound and Audiovisual Archives Alliance, September 27-October 1, 2015—France

The International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives, at the Bibliothèque nationale de France, in “La Ville-Lumière,” Paris, France, will host their 46th annual conference focusing on archival problem areas such as semantic networks and born-digital information, archival workflows, acquisition, preservation and access, and other topics. The conference program will include paper presentations, tutorials, and workshops for practitioners. For more information visit the conference website at http://2015.iasa-web.org/en/welcome.

3.5 DPASSH “Shaping Our Legacy: Safeguarding the Social and Cultural Record,” June 25-26, 2015—Dublin, Ireland

The Digital Repository of Ireland is hosting the first annual conference on Digital Preservation for the Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences. The two-day conference will feature international keynote speakers, expert panels, peer-reviewed papers and posters, demonstrator projects, and networking opportunities. The Digital Preservation for Arts, Social Sciences, and Humanities conference deals with digital preservation issues in the arts and social sciences. The conference will address the complexities of long-term digital preservation in the social and cultural realms while providing a platform for early career researchers, academics, scholars, cultural heritage and research institutions, along with libraries, archives, and industry to exchange ideas. For more information visit http://dpassh.dri.ie.

3.6 eChallenges e-2015 Conference, November 25–27, 2015—Vilnius, Lithuania

The eChallenges e-2015 Conference will take place in Vilnius, Lithuania. This is the 25th in a series of annual technology research conferences that have been supported by the European Commission. Each year, the conference’s international perspective has attracted over 300 attendees from over 50 countries. eChallenges seeks to attract participation from leading government, industry, and professional practitioners who work in research organizations around the world. eChallenges e-2015 will offer an international forum to foster ICT-related entrepreneurship and innovation, share experiences, and increase awareness of innovative, applied ICT applications. For more information go to http://www.echallenges.org.

3.7 Digital Heritage Conference, September 28–October 2, 2015—Granada, Spain

The Digital Heritage Conference will take place at Granada’s Alhambra and Sciences Park museum. This year’s forum will focus on the dissemination and exchange of cutting-edge scientific knowledge on theoretical, generic, and applied areas of digital heritage.

Digital Heritage 2015 will highlight cutting-edge digital-heritage projects that focus on the five heritage themes: Digitization and Acquisition; Computer Graphics and Interaction; Analysis and Interpretation; Theory, Methodologies, Preservation; and Standards. For information on the conference’s call for contribution see http://www.digitalheritage2015.org/call-for-papers.

3.8 ICT 2015 Innovate, Connect, Transform, October 20–22, 2015—Lisbon, Portugal

The ICT conference is a great opportunity to follow current debates in the news on the new European Commission’s policies and initiatives with regard to Research and Innovation (R&I) in ICT. The conference will host an interactive exhibition showcasing the best results and impacts of recent EU ICT R& I research. There will be many networking opportunities for those seeking to create partnerships. The conference encourages participants to establish connections. For the exhibition guide and to read more go to https://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/en/news/ict-2015-exhibition-guide.

3.9 Digital Preservation: What I Wish I Knew Before I Started 2015—London, UK

The Digital Preservation Coalition, the British Library, the Archives and Records Association, IRMS, Ex Libris, and Arkivum held a one-day conference on practical workplace skills in digital preservation. The conference brought a select group of leading practitioners together along with the next generation of archivists, records managers, and librarians to discuss challenges associated with digital collections management and digital preservation. For those who could not attend, slides were tweeted live from the event using the hashtag #DPC_WIWIK. For more see http://www.dpconline.org/events/details/84-dpc-wiwik2015?xref=98.

3.10 The 8th International Workshop on Personalized Access to Cultural Heritage, March 29–April 1, 2015—Atlanta, Georgia, USA

The 8th International Workshop on Personalized Access to Cultural Heritage (PATCH 2015) was presented at the ACM Intelligent User Interfaces 2015 Conference in Atlanta, GA, USA, from March 29-April 1, 2015. The primary goal of the PATCH workshop was to bring together researchers and practitioners who are working on various aspects of cultural heritage and are interested in exploring potential state-of-the-art technology (onsite as well as online) to enhance cultural heritage institutions’ visitor experience. The goal of this workshop is to bring together practitioners and researchers in the field of cultural heritage technology in a collaborative environment. The workshop will conclude with a multidisciplinary research agenda that will forge new collaborations among cultural-heritage professionals. The PATCH workshop series is intended to be the meeting points between state-of-the-art cultural heritage research and personalization using technology to enhance personal experience in cultural-heritage sites.

For more information see https://patch2015.wordpress.com.

3.11 DigCCurr Professional Institute: Curation Practices for the Digital Object Lifecycle, May 31–June 5, 2015—Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA

This professional institute conference is a five-day session that will take place from May 31-June 5, 2015, with a two-day follow-up session from January 12–13, 2016. The June 2015 session will include lectures, discussion, and hands-on lab components that will involve an overview of digital curation, curation landscape, and program development. The institute is designed to foster skills, knowledge, and community building among professionals responsible for the curation of digital materials. The participants will return to Chapel Hill in January 2016 to discuss their experiences in implementing what they have learned in their own work environments. For more information go to http://ils.unc.edu/digccurr/institute.html.

3.12 The Northeast Document Conservation Center Hosts Digital Directions: Fundamentals of Creating and Managing Digital Collections, August 3–5, 2015—Raleigh, NC

For professionals who are new to managing digital collections, the Northeast Document Conservation Center will host a conference designed by a faculty of national experts. Join colleagues for 2 ½ days of instruction on best practices and practical strategies for the creation, curation, and use of digital collections. Network with colleagues who have similar challenges, interact with faculty one on one, and gain a comprehensive introduction to digitization. The conference seeks the participation of administrators from libraries, archives, museums, and historical organizations, as well as corporate archivists and government records managers, and anyone else eager to learn about the basics of digitization. For complete information see http://bit.ly/DigDir15.

3.13 The International Conference on Open Repositories, June 8-11, 2015—Indianapolis, IN, USA

The tenth International Conference on Open Repositories will take place in Indianapolis, Indiana, jointly hosted by the Indiana University Bloomington Libraries, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library, and the Virginia Tech University Libraries. This year’s theme will reflect on the last decade, and move forward towards open repositories today. For more information see http://www.or2015.net/program/meet-our-speakers.

3.14 Joint Conference on Digital Libraries, University of Tennessee, June 21–25, 2015—Knoxville, TN, USA

The Joint Conference on Digital Libraries will take place from June 21-25, 2015, at the University of Tennessee Conference Center. This year’s theme is Big Data in computational science and the digital humanities. The conference will focus on preserving and providing access to big data collections. The conference welcomes collection builders, curators, and interface developers. See more at http://www.jcdl2015.org.

4 Disasters

4.1 Glasgow School of Art to Host Restoration Conference for the Mackintosh Library, May 2015—Glasgow, UK

The Glasgow School of Art hosted a conference in Venice, Italy, last October to discuss the restoration plans for the Mackintosh Library, which was destroyed by a fire in May 2014. This is the second of a series of two conferences with the one in May 2015 at the Glasgow School of Art. Glasgow School officials said the two events will be fundamental to informing its construction plans. The outcome is to bring the Mackintosh building back to full use again, while finding out how to solve the issues associated with the restoration of the Mackintosh library. For more see http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/art-news/11072228/Glasgow-School-of-Art-to-hold-conference-about-restoration-of-Mackintosh-library.html.

4.2 Moscow Library Fire Leaves Millions of Rare Documents Damaged, January 30, 2015—Moscow, Russia

On January 30, 2015, over 21,500 square feet of documents in the Institute of Scientific Information on Social Sciences (INION) were damaged in a fire. The Institute was established in 1918 and holds over 10 million documents that date back to the 16th century. Vladimir Fortov, president of Russia’s Academy of Sciences, said that this catastrophe is as devastating as the loss experienced as a result of the nuclear tragedy that took place in Chernobyl in 1986. See more at the Council for Slavonic and East European Library and Information Services (COSEELIS) https://coseelis.wordpress.com/2015/02/04/inion-ran-library-fire, http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/31/fire-russian-library-moscow-institute and, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/11383676/A-million-rare-documents-damaged-in-Moscow-library-fire.html.

4.3 Fire in Brooklyn, New York, Exposes Personal Records, January 31, 2015—Brooklyn, NY, USA

On January 31, 2015, a fire at the CitiStorage warehouse, a government records storage facility in Brooklyn, New York, scattered the debris of decades of personal records. The facility held 1.1 million cubic feet of storage space. Confidential records were found in the vicinity, including the Brooklyn waterfront. Among the damaged items were medical records, transcripts, lawyers’ letters, sonograms, bank checks, papers bearing social security numbers, and many government records. According to the New York Times, the impact of the exposed records is comparable to the online breaches of personal information at large corporations. Police are still investigating the cause of the fire, and no news of the recovery efforts have yet been made public. For more information see http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/02/nyregion/large-warehouse-fire-continues-to-burn-in-brooklyn.html.

5 Reports

5.1 Expert Panel on Memory Institutions and the Digital Revolution, Council of Canadian Academies Leading in the Digital World: Opportunities for Canada’s Memory Institutions, 2015—Ottawa, Canada

An expert panel report released by the Council of Canadian Academies on February 4, 2015, addresses the challenges presented by the digital revolution, and how memory institutions will need to mitigate increasing pressure on resources and shifting public expectations. “Anything less will be insufficient in the face of evolving social networking and media, information mobility, the sheer abundance and consumption of new digital material” (Expert Panel Report). To access the panel reports read more at http://www.scienceadvice.ca/uploads/eng/assessments%20and%20publications%20and%20news%20releases/memory/CofCA_14-377_MemoryInstitutions_WEB_E.PDF.

5.2 The European Commission Reports on Digitization of Cultural Material—EU

The European Commission released a report last September documenting the progress and achievements of their recommendation for digitization and online accessibility of cultural materials and digital preservation. The report showed that there has been an increase in digitization collaborations between public and private institutions. This has improved the Web visibility and access of cultural heritage content, but does not solve the challenges associated with digitizing Europe’s entire cultural heritage. As stated on the EC website, the results are based on a set of national reports submitted in late 2013 and early 2014 on the implementation of the recommendations. For a full list of the Commission’s recommendation see http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2011:283:0039:0045:EN:PDF

All 25 reports are available online. For more information on the Europe 2020 initiative and on the outcomes of the report go to the European Commission’s webpage http://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/en/news/european-commissions-report-digitisation-online-accessibility-and-digital-preservation-cultural.

5.3 MetaArchive Cooperative’s 20 Cost Questions for Digital Preservation—Atlanta, Georgia, USA

The MetaArchive Cooperative has worked with libraries, archives, and other memory organizations for over a decade to respond to questions associated with the cost of digital preservation projects. As a result of extensive research and collaboration with information institutions, the MetaArchive has come up with 20 Cost Questions to assist institutions with their comparative analyses of various digital preservation solutions. The questions place emphasis on the importance of features and functionality of digital collections along with identifying short- and long-term costs that will inform preservation planning. To view the full list of questions see http://www.metaarchive.org/public/publishing/ma_20costquestions_final.pdf.

5.4 NISO Publishes Revised SUSHI Standard Report, January 2015—Baltimore, Maryland, USA

The National Information Standards Organization (NISO) recently published a revision to the Standardized Usage Statistics Harvesting Initiative (SUSHI) Protocol (ANSI/NISO Z39.93–2014). The SUSHI standard outlines an automatic request-and-response model for harvesting electronic resource usage data when one uses a Web services framework that can replace the user-mediated collection of usage data reports. This new version of the SUSHI standard extends the filter support to allow multiple filters and/or report attributes to be included. Additional documentation supporting SUSHI implementation has been updated. The revised SUSHI report is available on the NISO SUSHI website at http://www.niso.org/workrooms/sushi.

5.5 Report Available for the 2014 DPOE Training Needs Assessment Survey—Washington, DC, USA

The Digital Preservation Outreach and Education (DPOE) program at the Library of Congress has released the results of a recent DPOE Training Needs Assessment Survey. The DPOE program conducted the survey to understand current digital preservation practices in the US, to learn about the capacity of organizations to preserve digital content, and to get a sense of training needs. Read more about the DPOE Training Needs Assessment Survey results at http://blogs.loc.gov/digitalpreservation/2015/01/report-available-for-the-2014-dpoe-training-needs-assessment-survey.

5.6 National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) Publishes Strategy for Digitization, 2015—Washington, DC, USA

The National Archives and Records Administration of the United States recently published “Strategy for Digitizing Archival Materials for Public Access, 2015-2024.” The Strategy derives from NARA’s Strategic Plan (U. S. National Archives and Records Administration Fiscal Year 2014–2018 Strategic Plan). NARA’s goal is to expand public access to historical holdings through digitization. The Strategic Plan articulates how NARA will strive to (1) Provide public access to the most important archival materials of the Federal Government, (2) Connect with customers, (3) Maximize NARA’s value to the nation, and (4) Build our future through our people. NARA reports that digitizing historical materials is integral to achieving these goals. In addition, NARA has included insights into and comments about NARA’s internal and external stakeholders. For the full text see http://www.archives.gov/digitization/strategy.html.

5.7 Networked Information’s Risky Future: The Promises and Challenges of Digital Preservation (EDUCAUSE Review) March 2, 2015

Amy Kirchhoff, Archive Service Product Manager for Portico; Sheila Morrissey, Senior Researcher at Ithaka S+R; and Kate Wittenberg, Managing Director of Portico, review the future of preserving networked information. The review, published by Educause, reports that in the last several decades there has been tremendous growth in the amount of digital content created by libraries, publishers, and cultural institutions. The authors explore the issues associated with making content accessible and useful for the long term. To read the full reports see http://www.educause.edu/ero/article/networked-informations-risky-future-promises-and-challenges-digital-preservation.

Published Online: 2015-4-1
Published in Print: 2015-6-1

© 2015 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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