Friday, January 21, 2011

Technology developments in the digital economy

Technology developments in the digital economy. Canberra, Australia: The Australian Communications and Media Authority, August 2010. At: http://www.acma.gov.au/webwr/_assets/main/lib311925/technology_developments_in_digital_economy.pdf

This report focuses on technology developments related to communication services in Australia, but it provides a good overview of current state of information and communication technology in general. The technologies are grouped into three categories: Infrastructure, Smart Technology and Digital Community.

Monday, January 17, 2011

Free RDA "Ask-the-Experts" webinar, Feb. 17, 2011

The following announcement was posted by the ALCTS Continuing Education Committee:

You may have attended RDA webinars and programs, or followed discussions about RDA on lists and blogs, but you still have questions. ALCTS is holding a free webinar with RDA testers and experts to provide some answers. Submit your questions on the survey form below. We will collate them for our experts, who will try to cover as many as they can in the available time. Questions must be submitted in advance, by January 25, 2011.

Who are the experts?
• Linda Gabel, OCLC
• Erin Stalberg, North Carolina State University
• Trina Grover, Ryerson University, Toronto
• Kathryn La Barre, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, GSLIS

How do you submit questions? Fill out the survey.
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/JYV8WLT

When is the webinar?
Thursday, Feb. 17 at 2:00 pm Eastern, 1:00 pm Central, 12:00 pm Mountain, 11:00 am Pacific. The webinar will last 75 minutes.

How do you attend? Sign up here. The webinar is free. Attendance is limited to 900 participants.
https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/525524416

Posted on the OCLC-CAT list 1/14/2011

Monday, January 10, 2011

RDA survey results

Jennifer Young and Valerie Bross, co-chairs of the Informal RDA Testing Task Force of ALA’s Continuing Resources Cataloging Committee, posted this information regarding the Task Force’s RDA testing results:

We are pleased to announce that the results of the CRCC Informal RDA Testing Task Force are now available. Listed below are links to a summary of the results as well as the answers of the Informal Survey Questionnaire.

Results of the CRCC Informal RDA Testing Task Force

http://connect.ala.org/node/127186

Also available:

.zip files of all records submitted to the National Test:

http://connect.ala.org/node/126206

Bibliographic/authority files individually available in sets of 5

http://connect.ala.org/node/112885

-- Then select "Online Docs" in the right hand navigation menu.


Posted to the OCLC-CAT mailing list 1/8/2011

Friday, January 7, 2011

Digital Preservation

This free e-forum email discussion on digital preservation (DP) will challenge your perception of DP in the library. You may not think so, but DP touches all areas of library services. Incorporating this ever-expanding area of responsibility leads to challenges in resource management, as well as change management. But what is digital preservation and why do people from acquisitions to reference need to care? This e-forum will explore how digital preservation impacts each department, and will ask participants to discuss what policy and technology steps their library has taken to steward digital objects over time.

Questions:
How do you define digital preservation? Does that definition differ in other units of your library, especially IT departments, administration, and public services? How can you bridge that gap between what you know to be true and what others think to be true?
Digital preservation is a relative newcomer to library's responsibilities. Are your libraries addressing it? How? To what extent is their commitment? Think resources (people, funding, space, technology), buy-in (passing phase or programmatic change), administration (change is happening at the top or the bottom or somewhere in between)? Can you think of other areas where commitment is needed? If your institution is not committed to DP, any ideas for how to get commitment?
Do you feel professionally prepared to deal with digital preservation? How so? If not, what do you think you need to better prepare for this challenge?
Do you think digital preservation is something you, in your particular position, need to care about? If you say no, we think we can convince you otherwise.
We're currently introducing video preservation and have found there is a steeper learning curve than expected. What types of digital files do you feel are the most challenging for preservation and why?
How do you think cloud computing will impact digital preservation? Or will it?
Are you employing preservation metadata? If so, how and what kind? Why do think this is an important aspect of long-term management of digital files?
Cataloging vs. metadata? Digitization vs. Digital preservation? Storage vs. active management?
When does preservation begin? End?
Social networking preservation? Should we put resources toward capturing Facebook, Twitter, or MySpace? Why or why not?
What is the biggest challenge you are facing related to DP? How are you approaching it? Is it working?
Any DP success stories? Any DP failure stories?

Who Should Attend:
Anyone with an interest in the topic is welcome and is encouraged to attend

Hosted by:
Amy Rudersdorf is the director of the Digital Information Management Program at the State Library of North Carolina, which identifies and promotes solutions to ensure long-term preservation and ready and permanent public access to born-digital and digitized information produced by (or on behalf of) North Carolina state government. Prior to her work in state government, Rudersdorf worked with digital materials in special collections at a North Carolina State University and briefly co-ran a digital production group at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In her “spare time,” she teaches courses on preservation (San Jose State University) and metadata (North Carolina Central University, spring 2011).
Lisa Gregory works as Digital Projects Liaison in the Digital Information Management Program at the State Library of North Carolina. She is a recent graduate of SILS at UNC Chapel Hill, where her training was predominantly in digital curation. She currently works with digitization projects, usability, and interface design, as well as initiatives related to digital preservation of state government materials.

Dates & Times:
January 19 and 20, 2011
Each day, sessions begin and end at:
Pacific: 6am – 2pm Mountain: 7am – 3pm Central: 8am – 4pm Eastern: 9am – 5pm

Fee: Free

How to Register:
Registration entails subscribing to an electronic discussion list on ALA's Mailing List Service. Find instructions for subscribing online. Once you have registered for one e-forum, you do not need to register again, unless you choose to leave the email list.

From: ALTCS, 1/7/2011