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D-Lib Magazine
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RCDL 2004: Sixth Russian Conference on Digital Libraries: Pushchino, Russia, September 29 - October 1, 2004
Contributed by: RCDL'2004 (http://linux.impb.psn.ru/~rcdl2004/) was held at Pushchino Scientific Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences, near Moscow. The purpose of this annual conference series (previous five conferences were held in Saint-Petersburg (1999), Protvino (2000), Petrozavodsk (2001), Dubna (2002), Saint-Petersburg (2003)) is to stimulate evolvement of the Russian digital libraries community and encourage research in this field. This year 34 submissions were accepted as full papers and 11 as short reports. About 100 researchers and practitioners participated at the conference from academia, libraries and industry. The conference topics included:
Being the major Russian event in the digital libraries field, RCDL attracts increasing attention from foreign participants and that helps to improve international collaboration. In particular, at the RCDL'2004 Prof. Edward A. Fox (Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia, USA) gave a keynote talk on "Digital Libraries of the Future: Integration through the 5S Framework" and led a tutorial on "Digital Library Foundations". These remarkable lectures were very well accepted by the participants. Within the frame of the conference, the co-located Russian Information Retrieval Evaluation Seminar (ROMIP) took place: this annual event summarizes the independent evaluation of text retrieval systems during a year (this initiative is similar to TREC, SUMMAC or CLEF). DELOS and the Future of Digital Libraries
Contributed by: Following the main ECDL 2004 conference, an information day of the DELOS Network of Excellence on Digital Libraries provided participants with an overview over its current and planned activities. In a DELOS Brainstorming Meeting in Corvara, Italy in July 2004, the objectives for research in digital libraries were discussed, starting from generic architectures and information models to (playful, yet visionary) new names for the concept of Digital Libraries. Terms like "Digital Ubiquitous Knowledge Environments" instead of "Digital Libraries" emphasize the development of user-centered DL-systems, acting as communication and collaboration tools and leading to a generic "out-of-the-box" DL system, reducing customization efforts for individual stake-holders, be they users, information providers, or curators. Subsequently, the six DELOS clusters presented the state of research in their area together with an outlook on activities in the near term, such as a summer school in Digital Preservation, as well as several scientific workshops and research activities. Details on the activities of the individual DELOS Clusters are available from the DELOS home page at <http://www.delos.info>. ACRL 2005 Awards Program
Contributed by: For over 70 years, the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) has recognized librarians and library school students for their outstanding achievements. ACRL is now accepting nominations for the ACRL 2005 Awards program. Nominate a deserving colleague or apply today for one of ACRL's many awards. ACRL is committed to celebrating the achievements of academic and research librarians through the presentation of awards, grants and fellowships. With almost $31,000 donated annually by corporate sponsors, ACRL will continue to select and honor the very best in academic librarianship. ACRL urges the nomination of colleagues whose work has influenced academic librarians' thinking and growth and whose contributions merit recognition by the profession. Nominations and supporting materials for most awards must be submitted by December 3, 2004. More information—including submission procedures, past winners, criteria and contact information—is available in the awards section of the ACRL Web site at <http://www.ala.org/acrl>. In the NewsExcerpts from Recent Press Releases and AnnouncementsNew Pathways to the National Science Digital LibraryOctober 7, 2004 - "Philadelphia kindergarten teacher Varnelle Moore pioneers teaching new concepts using resources and hands-on support from The Mathematical Association of America's Math Forum at Drexel University. Moore's students learn to understand spatial experiences, story content, and talk out ideas with their very young kindergarten colleagues. The National Science Foundation has funded Pathways Projects to add user-tailored access to the National Science Digital Library (NSDL) making it simple for Moore and other teachers to take full advantage of the new bridge between math, science, and education in a context that makes sense for them." "Four NSDL Pathways Projects were funded by the National Science Foundation: Internet Scout Project; WGBH Teachers' Domain; The Mathematical Association of America; and The Shodor Education Foundation. In addition NSDL has funded the Eisenhower National Clearinghouse (ENC) to develop the NSDL Middle School Portal. The NSF awarded 19 additional NSDL NSF-NSDL grants to develop services ranging from an "Online Psychology Laboratory" from the American Psychological Association (http://www.apa.org/), to a project that will give students and teachers the ability to create personal collections from Case Western Reserve's New Media Studio (http://www.case.edu/its/itac/nms/)." "National Science Digital Library Director Kaye Howe emphasizes, "We have pledged public education to each other in this country and know that education has always gone out from the great libraries." NSDL partnerships with Pathways digital library projects continue to leverage NSDL's impact on public education by extending the reach of this key piece of STEM educational infrastructure." For more information, please see the full press release at <http://www.nsf.gov/od/lpa/newsroom/pr.cfm?ni=15100000000123>. NSF Funds First Nanoscale Center for Learning and TeachingOctober 1, 2004 - "Arlington, VA: With a five-year, $15,000,000 grant to Northwestern University, the National Science Foundation is funding the nation's first Center for Learning and Teaching in Nanoscale Science and Engineering (NCLT). The center, under the direction of Northwestern professor of materials science and engineering, Robert P.H. Chang, will develop scientist-educators who can introduce nanoscience and nanoengineering concepts into schools and undergraduate classrooms. Additionally, it will play the key role in a national network of researchers and educators committed to ensuring that all Americans are academically prepared to participate in the new opportunities nanotechnology will offer." "The NCLT is a partnership between Northwestern University, Purdue University, the University of Michigan, Argonne National Laboratories, and the Universities of Illinois at Chicago and Urbana-Champaign. Drawing on the strengths of the various partners in nanotechnology, instruction-materials development, educational assessment, and student cognition, the NCLT will create modular education materials designed to integrate with existing curricula in grades 7-12, and to align with national and state science education standards. Each module will be based on topics from nanoscience and nanoengineering, selected and developed by an interdisciplinary team including scientists, engineers, education researchers and graduate students, and practicing teachers. Expanded versions of the modules will be targeted at community colleges and undergraduate institutions and will eventually serve as the core of semester-long courses in nanotechnology." For more information, please see the full press release at <http://www.nsf.gov/od/lpa/newsroom/pr.cfm?ni=15100000000116>. Library of Congress Announces Awards of $15 Million to Begin Building a Network of Partners for Digital PreservationSeptember 30, 2004 - "The Library of Congress today is making awards totaling more than $14.9 million to eight institutions and their partners to identify, collect and preserve digital materials within a nationwide digital preservation infrastructure. These awards from the Library will be matched dollar-for-dollar by the winning institutions in the form of cash, in-kind or other resources. The institutions will share responsibilities for preserving at-risk digital materials of significant cultural and historical value to the nation." "Because there is usually no analog (physical) version of materials created solely in digital formats, these so-called "born-digital" materials are at much greater risk of either being lost and no longer available as historical resources, or of being altered—preventing future researchers from studying them in their original form. Millions of digital materials, such as Web sites mounted in the early days of the Internet, are already lost—either completely or in their original versions." "The preservation projects that will receive Library of Congress funding include digital content relating to important people, events and movements that have had a major impact on the nation's history, such as the birth of the "dot com" era, satellite mapping, public television programs, historical aerial photography, and opinion polls and voting records." For more information, please see the full press release at <http://www.loc.gov/today/pr/2004/04-171.html>. Further funding available for Open Access PublishingSeptember 30, 2004, Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) - "In February of this year JISC awarded four publishers a total of £150,000 to allow four publishers to move towards or continue open access delivery for some of their journals. The publishers awarded funds were: the Public Library of Science (PLoS, for PLoS Biology), Institute of Physics Publishing (New Journal of Physics), the Journal of Experimental Botany at Lancaster University, and the International Union of Crystallography (IUCr)." "At a time when the issue of Open Access Publishing is receiving attention at Government level and following the success of the first round of JISC's open access programme, JISC is inviting further proposals from publishers or learned societies who are looking to move to an open access model for their journal(s). JISC will award short term funding to a small number of publishers or learned societies who agree to waive open access submission and publication fees for UK Higher Education (HE) staff for a one-year period." "...The deadline for submission of proposals is 12 noon on Thursday 11 November 2004." For more information, please see <http://www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name=open_access_publishing_furtherprops_300904>. Speedy, quality-assured, close to research: NRW is the first federal state to make its researchers digital publishersSeptember 30, 2004 - "As the first state in Germany, North Rhine-Westphalia is making available to its scientists a facility to publish their research immediately, globally, and in a transparent way. Today the minister for Science and Research will be presenting the North-Rhine Westphalian "Digital Peer Publishing"(DIPP) initiative to the public: 'Progress in science depends on the exchange and availability of research findings. Results which are made available to the scientific community too late, with a limited radius only and only to fellow scientists who can financially afford access to them are of little value for making a lasting impact on scientific knowledge.' DIPP is making available an instrument for immediate and digital-based publication. " "The traditional channel for publishing the results of scientific research was predominantly in paper journals, and often enough with a great time lag between availability of results and their appearance in print. This is where the state of North Rhine-Westphalia treading new paths towards innovative, fast and digital publication. The DIPP initiative, supported by the Ministry of Science with a sum of 600.000 Euros, will finance eight ejournals and their staff based at North Rhine-Westphalian universities and universities of applied science...." For more information, please see the full press release at <http://www.mwf.nrw.de/Presse/Pressemitteilungen/2004/pm_30_09_2004pdf.pdf>. IMLS Awards over $32 Million to Nation's Museums and Libraries in Third and Final Grant Round for FY2004September 28, 2004 - "WASHINGTON, DC - The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), the federal agency that supports the nation's museums and libraries, awarded $32,447,480 to 517 museums and libraries across the country last week. This is the third and final round of IMLS grants for FY2004. IMLS received 1,040 grant applications requesting over $67 million. Many recipients will match the grants for an additional $44,122,410 to America's libraries and museums. For grants made in your state, please see: http://www.imls.gov/whatsnew/stategrants0904.htm." "...IMLS administers five grant programs for libraries and five for museums. Last week's grants were made under four of them: National Leadership Grants (Museums Online, Professional Practices, Research and Demonstration, Preservation or Digitization, and Library and Museum Collaboration categories), Museums for America, Native American Library Services Enhancement Grants, and Native Hawaiian Library Services Grants." For more information, please see the full press release at <http://www.imls.gov/whatsnew/current/092804.htm>. International CORDRA Workshop Being Planned for February 4-5, 2005 Melbourne, AustraliaAnnounced by Dan Rehak, September 28, 2004 - "We are in the early stages of planning the first international event to discuss CORDRA and related issues surrounding repositories for learning content." "Initial agenda topics include:
"The meeting is open to anyone. We plan for this to be a working meeting and a place for people to discuss critical issues around repositories for learning content....More details on logistics, schedule, agenda, etc., will be coming in the next month or so, but if you have any suggestions, do let us know. We are particularly interested in suggestions for what to include on the agenda and anyone who should know about the meeting." For more information, please see <http://cordraregistry.org/cordra/calendar/events/>. CPB and IMLS Create Partnership for a Nation of LearnersSeptember 21, 2004 - "WASHINGTON, DC - The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) today jointly announced the creation of a broad initiative to spark collaboration among local public broadcasters, museums and libraries, harnessing community educational resources in new and more meaningful ways." "Partnership for a Nation of Learners, a multi-year, $3 million initiative, will provide resources to bring together libraries, public broadcasters, and museums to leverage community assets and create new pathways to learning, discovery, and exploration. The initiative will offer competitive grants to support existing collaborations and to create new ones, encourage professional development, and conduct project evaluations to measure effectiveness. Grant application guidelines and more information about the initiative will be available on October 31, 2004, at <http://www.partnershipforlearners.org/>." For more information, please see the full press release at <http://www.imls.gov/whatsnew/current/092104c.htm>. Pitt Unveils New Historic Pittsburgh Image Web SiteSeptember 13, 2004 - "Photographs of Pittsburgh's diverse workforce, steel industries, civic renaissance, and legendary jazz musicians are among those included in the new Historic Pittsburgh Image Collections Web site, launched today by the University of Pittsburgh's Digital Research Library." "The project, accessible at http://images.library.pitt.edu/pghphotos, is a collaboration between Pitt's Archives Service Center, the Library & Archives at the Heinz History Center, and Carnegie Museum of Art. Established with a $242,157 grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), the Historic Pittsburgh Image Collections is the single gateway to dozens of the city's most important visual image collections, including the Charles "Teenie" Harris collection at the Carnegie, the Pittsburgh City Photographer collection at Pitt, and the Allegheny Conference on Community Development collection at the History Center." "...The Historic Pittsburgh Images Collections site is part of Historic Pittsburgh, an online digital archive about the history of Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania. It is available to anyone with Internet access. In addition to its photographic collections, Historic Pittsburgh contains hundreds of digitized books relating to the region, an extensive collection of historic property maps, city census data, and a chronology of Pittsburgh's history." For more information, please see the full press release at <http://www.umc.pitt.edu:591/m/FMPro?-db=ma&-lay=a&-format=d.html Blue Ribbon Panel Takes on Future of NISOSeptember 7, 2004 - "With a charter to evaluate the progress, challenges, and opportunities of the National Information Standards Organization (NISO), eleven experts from industry, academia, and the library community have accepted seats on NISO's Blue Ribbon Panel. The Panel will play a central role in the yearlong strategic planning exercise, which NISO's Board of Directors launched in May 2004. The Mellon Foundation has provided funding in support of the Panel. The Panel's formal report will be open for public review and comment later this year." "'We are extremely pleased that Clifford Lynch has agreed to chair the Blue Ribbon Panel of respected community leaders who will provide objective advice and guidance to the Board,' noted Jan Peterson, NISO Board Chair and Vice President, Content Development, of Infotrieve, Inc. 'The commitment of these highly regarded individuals is further confirmation of the importance of standards in the distribution of information, as well as NISO's role in developing those standards.'" "...In addition to Lynch, NISO's Blue Ribbon Panel includes (in alphabetical order) Lorcan Dempsey, Vice President of Research, OCLC, Inc.; Karen Hunter, Senior Vice President, Elsevier Science, New York, NY; Ron Larsen, Dean, School of Information Services, University of Pittsburgh; Sarah Ann Long, Director of the North Suburban Library System, Wheeling, Illinois; Deanna Marcum, Associate Librarian for Library Services, Library of Congress; Eric Miller, Semantic Web Activity Lead, World Wide Web Consortium (W3C); Kent Smith, Retired, former Deputy Director, National Library of Medicine; Diana Oblinger, Vice President for EDUCAUSE; Jenny Walker, Vice President Marketing and Business Development, Information Services Division, Ex Libris (USA), Newton, MA; and Ann Wolpert, Director of Libraries, Massachusetts Institute of Technology." For more information, please see the press release at <http://www.niso.org/news/releases/pr-BlueRibbonPanel.html>. UK Ratifies Commitment to Global Internet StandardsAugust 31, 2004 - "The UK is at the forefront of the development of common global standards for the Internet and has played a pivotal role in the development and adoption of the Dublin Core—the most widely used international standard for metadata description." "Now, the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) and Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) of the further and higher education funding bodies have signed a joint agreement with the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI) enabling the UK to become formally involved in the standard's continued development. MLA and JISC are the UK's official representatives, presenting the views of all UK public sector institutions at an international level." "At the heart of any search on the Internet is metadata—the words that describe the content of web pages. Unless the rules for implementing and formatting metadata are common to all users, information will be untraceable and therefore lost. The Dublin Core was developed for use on the Web and in other information networks across a wide variety of subject areas, languages and economic sectors. It has been adopted by seven national governments, including the United Kingdom, has been translated into 25 languages, and has participants from 50 countries. " For more information, please see the full press release at <http://www.mla.gov.uk/news/press_article.asp?articleid=726>. MLA and JISC in the UK join DCMI Affiliate ProgramAugust 26, 2004 - "The DCMI Directorate has announced that the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) and Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) of the further and higher education funding bodies in the UK have signed an Affiliate Agreement with the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI) enabling the UK to become formally involved in the continued development of the Dublin Core metadata standards. MLA and JISC are the UK's official representatives, presenting the views of all UK public sector institutions at an international level." "The Dublin Core was developed for use on the Web and in other information networks across a wide variety of subject areas, languages and economic sectors. Dublin Core has been adopted by several national governments, of which the United Kingdom is the largest. DC has been translated into 25 languages, and has participants from more than 50 countries. " "DCMI is the maintenance agency for the Dublin Core standard (ISO 15836) and is responsible for its further development, maintenance, standardization and promotion. OCLC serves as the Host for DCMI, and manages its Web site." For more information, please see <http://www.oclc.org/research/announcements/2004-08-26.htm>. Copyright 2004 © Corporation for National Research InitiativesTop |
Contents doi:10.1045/october2004-inbrief |