DIGITAL LIBRARY CONSORTIUM: JUST AN IDEA OR NECESSITY Bogdan Trifunović, Public Library “Vladislav Petković Dis, Čačak Ivica Lazarević, Public Library “Radoslav Nikčević”, Jagodina X NCD Conference, Belgrade, September 2011

Overview This paper is addressing the question of future work in the field of digitization of cultural and scientific heritage in Serbia and the Balkans. It observes the current dominant practice among cultural institutions in Serbia and sustainability of various independent projects of digitization and digital preservation which are conducted at this moment.

Overview The authors are trying to confront current concept in digitization with the concept of joining limited resources in a consortium of digital libraries, started, organized and aimed towards collaboration and joint work in digitization of cultural and scientific heritage. A digital library consortium framework, as an element of the national strategy of digitization.

Idea The idea to establish Consortium of Digital Libraries of Serbia (KDBS) joins the initiative for cooperation among Serbian libraries of all structures dealing with digitalization of national cultural and scientific heritage of Serbia and with the practical needs of coordination of all activities relevant to KDBS members.

DL Consortia in the World UGC InfoNet DLC (India) - The Scottish Digital Library Consortium (SDLC) - California Digital Library - Maryland's Digital eLibrary Consortium - HathiTrust -

Status Consortium of Digital Libraries of Serbia - established as a voluntary and non-profit organization, based on freedom of association of legal entities and citizens to achieve and promote common goals and interests of its members. The legal minimum - at least three entities and / or individuals who will be enrolled as founders of the association.

Objectives The main objective of KDBS is improvement of digitization of tangible and intangible cultural and scientific heritage in the Republic of Serbia and its long-term preservation in digital format (digital preservation), realized through series of sub goals:

Sub-goals Exchange of information, knowledge and digital technologies among Consortium members. Development of the proposal for digitization strategy of library collections in the Republic of Serbia. Publication of the digitization guidelines for librarians.

Sub-goals Proposition of digitization software solutions, development and improvement of the software. Coordination of library collections’ digitization. Joint applications for the national and international grants.

Sub-goals Organization of the conferences, seminars and workshops where librarians could exchange ideas, knowledge and technology in order to improve their work and practice. Publication of the KDBS' journal/newsletter in electronic format.

Funding and Founders In the early stages KDBS will be funded through grants. Other funding models would include membership fee. The founders of KDBS consortium will be libraries (national, academic, special and public) with visible results in digitization of its own collections or had initiative in that direction. The founders will be equal, with the same impact on the association.

Activities Consortium will conduct its activities in multiple phases and through multiple projects: Informing institutions and individuals about Consortium and gathering libraries in KDBS. Work on the organizational and logistical needs of the Consortium, such as establishing Consortium authorities (Consortium Assembly, Steering Committee, Consortium manager), adoption of the Statute, etc.

Activities Lobbying in national and international structures in favor of the goals of the KDBS. Providing minimum of software and hardware resources in order to establish a common platform for digitization. These include development and adjustment of digitization software for the needs of the Consortium members and developing web site for the one unified digital library.

Activities Writing projects in order to realize individual goals and to apply for national and international grants. Organizing annual digitization conferences, workshops or seminars. Establishing working groups for developing of the proposal for Digitization Strategy and Digitization Guidelines.

Digitization Platform Digitization platform should have following characteristics: Software based on the open source software Allows local processing of digital material Allows decentralized publishing and management Provides users with advanced metadata and full text search (where applicable) Allows every Consortium member to apply own access policies to the digitized materials.

THANKS! QUESTIONS? Bogdan Trifunović, Ivica Lazarević, X NCD Conference, Belgrade, September 2011