Digital Libraries as a Tool Uniting Communities Professor Derek Law University of Strathclyde

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

University of Strathclyde 18 th Century James Watt Steam Engine > Industrial Revolution > Environmental Pollution and Global Warming

University of Strathclyde James Watt 19 th Century >David Livingstone > Exploration of Africa > British Empire > Political chaos from Iraq to the Malvinas

University of Strathclyde James Watt David Livingstone 20 th Century > John Logie Baird > television > Baywatch and Big Brother

University of Strathclyde James Watt David Livingstone John Logie Baird 21 st Century > Arthur Van Hoff > Javascript > Pop up windows

eIFL activities Content Consortia Infrastructure Co-operation

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: 19 th 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 20 th Century – international co-operation Cooperation and the Russian Revolution Interlending to St Petersburg Latitude = 59º26'N Longitude = 024º46'E

A history of libraries: late 20 th 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 LIBRARYCOLLECTIONSPEOPLEPLACESSUBJECTSDOCUMENTS 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 Springburn Virtual Museum Photographs from Springburn Community Museum Voyage of the Scotia Scottish National Antarctic Expedition GlasgowInfo Directory information for and about Glasgow Glasgow Men Memoirs and Portraits of 100 Glasgow Men Virtual Mitchell Images of Glasgow by area, street or subject Victorian Times Social, political, and economic conditions OverviewOverview | Contacts | Reports | PoliciesContactsReportsPolicies 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.Centre for Digital Library ResearchUniversity of StrathclydeResearch Support Libraries ProgrammeSCRAN GLASGOW DIGITAL LIBRARY COLLECTIONSPEOPLEPLACESSUBJECTSDOCUMENTS

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