1. Programs and Research The virtual cultural heritage Lorcan Dempsey With contributions from Constance Malpas LIBER Think tank on the future value of the book as artefact and the future value of digital documentary heritage, National Library of Sweden, 24-25 May 2007

2. Virtual? Cultural? Heritage?

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4. 4 … the function of the library must be understood as one that assists members of the community both in taking particular positions and in recognizing and assessing the positions taken by others. Ross Atkinson

5. And yes, I know it is simplistic! A unifying schematic to show collection attention.

6. 6 highlow high stewardship uniqueness Books Journals Newspapers Gov. docs CD, DVD Maps Scores Special collections Rare books Local/Historical newspapers Local history materials Archives & Manuscripts, Theses & dissertations Research, learning and administrative materials, ePrints/tech reports Learning objects Courseware E-portfolios Research data Institutional records Reports, newsletters, etc Freely-accessible web resources Open source software Newsgroup archives

7. 7 Selectively acquire and Persistently manage Bought? Licensed? Memory Libraries, archives, musuems. Institutional and And personal processes Generate materials: Records, data sets, ….

8. 8 Books Rareness is common E-volution

9. 9 Rareness is common … in the G5 G5 aggregate collection: 10.5 million books ~60 percent represent unique contribution by one or another of the G5 libraries 61% Held by 1 20% Held by 2 10% Held by 3 6% Held by 4 3% Held by 5

10. 10 … and beyond System-wide print book collection (as of January 2005) ~32 million print books 37% Held by 1 5% Held by > 100 3% Held by 51 - 100 5% Held by 26 - 50 20% Held by 6 - 25 30% Held by 2 - 5

11. 11 Language distribution LanguageGoogle 5System-wide English0.490.52 German0.100.08 French0.080.08 Spanish0.050.06 Chinese0.040.04 Russian0.040.03 Italian0.030.03 Japanese0.020.04 Hebrew0.020.01 Arabic0.010.01 Portuguese0.010.01 Polish0.010.01 Dutch0.010.01 Latin0.010.01 Korean0.010.01 Swedish0.01< 0.01 All others0.070.08 More than 430 languages in Google 5 collection More than 430 languages in Google 5 collection

12. 12 Cumulative age distribution of G5 holdings > 80 percent of Google 5 collection post 1923 > 80 percent of Google 5 collection post 1923

13. 13 Space – opportunity costs Value in research and learning: disciplinary differences Mass digitization Off site storage Converting owned materials into licensable materials

14. 14 Mining text

15. 15 Thematic research collections

16. 16 Beyond books It is only when we translate the old style-based thinking and language of historians into new modes of representation that we can begin to grasp the complex relationships between architectural production and the creation of … cultural identities. Stephen Murray, Columbia University

17. 17 Then: E. Viollet Le Duc Dictionnaire raisonné de l'architecture française du XIe au XVIe siècle (1874) ( 1 st American Ed. 1875)

18. 18 Now: Interactive, multi-dimensional navigation of a networked resource

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21. 21 Increased emphasis on collective management: preservation, storage, resource sharing, digitization Emergence of alternative institutional models for print sales? E-volved formats: Thematic research collections New representational modes Deeply mined digital collections alongside print collections Special collections of the future?

22. 22 Stewarding Unique collections Moving into network environment Reconfigurations

23. 23 Then: Rich description with little scholarly content and few opportunities to remix or re- use; continued reliance on library mediation for scholarly access to material

24. 24 Now: Federated access to multi-institutional holdings with support for personal collection-building and sharing

25. 25 On bokes rede I ofte, as I yow tolde. But wherefore that I speke al this? Nat yoore Agon it happede me for to beholde Upon a bok, was write with lettres olde

26. 26 Unbinding Chaucers bokes (and bookes) 41 occurrences 111 occurrences 33 occurrences

27. 27 In vanilla world, the institutionally unique becomes more important? Boundaries between curatorial traditions less important to creative use Digital visibility creates use The digital copy creates interest in the aura of the original Computational potential reveals new possibilities Significant curatorial challenges for the library

28. 28 The products of research, learning, and administration

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31. 31 University of Minnesota http://www.lib.umn.edu/about/mellon/KM%20JStor%20Presentation.pps

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34. 34 Research and learning behaviors change Then: Final product: publish and archive Now: Process generates reusable outputs E.g. data sets, learning materials, blog commentary, … Institutional memory Reports, course catalog, … Traces Surveillance, logs, social, …

35. 35 The open network

36. 36 The Northern Ireland Political Collection (NIPC) is a unique resource. No other institution in a localised conflict has systematically collected material from all sides. Much less has it been done in the field, and often literally across the barricades. The web?

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38. Kewl!!!!

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40. 40 The library takes a networked resource and adds value for the local constituency: Faceted browse based on genre/document type Full-text searching of achived sites Selection of seed URLs and frequency of crawls informed by subject specialists and scholars

41. 41 The medium of identity construction The venue of dissemination of scholarly and cultural materials Evidence What and who to collect?

42. 42 So…

43. 43 Securing the scholarly and cultural record Community? Institution? The record aint what it used to be? Intervention required Preserving print?

44. 44 More assumes the attributes of the special Curatorial responsibility for more unique materials ? Institutional Capacities? Collaborative sourcing? Examples Thematic research collection Curated databases Institutional identity

45. 45 Managing digital? An archival perspective ? Provenance Evidential integrity Versioning

46. 46 The scholarly and cultural record is incorrigibly plural The library needs plural responses within singular frameworks.