Transcript WORLD DIGITAL LIBRARY “Digitization in Developing Countries” ALA Pre-conference Chicago, July 10, 2009 John Van Oudenaren Library of Congress p.1

WORLD DIGITAL LIBRARY
“Digitization in Developing
Countries”
ALA Pre-conference
Chicago, July 10, 2009
John Van Oudenaren
Library of Congress
p.1
BACKGROUND: LIBRARY OF CONGRESS DIGITIZATION
INITIATIVES
 American Memory
 Global Gateway
 Meeting of Frontiers
 Parallel Histories: Spain, the United States, and the American
Frontier
 United States and Brazil: Expanding Frontiers, Comparing
Cultures
 The Atlantic World: America and the Netherlands
 France in America
 World Digital Library
Digitization in Developing Countries
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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS-FUNDED DIGITIZATION
CENTERS IN OTHER COUNTRIES
 Global Gateway
 National Library of Russia, St. Petersburg
 Russian State Library, Moscow
 Open Siberia Foundation, Novosibirsk
 National Library of Brazil, Rio de Janeiro
 World Digital Library
 National Library and Archives of Egypt
 Iraqi National Library and Archives
 National Library of Uganda*
* = in preparation
Digitization in Developing Countries
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MEETING OF FONTIERS PARTNERS IN SIBERIA AND
THE RUSSIAN FAR EAST
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Altai State Museum of Regional History and Folklife
Amur Oblast Museum of Regional History and Folklife
Berdsk Historical Art Museum
Center for Scientific Research and Contemporary Museum Technology
Far Eastern National University
Heritage of Chukotka Museum Center
Institute for the Study of Buddhism, Mongol, and Tibetan Culture of the
Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Institute of History of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of
Sciences
Irkutsk Oblast Museum of Regional History and Folklife
Irkutsk State University Research Library
Kemerovo Oblast Museum of Regional History and Folklife
Krasnoiarsk Krai Museum of Regional History and Folklife
Irkutsk Municipal History Museum
N.M. Martianov Minusinsk Museum of Regional History and Folklife
Museum of Permafrost, Yakutia
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MEETING OF FONTIERS PARTNERS IN SIBERIA AND
THE RUSSIAN FAR EAST (CONT’D)
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National Archives of the Republic of Sakha
Nikolaevsk-on-Amur Museum of Municipal History and Folklife
Novosibirsk State Museum of Regional History and Folklife
Omsk State Museum of Regional History and Folklife
“Phototext” Foundation (FTX)
Russian State Historical Archive of the Far East
State Archives of Altai Krai
State Archives of Krasnoiarsk Krai
State Archives of Novosibirsk Oblast
State Archives of the Republic of Buryatia
State Public Scientific and Technical Library of the Siberian Branch of the
Russian Academy of Sciences
Tomsk State University
Tomsk Oblast Museum of Regional History and Folklife
V.I. Surikov Art Museum in Krasnoiarsk
Yakutsk State Museum of the History and Culture of Northern Peoples
M.N. Khangalov Museum of the History of Buryatia
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WORLD DIGITAL LIBRARY: BACKGROUND AND
OBJECTIVES
The World Digital Library provides free and universal access to primary
source content that documents the histories and cultural
achievements of all countries. This content includes rare books,
journals, manuscripts, maps, prints and photographs, films, and
sound recordings.
 The objectives of the WDL are to:
 Promote international and intercultural understanding
 Expand multilingual and culturally diverse content on the Internet
 Provide resources to students, teachers, and scholars
 Build knowledge and capacity in the developing world; help
narrow the “digital divide”
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WORLD DIGITAL LIBRARY: TIMELINE
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June 2005
Library of Congress proposes creation of the WDL
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December 2005
Initial private sector funding secured for WDL
“planning process”
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December 2006
UNESCO-Library of Congress Experts Meeting
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October 2007
WDL prototype demonstrated at UNESCO General
Conference
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April 2009
Public launch of www.wdl.org
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LAUNCH STATISTICS
 April 21, 2009:
 604,728 visitors
 7,114,275 page views
 Visitors from every country in the world
 1,700 press stories tracked by UNESCO press service
 April 21-May 31, 2009:
 3,161,521 visitors
 29,539,864 page views
 Countries of highest usage:
 China, France, the United States, Spain, the Russian Federation,
Brazil, Ukraine, Canada, Argentina, Germany
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NEXT STEPS-FUTURE WORK (as Discussed at April 20
Partner Meeting)
 General:
 Expand amount of content while maintaining quality
 Increase partners to include institutions from all UNESCO
member countries **
 Adopt charter and governance structures to ensure technical and
financial sustainability
 Technical:
 Develop new tools to scale up the creation, processing, and
ingest of content **
 Develop new features on the site
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INTERNATIONAL DIGITAL LIBRARY
COLLABORATIONS: KEY QUESTIONS
 What kinds of international collaborations add value for
users (and other stakeholders?)
 In the face of resource constraints, how can we avoid
projects that add little or no value, or are even “valuesubtracting” (i.e., the resources expended to effect the
collaboration could be better spent by individual
institutions; whole less than sum of parts)
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INTERNATIONAL DIGITAL LIBRARY
COLLABORATIONS: PRELIMINARY ANSWERS
 Digital library collaboration adds value if:
 It results in the digitization of intellectually and culturally valuable
content that otherwise would not be digitized in the foreseeable
future (especially if the content is at risk and/or difficult to
access)
 Content is made available to users in ways that are superior to
what they would experience by viewing the same content on
individual websites accessed via search engines or through
bookmarks and hyperlinks
 At least one of these conditions should obtain; preferably both
 What is true for any digital collaboration is even more true for
international collaboration, where the “overhead” is higher
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OPERATIONAL IMPLICATIONS OF THESE ANSWERS
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WDL should aim to digitize new content, especially in developing countries,
and not just re-purpose or find better ways to search for existing content
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WDL site should concentrate on adding value, even if this means sacrificing
quantitative targets in the short run
 Ambitious approach to multilingualism
 Full search and display
 “Equivalent user experience”
 Consistent metadata to allow search and browse by
 Time
 Place
 Type of Material
 Topic
 Institution
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OPERATIONAL IMPLICATIONS OF THESE ANSWERS
(CONT’D)
 WDL site should concentrate on adding value, even if this means
sacrificing quantitative targets in the short run (cont’d)
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Item-level descriptions
Curator videos
Superior viewing technology
Web 2.0 features
Speed and reliability
Quantity is important in the longer term, as in the Web world quantity equates to
quality
 However: quantity is still important in the long term, as in the Web
world quantity equates to quality
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WORLD DIGITAL LIBRARY: LONGER-TERM
OBJECTIVES
 Establish network of digital conversion centers around the world
 National Library of Uganda/Carnegie Corporation of New York
 Establish worldwide, Web-based network for cataloging, translation,
and ingest
 Current work on WDL Cataloging Application
 Assist partners in creating their own institutional and national digital
libraries
 Integrate content selection and creation with curriculum and
educational needs
 Address issues related to low Internet penetration and low bandwidth
 Mobile phones, OLPC, ClassMate, etc.
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SOME CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS
 There is still a large task ahead in many countries
 The funding environment is difficult
 Political sensitivities persist but seem to be less of a problem than in
the recent past
 Cooperation among libraries within countries and within a region is
very difficult
 Dedicated staff are important
 Sustaining high levels of production is not easy
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