DL.org Newsletter: Interoperability in Focus

Issue no. 4

April/May 2010

PDF downloadable Version

Tobias Blanke is a Research Fellow for the Arts and Humanities eScience Support Centre (AHeSSC) at King's College London. He also serves as an expert in DL.org’s Liaison Group, which evaluates the main outcomes of the project. Here we explore the current Digital Library and interoperability landscape with particular reference to the eHumanities.

In your view, what are the main specific challenges for DL interoperability?

There is no doubt that achieving DL interoperability is essential not only in the shift towards an advanced information space and cross-disciplinary research but also to foster innovation across the board. In the old days of IT, the market was dominated by a few big players, so it is important that we open up new research perspectives by enabling more players to come on board. Interoperability is one way of achieving this goal.
However, conveying the benefits of interoperability is a challenging task as most researchers are primarily interested in advancing their research and may not see the practical benefits of interoperability. They may even see interoperability as an impediment to creativity. Approaches should thus aim to demonstrate how we can combine grass-root research activities with an information and research environment that links people together and opens up new research perspectives, while at the same time seamlessly integrates additional requirements regarding the interoperability of resources.
This is very much a social challenge that needs to focus on changing mindsets. In this respect, DL.org, as a co-ordination action, has a very important role to play in conveying the benefits of interoperability for the diverse stakeholders, including key players in the Humanities space, not only DL end-users but also archivists and librarians as content curators, system librarians and decision-makers particularly on the policy and investment front. If we look back in history, all standardisation effort basically boils down to human-to-human interaction. Hence community engagement is key to bringing interoperability benefits and best practices into sharp relief.

Read the interview.

The 2nd DL.org Workshop on Making Digital Libraries Interoperable takes place 9-10 September 2010 during the 14th European Conference on Digital Libraries (ECDL2010) in Glasgow, Scotland, UK.  Interoperability  is a multi-layered and context-specific concept, encompassing different levels along a multidimensional spectrum ranging from organisational and policy to technical issues. The Workshop addresses this challenging area from several perspectives: content, user, functionality, policy, quality, and architecture. Presentations and deliberations will centre on relevant Digital Library interoperability aspects from conceptualisation at a high organisational level to instantiation at process level, as well as modelling techniques for representing and enabling interoperability between heterogeneous digital library mediation approaches, methods, and systems.

Call for Papers

DL.org is solleciting both Research and Project papers on topics related to DL interoperability.

Important dates

Paper submission: 20 June 2010

Notification of Acceptance: 16 July 2010

Camera-ready papers: 30 July 2010

More information on the Call for Papers: topics, submission formats and guidelines

For approaches to interoperability to be successful, it is crucial not only to address all the dimensions along the spectrum but also to work closely with domain and stakeholder communities from both culture and science. To this end, DL.org is establishing strategic alliances with key stakeholders in the DL space. Two new alliances that have been established recently both bring to the fore the importance of interoperability with regard to the future development of information infrastructures and the Europe’s goal of ensuring the free movement of knowledge for science and culture. Read the article on Global Information Infrastructures for Science & Cultural Heritage: The Interoperability Challenge, by DL.org partner, Costantino Thanos, National Research Council of Italy in synergy with DC-Net & GRDI2020.

DL.org on Policy & Quality 29 April 2010, Geneva, Switzerland @ ECA2010

On 29 April 2010, Perla Innocenti and Giuseppina Vullo, co-ordinators of DL.org Policy and Quality Working Groups hosted a Workshop entitled "Policy and Quality Interoperability: an organisational approach for digital archives and digital libraries" during the 8th European Conference on Digital Archiving (ECA2010) running 28-30 April 2010.
The Workshop, from 15:30 to 16:15 and led by Giuseppina Vullo (pictured), revolved around the organisational approach to policy and quality interoperability,   presenting an overview of how DL.org is investigating a shared policy and quality framework between diverse digital repositories.
Interim outcomes of this investigation were described with a look at how external parties may also benefit from these findings.
The workshop aimed at delivering theoretical and practical insights on:

• Core policy and quality aspects affecting information systems
• DL.org policy and quality interoperability frameworks
• Formal policy languages
• Quality guidelines and criteria

DL.org @ QQML2010, 25-28 May 2010

"Paving the way for Interoperability in Digital Libraries: The DL.org Project" at QQML2010
Katerina El Raheb (pictured) is presenting the current DL.org comprehensive and innovative approach to DL interoperability challenges at the 2nd International Conference on Qualitative and Quantitative Methods in Libraries (QQML), 25-28 May 2010, Chania, Crete, Greece. The talk draws on the interim findings of the six thematic Working Groups focusing on content, functionality, user, policy, quality and architecture that DL.org co-ordinated. The talk is based on a paper by Katerina El Raheb and co-authored by members of the DL.org Consortium.

DL.org Policy & Quality, 2 June at Archiving 2010, The Hague, Netherlands

DL.org presentation on Policy & Quality Interoperability Challenges & Approaches for Digital Libraries on 2 June at Archiving 2010, The Hague, Netherlands
The DL.org Policy and Quality Working Group co-ordinators are presenting a paper on DL interoperability challenges and approaches on 2 June 2010 during the Archiving 2010 conference in The Hague.
The presentation, co-authored by Perla Innocenti, Seamus Ross and Giuseppina Vullo, is entitled “Towards Policy and Quality Interoperability: Challenges and approaches for Digital Libraries”. Perla Innocenti (pictured) leads the presentation with a focus on:  

• Policy and quality within the DELOS Digital Library Reference Model
• Core policy and quality aspects affecting information systems
• The DL.org policy and quality interoperability frameworks
• Real-world cases on policy and quality interoperability

A Gathering of Experts, 26-28 May 2010, Rome, Italy

Many of the internationally renowned experts forming part of our Working Groups are joining us in Rome at the end of May for the All Working Group Meeting. The magnificent Centro Congressi Palazzo Rospigliosi in the centre of Rome provides the backdrop for an intense, three-day meeting delivering new insights into DL interoperability from the perspectives of content, functionality, user, policy, quality and architecture, the six concepts to which DL.org's Working Groups are dedicated.

To find out more on how you can interact with DL.org and contribute to eNewsletters, please contact us at: info@dlorg.eu