DL.org - New Insights on Interoperability Strategies, Open Access, Research, Education, Theory & Practice in the Digital Library Space

Issue Winter 2010

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DL.org is delighted to announce the one-day Workshop on Digital Libraries & Open Access. Interoperability Strategies, 4 February 2011 at the British Academy in London.  The Workshop gathers together international experts on Digital Libraries and Open Access Repositories (OARs) to explore issues key to taking the field to the next level. Registration for the Workshop is now open. However, places are limited due to venue capacity, so early registration is strongly advised.

The Workshop is the third in a series of highly successful events that have taken place in Europe over the last few months.

• The first event was a one-day Seminar on Research and Education in Digital Libraries, 9 November 2010 in Parma, in synergy with the Digital Library Learning (DILL) Master Programme funded by the EC’s Erasmus Mundus initiative.

• The second was a one-day Workshop on Theory and Practice in Digital Libraries: A European Approach, 13 December 2010 in Athens.

In this issue we announce the London Workshop and sum up the main outcomes of the other events. In particular, the Parma Seminar offered opportunities to explore the key role of fostering closer synergies between research communities and educational programmes, which are further investigated in our interviews with Professor Anna Maria Tammaro from the University of Parma and Marical Reyes Batiancila a Master Student from the Philippines.

We also sum up the main outcomes of the Athens Workshop and share the views of participants who kindly offered their position statements on the talks and demos presented at the event.

• Finally, we provide a round-up of the highly successful DL.org Autumn School in early October 2010 together with the testimonies from the attendees.

We wrap up with a “thank you” to all past and future participants helping to build a community as a key asset for DL.org. We would also like to renew our thanks to all the experts in Europe and globally who have contributed to the Digital Library discourse in general and in particular to outputs such as the DL.org Reference Model and the Technological and Methodological Cookbook, which are now being taken to the final stage.

4 February 2011, British Academy, London, UK

DL.org is delighted to announce the one-day Workshop on Digital Libraries & Open Access. Interoperability Strategies, 4 February 2011 at the British Academy in London.  The Workshop gathers together international experts on Digital Libraries and Open Access Repositories (OARs) to explore issues key to taking the field to the next level.The Workshop features talks on the DL.org Reference Model and Cookbook; Policy and Quality investigations, particularly surveys with Open Access Repositories; Open Access in the UK and Europe; the Sonex Workgroup, and future scenarios for Open Access, wrapping up with a Round Table on interoperability strategies chaired by Professor Seamus Ross from the University of Toronto. Registration for the Workshop is now open. However, places are limited due to venue capacity, so early registration is strongly advised. Workshop aims and target audiences, agenda, registration. Please read the terms and conditions before registering.

Partner of Digital Library Learning, Erasmus Mundus - Thought Leadership on Digital Library Learning

Digital Libraries are a new research topic, opening up important opportunities for a multi-faceted approach spanning information seeking behaviour and social processes such as learning and knowledge sharing, in addition to Digital Libraries as collections of content that need curation (collection, description, preservation, retrieval and so forth). Digital Library Learning (DILL), a two-year international master programme funded by the European Union under the Erasmus Mundus programme, is chartered with taking forward an interdisciplinary approach to take scholarship to the next level. The Programme has brought together three European partners: Tallinn University (Estonia), Oslo University College (Norway) and Parma University (Italy). Anna Maria Tammaro from Parma University shares her thought leadership on the programme and its synergy with DL.org. The full interview, both on-line and in PDF, is available here.

Student Representative, 2009-2011 Erasmus Mundus Digital Library Learning - Digital Library Learning through the Eyes of a Master Student

Marcial Reyes Batiancila from the Philippines was one if the Digital Library Learning  Master students who spent time at partner institutions as part of the programme. Marcial took an active part in the Round Table during the Seminar in Parma on 9 November 2010. His interests include library administration, cataloguing and classification, metadata, ICT application in libraries, library automation, digital archiving, digitisation, digital asset management, knowledge management, community of practice, and information architecture. In this interview he shares some of the new insights he has gained as part of the DILL programme and during the Seminar with particular reference to DL.org. The interview highlights the key role of best practices in the field and especially the DL.org Technological and Methodological Cookbook.  The full interview, both on-line and in PDF, is available here.

13 December 2010, Athens

Theory and Practice in Digital Libraries: A European Approach, 13 December 2010 in Athens, was co-hosted with the Veria Central Public Library, Laboratory on Digital Libraries and Electronic Publishing at Ionian University. The event brought together over 40  representatives from the Greek Digital Library community, spanning librarians and library managers, researchers, PhD students, theorists and practitioners.The Workshop aimed to facilitate a clear understanding of Digital Library Modelling, current DL challenges, and solutions proposed by European initiaitves, such as Europeana’s approach to metadata. Talks illustrated how top-level challenges like interoperability are being addressed by DL.org through its Reference Model and Technology & Methodology Cookbook.

The Demo Session delivered insights into real-world challenges for researchers to draw on and  offer practitioners an opportunity to understand how to adopt proposed modelling solutions. Discussions and networking opportunities ensured knowledge exchange with other members of the Greek DL community with the ultimate goal of bridging the divide between theory and practice. The focus of the Workshop is described here. To access the talks and demos, click here, for the Position Statements here and the Virtual Goody Bag, which contains the talks, demos, agenda, Reference Model, Cookbook, participant position statements and recent interviews by DL.org, here.

3-8 October 2010, Athens

The DL.org Autumn School, 3-8 October 2010, brought together a group of enthusiastic students to gain insights into digital libraries and digital repositories along the perspectives of content, functionality, users, policy, quality and architecture, the six core domains captured in the DL.org DL Reference Model, which is being taken forward from the DELOS Network of Excellence. Best practices and interoperability scenarios were also key features of the School. Internationally established lecturers led each of the half-day sessions and most of them were on-site throughout the week for further discussion.

The DL.org Autumn School offered participants an important opportunity to network and socialise with other researchers, international experts, and practitioners across disciplinary and national boundaries. To access the talks and demos, including contributions from the students, click here, to view the Testimonies, click here.

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