Post on 17-Jan-2016
transcript
Building the digital worldfrom local to universal
Adolf KnollNational Library of the Czech Republicadolf.knoll@nkp.cz
Why digitize?
We should return to this question again and again
What can we offer to whom? Access Long-term access (preservation element) Added-value services to individiuals
How?
Which value to add
The sense is to add such values, which users cannot create by themselves
For libraries it is about how to enter the digital world
They cannot compete with companies on open battle fields, but they have specific materials to process and organize
Libraries and users
Libraries Great number Different places Different documents Communication skills They work in the world
of users and for users For good functioning,
they need to be exposed to the outside world
Users Greater number Different places Different languages Different interests Also other interests
than we can imagine Communication skills
Our behaviour of normal citizens in normal daily circumstances is the criterion.
Libraries and research communities
Libraries have specific research related to communication and preservation
They aim to provide access to the objects that are subject of research of specific groups
These two research entities should communicate
Their work is complementary, not identical
Cultural heritage
Objects of cultural heritage Finding aids (catalogues, bibliographic lists,
…) Documentation
Acquired: other documents, databases, … Created: other documents, databases, …
To join them together without forcing researchers to modify their research points of view
Library as content creator
Identification of cultural heritage Visual or aural representation of
cultural heritage Creation of a hybrid world: classical
and virtual components Once libraries have abandoned this
scheme, they will not be needed in modern society
Joining forces
Discrete library entities merge virtually: Remake of original contexts, because dispersed objects
are put together Enrichment of research environment
More resources More competition among researchers More opportunities to step over narrow thresholds of born-in
and educated-in behaviour and knowledge
Humans have more in common indifferently of places where they live
… and indifferently of cultures that seem to divide them
How to help our sensual perception?
Images and sounds talk to our senses In order to master the world that
surrounds us, we try to classify it in undestandable objects
The same reality can be classified differently
All consistent artificial human classification schemes are true
Examples
Our languages are a good example: голубой + синий = blue (light + dark) эффективный = effective or efficient ? … The reality is split in understandable chunks
differently in various cultures, regions, groups of people
What is relevant information for one of us, it is null information for another one
If I am a specialist, then a discovery for you can be banal or insufficient for me and vice versa
This works in any domain of human activity
Declare your aims
Work in conformity with this declaration Libraries inform and assist users to access various pieces of
information Libraries must talk well defined languages
description rules encoding platforms .. which enable very large communication
From narrow solutions to mark-up languages and choice of largely accepted description rules
Bridging various approaches through conversion of categories of knowledge … this is not only library task… ontological bridges
motion from bottom up (cataloguing) towards grasping the reality as it is by well structured and sophisticated tools (thanks to detailed knowledge of how various approaches work and thanks to ever increasing computation speed)
we have to face and enjoy a new quality of technological environment
Archive, migrate, provide access…
Reference digital archiveon-line
Fast disk arrays for access
Reference archive – preservation microfilm
Reference digital archive for off-line media (CD, mg. tapes)
Administration
ORIGINALS: books, periodicals, maps, printed music, audio recordings, …
Tasks
preserve both inherited and created documents
provide access to both multiply access points: analytical
cataloguing, linking additional resources of all kinds – catalogues, video resources, works, studies, papers, …
create a research world enable to prolong the work or to add other
values to it
Standards
Look at http://digit.nkp.cz and follow the line to Technical Standards
access tools: databases linked to visual representation and other resources – look at http://www.memoria.cz
works tools for users (off-line viewers, digital library applications)
author rights control