Newsline: News You Can Use
Multimedia Archive Preservation - a practical workshop
Organised by IASA, FIAT, PRESTO, ECPA … and more!
22-24 May 2002 in London, UK
Overview:
80% of audio and video archive content is at risk, according to the results of EC project PRESTO. Unless preservation procedures are funded and implemented - quickly - unique heritage and commercially valuable material will be lost. This workshop will provide, in a concentrated three days, the combined experience of ten major European broadcast archives, and the new technology developed by PRESTO.
What we will cover:
Funding: sources of funding; a model business case; benchmark costs
Selection: criteria; prioritisation; life expectancy and condition monitoring.
The preservation factory: how to process the most material with the least labour; how to control quality; how to manage metadata; what to include and (exclude) during preservation to maximise access and future use
Sustainability: the ‘total cost of ownership’ of archive material; technology for automation of quality monitoring and data update; media life expectancy; what formats to choose
Online and Internet: how to build new technology into a preservation project - without blowing the budget
The small archive: how to be efficient on small-scale projects; special funding for private and historical collections; sources of support, advice and resources; out-sourcing options
Commercial resources: information on technology and facility houses specialising in multimedia archive preservation; comparative costs; how to manage quality and cost; do’s and don’ts of working with contractor
New technology: advances in mass storage, process automation, automatic quality control, and asset management; what it is, what it really can and cannot do, costs and benefits. Also new technology developed by PRESTO and by related EC projects.
More information and registration details can be found at: http://www.knaw.nl/ecpa/calendar.html#presto
[November 2001]
The Bridgeman Art Library welcomes the Charmet Archive into its collection
The Bridgeman Art Library, the world’s leading source of fine art images, is delighted to announce its exclusive representation of the Charmet archive. Assembled over thirty years by Jean Loup Charmet, the archive comprises an unparalleled collection of over 400,000 images covering events, culture, science, people and places from every era, with special focus on France.
This representation strengthens The Bridgeman Art Library’s holding of French photography and follows the acquisition of Giraudon earlier this year, one of France’s oldest and most prestigious picture libraries. Founder and Director Harriet Bridgeman commented; “ The Charmet archive is renowned, not only for the quality of its images, but also for the craftsmanship of its assembly. Subjects as diverse as exploration, theatre and dance, industry and food are represented, enriching a collection already renowned for its cultural scope and complementing the service we are developing for specifically for French-speaking clients through Bridgeman Giraudon, our new Paris office.”
Picture researchers and creative professionals can now request Charmet images through Bridgeman’s offices in London, Paris and New York or through the company’s searchable website catalogue at http://www.bridgeman.co.uk. Expert picture researchers, all art historians, are on hand to offer research guidance or to make selections of images on clients’ behalf.
[6 November 2001]
>Official Launch of CASS - Collaborative Academic Store for Scotland
Project SCURL (Scottish Confederation of University and Research Libraries) has received funding from the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland to undertake a 6 month study from November 2001 to determine the optimal model for a collaborative storage and delivery service for valuable but low-use research materials held in Scottish university libraries. CASS (Collaborative Academic Store for Scotland) aims to address pertinent library issues in terms of reducing storage costs, re-allocation of space, enhancing access, preservation, and increasing co-operation between academic and, if feasible, public libraries and archives, to benefit the research community. Key deliverables will include the wide dissemination of project findings in the form of a final report and a detailed business plan for a collaborative facility.
CASS will enable the viability of a collaborative storage facility within Scotland to be identified. Information Professionals and members of the research community will provide CASS with the majority of its findings. Additional study will focus on literature reviews and similar collaborative ventures in Europe, Australia and America.
Project documentation, resources, and general information will be disseminated via the CASS web site at http://scurl.ac.uk/projects/cass/index.html
[November 2001]
Oxford adds new dimension to the dissemination and pursuit of knowledge
Finding answers to tricky questions in Oxford’s famous reference works will soon take just seconds.
In March 2002 Oxford University Press will publish its core language and subject reference dictionaries online for the first time. A two-year collaborative project between OUP Oxford and OUP New York will make 100 titles available as a subscription service to academic, corporate, and specialist libraries, schools, colleges, universities, businesses, and government offices around the world - from San Francisco to Sydney.
Oxford Reference Online: The Core Collection comprises well over one million dictionary definitions, facts, figures, people, places, sayings, and dates from 100 of Oxfords central English and bilingual dictionaries, usage, quotations, and subject reference books all combined to create one integrated knowledge resource.
A key benefit of the service will be regular updating from Oxfords extensive programme of new references and regular new editions of works on core subjects. With around 30 new and revised works due between now and 2004 on subjects such as statistics, tourism, sport, archaeology, and business, expanding a reference collection and keeping it up to date will be quicker and simpler than ever before. It will also be safer. With so much unchecked information on the internet, the fact that every Oxford reference work is written by experts and extensively checked for quality before publication, will be an additional reason to Ask Oxford.
For more information visit the ORO web-site at http://www.oxfordreference.com
[November 2001]
JISC Call for Proposals Pre-announcement:
Focus on Access to Institutional Resources Programme (FAIR)
A Call for Proposals will be issued in early January 2002 with expected closing date in late February 2002. This pre-announcement alerts the HE/FE community to the call and allows institutions to explore possible partnerships or consortium proposals in advance of the call being issued.
The JISC is establishing a new programme in which a number of projects will be funded to disclose and deposit digital assets held within the higher education and further education community. The programme will also allow intelligence to be gathered about the technical, organizational and cultural challenges of these processes. It is intended that this programme Focus on Access to Institutional Resources will contribute to developing the mechanisms and supporting services to allow the submission and sharing of content generated by the HE/FE community.
An important source of inspiration for this programme is the vision of the Open Archives Initiative (http://www.openarchives.org) that digital resources can be shared between organisations based on a simple mechanism which allows metadata about those resources to be harvested into services. For example in the e-prints community this is realised through data providers who mount the e-prints and then disclose their metadata to service providers who are able to organise and present this information for users:
The FAIR Programme is interested in proposals for projects in the following areas:
* Support the disclosure of institutional assets, including institutional eprint archives and other types of digital collections, and to explore the use of emerging protocols in this area, particularly the OAI (the Open Archives Initiative protocol)
Explore the usability of metadata disclosed and issues of harvesting institutional assets into subject-based and other services for example the Resource Discovery Network
and the Arts and Humanities Data Service
Through deposit or disclosure of relevant resources, to augment existing collections which have proven learning, teaching or research value
* Experiment with the embedding of JISC collections and services in local institutional portals and how well they can be presented in conjunction with institutionally managed assets
Investigate the collections management, technical, organizational and cultural challenges of institutional asset disclosure and deposit, including issues relating to the establishment and administration of institutionally provided services for digital collections
It is hoped that all this work will lead to a much better understanding of the efficiency with which research and learning resources can be made more accessible and their visibility increased, and to explore the support and resources needed at a national and local level to allow this to take place as a core activity in the longer term.
Higher and further education institutions funded via the UK funding bodies will be eligible to submit proposals. Proposals both from single institutions and consortia of institutions will be welcomed. As guidance, proposals for projects of from 1 to 3 years duration and with budgets ranging from £10,000 to £300,000 will be considered.
The programme will commence in April/May 2002, though project start dates can be staggered and projects starting after July 31st 2002 will also be considered.
This programme is part of the JISC Information Environment Development: http://www.jisc.ac.uk/dner/development/IEstrategy.html
[December 2001]
Eurographics UK Conference 2002 | Call for Papers
This is a call for papers for the 20th Eurographics UK Conference which will be taking place at De Montfort University, Leicester, Tuesday June 11th - 13th Thursday June 6th 2002. The initial deadline for completed papers is 4th February 2002.
For more information go to: http://www.eguk.org.uk/DMU02/index.html and details of call for papers are at: http://www.eguk.org.uk/DMU02/cfp.html
This year the conference themes are in Art & Design focusing on:
Next generation web design and e-commerce
* Digital Arts
* Computer Animation and Games
* Web Based Learning and design for interactive TV and 3G phones * Virtual Heritage
and in Technology focusing on:
* 3D/2D displays and holographic presentations
* 3D/2D image creation and processing
* Next generation HCI
[December 2001]