A trend in libraries that is not limited to government documents
In her published remarks at the Spring 2005 Depository Library Council meeting, Superintendent of Documents (SuDoc) Judy Russell made this statement towards the end of her remarks: We will continue working with you on an orderly, but accelerated, transition to a digital FDLP. This will continue to cause depository librarians to transform themselves from managers of collections into managers of electronic services, a trend in libraries that is not limited to government documents. Ms. Russell is right that parts of librarianship are forcing librarians "to transform themselves from managers of collections into managers of electronic services." This is especially true in serials. But this seeming throwaway line hides a lot of potentially difficult issues that the Government Printing Office (GPO) MUST address while developing plans for the future. A major trend in serials is moving away from physical collections of journals to subscriptions to massive "big deal" aggregations. In many ways this is a boon to libraries everywhere. For example, Alaska has a statewide EBSCOhost license that gives even the smallest village library access to over 8,000 full text journals, magazines and full text books. Without such a license, no library could afford a fraction of what EBSCOhost can offer. EBSCOhost is really cool and if you don't have it already, you should ask for a trial. Continue reading
Official GPO Spring DLC Proceedings starting to become available
A month after the close of the Spring 2005 DLC Council meeting, the Government Printing Office (GPO) has begun to post its official proceedings at http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fdlp/pubs/proceedings/05spring. As of May 23, 2005 only two items were available at the official site:
- GPO Update Handout - PDF
- Judy Russell, Superintendent of Documents Remarks of the Superintendent of Documents - PDF
An Arizona model for web access and preservation
When I was in Baltimore last week, I learned about the An Arizona model for web access and preservation written by Richard Pearce-Moses. The document is still under development and is currently 52 pages long but still well worth reading. Arizona is one of several states (including Alaska) trying to harvest state publications from agency web sites and store them on library servers. I think this paper does a great job of explaining the challenges involved. For instance, although they are collecting electronic documents, they don't fool themselves into thinking that preservation is accomplished:
This model does not address long-term problems of keeping bitstreams alive or software obsolescence. Preservation, for the purposes of this model, means capturing documents so that they are within the control of the repository in hopes that, when those long-term problems are solved, there is current content that can be migrated into the future.Continue reading
LC Consultation with States regarding digital information
This past week I was in Baltimore for the second of three workshops provided by the Albany-based Center for Technology in Government and sponsored by the Library of Congress. This was in support of the Library of Congress Collaboration for Preservation of State Government Digital Information. My feeling about the workshop is that it was better than I expected, but did not live up to its inital announcement. That announcement convinced a number of us state documents folks that the workshop was going to be mostly toolkit and that we would take it home and let LC know how it worked out. Still, I found the workshop as structured to be helpful and encourage anyone going to the final workshop to keep an open mind. The workshop turned out to be an information gathering exercise for the Library of Congress. The day consisted of reports and discussions among state representatives. During the last 15 minutes of the workshop we were given a binder containing "Building State Government Digital Preservation Partnerships: A Capability Assessment and Planning Toolkit," along with a short overview briefing. The toolkit identifies 19 capabilities needed by successful digital preservation partnerships. The toolkit was developed by the Center for Technology in Government and reviewed by libraries and archives at the state level including the Illinois State Library and the New York State Archives. Continue reading
Emulation in action, retrieving Malawi census data from 1970s
Emulation is one proposed method of preserving digital information. Below is a case study of using emulation to retrieve 1977 Census data from the African nation of Malawi. FGI obtained the permission of Brian Spoor to post this message here. Emulation may not be practical in all circumstances, but it's nice to see a real world example. This example also shows how time and resource intensive digital preservation can be. >>-----Original Message----- >>From: Digital-Preservation Announcement and Information List >>[DIGITAL-PRESERVATION@JISCMAIL.AC.UK]On Behalf Of Kevin Ashley >>Sent: Thursday, April 21, 2005 2:05 AM >>To: DIGITAL-PRESERVATION@JISCMAIL.AC.UK >>Subject: A practical use for old system emulators >> >> >>I copy below in its entirety a post by Brian Spoor to the newsgroup >>alt.folklore.computers which demonstrates a very practical use for >>old system emulators in rescuing digital data. Brian used the ICL Continue reading
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