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Article on LC (fwd)



 Having had enough of pink dresses, I thought I would forward to the list
an article that was forwarded to me from the Chronicle of Higher
Education. Sorry I do not have the issue date -  perhaps someone else on
the list can provide that.


 Steve Fisher
 University of Denver

 ---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 27 Jul 2000 06:32:56 -0600
From: Liz Bishoff <bishoffl@concentric.net>
To: cdpgrantlist <CDPGrants-l@maat.coalliance.org>,
    cdpsteer <cdpsteer-l@maat.coalliance.org>,
    Sue Kriegsman <skriegsm@coalliance.org>,
    Jan Fedrizzi <fedrizzi@ctive.com>, jeanne abrams <jabrams@du.edu>,
    jim goddard <jgoddard@dmnh.org>, Liz Bishoff <bishoffl@concentric.net>,
    Maureen Crocker <crocker_m@cde.state.co.us>,
    Michelle Bahe <mbahe@ci.aurora.co.us>, STEVE FISHER <sfisher@du.edu>,
    susan anthes <susan.anthes@colorado.edu>
Subject: Article on LC



  Report Says Library of Congress Lags in Providing Digital Resources
By FLORENCE OLSEN

Washington

The Library of Congress must become actively involved in creating digital
libraries or risk becoming irrelevant to scholars and the public, says a
National Research Council report released Wednesday.

The study, "A Digital Strategy for the Library of Congress," depicts an
inward-looking institution that no longer leads in setting library standards
or in building collections for the digital age.

The library "lags significantly" in receiving and archiving "born-digital"
documents of American history and culture, the report says. And it warns
that the library operates with a technological infrastructure inferior to
those of many corporate libraries and even some non-profit research
libraries.

To its credit, the library has been involved in a few notable digital
projects and pilot programs through the National Digital Library Program and
the Copyright Office, said James J. O'Donnell, chairman of the committee
that produced the report. But "the steps taken have been far too limited in
scale," said Mr. O'Donnell, a professor of classics and vice provost for
information systems and computing at the University of Pennsylvania.

James H. Billington, the Librarian of Congress requested the study in 1998.
He said Wednesday that the study highlighted the library's needs for more
flexible hiring practices, better information technology, and new
relationships with corporations and other libraries.

At a briefing Wednesday, Mr. O'Donnell pointed out the library's "very slow
progress in devising strategies and tactics for the acquisition,
preservation, cataloging, and accessibility of material that is created and
distributed primarily in digital format."

The report recommends hiring a deputy librarian to coordinate digital
activities and other strategic advances, and appointing an external board of
technically informed senior advisers from other libraries, businesses, and
academe.

Citing the library's popular "American Memory" project to make its U.S.
history collections available in electronic form, the report criticizes the
institution for sponsoring a digitization effort that "has emphatically and
purposely not addressed the scholarly user." When the library undertakes
such projects in the future, it must "keep the needs of the researcher
squarely in mind," the report says, even if that means making a "less
populist case for funding" or scaling back efforts to appeal to the general
public.

"The library's language of appeal to a mass audience has created confusion,
both within the organization and outside it," the report says. "This cannot
go on."

Unsparing in their language, the report's authors urge the library to set
new electronic-format standards and collection policies for digital
materials, whether they are acquired through copyright registration and
deposit, or through purchase, exchange, or donation.

The study chides the library for playing only a minimal role in
digital-preservation projects in which university research libraries and
other organizations have been leaders.

Many of the committee's recommendations will require additional financing --
"more on the order of a doubling or tripling of this year's amount in the
next budget submitted to Congress," the study says. It recommends that the
library spend more money on information technology and that it share
responsibilities with universities and government libraries for collecting
and preserving digital information.

Given the library's limited financial resources and the exploding production
of digital information, the report recommends that the library conceive of
itself as a "portal" for research materials distributed on the Internet,
offering links to the materials through the library's World Wide Web site.

The University of California at Berkeley operates a digital-library program
that could provide a model for how the Library of Congress might collect and
preserve digital works in the future, the report says. At Berkeley, digital
librarians have defined four "levels" of collecting -- archived, served,
mirrored, or linked -- each referring to where the digital material is kept
and for how long.

"Archived" material is digital information that is stored and permanently
accessible on the library's servers. "Served" documents refer to digital
works that the library has placed temporarily on its servers to make them
available. "Mirrored" documents are local copies of digital documents that
are stored permanently on another institution's servers. "Linked" documents
are stored permanently on another institution's servers and are accessible
only by means of hypertext links from the library's site.

The report applauds the Library of Congress's joint project with Cornell
University, in which researchers plan to capture Web sites created during
the 2000 election campaign. The report also urges the library to expand the
National Digital Library Program beyond its current focus on digitizing the
library's own special collections. The library should aggressively collect
all types of digital works and "integrate them into its systems for
description and cataloging, access, and preservation," the report says.

The committee concludes by recommending that the library publish, by January
1, 2001, a response to the report and a plan of action for reorganizing,
training staff members, and upgrading its technology infrastructure.

Mr. Billington, the Librarian of Congress, replied that paying for the
recommendations would require "bold new relationships with the private
sector and other research institutions, as well as continued Congressional
support."



Liz Bishoff
Colorado Digitization Project
3801 E. Florida Ave, Suite 515
Denver, CO 80210
BISHOFFL@CONCENTRIC.NET
303-759-3399-V
303-759-3363-F
HTTP://COLORADODIGITAL.COALLIANCE.ORG

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