DML-CZ Workshop June 2008

The State of the RusDML Project: The State of the RusDML Project: Russian Digital Mathematics LibraryRussian Digital Mathematics Library

Bernd Wegner

Mathematics Institute, TU Berlin

Editor-in-Chief of Zentralblatt MATH

Co-ordinator of EMIS, ERAM, and RusDML

DML-CZ Workshop June 2008

Overview

• 1. Why WDML or RusDML

• 2. The Russian part

• 3. The RusDML project

• 4. Vision and reality

DML-CZ Workshop June 2008

About mathematics

• Mathematics– is an open field for research. In contrast to a widely spread opinion a

lot of problem still have to be solved.– is different from the exercises executed in scholl mathematics

• About 100.000 research papers appear annually in the field of mathematics and its applications

• Published papers are the main research tool of a mathematician, they constitute the knowledge basis for further research and have to be taken into account for that.

• Easy access to them is essential for fruitful research and applications to other sciences

DML-CZ Workshop June 2008

Aims and mission

• WDML should offer all mathematical publications world-wide in digital form

• WDML should care about retrospective digitization of printed publications

• WDML should develop convenient access facilities which can be used at affordable rates

• General ideas and some technical standards available from the NSF-report of the Planning Group

DML-CZ Workshop June 2008

Digital archives

• JSTOR, Elsevier Backfiles, Springer SBM Backfiles, SIAM Backfiles, IoP Archives

• Cornell University Math Collection, Project Euclid• ERAM (Jahrbuch project), RusDML at SUB Göttingen• National activities

– Million Books Project

• Production of digital publications: commercial and academic publishers

• Collections of electronic pre-prints• Long-term preservation of digital content, self-archiving

DML-CZ Workshop June 2008

Key problems for digitization

• Copyright and licences: – Get the approval from authors and publishers to provide access

– Remove the paper if the author complains

• Seamless interlinking of digitised and digitally born content– Pursued consequently by commercial publishers

– Academic projects still a little behind

– Big problem when academic and commercial parties are supposed to cooperate

DML-CZ Workshop June 2008

Objectives of RusDML

• Make all Russian mathematics electronically available

• Make all Russian mathematics easily accessible• Disseminate information on Russian

mathematics world wide• Establish the Russian part of the WDML with

free access as far as possible

DML-CZ Workshop June 2008

Scope

• All mathematical publications from Russia and FSU countries

• Types of publications:– More than 100 periodicals– Large collections of monographs – Reference works and handbooks– Proceedings and collections of articles– Deposited work

• Refers to retro-digitized work from the “printed only period” and digitally born material

DML-CZ Workshop June 2008

Main Russian players

• RAS Moscow as – owner of a series of important journals and

– provider of digital versions of these journals

• The other branches of RAS

• Smaller academic publishers

• MGU and other university publishers

• VINITI– RZMat and other reference works

– Surveys

– Deposited articles

DML-CZ Workshop June 2008

Main Russian players

• Private publishers and agents

• Publishers at FSU states

• Digitization centers– GPNTB

– Library at the Steklov Institute of Mathematics

– Kasan

– Other libraries.

DML-CZ Workshop June 2008

Framework of the RusDML project

• Project libraries– GPNTB Moscow, SUB Göttingen, TIB Hannover

• Coordination at TU Berlin, work on metadata

• External Partners– FIZ Karlsruhe for the export and import of Z-Math metadata

• Funding organizations– RFBR from Russia

– DFG from Germany

• First period finished in March 2008

• GPNTB started with book digitization

DML-CZ Workshop June 2008

Achievements of the RusDML project

• Development of a core archive of digitized versions of important Russian publications in mathematics

• Tools for digitization and metadata production at distributed sites

• Bilingual tools for convenient access from Russia and from abroad

• A cooperational structure for a network of repositories

• Free access to the core archive world-wide

DML-CZ Workshop June 2008

Achievements of the RusDML project

• The copies of the core archive will be accessible at the three partner libraries in the near future.

• The core metadata are available in three versions:– English

– Russian in Cyrillic characters

– Russian transliterated

• Search tools will be developed in accordance with the needs at the library partners

• The tools have been tested successfully and are portable to other projects of similar type.

DML-CZ Workshop June 2008

Content available

- algeilo: 42 Bände, 1.712 Artikel (ø 41)- sibimazu, 40 Bände, 5.009 Artikel (ø 125)- matesb, 187 Bände, ca. 7.480 Artikel (ø 40)- zapinasep/l, 235 Bände, ca. 3525 Artikel (ø 15)- trudmacei, 19 Bände, ca. 380 Artikel (ø 20)- trudsepok, 28 Bände, ca. 504 Artikel (ø 18)- isslepoprm, 15 Bände, ca. 210 Artikel (ø 14)- veromei_k, 12 Bände, ca. 120 Artikel (ø 10)- trudgese, 14 Bände, ca. 280 Artikel (ø 20)- mateis, 127 Bände, ca. 1.905 Artikel (ø 15)

DML-CZ Workshop June 2008

RusDML problems

• Different funding schemes in Russia and Germany

• Internal Russian rivalries produced unexpected obstructions for the acquisition of digitization licences

• The consecutive workflow involving four partners was not flexible enough and produced delays

• The production of the rich set of metadata was too time consuming

• Filling the gaps was even more time consumig.

DML-CZ Workshop June 2008

Vision and reality

• Several good journals agreed to be digitized within the project under the requirements mentioned above.

• Some journals agreed to open access to their digitally born content through EMIS or other providers.

• Other are provided only for open access within the Russian Federation, asking for a subscription fee from abroad. With respect to a good distribution of Russian mathematics this is a questionable attitude.

• There is a chance to extend the core archive by cooperation with other producers of digital content.

DML-CZ Workshop June 2008

Vision and reality

• Most publications are still on a waiting list without having any chance to be digitized because of lack of money.

• Relatively high expectations from editors concerning revenues

• The attitude of content providers to give licences for free access became more reluctant.

• It will be more likely that they do their own digitization at a low budget level with a low quality result.

DML-CZ Workshop June 2008

Adresses

• Thank you for the attention• http://www.emani.org• E-Mail: Wegner@math.tu-berlin.de• http://www.emis.de