Uniting Communities: the Digital Library as a practical tool

Professor Derek LawDirector of Information Resources, University of Strathclyde

GLASGOW DIGITAL LIBRARY COLLECTIONS PEOPLE PLACES SUBJECTS DOCUMENTS

                                                                                                                                                                                             Organised digital collections to support teaching, learning and research

                            

Aspect Access to Scottish Parliamentary Election Candidate Materials

1999                             

Red Clydeside Political History of the Scottish Left 1910-1922

                            Springburn Virtual Museum Photographs from Springburn Community Museum 1880-1987

                            Voyage of the Scotia Scottish National Antarctic Expedition 1902-04

                            GlasgowInfo Directory information for and about Glasgow 2002

                            100 Glasgow Men Memoirs and Portraits of 100 Glasgow Men 1855-1885

                             Virtual Mitchell Images of Glasgow by area, street or subject 1860-1980

                            Victorian Times Social, political, and economic conditions 1837-1901

Overview | Contacts | Reports | Policies The Glasgow Digital Library is based at the Centre for Digital Library Research in the University of Strathclyde. It was set up as part of the Research Support Libraries Programme, supplemented by funding from SCRAN for specific digitisation projects.

GLASGOW DIGITAL LIBRARY COLLECTIONS PEOPLE PLACES SUBJECTS DOCUMENTS

User not technology driven The Library as place

Second most used public service Images are available to all Communities share a history Librarians collect and interpret that Returning their history to communities

Trust Me I’m a Librarian “People become librarians because they know

too much. Their knowledge extends beyond mere categories. They cannot be confined to disciplines. Librarians are all-knowing and all-seeing. They bring order to chaos. They bring wisdom and culture to the masses. They preserve every aspect of human knowledge. Librarians rule. And they will kick the crap out of anyone who says otherwise.” (Olson, 2000)

Structure and Themes

Objectives Issues Problems Goals Examples

Objectives of the Scottish Government for Digital Scotland

Making business more competitive Raising skills levels in the workforce Promoting social inclusion Addressing the democratic deficit Promoting e-government

Springburn Virtual Museum

The Three Challenges

Management of things Building Coherence

Management of Relationships Building Trust

Management of Perceptions Being Relevant

Glasgow Digital Library: objective

The Glasgow Digital Library is an attempt to create a wholly separate and purely digital library available to all citizens irrespective of educational level.

Why Glasgow? First cross-sectoral digital library in the

UK Government research funding available Tradition of co-operation in Glasgow

across sector boundaries Broadband network available Concentration of expertise in Glasgow

Centre for Digital Library Research

Based in Strathclyde University Largest such group in the UK An existing series of projects on

collaboration Provides underpinning technical

research

Glasgow Digital Library: key features Separate librarian But all partners involved Quasi-autonomous organisation Image based content aimed at all levels

of user Issues are human more than technical

Glasgow Digital Library: issues(1)

Human level co-operative mechanisms at a metropolitan level, including issues related to different organisations and issues of co-operation between competing organisations

Metadata issues relating to aggregating and disaggregating electronic materials from colleges, universities and the public library as required

The use of the CAIRNS landscaping mechanism dynamically to generate the GDL sub-set of the larger distributed catalogue and also offer a GDL specific look and feel

Glasgow Digital Library: issues(2) Interface issues relating to the need to

serve different user groups of varying age, interests, and educational level

Policy and strategy issues for the creation and maintenance of a large digital library aiming to serve all users in a large metropolitan area

Collaborative collection development issues

Authentication and access control issues for purchased materials and valuable materials not offered free.

Glasgow Digital Library: goals(1) An attractive, well managed, user-evaluated

interface to the service and demonstrator web-site.

Better access over the MAN to electronic resources, to new locally created resources, to locally cached internet resources, to the products of digitisation projects

Improved retrievability, usability and reliability of collections through resource cataloguing to agreed standards for between 5000 and 10,000 discrete items, link checking, archiving, tools for resource manipulation.

Glasgow Digital Library: goals (2) Improved services through improved

management control, co-operative savings, co-operative collection management, joint service provision.

Service as well as collections A report on cross-sectoral use of

MANs, identifying best practice procedures, and making recommendations for a draft model IPR contract for institutions sharing resources.

Glasgow Digital Library: goals (3) Basic (and evaluated) consultative, financial,

managerial and technical infrastructure for the GDL, allowing ongoing development.

Exit strategy and forward plan for the GDL: operational plan for five years beyond initial funding.

Report on the project with recommendations and guidelines likely to be of value to other MANs.

Investigation of wider issues through integration of CAIRNS and work with SCONE.

Glasgow Digital Library: goals (4) Guidelines on the value and

limitations (if any) of city-wide subscriptions to electronic resources.

Collection management and user online tools recommendations for MAN.

Model and demonstrator for cross-sectoral co-operation in a large metropolitan area.   

Red Clydeside

GLASGOW DIGITAL LIBRARY COLLECTIONS PEOPLE PLACES SUBJECTS DOCUMENTS

                                                                                                                                                                                             Organised digital collections to support teaching, learning and research

                            

Aspect Access to Scottish Parliamentary Election Candidate Materials

1999                             

Red Clydeside Political History of the Scottish Left 1910-1922

                            Springburn Virtual Museum Photographs from Springburn Community Museum 1880-1987

                            Voyage of the Scotia Scottish National Antarctic Expedition 1902-04

                            GlasgowInfo Directory information for and about Glasgow 2002

                            100 Glasgow Men Memoirs and Portraits of 100 Glasgow Men 1855-1885

                             Virtual Mitchell Images of Glasgow by area, street or subject 1860-1980

                            Victorian Times Social, political, and economic conditions 1837-1901

Overview | Contacts | Reports | Policies The Glasgow Digital Library is based at the Centre for Digital Library Research in the University of Strathclyde. It was set up as part of the Research Support Libraries Programme, supplemented by funding from SCRAN for specific digitisation projects.

GLASGOW DIGITAL LIBRARY COLLECTIONS PEOPLE PLACES SUBJECTS DOCUMENTS

The Scottish National Antarctic Expedition, 1902

The Scottish National Antarctic Expedition, 1902