Digital repositories DPC podcasts

Repositories Support Project.

The series opens with four podcasts, including one
on digital preservation:


Are repositories doing enough for preservation?
Speakers at the DPC workshop on Tackling the
Preservation Challenge tell us about practical
tools and services to help repositories.
Featuring contributions by Frances Boyle,
Neil Beagrie, Barbara Sierman, Chris Awre,
David Tarrant, Chris Yates, Rory McLeod, Adrian
Brown, Kevin Ashley and Matthew Woollard.

The podcasts are available to download to an MP3
player or stream directly.

To keep up to date with RSP podcasts, you can
subscribe to a project feed or via iTunes.

Knock on the digital door

March 24th, 2009: Over 800 education and research
professionals at JISC’s annual conference in Edinburgh
will discuss how opening up resources, adopting a greener
approach to IT and how small changes can have a large
impact in making teaching, learning and research accessible
to all.
In his first speaking opportunity as JISC Chair,
Professor Sir Tim O’Shea, will be putting forward his vision
of how JISC can help colleges and universities achieve their
missions, achieve value for money and support their research
base.
Opening digital doors and giving accessibility to teaching and
learning materials is one aspect JISC will be showcasing. One
of its funded-services the British Universities Film and Video
Council (BUFVC) will be launching BoB – Box of Broadcast.
Similar to the BBC’s iPlayer, it will make broadcast and video
content available indefinitely to thousands of students and
researchers for the first time.
It allows users to record forthcoming programmes or missed
programmes in the last week. However, unlike iPlayer, these
programmes do not expire and are available indefinitely,
making it invaluable for lecturers and students requiring
constant access.
The conference’s opening keynote speech will be delivered
by Professor Lizbeth Goodman, Chair of Creative Technology
Innovation at the University of East London, where she also
directs the SMARTlab Digital Media Institute and the MAGIC
Multimedia and Games Innovation Centre and Gamelab.

The closing keynote speech will be delivered by Ewan McIntosh,
Scotland and Ireland Digital Commissioner for 4iP, Channel 4’s
Innovation for the Public Fund which helps people understand
how emerging technologies such as social media, mobile ubiquitous
computers and gaming can help them learn better, work better
and live better.

For those delegates not able to attend the conference in person, it will be
live streamed and session blogs will be posted throughout the day.

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EU Culture Programme: Call for proposal in the field of transnational mobility of artist and cultural professionals

This call for proposals supports, on an experimental
basis, the mobility of artists and cultural professionals.
Its aim is to explore new ways of funding mobility at
EU level, with a view to promoting cultural diversity,
reducing imbalances (regional and ingoing / outgoing) and
fostering intercultural dialogue. The results will help
to test how EU level funding can provide added value in
supporting transnational mobility, and consequently contribute
to the preparation of the Culture Programme for the next
programming period beyond 2013, as well as provide input to
policy development.  In this context, "artists and cultural
professionals" refers to artists of all disciplines,
practitioners, cultural institution managers, producers,
promoters, researchers, journalists, operators, intermediaries
in the cultural sector.
Priority will be given to projects with a strong European
dimension, which adopt a developmental approach to mobility
and which open access to new target groups and geographical areas.
Deadline for applications:  15 May 2009.
The activities to be co-financed must start before 1 December 2009,
and last less than 2 years.
The total budget earmarked for co-financing these projects amounts
to 1.500.000 EUR.
The size of the grants will range between 50 000 and 250 000 EUR.
This call for tenders is relevant for film heritage institutions,
as most of its staff can be included in the category of "cultural
professionals".
All information on how to apply is available here

(Info from CEG)
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The future of intellectual property Creativity and innovation in the digital era

Conference:
The future of intellectual property Creativity and innovation in the digital era
23-24 April, 2009, Committee of the Regions, Brussels
The era of digital networks has given rise to new problems
in the area of intellectual property. They include the question of how best to deal
with the massive numbers of downloads of film, music and software via peer-to-peer
file sharing, as well as copyright issues arising out of the digitalisation of entire
libraries. The conference “The future of intellectual property“, which is organised
by Goethe-Institut Brüssel, will address a range of issues that are raised by this
exciting policy area. Above all: How can the concept of intellectual property be
adapted to the realities of the digital era, and at the same time not become
outdated and inefficient?
Conference languages: English, German, French. Registration deadline: April 16th,
2009. The number of available places is limited.

For further information

(Info from CEG)

Sound vote delayed

News from Soundcopyright . eu

Amid intense lobbying in the European Parliament
next Monday's vote on the proposal to extend the
term of copyright has been struck off in a shock
move. Following a meeting of the presidents of
the political groups in the European Parliament
on Tuesday, and with controversy and a lack of
consensus surrounding the proposal, MEPs have
delayed voting till the end of April - just before
this summer's European elections. A trialogue
discussion between the European Commission,
Council and Parliament, set for the end of March,
will now attempt to broker a deal to see if the
directive will be allowed to pass.



MEPs are waking up to the reality that the
proposal to extend copyright term doesn't do what
it says. It's a terrible and unworkable instrument
that will do nothing but bring copyright into
disrepute in the eyes of consumers. If you're
concerned about the need for a fair and balanced
copyright framework you must contact your MEPs now
(1). Make your voice heard!
In other news this week Professor Martin Kretschmer,
Director of the Centre for Intellectual Property
Policy & Management Bournmemouth, and Horace Trubridge,
Assistant General Secretary of the British Musicians'
Union, have been debating the copyright term extension
proposal
(2). Additionally copyright creators in the Association
for Fair Audiovisual Copyright in Europe have launched
a petition against the proposal
(3). But right now the most important thing is to contact
your MEPs
(4) and tell them why copyright term extension is a bad idea
(5)! Use our web banners (6) and spread the word.

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iPlayer on Air

The BBC has unveiled iPlayer desktop based on Abobe Air. The (beta) system AIR 1.5 makes use of the Flash Media Rights Management Server (FMRMS) to DRM-protect content which is downloaded to the user’s desktop.

Museums and the web conference

Museums and the web conference


April 15 - 18 Indianapolis.

Looks to be an amazing conference!

And best of all, for all of us who can only dream of attending, the papers are already coming online.

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Fast forward in the Netherlands

Images for the Future: Unlocking the Value of Audiovisual Heritage

The huge project to digitise the Dutch av heritage is very well covered in this article.

Welcome to the new socio-economic model. Hmm. Hope it works.

Abstract

Images for the Future is the largest digitization effort in Europe to date.

A consortium of 6 partners (including three archives) is migrating a

substantial part of the Dutch audiovisual heritage to a digital

environment.

The project has three objectives: safeguarding heritage for future

generations, creating social- economical value, and supporting

innovation in cultural infrastructure. Much is to be expected from

recent developments in computer science, especially in the areas

of data-mining, information retrieval, and user-audience participation

capabilities.

To achieve these objectives, the cultural heritage sector is challenged

to re-evaluate its business models. This article presents the theoretical

framework in which Images for the Future is operating, and

substantiates this framework with concrete examples of results.

A must-do course

FOOTAGE TRAINING WEEK

1-5 June, 2009

- from archive to exploitation -

A week long course designed for anyone from anywhere inthe world who needs to know more about the footage industry - image archivists, footage researchers, production managers, producers, directors – whatever your media background, learn how to expand your knowledge and appreciation of the world of footage archives, their systems and uses.

If history is a guide, this course is an absolute MUST for anyone having to work as a researcher on a footage-heavy production.

Very limited places. Hurry.

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TC04 - Production & Preservation of Digital Audio Objects

The Second Edition of the IASA TC04, /Guidelines
on the Production and Preservation of Digital
Audio Objects, has been printed and is about to
be launched.
There will be an event marking the launch at the British
Library's Unlocking Audio 2 Conference in London next
week.

Already an accepted authority in the sound archiving
field, the second edition is a thoroughly revised and
updated with substantial new information and chapters.

The second edition now also contains:
• guidance in metadata, thoroughly explained with examples
• an entirely new structure on digital repositories which
follows the OAIS guidelines
• an extensive amount of new information
• guidance on small scale storage solutions
• advice on out-sourced approaches.

Due to the Generosity of our sponsors (Memnon,Cube-Tec;
NOA, RTE, National Library of Norway and the National
Library of Australia),
it has been able to reduce the cost of the publication
to 15 Euros plus postage.

It will be available from next week from the IASA website.
The full publication details are:
IASA Technical Committee
Standards Recommended, Practices and Strategies
IASA-TC04
Guidelines on the Production and Preservation of Digital
Audio Objects, March 2009
Ed. by Kevin Bradley, IASA President and Vice Chair
of IASA Technical Committee.
Printed in Australia, 2009, 150 pp
ISBN 978-91-976192-2-6

Know Your Copyright from Wrong

Link to download site:
Know Your Copyright from Wrong: A Guide to UK Copyright Law

Author Christine Riefa,
Brunel Law School

Available for download from the Social Science Research Network

This valuable description of UK copyright deals well with av and broadcast issues, and best of all provides many interpretive examples.

International Conference for Digital Libraries and the Semantic Web

CALL FOR PAPERS
International Conference for Digital Libraries 
and the Semantic Web (ICSD2009)
September 8-11, 2009  -  University of Trento, 
Trento (ITALY)

Digital libraries, in the central view of the term, 
focus on storing and organizing digital objects and 
providing access to  these objects through professional 
or user-generated metadata or content-based search 
(full text, image content, full musical  score). 
In an expanded view, DLs also support annotation, 
generation or editing of digital objects and provide 
tools for processing digital objects. The
semantic Web focuses on the formal representation of 
data for more precise retrieval and, more importantly, 
for reasoning so that many often disparate items of data 
can be combined to directly answer a user's question or 
to devise a plan of action.
ICDLSW addresses two main questions:
(1) How can digital libraries support Semantic Web 
functionality?
(2) How can Semantic Web technology improve digital 
libraries?

Ultimately the goal is an environment in which all 
functionality is available to the user without the 
perception of different systems or system boundaries. 
Contributions are sought that address one or both of 
the main questions or steps towards the ultimate system.  
Some example topics are listed below, but the purpose of 
this list is just to stimulate thinking.

SPECIFIC TOPICS that address one or both of the 
main questions:

* Digital objects that provide formal representation of 
data ready for reasoning, possibly in addition to text, 
images, or  sound.
* Knowledge acquisition: Editing tools that assist subject 
experts in the creation of formal representations of data.
* Digital objects that interact with the user or 
software agents.
* Standards and specifications for digital objects.
* Organization and retrieval of software agents and 
Semantic Web services.
* Semantic search. Use of ontologies and knowledge bases 
(such as topic maps) to
improve search for digital objects.
* Question answering from text, from data/knowledge bases, 
or a combination.
* Next generation OPACs.
* The structure and creation of ontologies to support 
these functions.
* Using the intellectual capital available in traditional 
KOS such as Dewey Decimal
Classification (DDC), UDC, or MeSH in the construction of 
ontologies that support truly semantic search and reasoning.
* Vocabulary and taxonomy development.
* Multilingual issues in Digital Libraries.
* Semantics of bibliographical databases.
* Metadata standards, Interoperability and Crosswalks.
* Digital Library and Semantic Web Projects and Case Studies.

We invite original papers in English on all relevant topics as 
mentioned above.
Papers will be reviewed based on  originality  of work, quality 
and relevance to the main theme of the conference. Peer reviewed 
and accepted papers will be published in the conference proceedings. 
The papers should follow the SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS provided on 
the conference website.

The conference will explore the area of digital libraries and the 
semantic web through tutorials, workshops, demonstrations, invited 
talks and presentations. The conference will also serve as a 
working platform for communities to discuss and agree on joint work. 
We also encourage the submission of workshop proposals for this
purpose.

SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE:
Paolo Bouquet, University of Trento (Italy)
Johannes Keizer, FAO of the United Nations (Italy)
Wolfgan Nejdl, University of Hannover (Germany)
ARD Prasad, Indian Statistical Institute, Bangalore (India)
Heiko Stoermer, University of Trento (Italy)

IMPORTANT DATES:
April 16, 2009: Submission (Papers, Posters & Workshops)
June 24, 2009: Camera-ready copy
September 8-11, 2009: Conference at the University of Trento

FOR MORE INFORMATION


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Ariadne news

From CEG

Ariadne Website

Ariadne is a Web magazine for information professionals
in archives, libraries and museums in all sectors.
Since its inception in January 1996 it has attempted to keep
the busy practitioner abreast of current digital library
initiatives as well as technological developments further
afield. It concentrated originally on reporting in depth
to the information community at large on progress and
developments within
the UK Electronic Libraries Programme (eLib),
covering matters such as information service developments and
information networking issues worldwide. It now additionally
reports on developments in the field of
Museums, Libraries and Archives within the UK and abroad.


The latest issue contains an article on the
"European Film Gateaway":


And the PrestoSpace project - and here:

Sound copyright D-Day

Copyright: extension of the term of protection
of recorded performances

On 16 July 2008, the European Commission made a
proposal for amending the existing copy-right
legislation, with the purpose of extending the term
of protection for recorded performances and the record
itself from 50 to 95 years.
The European Parliament's position on this file will be
discussed in the its Plenary Session of the 23rd of March
( at 5 o'clock). The vote will take place on the 24.

For more information.

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money money money

From CEG

Funding opportunities: Competitiveness and
Innovation Framework Programme, ICT
Policy Support Programme (CIP / ICT- PSP):
Work Programme 2009 - Theme 2 "Digital
Libraries"

The Community programme eContentplus12 already
funded a number of projects in support of the
European Digital Library between 2005 and 2008.
The CIP/ICT-PSP programme will continue to support
its further development, i.e. bringing in more
content from different types of cultural organisations,
work on interoperability and improving the service.
Total funding available for the Theme 2 "Digital Libraries"
is 25 M€. This theme intended to fund actions under the
following five objectives:

2.1: European Digital Library - services
2.2: European Digital Library – aggregating digital content
in Europeana
2.3: European Digital Library – Digitising content for
Europeana
2.4: Open access to scientific information
2.5: Use of cultural heritage material for education

The work complete work programme can be downloaded and here

The call for proposals opened on 29 January and will close
on 2 June 2009.
Information on how to apply.

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European standardization on interoperability of film databases

From the CEG group

European standardization on interoperability of film
databases The CEN enquiry for the draft standard
prEN 15907 "Film identification – Enhancing interoperability
of metadata – Element sets and structures" 
was launched on 26 February and will last until 26 July.
Comments should be sent via national
standardization bodies. National standardization bodies should
be able to provide you with a copy of the document.
In any case, it will be made available from the websites
of AFNOR and BSI

The European standard EN 15744 "Film identification
- Minimum set of metadata for cinematographic works"
is already approved, and it will be published in the
coming weeks.

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The Life Story of David Lloyd George

The truly remarkable film about the Welsh Wizard, "The Life Story of David Lloyd George", a "lost" bio-epic from 1918 is now available on DVD from the National Library of Wales.

An thorough review of the film is available on the Bioscope blog.

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Center for History and New Media

The strapline for the Center for History and New Media site is "Building a better Yesterday, Bit by Bit"

A great store of information, links and software tools to help organise history in the digital domain, including a survey builder linked to digital oral history.

Well worth a look.

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The Unknown Bergman

In connection with Ingmar Bergman International
Theatre Festival in Stockholm,
Ingmar Bergman Foundation hosts a one-day-symposium
at Målarsalen, Dramaten on May 29, 2009.
"The Unknown Bergman" features leading Bergman scholars
from around the world and centres on less identified
aspects of Bergman's artistry.
The first holder of the Ingmar Bergman professorship,
Prof. Thomas Elsaesser lectures on "Ingmar Bergman in
the Museum? Thresholds, Limits, Conditions of
Possibility" and shows a compilation film specially made
for the occasion. Prof. Maaret Koskinen, acclaimed Bergman
scholar, provides new outlooks on The Silence in
a presentation entitled "Sex and the City: Embodied Visions
and the Eroticism of Language". Prof. Em. Rochelle Wright
gives a lecture on the "Jewish Figures in the
Films of Ingmar Bergman". Also the queer perspective in
Bergman's films and stagings will be approached.

Our ambition is to present some of the most prominent
scholars worldwide on Bergman territory and host exclusive
film screenings. In doing so we want to contribute to the
festival with both width and depth, says Ingrid Dahlberg,
CEO of Ingmar Bergman Foundation.
As a part of the symposium, The Swedish National Library
presents the ongoing digitization of the Ingmar Bergman
Foundation Archives. The Foundation's newly created film
Images from the Playground will also premiere. The film,
directed by Stig Björkman and supported by Martin Scorsese's
World Cinema Foundation, is based on Bergman's early
behind-the-screen films.

The symposium is arranged by Ingmar Bergman Foundation with
the support of Swedish Arts Council, The Royal Swedish Academy
of Letters, History and Antiquities and The Swedish Institute.

Read more at Ingmar Bergman Foundation's website
Ingmar Bergman Face to Face
www.ingmarbergman.se.
Read more about Ingmar Bergman International Theatre
Festival

Disability and Access to Moving Image and Sound

The BUFVC Learning on Screen Conference this year will take
place on 7th and 8th April 2009 at the Wellcome Trust.

Peter White MBE, the BBC's Disability Correspondent, will
open the Conference, the key theme of which is Disability
and Access to Moving Image and Sound. He will also be
presenting the Learning On Screen Awards being given out
on the evening of 7th April.

Confirmed presentations and speakers include:

Audio Description for the Blind and Partially Sighted
Joan Greening, Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB)
Technologies to Assist the Deaf and Hard of Hearing
Guido Gybels, Royal National Institute for the Deaf (RNID)
Better use of technology gives benefits to all learners
Sal Cooke, Head of JISC TechDis Service
e-Inclusion Project - Us5
Owen Smith and Martin Wright, BBC and London
Metropolitan University - Gamelab London
Peter and Josephine: we just want to be together
Professor Wendy Couchman, Faculty of Health and Social Care -
London South Bank University
3-D Interactive Screen Experiments
Robert J. Lucas, PiCETL - The Open University
Synote
Dr Mike Wald, University of Southampton
What do we learn watching breaking news stories? An analysis
of 24 hour news in the UK
Dr. Stephen Cushion, Cardiff University
Legal Responsibilities - SENDA and other legislation
Martin Sloan, Technology Information & Outsourcing Group -
Brodies LLP
Inclusive use of Technology
Simon Ball, Senior Advisor, JISC TechDis Service
Dyslexia Matters
Speaker TBC
In higher and further education, institutions are required to make 
reasonable adjustments in the delivery of course content and
learning materials to avoid placing a disabled person at a
substantial disadvantage. Techniques including signing, sub-titling,
audio description, voice to text translation, Braille translators, online 
accessibility standards and auditing are a commonplace and have had 
beneficial effect. However, there is vagueness in the legislation 
which can cause justifiable concern for educational service-providers 
and there is more to be done to make reasonable adjustments.

This conference will offer an opportunity to learn more and to 
discuss solutions. The Learning on Screen Conference will offer an 
opportunity for academic service providers, web developers, 
broadcasters, educationists, advisors, publishers and representatives 
of disability groups to meet to see examples of best practise, to 
learn about new techniques and to discuss the challenge of reaching 
the standards of delivery required by legislation to meet the 
expectations of users.

Please visit the Learning on Screen 2009 site for contact details and 
booking information.

Book for the conference
Full programme
For more information contact:
learningonscreen [at] bufvc [dot] ac [dot] uk
                                                                                      
Tel: 020 7393 1500

The Wellcome Collection

SOIMA

SOIMA 2009: SAFEGUARDING SOUND
AND IMAGE COLLECTIONS

17 November-11 December, 2009 (four weeks)

Application deadline: 20 April, 2009

New Delhi, with study visits to other cities in India

ORGANIZERS
NRLC (National Research Laboratory for Conservation
of Cultural property, Lucknow in collaboration with other
national cultural institutions in India,

ICCROM (International Centre for the Study of the
Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property)

Link to course details here.

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WHELF blog

The Welsh Higher Education Libraries Forum now has a blog

WHELF also has its own Flickr site

Daily Planet

Not Superman, sorry, but "Planets" again, this time
their newsletter.


Planets is happy to announce that the project’s sixth
 newsletter is now available!
Planetarium #6 contains an interesting spotlight on
the Planets Testbed, a controlled environment where
preservation tools can be tested and evaluated. This
issue also features articles about Planets beyond 2010
and the Planets all staff meeting. In addition you will
find a list of Planets publications and presentations
at events, including e.g. iPRES, ECDL2008, RCDL’08,
and both the award winning Plato and the SIARD tools
presentation are briefly described.
Planetarium #6 is available online.
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The newsletter is also available on the Planets web site

Sign up for Planets newsletters via the RSS feed 
For more information on the project, please contact:
info [at] planets-project[dot]eu
Planets - Preservation and Long-term Access through
Networked Services, is a four-year project co-funded by
the European Union under the Sixth
Framework Programme to address core digital preservation
challenges.

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Sustainibility of the Planet(s)

Planets Long-term Management of Information Survey

Organisations in Europe that create or hold digital content are invited to take part in a survey to test requirements of Planets’ products and services so that these can be packaged and delivered in a way best suited to meet institutions’ needs.

Planets (Preservation and Long-term Access through Distributed Networks) has issued a survey to each of 96 National Libraries and Archives in Europe plus intermediary institutions in EC member countries. The survey is open to any institution with an interest in retaining and accessing digital content.

Individuals or institutions who wish to take part can find out more and complete the survey. Results are collated automatically when the form is submitted. You cannot save an electronic copy but can print the completed form off for your records. The survey will be open until 23:59 on 16 March 2009.

The results will be published in the summer of 2009. They will inform the packaging and delivery of Planets tools and services to meet demand. They will also be used to help shape the framework that will ensure Planets outputs continue to provide benefits to their users after the project ends in May 2010.

Planets is a four-year project co-funded by the European Commission and 16 National Libraries, Archives, research and technology institutions in Europe. The project will establish a suite of tools and services to support and substantially automate the preservation process. The project’s outputs will be vital to ensuring institutions in Europe can preserve their digital information and access it in the long-term.

Copyfight

As if copyright in traditional archives wasn't complicated enough, moving to the digital domain makes matters worse.

I've now discovered (thanks Sara) "copyfight" on boingboing.net - and all of a sudden, "worse" sounds like a euphemism.

See, for example this article on certain audiobooks.

Well worth a browse.

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