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Open Source Networking Tools In The Humanities

David Green
Executive Director
National Initiative for a Networked Cultural Heritage

Daniel Cohen
Associate Director
George Mason University

Matthew G. Kirschenbaum
Assistant Professor of English
University of Maryland

Stephen Ramsay
Senior Programmer
University of Virginia

The Internet was built on Open Source software. Recently, there has been renewed interest within the humanities in using open source methods to build tools across communities: collaborative instruments for collaborative work will demonstrate. This session will review the issues involved in developing open source software, and two examples of current work in this area: The Historians’ Toolkit, under development at the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University and the Virtual Lightbox, an image-based whiteboard for the web, designed to bridge the gap between image-based tools for the desktop and image-based applications for networked environments. The discussion will include issues related to the development and implementation of standards and the kinds of training and support campuses need to provide to support these tools.

Portals to the World

Carolyn Brown
Acting Director Area Studies Collections
Library of Congress

Everette Larson
Head of Reference, Hispanic Division
Library of Congress

Portals to the World is an electronic resource created by Library of Congress subject experts. It contains links to Internet materials that provide authoritative, in-depth information about the nations and areas of the world. These links are arranged first by country or area, and then by a wide range of categories. Staff specialists use current Library of Congress selection criteria to choose useful links, and then enhance these links by providing annotations. The staff also has the option to forward the links to catalogers for inclusion in the Library’s OPAC. The project is intended to be of interest to both scholars and the general public and, when completed, will include all nations of the world. This session will describe the design concept, the prototype pages, the selection criteria, the subject categories, as well as the current status and future direction of this project.

A Research Agenda for Digital Archiving: Report on an NSF-LOC Workshop

Margaret Hedstrom
Associate Professor, School of Information Library Studies
University of Michigan

This session will present the preliminary results of a workshop on Research Issues in Digital Archiving, sponsored by the NSF Digital Government Program, the NSF Information and Intelligent Systems Division, and the Library of Congress. The workshop, held immediately preceding the CNI Spring Task Force Meeting, included 50 participants from government agencies, universities and industry who discussed research issues and developed priorities for research on digital archiving and long-term preservation. This session will present preliminary results and recommendations from the workshop.

Update on the Open Knowledge Initiative

Phillip D. Long
Senior Strategist for the Academic Computing Enterprise & Outreach Coordinator for the OKI Project
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The Open Knowledge Initiative is defining an open architectural specification to be used for the development of educational related software. As a framework for applications development, the project was motivated by the desire to have a modular and extensible development platform for building both traditional and innovative educational applications. The initial specifications of the first layer of the Common Services architecture for OKI is now being shared with not just the core development partners (see http://web.mit.edu/oki/comm/) but also the general public via the OKI website, (http://web.mit.edu/oki/dsgn/specs.html). This session will provide an update on the project’s progress and activities.

A Web-Based Image Access System for Classroom Presentation in Art History

Marshall Breeding
Library Technology Officer
Vanderbilt University

The Jean and Alexander Heard Library at Vanderbilt University has developed a system for managing and presenting digitized images for classroom use. This image management system is a pilot project, currently used for three Art History classes. The interface is entirely web- based, allowing instructors to select and organize images without locally loaded software. The key feature that supports the use of the system for classroom use involves its “Virtual Slide Trays”; Instructors can search the database of images and place selected images into slide trays they create and name, usually corresponding to each class session. Art History classes rely on a dual projection environment, presenting comparative images in addition to the work of primary interest. The system supports this dual-projection requirement, giving the instructor the ability to select whether each image in the slide tray will be presented on the left or right screen. Students can access the slide trays for exam study and class preparation, with access controlled through the university’s course management environment. This session will include an opportunity to provide feedback on the classroom presentation features.

Where Students and Faculty Go for Information: Project Update on the Digital Library Federation Study of Academic Information Users

Leigh Watson Healy
Vice President
Outsell, Inc.

With support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Digital Library Federation and Outsell, Inc. are engaged in a multi-institution study that compares the information-seeking behaviors of more than 3,200 students and faculty across academic disciplines in liberal arts colleges and research/doctoral universities. This session will present preliminary findings and highlights of this research into how student and faculty behaviors and preferences are affecting library use and the demand for information resources.

The Report of the MLA Task Force on Evaluating Scholarship for Tenure and Promotion: One Year On

David E. Laurence
Director of Research and ADE
Modern Language Association
David Nicholls
Director of Book Publications
Modern Language Association

In December 2006, the Modern Language Association (MLA) released the report of its Task Force on Evaluating Scholarship for Tenure and Promotion. The Task Force reported the results of a spring 2005 online survey of 1,339 departments in 734 institutions across the United States covering a range of doctorate, master’s, and baccalaureate institutions. On the basis of the survey, a review of relevant reports, studies, and documents, and extensive consultation with academic administrators, MLA members, and publishers, the committee set forth 20 recommendations. In this session, a presentation of the response the report has received from a variety of scholarly and professional organizations will be discussed, and input will be solicited on how the report does or does not address the particular concerns of session attendees. Meeting attendees are encouraged to review the report (including an executive summary) on the MLA Web site prior to the session.

http://www.mla.org/tenure_promotion