The Library of Congress is planning a new National Audio-Visual Conservation Center in Culpeper, Virginia, scheduled to open in 2003. The Center will feature improved storage for the Library's recorded sound and moving image collections, a new nitrate film laboratory, a collections processing and cataloging activity, and a multipurpose digital facility. The digital facility will support the preservation of sound and video recordings, conduct research to improve digital preservation, and provide remote access to audio-visual collections for researchers in the Library's Capitol Hill reading rooms. Prototyping and design for the digital facility is taking place in 2000-2002, with implementation to continue as the Center opens and begins operation. There will be two key elements: digital production and a repository. The production facility at the Center will reformat existing collections and process newly acquired a-v materials in digital form. In planning for the repository, the Reference Model for Open Archive Information Systems (OAIS) has proved helpful. The a-v group will focus on the specialized functional elements of the model called 'ingestion' and 'access.' Meanwhile, the project will participate in Library-wide development of an enterprise-service repository that will provide the 'archival storage,' 'administration,' and 'data management' functions for all forms of digital content.

The Audio-Visual Prototyping Project is currently undertaking a number of feasibility tests and studies that underpin the broader planning effort: (1) identifying computer-file formats suitable for the preservation reformatting of recorded sound collections, including those with visual and textual elements, (2) experimental capture of curator-selected Web sites deemed suitable for addition to the Library's a-v collections, (3) the definition of descriptive, structural, and administrative metadata to be captured in association with the production process, (4) development of a preliminary methodology for the capture of this metadata, and (5) applying an XML-based encoding scheme to a-v digital archival objects. The XML scheme being tested is the one developed for the Making of America 2 project by the University of California at Berkeley. The Audio-Visual Prototyping Project is being carried out by the Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division, supported by the National Digital Library Program and the Preservation Directorate of the Library of Congress.

We believe that Web services should be built around names and the communities that support them. It is interesting to note that most named items are not directly available on the Web. This does not diminish the importance of these names or the objects to which they refer. For instance, the library and publishing community has a large investment in ISBNs, which normally refer to books. ISBNs are already being used in many Web-based services like purchasing, cataloging, referencing, and lending, even though the books may not be directly available on the Web. We are researching how traditional names like ISBN can be used in more Web-based services and how these names can be used to link these services. While our initial focus has been on ISBNs, similar services will be built using a variety of names.

This session presents the results of a study conducted by Hal Varian and Peter Lyman, from the School of Information Management & Systems at UC Berkeley. The cost of magnetic storage is dropping rapidly while disk capacities are increasing exponentially. Soon it will be technologically possible for an average person to access virtually all recorded information. The natural question then becomes: how much information is there to store? If we wanted to store "everything," how much storage would it take? This study was undertaken to answer this question, looking at the most common forms of information media and estimating yearly production, accumulated stock, rates of growth, and other variables of interest.

The libraries of the University of California, San Diego have begun development of a digital Pacific Rim Library in support of education and research in international studies. In collaboration with the San Diego Supercomputer Center, we have resolved technical issues related to loading and archiving large quantities of very small files. We have enabled access to Chinese digital libraries that use proprietary file formats and client software. We have developed software that ensures compatibility among myriad Chinese character encoding schemes. The presentation will summarize technical issues and their resolution for digital libraries created in proprietary formats and for information resources encoded with Chinese, Japanese, and Korean character sets.

The University at Buffalo is so vast in its offerings and the size of its community that it is actually larger than some small towns. MyUB keeps UB as big as you need, and as small as you want. MyUB is a web-based, personalized information portal that allows students to access their entire UB web resources inventory from one web address. MyUB is custom-tailored for the student individual interests and needs, and actually evolves with the student.

MyUB is developed as a coaching, mentoring system that complements our human advisors, bringing the wide resources of UB to the student's fingertips from any location, at any time of the day or night. Based on our strong partnerships between units such as the libraries, student affairs, computing, and academic advising, MyUB can anticipate the questions all students have, such as how do I contact my advisor, what's for dinner in the dining hall, or how do I fulfill my course needs?

Because the site is accessed through the student's secure user ID, the MyUB can "know" things about each student, such as his or her division and major, and what courses they are taking, and push towards them the most relevant information, opportunities, and resources, such as registration windows, specific academic obligations, mentoring opportunities, online course reserve, and specific library resources and databases.

Far from being a generic set of passive and fixed links, MyUB provides the links that make sense at each point in time. MyUB functions as a personalized guide to the university and its wealth of resources. With our stakeholders, we have mined over 170,000 catalogued pages to expose the hidden gems and we have interfaced directly into the backend systems that serve the needs of our students. This way we can improve their quality of life and keep them on a successful academic track. It's this time-based delivery mechanism that makes MyUB unique among other educational and commercial sites.

To preview, visit  <http://www.buffalo.edu/aboutmyub/>

Octavo is the digital preservation company that partners with libraries and institutions to create and publish high quality, very high resolution digital images of rare books and precious manuscripts. Its purpose is to provide useful preservation surrogates; but the effect of its work is to provide access and digital publishing models that appear to establish the high-water mark for e-books. In addition, Octavo is implementing useful metadata management and display technologies that will be of interest to CNI attendees.