CNI: Coalition for Networked Information

JSTOR’s New Initiative to Archive Electronic Journals

Eileen Gifford Fenton
Director of Production
JSTOR

Kevin M. Guthrie
President
JSTOR

The academic and publishing communities have moved into the 21st century with ever-increasing reliance on digital content, but methods for preserving this content have not emerged. Consequently, establishing a production-level archiving system is a matter of increasing urgency to avoid the loss of important scholarly literature. As a not-for-profit organization dedicated to preserving scholarly literature, JSTOR’s mission argues for the organization to take on this challenge. In doing so, JSTOR will continue to take a system-wide perspective, balancing the needs of libraries, publishers, and users in the delivery of the archive. The broad principles that govern JSTOR’s approach will be the same for both our paper-based and born-electronic efforts, however, the specific terms of implementation for the e-archive are likely to differ from those that characterize our existing print-based model.

Handout:
JSTOR’s New Initiative to Archive Electronic Journals
(MS Word document)

Learning Management Systems: Integrating Information Resources

Patricia Albanese Pitkin
CIO and Director of LITS
Mt. Holyoke College

Susan Gibbons
Director, Digital Library Initiatives
University of Rochester

John Ockerbloom
Digital Library Architect and Planner
University of Pennsylvania

Learning Management Systems (LMS) are ubiquitous on most campuses and even those faculty who are low-end technology users often make basic course information such as syllabi available through an LMS. There are opportunities to highlight information resources relevant to partcular courses through an LMS. Reserve readings, licensed electronic journals, databases and Web sites should be readily linked to individual course Web pages. However, key architectural issues of linking LMS and library integrated systems or library-licensed resources are often not worked out. Promoting the value of integration of information resources into LMS is also an issue on some campuses.

In this session, representatives of three institutions who are tackling issues of integrating information resources into LMS will discuss both the technical and policy issues they are facing and the implementation of their work in this area.

Handout:
University of Rochester Libraries’ “CoURse Resources”
(MS Word document)

The Million Book Digitization Project with India and China

Gloriana St. Clair
University Librarian
Carnegie Mellon University

The vision of the Million Book Project is to scan a million books to make these materials available worldwide on the Web. One commentator noted that “In the end, this will be Vannevar Bush’s memex.” The National Science Foundation has recently provided funding for equipment and travel. Partners in India and China have received funding for the labor they are supplying, have installed equipment, and are scanning files with accompanying metadata. Partners in the U.S. have supplied books to be shipped to India for scanning. Research initiatives allied with the project include machine translation, massive distributed databases, storage formats, digital library use, distribution and sustainability, and security. Important issues of sustainability are still being studied.

Web Links:
The Million Book Project

PowerPoint Presentation:
Million Book Project (MBP)

A Model Digital Library of 3D Data: A Progress Report

Jeremy Rowe
Head, Media Development
Arizona State University

This presentation updates progress and new developments in the integrated system for storage, archiving, sketch-based query and retrieval system of three-dimensional (3D) objects developed under a NSF KDI grant at Arizona State University. The project has developed software to model surfaces of 3D objects from scanned point cloud data and to automatically extract features and identify regions of interest identified as meaningful by discipline researchers. The Web-accessible visual query interface permits users to define searches with both contextual and spatial criteria, search the databases and retrieve matching objects. The interface currently supports query input via 2D sketches, and support for full 3D interactive models is under development. The interface displays textual and metric descriptive data and interactive 2D and 3D models that permit researchers to explore and interact with object models.

Project content includes Native American ceramic vessels, bone surfaces (anthropological, and forensic applications), and cellular DNA structures. Symmetry and spatial comparison of other 3D data is in process including brain shape, facial recognition, and cloud formation. The Partnership for Research in Spatial Modeling (PRISM) team is exploring extendable models for digital libraries of 3D data that capture, model, extract meaningful features, and automatically catalogue data, and interfaces that permit researchers to search and identify similar objects, then retrieve, compare and interact with models of the complex 3D data.

Web Links:
3D Knowledge: Acquisition, Representation, Analysis
Handout:
Developing a Digital Library of 3D Spatial Data
(MS Word document)

Next Generation Library Tutorials for the Academic Setting

Anne Graham
Senior Computer Specialist
University of Washington

John Holmes
UWILL Coordinator
University of Washington

The University of Washington Libraries is currently creating a next-generation series of Web-based tools for teaching information fluency concepts in an academic setting. What makes UW’s approach noteworthy is that the tools will be part of a database-driven Web application, allowing instructors to edit, create, or enhance the tool’s content. Faculty and librarians will be able to insert discipline-specific examples and other content into the tutorials, helping to bridge the span between standardized, transferable content and the specific objectives of a course or assignment. This dynamic will allow more seamless incorporation of the learning content for information competencies into other domain content of a course. By reaching outside the libraries to faculty of many disciplines, the UW Information Literacy Learning (UWILL) group is hoping to incorporate the learning of basic information-based research skills with specific curriculum elements of coursework.

Web Links:
University of Washington Information Literacy Learning

Handout:
University of Washington Information Literacy Learning
(PDF file)

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