Report of a Workshop

Jan 15-172006

BibliothecaAlexandrina

Building a Digital Library of the Middle East

• Presenters:

- Steve Griffin, National Science Foundation

- Joan Lippincott, Coalition for Networked Information

- Joyce Ray, Institute of Museum and Library Services

- Don Waters, Mellon Foundation

Workshop Sponsors

Background

2003 - Interagency meetings on rebuilding the cultural history of Iraq convened by White House & State Dept.

Defining the Scope

Ancient Near East: Mesopotamia (Iraq and Syria); Persia (Iran); Egypt; the Levant (Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Palestinian Authority); and Anatolia (Turkey)

U.S.-Egypt Joint Science & Technology Fund Grant to

The Institute of Museum & Library Servicesand

Bibliotheca Alexandrina

June 2005

Coordinating Committee     

Noha Adly - Director of Information and Communication Technology Department and ISIS (International School of Information Science), Bibliotheca Alexandrina

Stephen Griffin - Program Director, Computer and Information Science and Engineering, National Science Foundation

Kenneth Hamma - Executive Director, Digital Policy and Initiatives, J. Paul Getty Trust

Ronald Larsen - Dean, School of Information Sciences, University of Pittsburgh

Joan Lippincott - Associate Executive Director, Coalition for Networked Information

Magdy Nagi - Head of the Information and Communication Technology Sector, Bibliotheca Alexandrina

Joyce Ray - Associate Deputy Director for Library Services, Institute of Museum and Library Services

Workshop Objectives August 2005 Planning Meeting

• Agree on a long-term vision

• Assess the current information infrastructure in the Middle East and examine the potential for establishing advanced research networks

• Identify a model for content aggregation, management, and preservation

• Identify content scope and services

• Document requirements as a roadmap for future actions

Desirable Characteristics of the Digital Library

August 2005 Planning Meeting

• A framework that can accommodate resources from many sources and subject areas

• Content that has public value, is easily navigable, and is unrestricted for use

• Connected to a large network supporting wide-scale access and exchange

• Maintained in a trusted repository with appropriate redundancy to ensure long-term preservation and continuity of access

 

Workshop Attendees Arrive in AlexandriaJanuary 15, 2006

Working Groups

• Vision and Mission

• Network Infrastructure

• Content, Collections and Users

• Interoperability and Standards

Vision and Mission

Working Group

Steve Griffin, NSF

Ron Larsen, University of Pittsburgh

• High-level Vision:- A global knowledge infrastructure that

supports the free flow of information; captures many forms of human expression; maximizes use of resources; and serves the research, education and information needs of all people

• Vision for MEDL:- To promote the preservation and

understanding of the cultural heritage of the Middle East through the collection, curation and dissemination of a sustainable digital record

• Scope: - Worldwide resources from and about the

cultures and societies of the Middle Eastern and Arab worlds

• Features:- Multilingual & Multimedia

- Distributed, Open & Interoperable

- Integrated into the global knowledge infrastructure

- Collaborative

- Adaptable for Different Audiences

- Sustained

• Anticipated Results:

- New relationships among cultural heritage

organizations

- New scholarly collaborations

- New resources for education and study

- A fuller, shared understanding of the historic human experience and its bearing on the present

Network Infrastructure

Working Group

Heather Boyles, Internet2

• Egyptian R&E Community- 124 Research Centers and Institutes

covering 32 Ministries

- 16 Governmental Universities

- Private Universities and Research Centers

- Bibliotheca Alexandrina

• Digital Library Support- Memorandum of Understanding with

Internet2

- Increase bandwidth and bandwidth reservation to move materials such as images, audio and video into general use

- Support digital library research such as indexing, new services and capabilities

Egypt NRENS

http://www.frcu.eun.eg/docs-n/index-ee.php

http://www.sti.sci.eg/index2.htm

Content, Collections and Users

Working Group

Ken Hamma, Getty Trust

Joan Lippincott, CNI

• “Content View”– Focus on inexpensively acquired content– Build the mass of the library– Attract users who would find this content

useful

• “User View”– Identify likely user communities– Build content to meet their needs

• Conclusion: focus on users– Produce scenarios of use– Develop measures based on targeted

outcomes in education, training, and technology literacy

• Content– Determine scope

• Cultural heritage or broader, e.g. scientific• Primarily educational?

– Give attention to born-digital materials, not just digitized collections

– Consider priority for aggregation projects, those that bring together related, dispersed resources

• Content– Balance of library-style and museum-style

(curated, exhibit type) collections– Balance needs of scholars and general public– Develop a preservation strategy

• Services– Develop nuanced identification of user groups– Assess technology readiness of user groups– Encourage the community to create content

and not just access it– Develop a structure that encompasses

development of community as well as delivery of content and services

• Services– Develop a research/evaluation agenda

• Needs assessment• Usability studies• Use analysis• Outcomes appraisal

• Next steps:– Inventory content already available in digital

form– Clarify interests of institutional partners– Conduct preliminary needs assessment– Identify issues - connectivity, access,

infrastructure - of importance near-term– Small pilot projects

• Next steps:

- Workshop• Potential partners from many countries• Refine a plan for the digital library• Secure commitments from participants to

contribute content and/or services

Interoperability and Standards

Working Group

Sam Quigley, Harvard

Don Waters, Mellon Foundation

Assumptions

• MEDL will involve a federation of participating institutions, but these have yet to be identified and readiness and need to implement particular standards will likely vary

• Content focus of MEDL also has not been identified, but will likely involve various formats

• Experience suggests the value of standard-compliant procedures, but it is not fruitful at this stage to articulate a full suite of applicable standards at all levels

A pragmatic approach

• Organizers should require the appropriate application of standards for file formats, metadata schemes, vocabulary, language representation, and end-user interfaces as needed

• Standards for interoperability at the repository level should receive the most specific attention and should initially focus on OAI-PMH

• However, for full functionality OAI-PMH is likely to be insufficient and will need to be supplemented with additional protocols and related infrastructure

An organizational framework

• Ideally, the standards and protocol would provide the main basis for broad participation in MEDL

• However, to jump start development and to promulgate standards-based activity, a partnership of a small-number of lead organizations would be useful

• A lead US institution, in partnership with a lead Middle East institution such as the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, could establish initial agreements, standards and protocols

Key repository operations

• OAI-PMH would help support:– Deposit and ingest of materials– Transmission of materials to mirror sites– Digital preservation– Return of value-added information to original data

providers (translation, OCR of page images, and other enrichment) as an incentive to keep contributing

• Additional protocols and infrastructure would eventually be needed especially to handle more complex digital objects

Nature of a partnership

• Agreements should provide for:– Mutual organizational and technical support– Content development– Mirror sites and a dissemination plan– A structure for participation by other

institutions– The development of standards-based

services, including digitization, OCR, cataloging, translating, depositing, and preservation

What Next?http://www.sis.pitt.edu/~egyptdlw/index.html