Announcing Live Chat Session on 'The Digital Libraries of the

From: Deborah Harrington (DHARRING@LIB-GW.TAMU.EDU)
Date: Wed Oct 11 2000 - 10:54:04 CDT

  • Next message: Jean Krchnak: "Re: Scanning contractors" 

    Message-Id: <200010111607.JAA21934@dns.ccit.arizona.edu>
Date:         Wed, 11 Oct 2000 10:54:04 -0500
From: Deborah Harrington <mailto:DHARRING@LIB-GW.TAMU.EDU>
Subject:      Announcing Live Chat Session on 'The Digital Libraries of the
To: mailto:IMAGELIB@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU

    <pre>
    **Widely cross posted. Please excuse duplication.**

    The Texas A&M University Libraries welcomes your participation in our virtual learning community available mailto:@ The Academi
     Libraries of the 21st Century (http://library.tamu.edu/21stcentury). The purpose of this project is to provide a chann l that stimulates creative thoughts and ideas for envisioning and planning for academic libraries of the future.

    During November, the Academic Libraries of the 21st Century will host its third live chat session, featuring experts fro
     major digital library initiatives around the U.S.:

    Topic: 'Digital Libraries of the 21st Century'

    Moderator: Hal Hall, Head, EDMS, Texas A&M University

    Featured Panelists:

    Dilawar Grewal Director Texas A&M University Digital Library

    Charles F. Thomas Digital Projects Coordinator University of Minnesota Libraries

    John Ober Director Education and Strategic Innovation California Digital Library

    Date: November 3, 2000

    Time: 3:00-4:30 Eastern
                2:00-3:30 Central
                1:00-2:30 Mountain
                12:00-1:30 Pacific

    Register via the project website:

    http://library.tamu.edu/21stcentury/chat2.html

    Click on the link 'Register'

    Registration is free, chat session limited to 100 seats.

    Registration confirmation and passwords will be distributed by e-mail on Monday, October 23rd.

    Participant's comments may be selected and archived at: http://library.tamu.edu/21stcentury/chatbest.html

    Session Content:

    In general terms, the roles of digital libraries in the 21st century fall into three categories: aggregator, creator, a d gatekeeper. Each role is critical for libraries to succeed, and all hinge on libraries developing viable market or ni he services for themselves in a world filled with commercial competition.

    Digital libraries (and most large libraries are digital to a degree) already function as aggregators. Indeed, the histo y of libraries is a history of aggregation of resources and manipulation of the physical and bibliographic content. In ur 21st century world, the focus of library functions is managing access to intellectual content, rather than storage an
     maintenance of physical objects.

    The role of creator may be more limited for many libraries, as issues of ownership of intellectual property change rapid y. At the same time, the breadth of options will increase as libraries look to new roles, such as digitizing and organi ing unique and valuable paper-based collections, including photographs and other uniquely held materials, or digitizing, in three dimensions, other museum-type collections, including zoological type collections or archaeological artifacts.

    The 'gatekeeper' or qualitative role is both the most controversial and the most potentially beneficial. With, literall
    , millions of choices, seekers of information need guidance to reliable, high quality resources. Historically, this rol
     was filled by 'selection': acquiring material of quality, and not purchasing inferior material. In modern academia, ' election' has been outsourced to vendors of books. It is not easily applied to the current 'electronic publishing' worl
    , to say nothing of the chaotic and gigantic Web. This qualitative role remains, however, a critical function in the 21 t Century library, and offers the greatest opportunity for survival as a profession.

    ************************ We look forward to your participation in our session,

    The Academic Libraries of the 21st Century Website Project Team Charles Gilreath Tommy Armstrong John Paul Fullerton Deborah Harrington Xiaodong Li Daniel Xiao

    Texas A&M University Libraries, Digital Libraries Group Charles Gilreath Joan Goodbody Dilawar Grewal Hal Hall Xiaodong Li Elka Tenner

    Deborah Harrington, Business Librarian Texas A&M University 979-862-8933 FAX: 979-862-2977 E-mail: mailto:dharrington@tamu.edu

    </pre>

    This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed Oct 11 2000 - 11:08:47 CDT