UCLA University Librarian

I just attended my second meeting of the Board of Directors of the Digital Library Federation (DLF) http://www.diglib.org/.  It was interesting to participate and was called on to join Carol Mandel from New York University in leading a discussion on “moving images.”  I highlighted the work that our task group had completed on “Performance Capture” and forecast the next steps that I hope we will be able to take moving that forward.  Carol spoke of the topic from five perspectives:  readiness, selection, policy, standards, and models.  There was a healthy discussion that I hope will lead to more work within DLF.

Susan Nutter led a discussion on mobile technologies and staff from North Carolina State addressed their plan for initial roll out of several services that may be delivered using these hand held devices.  Jim Neal finished these programmatic introductions by bringing us all up to date on IP rights.

DLF President Wendy Lougee from the University of Minnesota briefed the board on the review of DLF and its program and purpose.  It is expected that a special task force will report its findings to a special meeting of the Board of Directors now scheduled for late February or early March 2009.

Other operations reports, including an interesting update on Aquifer and web site development were presented by DLF staff.  The Treasurer reported a healthy financial position.

 The Forum kicked off with keynote addresses in the afternoon and the start of briefing panels that will be presented over the next two days.

Pacific Rim Digital Library Alliance (PRDLA)

“Herding Tigers: Digital Proliferation and Management”   Convened at the Li KA Shing Library, Singapore Management University

 Representatives of the 32 member institutions gathered for its annual meeting for netowrking, papers, and culture.  UCLA has been a PRDLA member now for only three years, so I am getting into the context of the issues being addressed by this ambitious group.  More information about PRDLA is on its web site www.PRDLA.org.  (To view the papers click on 2008 Conference and then program.  The speakers are highlighted and their papers attached.)

The gathering was welcomed by President Howard Hunter of Singapore Managment University and Deputy President Joseph Mullinix from National University of Singapore.  UC’s own Bruce Miller is the convenor of the group.  The libraries from the two universities were co-chairs of the conference and their staff provided wonderful welcome and arrangements.

 The Keynote address was delivered by Steve Night, Associate Director of the National Digital Lbirary of New Zealand.  The afternoon sessions included presentations from the University of Otago (New Zealand), University of British Columbia and Hong Kong Baptist University discussed data and content management.  Local area projects at the National Unviersity of Singapore, Wuhan University, Chinese Unviersity of Hong Kong, and the University of Hong Kong opened new vistas as to their digitization efforts.  Papers will be posted on the PRDLA web site.

A most interesting panel discussed the Collaborative Digitization Project funded by PRDLA–the Oceana Digital Libraries Project.  The project is coordinated at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, UC San Diego, and the Unviersity of Auckland. 

My paper on “The Digital Library Program at UCLA” kicked off the session on mass digitization projects (http://www2.library.ucla.edu/about/2470.cfm).  Similar presentations were made from UC San Diego and Zhejiang University.

The closing plenary was delivered by Andrew Treloar, Director of the Australian National Data Service Establishment Project.

Sunday’s opening session was pretty neat.  Lots of music and speeches and I left to catch an appointment arranged ahead when they said that it would be over at 11:30 (actually they went on much, much longer, I am told.)  Most interesting speaker for me was the Governor General of Canada, a Haitian immigrant to Canada.  She was most interesting and her background and experiences were so much of what I hear from leaders around the world.  It was interesting that all of the government officials from Canada who spoke were women, from the Governor General and Minister of Culture to the Mayor of Quebec.Good meetings yesterday.  Very good session on copyright and data protection and individual privacy.  It is so interesting getting a worldwide perspective.  The speaker from Canada and Australia who spoke about Crown copyright were particularly interesting.  The Danish speaker talked about how they are capturing danish web sites and archiving them and the problems surrounding the protection of individual’s information and their rights.  Makes you realize just how vulnerable we all are as government captures more and more about who and what we are and do.  It was interesting to note that each of them in one way or another spoke about how publishing in print means you control how it is distributed, seen, and preserved.  The digital world allows for anyone, anywhere, anytime to use and misuse information and the “stuff” that is out there.  The almost instantaneous access, often without forethought or editing, poses real challenges.  This is interesting background as I continue on UCLA’s Committee on Privacy and Data Protection.

The afternoon session on the World Digital Library was interesting and I was able to get a copy of the draft UNESCO manifesto on the World Digital Library.  I helped get that whole effort off the ground within IFLA when I was on the Governing Board.  While it isn’t exactly what I would have done, it has moved forward and it is now before UNESCO to make some decisions about.  I hope it is finalized.  Now to figure out how UCLA participates in all of that activity.

The Hollywood Librarian movie last night was a disappointment.  As I mentioned, it was mostly the film maker talking and not good examples of the movies that have librarian images within them.  The panel was more interesting.  Our friend, Howard Besser from NYU was actually the highlight of the whole thing.  Should have just done the panel.

Today’s highlight session was on personal privacy protection sponsored by the Genealogy Section with FAIFE.  Very interesting thoughts about personal privacy and the desire for broad open access to personal information.

For more information check out the IFLA website

I arrrived last night to attend the IFLA Congress here in Quebec.  The setting is special because it brings IFLA back to North America (I co-chaired the IFLA Boston conference in 2001), and it is Quebec’s 400th anniversary.

The theme is “Libraries without borders: Navigating Towards Global Understanding.”  The congress promises to be a full program.  Today was registration and meeting up with friends and colleagues from around the world.  As I entered the registration hall, I immediately reunited with several Russian colleagues including the National Librarian and learned that my old friend Irina Lynden is now the Deputy Director General for International Activities.  The director of the public library in Oslo, Norway was next along my trek to the reigstration table.  And many US colleagues as well.  That is perhaps one of the best aspects of this international meeting.  Not only do you catch up with colleagues but you see library issues from a much broader perspective.

Tonight is the US Caucus meeting where we get a chance to discuss some of the important issues as they affect US libraries.  Weather today is pretty nice after rain during arrival last night.