95 participants from 23 countries attended the LIBER-EBLIDA Workshop on Digitisation of Library Material in Europe held at the Royal Library in Copenhagen, Denmark.
During these three days, the delegates listened to and discussed papers presented by high-level representatives from the European Commission and from a selection of national and university libraries involved in digitization projects for Europe’s cultural and scientific printed heritage. Also a number of initiatives from the private sector were presented. Subjects varied from general digitization strategies and priorities, the preservation of digital material and its cost, the construction of a global registry, copyright problems up to funding and strategic alliances. The workshop ended with a thorough discussion in small groups about the general vision that should be applied in the digitization activities, about intellectual property rights, about the discovery architecture for digital objects, about cooperation and mass digitization and about standards and policies. On the basis of the outcome of these discussions, a set of recommendations was formulated. These recommendations will be presented to the European Commission (which has started with the development of the European Digital Library or EDL) and to the European library community in general.
Thanks to the high level of expertise and involvement of the speakers and the participants, this workshop has turned into a very successful event, and its results may be of long-lasting importance. The generous sponsoring of JISC, OCLC and the Royal Library in Copenhagen facilitated the quality of the organisation. Many voices were already raised for a follow-up workshop in the not so distant future.
Presentations
- Policy paper about digitisation of library material in Europe, Erland Kolding Nielsen
- Overview of EU strategies with respect to digitisation, Pat Manson
- Overview of work already performed (or in progress), Hans Petschar
- The cost of digitisation and preservation (LIFE), Richard Davies
- EROMM and the Registry of Digital Masters, Werner Schwartz
- Central registry for digitized objects: Linking production and bibliographic control, Ralf Stockmann
- Automating registration of digital preservation copies – the place of registries in the digitisation workflow, Bill Carney
- Legal issues of digitisation, Toby Bainton
- Private sector initiatives – the Danish example, Jesper Holm
- Interoperability issues for digitization projects (OpenOffice presentation), Stefan Gradmann converted file (converted Microsoft PowerPoint file)
- Digitisation on demand, Günter Mühlberger
- Mass digitisation, Astrid Verheusen
- Strategy of Inclusion: Lobbying with the Government, Inga Grinfelde
- The JISC Digitisation Programme: Strategy & Collections, Paola Marchionni
- Identifying priorities for digitisation and lobbying for funding: a glimpse from DK, Birte Christensen-Dalsgaard
- Digitisation projects of the Biblioteca de Catalunya, Eugenia Serra
- The strategic e-content alliance, Stuart Dempster
- Google Book Search, Jens Redmer (not available for web publishing)
- Collaboration between ProQuest and Public bodies to digitise materials for scholarship and teaching, Dan Burnstone
- Publishers’ digitisation initiatives in Europe, Olga Martin Sancho
PHOTOS
NEWS STORIES
- Building the European Digital Library: calls for greater cooperation, JISC News, February 2009 (node/261)