Building the digital worldfrom local to universal

Adolf KnollNational Library of the Czech Republicadolf.knoll@nkp.cz

Why digitize?

We should return to this question again and again

What can we offer to whom? Access Long-term access (preservation element) Added-value services to individiuals

How?

Which value to add

The sense is to add such values, which users cannot create by themselves

For libraries it is about how to enter the digital world

They cannot compete with companies on open battle fields, but they have specific materials to process and organize

Libraries and users

Libraries Great number Different places Different documents Communication skills They work in the world

of users and for users For good functioning,

they need to be exposed to the outside world

Users Greater number Different places Different languages Different interests Also other interests

than we can imagine Communication skills

Our behaviour of normal citizens in normal daily circumstances is the criterion.

Libraries and research communities

Libraries have specific research related to communication and preservation

They aim to provide access to the objects that are subject of research of specific groups

These two research entities should communicate

Their work is complementary, not identical

Cultural heritage

Objects of cultural heritage Finding aids (catalogues, bibliographic lists,

…) Documentation

Acquired: other documents, databases, … Created: other documents, databases, …

To join them together without forcing researchers to modify their research points of view

Library as content creator

Identification of cultural heritage Visual or aural representation of

cultural heritage Creation of a hybrid world: classical

and virtual components Once libraries have abandoned this

scheme, they will not be needed in modern society

Joining forces

Discrete library entities merge virtually: Remake of original contexts, because dispersed objects

are put together Enrichment of research environment

More resources More competition among researchers More opportunities to step over narrow thresholds of born-in

and educated-in behaviour and knowledge

Humans have more in common indifferently of places where they live

… and indifferently of cultures that seem to divide them

How to help our sensual perception?

Images and sounds talk to our senses In order to master the world that

surrounds us, we try to classify it in undestandable objects

The same reality can be classified differently

All consistent artificial human classification schemes are true

Examples

Our languages are a good example: голубой + синий = blue (light + dark) эффективный = effective or efficient ? … The reality is split in understandable chunks

differently in various cultures, regions, groups of people

What is relevant information for one of us, it is null information for another one

If I am a specialist, then a discovery for you can be banal or insufficient for me and vice versa

This works in any domain of human activity

Declare your aims

Work in conformity with this declaration Libraries inform and assist users to access various pieces of

information Libraries must talk well defined languages

description rules encoding platforms .. which enable very large communication

From narrow solutions to mark-up languages and choice of largely accepted description rules

Bridging various approaches through conversion of categories of knowledge … this is not only library task… ontological bridges

motion from bottom up (cataloguing) towards grasping the reality as it is by well structured and sophisticated tools (thanks to detailed knowledge of how various approaches work and thanks to ever increasing computation speed)

we have to face and enjoy a new quality of technological environment

Archive, migrate, provide access…

Reference digital archiveon-line

Fast disk arrays for access

Reference archive – preservation microfilm

Reference digital archive for off-line media (CD, mg. tapes)

Administration

ORIGINALS: books, periodicals, maps, printed music, audio recordings, …

Tasks

preserve both inherited and created documents

provide access to both multiply access points: analytical

cataloguing, linking additional resources of all kinds – catalogues, video resources, works, studies, papers, …

create a research world enable to prolong the work or to add other

values to it

Standards

Look at http://digit.nkp.cz and follow the line to Technical Standards

access tools: databases linked to visual representation and other resources – look at http://www.memoria.cz

works tools for users (off-line viewers, digital library applications)

author rights control