Lemon8-XML version 1.0 released

The open source Web application Lemon8-XML version 1.0 was released on February 27, 2009. This tool is a document conversion utility that reformats documents created in, for example, Microsoft Word, into a default XML format based on the NLM Journal Publishing DTD. Lemon8-XML is a project of the decade-long Public Knowledge Project initiated by Professor John Willinsky. An interview with M.J. Suhonos, the lead developer of Lemon8-XML, is available on Martin Fenner's Gobbledygook blog.

Variations digital music library system open source software from Indiana University

Indiana University released open source software system, Variations, for managing a digital music library. The software not only provides online access to streaming audio and scanned score images in support of teaching, learning, and research, but also lets institutions digitize their own audio and musical scores materials.

Source: DIGLIB mailing list, 02009 02 20

Semantic Web in Action

According to the Librarians' Internet Index, the "Semantic Web in Action ... article (originally published in December 2007 and re-featured in January 2009) reviews progress towards the idea of a "Semantic Web: a highly interconnected network of data that could be easily accessed and understood by any desktop or handheld machine." Accompanied by a glossary and related articles and links. From Scientific American.
URL: http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=semantic-web-in-actio
LII Item: http://lii.org/cs/lii/view/item/27844"

Landmarks: Public Art in the Capital Region of Victoria, BC, Canada

The Capital Regional District of Victoria, BC, Canada and three of its municipalities have assembled a terrific site called Landmarks: Public Art in the Capital Region. You can search for public art installations by artist, title, neighborhood, or type of art. I'd long thought of doing something similar with the many building murals around Greater Victoria, so I'm glad to see that a start's been made and that the coverage is broad and inclusive of both private and publicly (taxpayer) funded artwork.

Census of Canada, 1891, database with digitized census schedules released

On February 10, 02009 the Library and Archives Canada announced the release of the Census of Canada, 1891, the last of the publicly available census schedules. You can search this database by personal name and several other fields and then view the original digitized schedule as either an Adobe Acrobat PDF page or a JPEG image. The project was accomplished with the assistance of Ancestry.ca. A novel feature and one more archives should adopt is the inclusion of a descriptive record correction suggestion feature.

Digital Humanities Summer Institute, University of Victoria, BC, Canada, June 02009

The 2009 Digital Humanities Summer Institute being held at the University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, from June 8 to 12, 02009 is now open for registration.

The Preservation Challenge training workshop, Barcelona, Spain, March 02009

From the announcement on DIGITAL-PRESERVATION@JISCMAIL.AC.UK (02009 02 09) and other mailing lists:

DPE/Planets/CASPAR/nestor Joint Training Event: The Preservation challenge: basic concepts and practical applications.

Barcelona, Spain 23-27 March 2009

http://www.wepreserve.eu/events/barcelona-2009/

DigitalPreservationEurope (DPE), Preservation and Long-term Access through Networked Services (Planets), Cultural, Artistic and Scientific knowledge for Preservation, Access and Retrieval (CASPAR) and Network of expertise in Digital long-term preservation (nestor) are delighted to announce that they will be delivering the latest in a series of collaborative training initiatives to introduce the Preservation Challenges. This event will be held in Barcelona, Spain from March 23-27 2009. This event is being organised in cooperation with the 'WePreserve' Forum.

DISSCO, open source Records Management System with document management

From the announcement on various mailing lists between 02009 01 22 and 02009 02 04:

DISSCO was developed in 2000-2007 by a collaboration of the Centre for Historical Research and Documentation on War and Contemporary Society (CEGES-SOMA), the Royal Meteorological Institute (IRM-KMI), the Center for Archives at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) and the Master in Archival Science, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB; coördinator).

IT-specialists and records managers can find the code and accompanying information about the functionalities of the system at: http://dissco.origo.ethz.ch/

Feel free to consult the indicated websites, to download the code and to test it.

Of course my research team wants to develop DISSCO further to follow the technical evolutions and to create a big users group. If you are positive and would like to set up a collaboration for a further development of the system, i [Prof. dr. Frank Scheelings] look forward hearing from you.

DISSCO is Java-based.

What Is New in Digital Preservation, Issue no. 19 (September-December 02008) available

As announced on (02009 02 04):

Issue no. 19 (September - December 2008) of the DPC "What's New in Digital Preservation?" bulletin is now available from the Digital Preservation Coalition Web site and the National Library of Australia's PADI Web site:

Digital Preservation Coalition:
http://www.dpconline.org/graphics/whatsnew/issue19.html

National Library of Australia:
http://www.nla.gov.au/padi/qdigest/dpc-padi-digest-issue19-2008.html

"What's New" is a summary of selected recent activity in the field of digital preservation. The latest issue has been compiled by Najla Semple and reviewed by the National Library of Australia for the Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC). Items are compiled from the Preserving Access to Digital Information (PADI) Gateway and the digital-preservation and padiforum-l mailing lists, although additional or related items of interest may also be included.

Issue 19 features news from a range of organisations and initiatives, including the Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC), Digital Curation Centre (DCC), JISC (UK), The British Library (BL), PLANETS (Preservation and Long-term Access through Networked Services), Cultural, Artistic and Scientific knowledge for Preservation, Access and Retrieval (CASPAR), University of London Computing Centre (ULCC), Alliance for Permanent Access, The Library of Congress and the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIPP) and The National Archives (TNA).

The bulletin also includes sections on Digital Preservation Projects, Copyright and IPR, Web Archiving as well as summaries of recent publications on the themes of digital preservation, current and forthcoming events, training events and much more.

Need help "Understanding Premis" now available

From the announcement on DIGITAL-PRESERVATION@JISCMAIL.AC.UK and other mailing lists (02009 02 03):

"Understanding PREMIS" is now available from the PREMIS Maintenance Activity website. This document is a "gentle" introduction to the PREMIS Data Dictionary for Preservation Metadata, giving an overview of its scope and goals. It does not give enough information for implementation, but will make the larger document, i.e. the PREMIS Data Dictionary, more familiar.

"Understanding PREMIS" was written by Priscilla Caplan, Florida Center for Library Automation, for the Library of Congress. It is available at:
http://www.loc.gov/standards/premis/understanding-premis.pdf

The full PREMIS Data Dictionary is available at:
http://www.loc.gov/standards/premis/v2/premis-2-0.pdf

VideoSurf video search engine

Here's what VideoSurf, a video search engine, has to say about itself:

VideoSurf has created a better way for users to search, discover and watch online videos.

Using a unique combination of new computer vision and fast computation methods, VideoSurf has taught computers to “see” inside videos to find content in a fast, efficient, and scalable way. Basing its search on visual identification, rather than text only, VideoSurf’s computer vision video search engine provides more relevant results and a better experience to let users find and discover the videos they really want to watch.

With over 10 billion (and rapidly growing!) visual moments indexed from videos found across the web, VideoSurf allows consumers to visually navigate through their results to easily find the specific scenes, people or moments they most want to see. Users can now spend less time searching and more time being entertained!

VideoSurf was founded in 2006 by leading experts in search, computer vision and fast computation technology and aims to become the destination for users looking to find, discover and watch online videos. The company is based in San Mateo, California.

In case you're wondering, by default VideoSurf does not display adult content. I haven't personally tested this capability.

UK Archives Hub celebrates 150th anniversary of evolutionary scientist Charles Darwin

The UK Archives Hub is commemorating for the month of February 02009 the 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin's seminal book On the Origin of Species:

Collections of the Month: Charles Darwin and Evolution

This month we celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of the geologist and naturalist Charles Darwin, and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his revolutionary book 'On the Origin of Species', which explained his theory of natural selection and evolution. We highlight descriptions for the papers of Charles Darwin and fellow scientists, and also for the papers of interested philosophers and clergymen.

Source: Archives & Archivists (A&A) List (02009 02 02)

For those who want to investigate the great man's research and publications in greater depth, the best online resource is The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online. You'll also find on this site a useful list of Darwin 2009 Commemorations.

02009 also happens to be the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth. He died in 1882. The National Register of Archives contains several references to archival records by or about Darwin. The UK Natural History Museum mounted a Charles Darwin exhibition in November 02008 that runs until April 19, 02009.