Jane Austen fans rejoice at new, international digital collection of her fiction manuscripts

A three-year joint project of the University of Oxford and King’s College London, Jane Austen’s Fiction Manuscripts is now thrilling her fans worldwide. According to the Web site Introduction,

The focus of the present digital edition is three-fold: the virtual reunification of this significant collection of fiction manuscripts by means of high-quality digital photographic images; the linking of these images to fully encoded and searchable diplomatic transcriptions; and the creation of as complete a record as possible of the conservation history and current physical state of these frail objects. Through virtual reunification, scholars and interested users are provided for the first time with the opportunity to compare the forms and texts of these dispersed manuscripts – their different physical construction, shifts in handwriting and presentation – to examine passages of erasure and revision, to question editorial readings in the transcriptions, and to make their own new discoveries about Austen’s working practices across her writing career.

Reading the digital ocean

According to this story from the Weekly News Digest of Information Today, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography Library has, through a partnership with Google, the University of California and the UC San Diego Libraries, digitized and made publicly available around 100,000 volumes of oceanography works from its collection.

Share Your Treasures with Canada!

From the announcement on the CHIN Web site about its new initiative, Canada's Got Treasures!:

The Virtual Museum of Canada (VMC) at the Canadian Heritage Information Network (CHIN) launches a new interactive online space, Canada’s Got Treasures! Using YouTube and Flickr, the website invites museums, heritage institutions and people from across the country to upload their photos and videos of objects, artworks, buildings, people or locations that are culturally significant to Canadians. Once uploaded, they will be featured on the Canada’s Got Treasures! VMC website for Canadians to experience and enjoy.

Canada’s Got Treasures! provides an excellent opportunity to showcase and promote the collections of your institution online. Visit http://www.virtualmuseum.ca/treasures and click on the “Upload Your Treasures” button and follow the simple steps.

Each week from May to November 2010, new treasures from our national museums and institutions will be revealed, with an accompanying related quiz to test your knowledge of Canadian history and heritage. These significant holdings, as well as submissions from heritage institutions and Canadians, will also be tracked on an interactive map.

We look forward to seeing your treasures online!

For assistance uploading your photos or videos, or for additional information, please do not hesitate to contact us at:

The Virtual Museum of Canada Team
1.800.520.2446 (Toll Free)
vmc@virtualmuseum.ca
http://www.virtualmuseum.ca/treasures

May/June 02010 issue of D-Lib Magazine is out

From the announcement on DIGLIB and other mailing lists (02010 05 18):

The May/June issue of D-Lib Magazine (http://www.dlib.org/) is now available.

This issue is a special issue on the theme of Digital Libraries in China. ...

The articles include:

Overview of Digital Library Developments in China by Xihui Zhen, Content Digital Innovations

Building the New-generation China Academic Digital Library Information System (CADLIS): A Review and Prospectus by Wang Wenqing and Chen Ling, The National Administrative Center for CALIS, Peking University

China National Science and Technology Digital Library (NSTL) by Qiao Xiaodong, Liang Bing and Yao Changqing, Institute of Science and Technology Information of China (ISTIC)

The National Digital Library Project by Wei Dawei and Sun Yigang, National Library of China

Digital Curation and Preservation Bibliography version 1 now available

Version one of the Digital Curation and Preservation Bibliography is now available from Digital Scholarship.

http://digital-scholarship.org/dcpb/dcpb.htm

This bibliography presents over 360 selected English-language articles, books, and technical reports that are useful in understanding digital curation and preservation.

Most sources have been published between 2000 and the present; however, a limited number of key sources published prior to 2000 are also included. Where possible, links are provided to sources that are freely available on the Internet, including e-prints for published articles in disciplinary archives and institutional repositories. Note that e-prints and published articles may not be identical.

The bibliography is the work of Charles W. Bailey, Jr.

Source: DIG_REF@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU and other mailing lists (02010 05 16)

Keeping Research Data Safe 2 (KRDS2) final report released by JISC

As announced on DIGITAL-PRESERVATION@JISCMAIL.AC.UK and elsewhere (02010 05 17):

JISC is pleased to announce that the final report for Keeping Research Data Safe 2 (KRDS2) is now available from the JISC website. This KRDS2 study report presents the results of a survey of available cost information, validation and further development of the KRDS activity cost model, and a new taxonomy to help assess benefits alongside costs. The KRDS2 study was conducted by Charles Beagrie Ltd. and associates.

KRDS2 has delivered the following:

• A survey of cost information for digital preservation, collating and making available 13 survey responses for different cost datasets;

• The KRDS activity model has been reviewed and its presentation and usability enhanced;

• Cost information for four organisations (the Archaeology Data Service; National Digital Archive of Datasets; UK Data Archive; and University of Oxford) has been analysed in depth and presented in case studies;

• A benefits framework has been produced and illustrated with two benefit case studies from the National Crystallography Service at Southampton University and the UK Data Archive at the University of Essex.

One of the key findings on the long-term costs of digital preservation for research data was that the cost of archiving activities (archival storage and preservation planning and actions) is consistently a very small proportion of the overall costs and significantly lower than the costs of acquisition/ingest or access activities for all the case studies in KRDS2. As an example the respective activity staff costs for the Archaeology Data Service are Access (c.31%), Outreach/Acquisition/Ingest (c.55%), Archiving (c.15%).This confirms and supports a preliminary finding in KRDS1.

Full URL:
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/publications/reports/2010/keepingresearchdatasafe2.aspx#downloads

A range of supplementary materials in support of this report have also been made available on the KRDS project website. This includes the ULCC Excel Cost Spreadsheet for the NDAD service together with a Guide to Interpreting and Using the NDAD Cost Spreadsheet. The NDAD Cost Spreadsheet has previously been used as an exercise in digital preservation training events and may be particularly useful in training covering digital preservation costs. The accompanying Guide provides guidance to those wishing to understand and experiment with the spreadsheet.

Version 1.0.9 beta of ICA-AtoM released

May 17, 02010 marks the release date of version 1.0.9 beta of ICA-AtoM with a significant raft of improvements and new features.

Thousands of historic photos, maps damaged in Parks Canada building flood, Revelstoke, BC

Thousands of historic photos, maps damaged in Parks Canada building flood: This is a Vancouver Sun report about "archival" records stored by Parks Canada in Revelstoke, BC, that were damaged in a flooded building  they leased. The question for me is whether these records were under the control of Library and Archives Canada or was this one of those backoffice archives that exist at all levels of government. What a shame to read about, in particular, the damage and potential loss of so many photographs. I just hope most are duplicates of ones preserved elsewhere.

Royal British Columbia Museum official blog soft launch

In case you had not yet heard, the blogosphere is abuzz about the Royal BC Museum Blog hosted by Google's Blogger service. The first post by Tim Willis was on March 10, 02010 and the most recent by archivist Ann ten Cate, all about a bathroom fetish, was on May 12, 02010. The RBCM is also on Facebook and YouTube.

New website for Chung Collection, Rare Books & Special Collections, UBC Library, Vancouver, Canada

As announced on various mailing lists (02010 05 05):

"The Wallace B. Chung and Madeline H. Chung Collection, a designated national treasure, has a new virtual home.

The handsome website, found at http://chung.library.ubc.ca, highlights the Chung Collection’s three main themes: immigration and settlement, early British Columbia history and the Canadian Pacific Railway Company.

Focus groups consisting of faculty, staff, students and community
members provided feedback on the development of a new site for the Chung Collection, which is housed at UBC Library's Rare Books and Special Collections division.

Highlights include quick search and advanced search functions, a 'most
viewed items' feature, an appealing re-design and an extensive catalogue of digitized items.

Library & Archives Canada links authority data to VIAF & launches Canadiana Authorities

From an announcement on ARCAN-L (02010 05 05):

The Library and Archives Canada (LAC)

"signed a collaborative agreement with OCLC, the Library of Congress, the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek, and the Bibliothèque nationale de France to participate in the Virtual International Authority File (VIAF) http://viaf.org/ project, a key initiative to connect the world's libraries. The project's goal is to increase the utility of library authority data by matching and linking the authority files of national libraries and then making that information available on the Web. Recently, LAC's file of 410,000 personal name authority records, Canada's contribution to a shared global authority service, was successfully loaded into the VIAF.

VIAF now has 16 participating libraries, over 13 million personal name authority records and plans to expand by including corporate names and uniform titles.

Here at home, LAC is also launching Canadiana Authorities, a new Web interface to its authority data. This interface provides keyword access to over 660,000 name, name/title and title authority records (including series authority records) derived from the AMICUS database. To learn more about using Canadiana Authorities, please visit the following website: http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/canadiana-authorities/index-e.html."

Time, Space and Google, Searcher magazine, May 02010

My first post-retirement article for Searcher: The Magazine for Database Professionals was published on May 1, 02010. It's titled "Time, Space and Google: Toward a Real-Time, Synchronous, Personalized, Collaborative Web." I survey many aspects of Google's service offerings that to me signal Google is beginning to own the Web insofar as it's attempting to define your experience of Web time and space through its services. The article is not online for free but will be available through ProQuest and other full-text commercial databases licensed by Information Today.