International Cooperation in Digital Libraries CoLIS May 1999 Edward A. Fox Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, USA

DLs: Why of Global Interest? F National projects can preserve antiquities and heritage: cultural, historical, linguistic, scholarly F Knowledge and information are essential to economic and technological growth, education F DL - a domain for international collaboration –wherein all can contribute and benefit –which leverages investment in networking –which provides useful content on Internet & WWW –which will tie nations and peoples together more strongly and through deeper understanding

SMETE Library (from F Context: Global movement toward Digital Libraries (see April 1998 CACM) F NSF effort: Science, Mathematics, Engineering, and Technology Education Digital Library (focussed on undergraduates) –3 workshops, yearly increasing funds / new calls –ex., - CS Teaching Center F SMETE Library likely to operate as distributed federation, with separate parts for each key discipline, and to lead to a global effort

A Digital Library Case Study F Domain: graduate education, research F Genre:ETDs=electronic theses & dissertations F Submission: F Collection: Project: Networked Digital Library of Theses & Dissertations (NDLTD)

US University Members F U. of Iowa F U. of Maine F U. of Oklahoma F U. of South Florida F U. of Tennessee, Knoxville F U. of Tennessee, Memphis F U. of Texas at Austin F U. of Virginia F U. Wisconsin - Madison F Vanderbilt U. F Virginia Tech - required since 1/97 F West Virginia U. - required beginning fall 1998 F Worcester Polytechnic Inst. F Air University (Alabama) F Cal Tech F Clemson University F College of William & Mary F Concordia University (Illinois) F East Tenn. State University F Florida Institute of Tech. F Florida International University F Michigan Tech F Naval Postgraduate School (CA) F North Carolina State U. F Penn. State University F Rochester Institute of Tech. F U. of Florida F U. of Georgia F University of Hawaii, Manoa

Australian Project Members F U. New South Wales (lead institution) F U. of Melbourne F U. of Queensland F U. of Sydney F Australian National University F Curtin U. of Technology F Griffith U.

German Project Members F Humboldt University (lead institution) F 3 other universities F 5 learned societies F 1 computing center F 2 major libraries

Other International Members F Chinese University of Hong Kong F Chungnam National U., Dept of CS (S. Korea) F City University, London (UK) F Darmstadt U. of Tech. (Germany) F Gyeongsang National U. (Korea) F India Institute of Technology, Bombay (India) F Nanyang Technological U. (Singapore, part) F National U. of Singapore (Singapore, part) F *National Library of Portugal F Polytechnic University of Valencia (Spain) F Rhodes U. (South Africa) F St. Petersburg St. Tech.U (Russia) F Univ. de las Américas Puebla (Mexico) F U. Laval; U. of Guelph; U. Waterloo; Wilfrid Laurier U. (Canada)

Key Ideas: Networked infrastructure Scalability Education is the rationale University collaboration Workflow, automation Authors must submit Maximal access PDF, SGML, MM Standards Federated search MARC, DC, URNs

User Search Support (multilingual, XML) Note: All groups shown are connected with NDLTD.

F Aiding universities to enhance grad educ., publishing and IPR efforts F Helping improve the availability and content of theses and dissertations F Educating ALL future scholars so they can publish electronically and effectively use digital libraries (i.e., are Information Literate and can be more expressive) - >100,000 per year What are we doing?

Why might you want to be involved? ( F To improve graduate education / better prepare your students F To unlock university information F To save money for students and for the university / improve workflow F To build an important digital library supported by SURA, US Dept. Ed., UNESCO, Adobe, IBM, OCLC,...

Questions from Asian DL Workshop, Hong Kong ‘98 F Is there global understanding of DL? F Will people take action beyond talking about int’l collaboration? F What frameworks for int’l collaboration will be established? F Will there be support from gov’t, industry, and academia?

International Digital Libraries Association - Rob Akscyn F 1st Summit on International Cooperation on Digital Libraries, June 1998, Pittsburgh, PA [Held immediately following Digital Libraries '98] F 2nd Summit …, 14 Aug. 1999, Berkeley, CA [following ACM DL ‘99 - accessible from

1st Summit - Issues - 1of 5 F 1. Is international cooperation on digital libraries necessary, and why? F 2. What are the truly important benefits of digital libraries and how might they be realized -- specifically by international cooperation -- while at the same time not being oversold via a never-ending series of grandiose pronouncements?

1st Summit - Issues - 1of 5 F 1. Is international cooperation on digital libraries necessary, and why? F 2. What are the truly important benefits of digital libraries and how might they be realized -- specifically by international cooperation -- while at the same time not being oversold via a never-ending series of grandiose pronouncements? F Reduce duplication, Increase cultural diversity, Ensure interoperability

1st Summit - Issues - 2 of 5 F 3. What goals should be set for international cooperation? Who should set them? And how might a critical mass of effort be accumulated to make timely progress? F 4. What organizational mechanisms are appropriate for fostering international cooperation? What other models of international cooperation have worked and not worked?

1st Summit - Issues - 2 of 5 F 3. What goals should be set for international cooperation? Who should set them? And how might a critical mass of effort be accumulated to make timely progress? F 4. What organizational mechanisms are appropriate for fostering international cooperation? What other models of international cooperation have worked and not worked? F Increased communication, an IDL Reqt document, Exemplary efforts (multilingual, interoperable)

1st Summit - Issues - 3 of 5 F 5. How will all the cooperating participants benefit -- so that the effort invested is a win-win for all? F 6. What specific programs and projects should be undertaken, and how can these avoid fragmentation and oneupmanship? F 7. How can results be achieved in graduated, incremental steps -- versus attempting the ever-deadly quantum leaps?

1st Summit - Issues - 3 of 5 F 5. How will all the cooperating participants benefit - - so that the effort invested is a win-win for all? F 6. What specific programs and projects should be undertaken, and how can these avoid fragmentation and oneupmanship? F 7. How can results be achieved in graduated, incremental steps -- versus attempting the ever- deadly quantum leaps? F Common problem, e.g., Digital preservation??? Area: disaster relief, environment, children’s stories, educ., DL 2. Approach: Internet/Web

1st Summit - Issues - 4 of 5 F 8. What is a realistic time frame for achieving these goals so that unachievable expectations are not spawned in the first place? What might be demonstrable (and heartening) progress in the interim? F 9. What level of government funding is needed? How should that funding be sourced? Among what objectives should that funding be allocated and how?

1st Summit - Issues - 4 of 5 F 8. What is a realistic time frame for achieving these goals so that unachievable expectations are not spawned in the first place? What might be demonstrable (and heartening) progress in the interim? F 9. What level of government funding is needed? How should that funding be sourced? Among what objectives should that funding be allocated and how? F 5-10 years; $5-10M/year; Plans/milestones

1st Summit - Issues - 5 of 5 F 10. How will the digital library paradigm be respectful of, but made part of, everyday activity -- especially across international boundaries? F 11. What should be done next, following this Summit, and who will do it?

1st Summit - Issues - 5 of 5 F 10. How will the digital library paradigm be respectful of, but made part of, everyday activity -- especially across international boundaries? F 11. What should be done next, following this Summit, and who will do it? F Ongoing projects inherently collaborative and widely used by large numbers in many countries F Many nations funding of planning (,) meetings, development, operation, as well as basic research