Building the digital world from local to universal Adolf Knoll National Library of the Czech Republic

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 archive on-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 and follow the line to Technical Standardshttp://digit.nkp.cz access tools: databases linked to visual representation and other resources – look at works tools for users (off-line viewers, digital library applications) author rights control