Report of a

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Building a Digital Library of the Middle East
Report of a Workshop Jan 15-17 2006 Bibliotheca
Alexandrina
Coalition for Networked Information Spring Task
Force Meeting - April 4, 2006
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• Presenters
• Steve Griffin, National Science Foundation
• Joan Lippincott, Coalition for Networked
  Information
• Joyce Ray, Institute of Museum and Library
  Services
• Don Waters, Mellon Foundation

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Workshop Sponsors

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• Background

2003 - Interagency meetings on rebuilding the
cultural history of Iraq convened by White House
State Dept.
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Defining the Scope Ancient Near East
Mesopotamia (Iraq and Syria) Persia (Iran)
Egypt the Levant (Israel, Jordan, Lebanon,
Syria, Palestinian Authority) and Anatolia
(Turkey)
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U.S.-Egypt Joint Science Technology Fund Grant
to The Institute of Museum Library
Services and Bibliotheca Alexandrina June 2005
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Coordinating Committee

•      
• Noha Adly - Director of Information and
  Communication Technology Department and ISIS
  (International School of Information Science),
  Bibliotheca Alexandrina
• Stephen Griffin - Program Director, Computer and
  Information Science and Engineering, National
  Science Foundation
• Kenneth Hamma - Executive Director, Digital
  Policy and Initiatives, J. Paul Getty Trust
• Ronald Larsen - Dean, School of Information
  Sciences, University of Pittsburgh
• Joan Lippincott - Associate Executive Director,
  Coalition for Networked Information
• Magdy Nagi - Head of the Information and
  Communication Technology Sector, Bibliotheca
  Alexandrina
• Joyce Ray - Associate Deputy Director for Library
  Services, Institute of Museum and Library
  Services

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Workshop Objectives August 2005 Planning Meeting

• Agree on a long-term vision
• Assess the current information infrastructure in
  the Middle East and examine the potential for
  establishing advanced research networks
• Identify a model for content aggregation,
  management, and preservation
• Identify content scope and services
• Document requirements as a roadmap for future
  actions

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Desirable Characteristics of the Digital
Library August 2005 Planning Meeting

• A framework that can accommodate resources from
  many sources and subject areas
• Content that has public value, is easily
  navigable, and is unrestricted for use
• Connected to a large network supporting
  wide-scale access and exchange
• Maintained in a trusted repository with
  appropriate redundancy to ensure long-term
  preservation and continuity of access
•  

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Workshop Attendees Arrive in Alexandria January
15, 2006
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Working Groups

• Vision and Mission
• Network Infrastructure
• Content, Collections and Users
• Interoperability and Standards

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• Vision and Mission
• Working Group
• Steve Griffin, NSF
• Ron Larsen, University of Pittsburgh

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• High-level Vision
• - A global knowledge infrastructure that
  supports the free flow of information captures
  many forms of human expression maximizes use of
  resources and serves the research, education and
  information needs of all people

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• Vision for MEDL
• - To promote the preservation and understanding
  of the cultural heritage of the Middle East
  through the collection, curation and
  dissemination of a sustainable digital record

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• Scope
• - Worldwide resources from and about the
  cultures and societies of the Middle Eastern and
  Arab worlds

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• Features
• Multilingual multimedia
• Distributed, open interoperable
• Integrated into the global knowledge
  infrastructure
• Collaborative
• Adaptable for different audiences
• Sustained

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• Anticipated Results
• - New relationships among cultural heritage
  organizations
• New scholarly collaborations
• New resources for education and study
• A fuller, shared understanding of the historic
  human experience and its bearing on the present

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• Network Infrastructure
• Working Group
• Heather Boyles, Internet2

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• Egyptian RE Community
• 124 Research Centers and Institutes covering 32
  Ministries
• 16 Governmental Universities
• Private Universities and Research Centers
• Bibliotheca Alexandrina

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• Digital Library Support
• Memorandum of Understanding with Internet2
• Increase bandwidth and bandwidth reservation to
  move materials such as images, audio and video
  into general use
• Support digital library research such as
  indexing, new services and capabilities

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• Egypt NRENS

http//www.frcu.eun.eg/docs-n/index-ee.php
http//www.sti.sci.eg/index2.htm
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• Content, Collections and Users
• Working Group
• Ken Hamma, Getty Trust
• Joan Lippincott, CNI

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• Content View
• Focus on inexpensively acquired content
• Build the mass of the library
• Attract users who would find this content useful
• User View
• Identify likely user communities
• Build content to meet their needs

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• Conclusion focus on users
• Produce scenarios of use
• Develop measures based on targeted outcomes in
  education, training, and technology literacy

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• Content
• Determine scope
• Cultural heritage or broader, e.g. scientific
• Primarily educational?
• Give attention to born-digital materials, not
  just digitized collections
• Consider priority for aggregation projects, those
  that bring together related, dispersed resources

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• Content
• Balance of library-style and museum-style
  (curated, exhibit type) collections
• Balance needs of scholars and general public
• Develop a preservation strategy

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• Services
• Develop nuanced identification of user groups
• Assess technology readiness of user groups
• Encourage the community to create content and not
  just access it
• Develop a structure that encompasses development
  of community as well as delivery of content and
  services

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• Services
• Develop a research/evaluation agenda
• Needs assessment
• Usability studies
• Use analysis
• Outcomes appraisal

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• Next steps
• Inventory content already available in digital
  form
• Clarify interests of institutional partners
• Conduct preliminary needs assessment
• Identify issues - connectivity, access,
  infrastructure - of importance near-term
• Small pilot projects

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• Next steps
• - Workshop
• Potential partners from many countries
• Refine a plan for the digital library
• Secure commitments from participants to
  contribute content and/or services

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• Interoperability and Standards
• Working Group
• Sam Quigley, Harvard
• Don Waters, Mellon Foundation

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Assumptions

• MEDL will involve a federation of participating
  institutions, but these have yet to be identified
  and readiness and need to implement particular
  standards will likely vary
• Content focus of MEDL also has not been
  identified, but will likely involve various
  formats
• Experience suggests the value of
  standard-compliant procedures, but it is not
  fruitful at this stage to articulate a full suite
  of applicable standards at all levels

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A pragmatic approach

• Organizers should require the appropriate
  application of standards for file formats,
  metadata schemes, vocabulary, language
  representation, and end-user interfaces as needed
• Standards for interoperability at the repository
  level should receive the most specific attention
  and should initially focus on OAI-PMH
• However, for full functionality OAI-PMH is likely
  to be insufficient and will need to be
  supplemented with additional protocols and
  related infrastructure

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Key repository operations

• OAI-PMH would help support
• Deposit and ingest of materials
• Transmission of materials to mirror sites
• Digital preservation
• Return of value-added information to original
  data providers (translation, OCR of page images,
  and other enrichment) as an incentive to keep
  contributing
• Additional protocols and infrastructure would
  eventually be needed especially to handle more
  complex digital objects

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An organizational framework

• Ideally, the standards and protocol would provide
  the main basis for broad participation in MEDL
• However, to jump start development and to
  promulgate standards-based activity, a
  partnership of a small-number of lead
  organizations would be useful
• A lead US institution, in partnership with a lead
  Middle East institution such as the Bibliotheca
  Alexandrina, could establish initial agreements,
  standards and protocols

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Nature of a partnership

• Agreements should provide for
• Mutual organizational and technical support
• Content development
• Mirror sites and a dissemination plan
• A structure for participation by other
  institutions
• The development of standards-based services,
  including digitization, OCR, cataloging,
  translating, depositing, and preservation

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What Next? http//www.sis.pitt.edu/egyptdlw/index
.html