Date: Fri, 2 May 2003 11:07:10 -0700 (PDT) Reply-To: slavlibs@library.berkeley.edu Originator: slavlibs@library.berkeley.edu Sender: slavlibs@library.berkeley.edu From: Michael Biggins To: Multiple recipients of list Subject: AAASS B&D Working Group #2: Digital Projects On behalf of the AAASS Bibliography and Documentation Committee, I'm forwarding below the formal charge to B&D's new Working Group on Digital Projects, a two-year ad hoc group that's being co-chaired by Miranda Remnek (U. of Illinois/Urbana-Champaign) and Andrew Spencer (U. of Wisconsin). This is simultaneously a call for volunteers for the working group; if you feel you would bring expertise, insight, and inspiration to the group's tasks, please contact Miranda (mremnek@uiuc.edu) or Andy (aspencer@library.wisc.edu) by May 12. -Michael Biggins ----------------------------------------------------------------------- AAASS Bibliography and Documentation Committee Working Group on Digital Projects Charge: May 2, 2003 Purpose 1. To develop a range of mechanisms that will provide more comprehensive documentation of existing digital projects in the Slavic, East European and Eurasian field, and, where possible, more extensive participation in future academic and commercial initiatives; 2. To assess the need for a permanent AAASS Bibliography and Documentation subcommittee devoted to digital activities relevant to Slavic, East European and Eurasian library collections. Scope In exploring the need for a permanent oversight committee the working group will need to finalize criteria for specifying the types of digital initiatives in which the group should have an interest. The following oppositions are suggested; these may be modified as work progresses: i) Types of projects a) Reformatting v. "new model" (born-digital) scholarship b) Single-text/single-format corpus v. multifaceted archive (texts, images, audio) c) Primary v secondary sources d) Full-text (historical, literary) v. indexing/bibliographic e) Text v. numeric/multimedia f) Freely-accessible v. fee-based g) Internet-based v Intranet (password)-based h) CD-ROMS: networked v non-networked i) Access v preservation j) Academic versus commercial ii) Geographic provenance The group will begin by considering coverage of projects taking place in Russia, Eastern Europe and Eurasia, and in Western Europe, as well as in North America. Activities The working group will assess the need for, and feasibility of, the following activities, and, where appropriate, propose ways of engaging in them. 1. Creating and sustaining an online inventory of current digital projects in the Slavic, East European and Eurasian field in the humanities and social sciences. 2. Fostering systematic and informed participation in future initiatives by: * developing a process for the B& D committee to make formal, consensus-based recommendations on digital projects to commercial and other information providers; * establishing contacts with representatives in library and professional organizations with digital interests, such the Digital Library Federation, CLIR, Association of Research Libraries, ACRL E-Text Discussion Group, Association for Computing in the Humanities, Text Encoding Initiative, etc; * furthering contacts with commercial vendors in the Slavic field and elsewhere. 3. Increasing the range of digital information opportunities for Slavic librarians by: * identifying research & publication topics for examination by committee members and other colleagues * identifying and documenting websites, listservs, and other resources on digital issues; * providing updates on new digital developments at annual conferences; * creating and maintaining a website to consolidate all of the above 4. Increasing the range of digital training opportunities for Slavic librarians by : * organizing annual panels or roundtables to foster understanding of digital issues; * sponsoring more extended digital workshops at meetings like the University of Illinois' Slavic Librarians' Workshop * working with members of the Slavic and East European library community to produce an online training FAQ that covers practical problems and solutions arising from in-house digitization projects and services (including observation of standards, archiving requirements, copyright issues, software issues, delivery issues, methods of on-demand conversion of print material to e-formats, etc.) 5. Complementing national efforts to establish digital repositories by: * investigating and supporting the creation of Slavic digital archives on the national level (either at general repositories, or at major Slavic institutions) * investigating and advocating models of data storage and data sharing at individual institutions. Membership The working group will be composed of two co-chairs and up to three members. The working group will make recommendations for membership of the permanent committee. Time Frame The working group will have a two-year charge. It will provide a preliminary report on its activity at the annual AAASS conference in November 2003, and a final report with recommendations by the annual conference in November 2004. Michael Biggins Chair, B&D Committee, 2002-2004 Slavic & East European Section University of Washington Libraries, Box 352900 Seattle, WA 98195 tel. 206.543.5588 fax. 206.685.8049 mbiggins@u.washington.edu