13 January 2010

Director at Library of Congress Discusses World Digital Library

CO.NX Webchat Transcript, January 13

Michelle Rago, technical project director of the World Digital Library at the Library of Congress, answered questions in a January 13 CO.NX webchat on the library’s current projects, its collaborations with libraries and archives overseas, and its future.

Following is the transcript:

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Bureau of International Information Programs
Webchat Transcript

CO.NX Chat: World Digital Library

Guest:     Michelle Rago
Date:      January 13, 2010
Time:      11:00 a.m. EST (16:00 GMT)

CO.NX Moderator (Sarah): The World Digital Library chat with Michelle Rago will be text-only. Please join us at 13:00 GMT on Wednesday, January 13 to chat live with Michelle and learn more about the WDL.

CO.NX Moderator (Sarah): You may submit your questions for Michelle at any time. Once submitted, your question will appear in red on your screen.

CO.NX Moderator (Sarah): Welcome to everyone joining us today! Our webchat with Michelle will begin in about 35 minutes. Please continue to submit your questions.

edgvill: hello

MARVIN: Marvin Ssentongo, Uganda

CO.NX Moderator (Sarah): Welcome, Edgvill and Marvin!

CO.NX Moderator (Sarah): Please feel free to introduce yourselves and tell us where you are joining us from.

CO.NX Moderator (Mark): Hi everyone, I'm another moderator here in CO.NX.

ircabidjan 2: ghislain

CO.NX Moderator (Mark): Welcome!

houssouciabidjan:HOUSSOU: HELLO EVERYONE

CO.NX Moderator (Sarah): Hello, Houssou! Welcome.

ULRICH: YAO A. J.ULRICH, Abidjan

CO.NX Moderator (Sarah): Welcome, Yao! Glad you could join us today.

ULRICH: yes, I'm very glad too

CO.NX Moderator (Sarah): You can read a transcript from Michelle's last webchat with us here: http://www.america.gov/st/webchat-english/2009/November/20091120172130eaifas0.8044637.html and learn more about the WDL.

Patience Agabirwe: Thanks

Patience Agabirwe: Patience Agabirwe, Uganda I would like to learn more on DL

CO.NX Moderator (Sarah): Welcome, Patience! We are glad to have you, and we hope you have your questions answered today.

Denise Ledoux: Good morning

CO.NX Moderator (Sarah): Good morning, Denise!

Vassilis Tsiboukis: Hello, My name is Vassilis Tsboukis and I am with the Athens Information Resource Center.

CO.NX Moderator (Sarah): Welcome, Vasslis! We are glad

Luciano Ramalho: Hello, I am Luciano Ramalho, a software engineer and LIS student working at BIREME/PAHO/WHO in São Paulo Brazil

CO.NX Moderator (Sarah): Hi, Luciano, welcome!

ircabidjan 5: hello I am Prisca Nda from the national library school of Abidjan

CO.NX Moderator (Sarah): Welcome, we are glad you could join us today!

Luciano Ramalho: BIREME is the Latin-American and Caribbean Center on Health Sciences Information, a specialized unit of the Pan American Health Organization

CO.NX Moderator (Sarah): Hi, Bireme, welcome!

Denise Ledoux: I will be joining with a group of my colleagues from the Library of Parliament in Canada

CO.NX Moderator (Sarah): We are glad to have you and your colleagues join us today!

faysal: Istanbul

CO.NX Moderator (Sarah): Welcome to Istanbul!

CO.NX Moderator (Sarah): Hello everyone! Our presenter, Michelle Rago, has just joined us. We will be starting shortly.

CO.NX Moderator (Sarah): You are welcome to continue submitting questions throughout the hour.

ircabidjan 5: hello I am Menan Patrick, I am very happy to participate in this webchat

CO.NX Moderator (Mark): Hello, welcome to Co.Nx!

CO.NX Moderator (Mark): We're seeing many questions coming in, thank you.

Michelle Rago: Hello everyone.  My name is Michelle Rago and I am the technical director of the WDL.  Thank you all very much for being here.  Many questions have already been posted so I will just get started.  If anyone has a question that does not get answered you can always e-mail me at mrag@loc.gov.

Nils Schnelle, Hamburg: Hello everybody

CO.NX Moderator (Sarah): Hi, Nils! Welcome!

Eugenia Pojomovsky: Good morning I’m student of Library Science from Paraguay

CO.NX Moderator (Mark): Welcome Paraguay!  It looks like we have a global audience today :)

IRCABIDJAN 6: pelagie hello everyone.

Kampala 5: Sophie Bangi, Kampala is ready to the discussion.

CO.NX Moderator (Mark): Welcome Kampala.

Future: Is a paperless society possible? Great work you are doing, but just a thought of this digitized mind.

Michelle Rago: Thank you.  The World Digital Library (WDL) is not a mass digitization project.  Our objective is to provide access to historical cultural treasures that people would otherwise not have the opportunity to see.

Future: Future: Is the future of the World Digital Library secure? What if the world's devastated for any reason, God forbid! For future Historians better to have a hard/paper list somewhere of stuff digitized...

Michelle Rago: The WDL is secure.  Each institution digitizes its own content and then sends copies to the WDL.  The original material is preserved by the contributing institution.  In addition, the WDL archives copies of the content we receive.

khosro: Hi Dr. Roemer . Thank you for your time. Are you going to invite countries officially to contribute in this project or not? If not please do it. And also is it possible for individuals to contribute to share their medias and materials with WDL?

Michelle Rago: Hi.  The previous Director-General of UNESCO and the Librarian of Congress sent letters to every national librarian, archivist, and cultural minister in the world to formally invite them to join the WDL.  We do not yet have partners in every country, but we hope to in the future.  We sign up new partners on a regular basis.  We currently have 59 partners in 36 countries.   We currently do not accept contributions from individuals.

Edith Caballero 2: Is the WDL working with any Indian institutions on this historical preservation project?

Michelle Rago: We currently just have one partner in India, the Allama Iqbal Library at the University of Kashmir.  We will focus on seeking more participation from India this year.

Vania Choi: Hi I'm Vania Choi and I’m a head librarian in a university library in São Paulo Brazil - FECAP

CO.NX Moderator (Mark): HI Vania and welcome!

ircabidjan 4: Charles student from INSAAC Abidjan In this kind of library what type of classification can we use?

Michelle Rago: The WDL uses the Dewey Decimal Classification.  If you use the Browse by Topic feature on the site you will see the Dewey headings.

CO.NX Moderator (Mark): There are many questions coming in, our guest is working on answers now.

ircabidjan: hello I am Michel student in national library school of ivory coast.

fed s billones: IS THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF TGHE PHILIPPINES A MEMBER OF THIS WORLD DIGITAL LIBRARY?

Michelle Rago: They are not a partner yet, but we would certainly like to work with them.  We would like to get participation from every country.

Kayaga Mulindwa: Michelle, from the statistics that you have been sending out, it seems like most of the hits are from the Spanish speaking world. Is there some magic to it that other parts of the world can emulate?

Michelle Rago: You are right about where most of the users are coming from.  We have not investigated this trend very deeply so I'm not sure to what we can attribute the great interest.  This does validate the focus we have put on providing the site in multiple languages though.  We clearly would not have had as much of an impact if the site were only available in English.

Kayaga Mulindwa: Is WDL likely to become one of the UNESCO programmes under the Culture Commission after the five years that the Library of Congress is hosting it?

Michelle Rago: I don't know if that scenario is likely.  The WDL partners are working on adopting a charter now to formally set our organizational structure.

CO.NX Moderator (Sarah):M ichelle Has created a PowerPoint about the WDL that you can look through for more information

CO.NX Moderator (Sarah): Press the "full screen" button if you would like to enlarge the view of the PowerPoint.

ircabidjan 4: lucien student from university of Cocody Abidjan what are the different aims of the world digital library?

Michelle Rago: The WDL aims to provide access to historical treasures that represent the contributions of all countries and cultures.  We would like to increase the diversity of content on the web and also build capacity in institutions that do not yet have digitization programs.  In fact, we have a team of people working at the National Library of Uganda right now. They are setting up a digitization center.  We received a grant from the Carnegie Corporation to support this work.

ircabidjan: mr djedje: do you think that nowadays by the evolution of the world people can believe in wdl?

Michelle Rago: I hope so.  We are placing an emphasis on developing an intuitive user interface so we can appeal to non-traditional digital library users.  We would like to reach users who would not normally access this type of content.

Gladys Marquez: Hello I'm Gladys form Havana, sorry for being late

CO.NX Moderator (Sarah): Welcome, Gladys! We will post the full transcript from this chat here and on our Facebook page (http://co-nx.state.gov) in 2-3 days. You are welcome to submit questions now.

Oksana Volodina: Hi. I'm Oksana Volodina. I am the library director of the Belarusian State University of Culture and Arts

CO.NX Moderator (Sarah): Welcome, Oksana! We are glad to have Belarus participating!

Petreeva: Hello. My name is Svetlana. I'm from the library of the University in Belarus. Can your project for a grant university libraries to participate?

Michelle Rago: University libraries are welcome to participate!  We have several already.  WDL does not provide direct grants, but we could work together to identify other partners who could help to support your participation.

Asuncion IRC - Federico Sosa: Greetings from the IRC in Asuncion, Paraguay.

Kampala 5: Sophie Bangi. How is WDL handling the issue of language barrier. Do you plan translate some of the information?

Michelle Rago: We make the site available in 7 languages, but we do not translate the actual content of the items themselves.  We translate the site navigation, metadata, descriptions about the items, but we don't translate the contents of the rare books, manuscripts, etc.   This would be a HUGE task and nearly impossible at this point.  Who knows what the future of translation technology will bring though.

abidjanirc: why you don’t use the classification of congress?

Michelle Rago: The DDC was already translated into the 7 languages we needed.  The LCC has not been translated yet.

pp: Hello from Rome, Italy.

Luciana: Greetings from ACIND, Brasília, Brasil

Felix Rodas: hello, my name is Félix Rodas, from Chaco paraguayo

Luciano Ramalho: DDC is OK, but it is proprietary, therefore replication of its records requires an expensive subscription. Would the WDL consider using and alternative classification scheme without the licensing restrictions that the DDC has?

Michelle Rago: We would consider it, yet.  However, the translation task that would be required is massive.  I agree about the proprietary nature being a negative for this type of project.  I do think it is currently our best option though.

Petreeva: Thank you very much. We are very pleased to be part of your forum

Janice Silveira : Hello, my name is Janice Silveira from Brazilian Chamber of Deputies - Digital Library.

CO.NX Moderator (Sarah): Thank you, Petreeva and Janice! We are glad to have you all here today.

ircabidjan 5:hello, I come from Abidjan

Florence: I am Florence from Uganda - Has the WDL signed a partnership with Uganda? I am aware that an initial working relationship has been on for some time with the National Library of Uganda.

Michelle Rago: The National Library of Uganda is an official partner of the WDL.  As I mentioned earlier we have a team of people there right now working with the national library staff to set up a digital content production center.  The WDL has worked with several other institutions to set up similar centers in Iraq, Brazil, and Egypt.

mia quik: Hello from Suriname. This is Mia, head of the library of the National Zoological Collection of Suriname at the University of Suriname.

Luciano Ramalho: OK, thanks Michelle. I see the advantage of having a translated classification scheme. The free/libre software movement has shown that free content is much easier to get translated. No OS has more translations than Linux, and no Encyclopedia has more translations than the Wikipedia.

ircabidjan 2: what is the date of the creation of wdl?

Michelle Rago: The WDL became available to the public on April 21, 2009.

ircabidjan: WHAT KIND OF OPPORTUNITIES AFRICANS STUDENTS CAN HAVE THROUGHT YOUR PROJECT?

Michelle Rago: We have had a lot of interest from students hoping to volunteer or participate in the project in some way.  We don't yet have a program to take advantage of this interest, but we will in the future.  Please send me any ideas you have for how you would like to be involved.  Thank you!

CO.NX Moderator (Mark): Does everyone know about CO.NX on Facebook and our weekly newsletter that you can receive?  Visit us at http://co-nx.state.gov to learn about upcoming online discussions.  You may also sign up for our newsletter at http://eepurl.com/gtS7

ircabidjan 8: hello I’m kouassi how did you feel?

CO.NX Moderator (Mark): HI Welcome!  We're so pleased to see so many librarians and students from around the world online with us today.

Florence: Just a comment - I am a digital library student, and we did an evaluation project on your site last semester. It was very good especially in functionality. This gave us a good example for designing digital libraries.

houssouciabidjan: HOUSSOU: Is it possible to have information from your world digital library with other support like mobile phone?

Michelle Rago: The WDL site works on many mobile devices, but it certainly isn't an ideal experience yet.  We are planning to improve the site's performance on mobile and other low-resolution devices.

ircabidjan 8: pelagie hello everyone

Ariel Jara: Ariel Jara, Paraguay

CO.NX Moderator (Sarah): Welcome, Ariel.

Florence: Just a comment. The share functionality of this site is great- 171 tools for sharing! Entire design is well made.

CO.NX Moderator (Sarah): Thank you, Florence.

Kampala 6: Fred Odoki, Hi Michelle, how can other libraries participate in this kind of project.  Is there a criteria that LOC followed in selecting partners?

Michelle Rago: Any library with content that meets the guidelines that have been set can participate.  We are focused on historical cultural materials (rare books, historical maps, photographs, manuscripts, sound recordings, and film).

CO.NX Moderator (Mark):Hi everyone, since there are so many of you with us today we thought you might like the chance to exchange contact information as well as ideas, we will activate the 'IM" function for you in just a moment.  If you are interested in exchanging information with your colleagues online today, look for their name in the attendee list that will appear on your screen in just a moment.

houssouciabidjan: diane: hello

Kampala 6: Evelyn Akunkunda, Kampala.  I think WDL is a very good public library Innovation. However, I am still not sure how this project will help a lay person that has no access to internet connect and appreciate the information on the WDL?

Michelle Rago: You are right.  We are concerned about this too.  We could look at other methods of disseminating this information -- mobile phones (as was mentioned earlier), radio, print publications.  Reaching this audience is a huge task and we welcome any ideas you have on this front.

Liliana Giusti Serra: Liliana Serra, Brazil

CO.NX Moderator (Jennryn): If you enjoy this webchat, join Rima Kupryte for a live video chat on the Public Library Innovation Program grant. Ms. Kupryte will give two live presentations. On January 14, she will answer questions at 08:00 GMT.  And on January 26, she will answer questions at 15:00 GMT. Login to https://statedept.connectsolutions.com/conx to participate!

Gladys Marquez: There are pretty interesting materials from Cuba. I'm Glad to see them.

Asuncion IRC - Federico Sosa: Which countries are eligible for this Public Library Innovation Program grant?

Michelle Rago: Hi, Asuncion. Please join the chat tomorrow at 08:00 GMT to learn about the Public Library Innovation Program. Go to this URL: https://statedept.connectsolutions.com/conx

CO.NX Moderator (Mark): Sorry everyone, I am trying to add a second chat pod for you all as a place to exchange contact info and to IM each other directly, just one moment.

Ariel Jara: Hello, My name is Ariel Jara and I am with Cooperativa Coronel Oviedo

CO.NX Moderator (Mark): Hi and welcome!

Asuncion IRC - Federico Sosa: Thanks Michelle!

abidjanirc: yeboua how will the collaboration work with the libraries and archives overseas?

Michelle Rago: WDL partners contribute content to the site.  Partners send us copies of their digitized objects and metadata.  We then make sure that the metadata meets the WDL requirements and then translate the data so that it is available in the 7 languages.  Then we post the information to the site.   Representatives from partner institutions are also members of WDL working groups.  We are working to build a set of tools so that partners can do more to prepare their content according to WDL requirements, rather than having all of that work is done at the Library of Congress.  This will allow us to add more content to the site more quickly.

abidjanirc: will it be accessible to every country specially

Michelle Rago: The WDL site is available to everyone and for free -- http://www.wdl.org.

Timi O'seun: How visible is digital library in 3rd world country

Michelle Rago: The site is available to anyone with Internet access.

Kayaga Mulindwa: With so many visitors, how have you managed to keep the site from crashing?

Michelle Rago: One of our primary objectives has been to make sure the site performs well around the world.  That has been a challenge in some regions.  We user a content delivery vendor called Akamai to assist in delivering the site.  Akamai has copies of the content on thousands of servers around the world.  This means that user requests don't all have to go back to the server at the Library of Congress.  If that were the case the site would be a lot slower.  We still have more work to do in optimizing the site though.

Maruja: How can we get the digital copy of the Power Point presentation?

Michelle Rago: We will put a link to the PowerPoint in this room after today's presentation.

feds billones: LASTLY, WILL ACCESSING VIA DOWNLOADS, ETC, BE POSSIBLE AND FREE FOR SOME SMALL LIBRARIES FROM THE REMOTEST PARTS AS OURS?

Michelle Rago: Access to the site is free.   There is no charge for viewing and/or downloading content.  Each item can be downloaded.  We don't provide the highest resolution files for download though.  These files are very large.  We do use the high-resolution files to create the zooming experience that you see on the image viewer and page-turner pages.

Francisca Azuaga: Which levels of students for is appropriated?

Michelle Rago: I think the answer to this depends on how much experience a particular has with technology, websites, and this type of content.  I think all students would benefit from having a teacher guide them in the use of the site and from having this content integrated into class assignments.

ircabidjan 8: yeboua:how can WDL participate to the uniqueness of cultures?

Michelle Rago: One of the WDL's content objectives is to provide access to materials that represent the unique history of all countries and cultures.  We just have to work to secure global participation and to add more content to the site.  We currently have 59 partners in 36 countries.

Oksana Volodina: What information is the national priority for placement in the WDL. We could offer information on Belarusian folklore. Who do I contact to participate in your project?

Michelle Rago: Great!  You can contact me at mrag@loc.gov.  The National Library of Belarus is a partner already, but there can be multiple partners from individual countries.

Luciano Ramalho: Very good to hear that Akamai is involved. Are the technical specs and architecture of the WDL published somewhere? For developing countries seeking to create their own digital libraries such specs can be very valuable.

Michelle Rago: We don't have proper documentation available yet, but we will.  You bring up a very important point.  There is a WDL technical architecture working group who is considering the best way to encourage technology transfer.

Gladys Marquez: Who are the official Digital Library contributors in each country?

Michelle Rago: You can see a current list of partners here, http://www.wdl.org/en/about/partners.html.

CO.NX Moderator (Sarah): Thank you all for joining us today. We are nearing the end of the chat now.

Oksana Volodina: Thank you Michelle. I wish you success

Asuncion IRC - Federico Sosa: Thank you Michelle

Luciano Ramalho: Thank you Michelle, the WDL is a wonderful and very important project.

Denise Ledoux: Thank you Michelle.

Vassilis Tsiboukis: Thanks Michelle.   This was very interesting.  Best regards from Athens.

Gladys Marquez: Thanks very much for sharing all of your experiences with us.

Maruja: Are these images free copyrighted? That means, even though they are free for downloading, can I use them in my information products? (IRC Havana)

Michelle Rago: There have been several questions about copyright.  When a partner agrees to contribute their content to the WDL they are agreeing to provide it in the way you see it displayed on the site.  Almost all of the content is in the public domain.  However, we cannot state what can and can't be done with the content.  Each user has to make that kind of determination on their own.    There is a little more information about this on the site.

Felix Rodas: Thank you Michelle

Alexandre/IRC Braslia-Brazil: Thanks Michelle. Greetings from Brazil.

Michelle Rago: I think that is all the time we have.  Thank you everyone for these wonderful questions and for your interest.  I am grateful I had the opportunity to talk about the WDL with you.    Hope to work with you in the future.  Please send me any comments and ideas you have.  Thanks again.

francisco kovacs: Thank you Michelle.

CO.NX Moderator (Jennryn): Join Rima Kupryte for a live video chat on the Public Library Innovation Program grant. Ms. Kupryte will give two live presentations. On January 14, she will answer questions at 08:00 GMT.  And on January 26, she will answer questions at 15:00 GMT. Login to https://statedept.connectsolutions.com/conx to participate!

CO.NX Moderator (Mark): Please join us in thanking Michelle Rago!

ircabidjan 7: ghislain: thank you Michelle Rago

CO.NX Moderator (Sarah): Thank you all for joining us today!

ircabidjan 2: Charles Abidjan thank you Michelle for this project

Kampala 9: Sophie Thanks so much Michelle, Thanks Sarah. It has been a great discussion.

ircabidjan 5: NDA, KONAN; THANKS A LOT AND MAY GOD BLESS YOU AND THE PROJECT

Asuncion IRC - Federico Sosa: Gracias!

CO.NX Moderator (Sarah): Does everyone know about CO.NX on Facebook and our weekly newsletter that you can receive?  Visit us at http://co-nx.state.gov to learn about upcoming online discussions.  You may also sign up for our newsletter at http://eepurl.com/gtS7

abidjanirc 2: thank you Michelle ! God bless you

Patience Agabirwe: Thanks Sarah!

Eugenia Pojomovsky: thank you for sharing with us this information!

CO.NX Moderator (Sarah): We appreciate all your interest and excellent questions today.

CO.NX Moderator (Sarah): The PowerPoint will be available later today in this room. And the transcript from today's chat will be published and available here and on our Facebook page in 2-3 business days.