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Some of you may remember that last year we held a DLF Scholars'
Advisory Panel to present to a group of working researchers and teachers a
range of DLF activities, and to solicit from them feedback on the way they used
digital library content, and the barriers that stood in their way when they
engaged in digital scholarship <http://www.diglib.org/use/scholars0406/>
This summer, as part of our IMLS-funded OAI "next generation"
work <http://www.diglib.org/architectures/oai/imls2004/>
we convened a similar group to comment in a more focused manner on the
opportunities and challenges of using OAI and harvestable metadata. The subject focus of the grant is American
cultural materials, reflecting the bulk of what we have digitized in our
collections to date, and therefore the individuals on the panel are
predominantly drawn from departments which study the history and literature of
Not surprisingly, the group had feedback on a range of issues, which
can be found in PDF at http://www.diglib.org/architectures/oai/imls2004/OAISAP05.pdf
and in HTML at http://www.diglib.org/architectures/oai/imls2004/OAISAP05.htm. This new report should be of some use, I
hope, to anyone building digital library services for the humanities scholar.
We are taking these lessons to heart as we continue to develop prototype
services and interfaces. The grant also
covers very important OAI Best Practices documentation (jointly developed with
NSDL), some training in OAI for DLF institutions, and a revision of Martha
Brogan's very well received "A Survey of Digital Library Aggregation
Services" (December 2003) <http://www.diglib.org/pubs/brogan/>
Best wishes,
David
David Seaman
Executive Director
Digital Library Federation
Council on Library and Information Resources
Tel: 202-939-4762
Email: [log in to unmask]
Web: www.diglib.org