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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 America. 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 1755 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Suite 500 Washington DC 20036 USA Tel: 202-939-4762 Email: [log in to unmask] Web: www.diglib.org