INFO: Library Conference Regarding Preservation of Electronic Text

     That a library conference on preservation of electronic format materials in libraries makes the New York Times is news in and of itself. The problem is that recording materials electronically is done on one or another system and with the passage of time comes the passage of those formats on which the material is recorded. Thus libraries have had their own versions of the eight track tape player as for example microcards which need to be read on a machine that can no longer be purchased. The conference, as reported in the New York Times, focused on the problems of and new technologies for electronic materials storage and the scope of materials being preserved. A hyperlinked, indexed excerpt of this article will be found below with hyperlinks as well to named organizations in the article. And, speaking of preservation, this information is also being sent to E-Carm News for preservation in their E-Carm News archive at http://www.ecarm.org/ (.)

Sincerely,
David Dillard
Temple University
(215) 204 - 4584
jwne[_at_]astro.temple.edu

INFO: LIBRARIES: PRESERVATION : ELECTRONIC TEXT: ISSUES: New York Times Article Reports on Library Conference Regarding Preservation of Changing Electronic Text Technologies

Source: New York Times (NYT)
Author: PAMELA MENDELS
Title: Library Conference Examines Preservation of Digital Works Source Date: June 5, 1999
Resource Type: News Article
Description/Keywords: Libraries, Electronic, Publications,   Preservation, Obsolete, Technologies, New, Techniques, Equipment,   Conference, Issues
URL: Listed Below Article Summary

June 5, 1999

          Library Conference Examines
          Preservation of Digital Works
          By PAMELA MENDELS

Swedish librarians are busy at work trying to take periodic snapshots of all Swedish pages on the World Wide Web.

In the Netherlands, librarians are working with their counterparts in other Euorpean nations to try to develop a standard way to preserve scientific journals and other modern works that exist only in electronic form.

And in France, a project is underway to digitize items including the complete works of Balzac and documents from the French Revolution, and to preserve them on highly durable compact disks.

Around the world, research librarians are devoting much of their attention these days to thinking through the complexities of how to preserve humanity's cultural patrimony in an electronic age. At a two-day conference on virtual libraries that ended Friday in New York City, representatives of major research libraries from the United States, Canada and 10 European countries gathered to discuss how to continue to fulfill their historical role despite changing technology.

Organizations Mentioned in This News Story with Website Links:

   New York Public Library
   http://www.nypl.org/

   Bibliotheque Nationale de France
   http://www.bnf.fr/

   The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
   http://www.mellon.org/

   Research Libraries Group
   http://www.rlg.org/

   International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions    http://www.ifla.org/

   National Library of Sweden
   http://www.kb.se/

   Sweden's Kulturarw3 Project
   http://kulturarw3.kb.se/

   NEDLIB -- Networked European Deposit Library project    http://www.konbib.nl/nedlib/

   National Library of the Netherlands
   http://www.konbib.nl/

Full Story At This URL:
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/06/cyber/articles/05library.html Received on Sat Jun 05 1999 - 10:35:58 GMT