My Leicestershire Digital Archive

This is a new project, funded by JISC, to digitise material from the Special Collections of the University of Leicester Library, the Media Archive for Central England (MACE) and the East Midlands Oral History Archive (EMOHA). You can follow the blog at http://myleicestershire.wordpress.com/2010/06/02/the-project/

Preserving the BL’s Newspapers

Planets (Preservation and Long-term Access Through Networked Services) has released a short video describing how the British Library has used Planet to help preserve its nineteenth century newspaper collection. You can view the video at http://www.planets-project.eu/publications/?search[0]=15

The Newspaper collection iteself can be viewed via http://www.le.ac.uk/li/digital/NineteenthCenturyBritishLibraryNewspapers.html

Using Omeka to Build Digital Collections: The METRO Case Study

Image from website

In September 2008, the Metropolitan New York Library Council (METRO) began work building a directory of digital collections created and maintained by libraries in the metropolitan New York City area. METRO built the directory using Omeka, an open source collection management system, as a test to determine the viability of this platform for member libraries interested in using Omeka to build and deliver their own collections.

Read the paper at http://www.dlib.org/dlib/march10/kucsma/03kucsma.html

Museum Data Exchange

The Museum Data Exchange, a project funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, brought together nine art museums and OCLC Research to model data sharing in the museum community. Read more at http://www.dlib.org/dlib/march10/waibel/03waibel.html

More Newspaper Resources

The British Library 19th century Newspaper collection now includes a further 22 titles. More details can be found at http://www.iwr.co.uk/information-world-review/news/2260406/online-newspaper-resource-grows

Access to this collection is via our A-Z of  databases at http://www.le.ac.uk/li/digital/NineteenthCenturyBritishLibraryNewspapers.html

New Publication

Distributed digital preservation is the topic of this book (available to buy or to download).

‘This volume is devoted to the broad topic of distributed digital preservation, a still-emerging field of practice for the cultural memory arena. Replication and distribution hold out the promise of indefinite preservation of materials without degradation, but establishing effective organizational and technical processes to enable this form of digital preservation is daunting. Institutions need practical examples of how this task can be accomplished in manageable, low-cost ways.’

http://metaarchive.org/GDDP

MuseumMobile

You may be interested in the blog MuseumMobile: media and technology on the go. It’s a forum for conversations about mobile techonology and media for museums and cultural sites. Its manager is Nancy Proctor.  You can subscribe to MuseumMobile on iTunes, or visit it at http://museummobile.info/

Archiving Websites

The British Library and national Museum of Scotland are warning that  historical record is being lost beacause websites are niot being archived. Read the Guardian article at http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/dec/27/libraries-internet

UNESCO World Heritage Sites

Take a virtual walk round UNESCO World Heritage sites using Google Earth, Google maps and Street View.

http://www.google.com/intl/en/landing/unesco/

It’s a Material World

A pamphlet is available to download for free from Demos. Written by Samuel Jones, It’s a Material World: caring for the public realm ‘highlights the importance of conservation as being integral not only to the culture and heritage sector, but also to social wellbeing.’

http://www.demos.co.uk/publications/materialworld