Glossary
Nettie J. McKinnon Art Gallery: currently housed in a junior high school, this valuable collection of artwork was collected by students at Ogden Avenue Elementary School under the guidance of their principal, Nettie McKinnon. Children participated in fundraising efforts and had an active role in selecting the artwork. Currently valued at several million dollars, it is viewable online at http://www.saltcreekart.org/njm_caa/view_the_collection/view.html
Controlled vocabulary: a carefully selected list of words and phrases used in library cataloging; controlled vocabularies reduce ambiguity and ensure consistency
Digital public library: a collection of items offered to the public via the internet. The items represented are shown in their original material representation. Often a cross between a museum and a library, various digital libraries focus their collection on different elements.
A digital public library is NOT:
- a list of the books you can download onto your Kindle
- your current library system’s online catalog (next-gen or old-gen)
A digital library offers digital representations of the items themselves. Books are scanned so that the viewer sees actual pages (and page numbers, and coffee stains, etc). A viewer can “flip” through the pages. For example, if a patron was interested in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, she would not get the text via download. What she would have to choose from are various books, folios, images of Hamlet, etc. – some current and some from the 1600’s.
The term “digital library” can correctly be used in other ways; for example a repository of information born digital (ie a publisher of scientific journals keeps digital copies of everything published and calls it a digital library) but for purposes of this assignment, digital libraries are those with a preservation focus.
Fair use: a legal concept that allows the reproduction of copyrighted material for certain purposes without obtaining permission and without paying a fee or royalty. The subject of frequent legal disputes, fair use requires that the usage be fair and reasonable, does not substantially impair the value of the original materials, and does not curtail the profits reasonably expected by the owner.
Integrated Library System (ILS): an enterprise resource planning system for a library, used to track items owned, orders made, bills paid, and patrons who have borrowed. An ILS usually includes a relational database, software to interact with that database, and two user interfaces (one for patrons, one for staff). Most ILSes separate software functions into discrete programs called modules, each of them integrated with a unified interface. Examples of modules might include:
Intellectual Property or Intellectual Property Rights (IP or IPR)): a legal concept which refers to creations of the mind for which exclusive rights are recognized
Metadata: data that provides information about other data. The word comes from the Greek "meta," meaning after, beyond, or along with, and the Latin fusion of the words meta and data. Meta is a term of Greek origin, meaning after, beyond, or along with (Meta, n.d.), while data is the plural of the Latin word datum, meaning something given or a fact (Datum, n.d.). Thus, the term metadata can be interpreted as referring to something that is associated with a fact or data. In the library environment, definitions of metadata focus on the representation of information resources, where an information resource refers to any digital or non-digital material carrying information, whether textual or non-textual, that can be made explicit.
OCR (Optical Character Recognition): Allows a computer to recognize and search for alphabetic (or other) characters within a scanned text (ie allows for “control F” function to “Find” words).
OPAC (Online Public Access Catalog): an online database of materials held by a library or group of libraries
Platform: the computer software that provides the structure necessary to develop a digital library. Components typically include data collection, a server with storage and editing capabilities, and a web-based search tool. ContentDM, Rosetta, and Viewshare are examples. (see below for details).
OAIS: Open Archival Information System, a model for collecting and preserving information in a digital format.
Professional Associations/ Conferences
ACM: Association for Computing Machinery. The world’s largest educational and scientific computing society, it delivers resources that advance computing as a science and a profession. ACM provides the computing field's premier Digital Library and serves its members and the computing profession with
leading-edge publications, conferences, and career resources. Next conference: see JCDL.
DFL: The Digital Library Federation is a network of libraries and related agencies pioneering innovative uses of information technologies and community expertise to extend collections and services. CLIR logo DLF is a program of the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR). Next annual conference:
Nov 3-6, 2013, Austin TX
IEEE: pronounced "Eye-triple-E," it stands for the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. “Advancing Technology for Humanity” is their slogan. Next conference: See JCDL.
IFLA: The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions is the leading international body representing the interests of library and information services and their users. It is the global voice of the library and information profession. Next annual conference: August 21-23, 2013, Singapore.
JCDL: The Joint Conference on Digital Libraries is a new conference this year. A combination of two other conferences, the ACM Digital Libraries
Conferences and the IEEE-CS Advances in Digital Libraries Conferences, it will focus on digital libraries and associated technical, practical, and social
issues. Next annual conference: July 22 – 26, 2013, Indianapolis.
TEI: Text Encoding Initiative. This year’s conference theme is “The Linked TEI: Text Encoding in the Web” and features a keynote lecture by Allen Renear (professor and interim Dean at UIUC’s GSLIS). October 2-5, 2013, Rome.
Controlled vocabulary: a carefully selected list of words and phrases used in library cataloging; controlled vocabularies reduce ambiguity and ensure consistency
Digital public library: a collection of items offered to the public via the internet. The items represented are shown in their original material representation. Often a cross between a museum and a library, various digital libraries focus their collection on different elements.
A digital public library is NOT:
- a list of the books you can download onto your Kindle
- your current library system’s online catalog (next-gen or old-gen)
A digital library offers digital representations of the items themselves. Books are scanned so that the viewer sees actual pages (and page numbers, and coffee stains, etc). A viewer can “flip” through the pages. For example, if a patron was interested in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, she would not get the text via download. What she would have to choose from are various books, folios, images of Hamlet, etc. – some current and some from the 1600’s.
The term “digital library” can correctly be used in other ways; for example a repository of information born digital (ie a publisher of scientific journals keeps digital copies of everything published and calls it a digital library) but for purposes of this assignment, digital libraries are those with a preservation focus.
Fair use: a legal concept that allows the reproduction of copyrighted material for certain purposes without obtaining permission and without paying a fee or royalty. The subject of frequent legal disputes, fair use requires that the usage be fair and reasonable, does not substantially impair the value of the original materials, and does not curtail the profits reasonably expected by the owner.
Integrated Library System (ILS): an enterprise resource planning system for a library, used to track items owned, orders made, bills paid, and patrons who have borrowed. An ILS usually includes a relational database, software to interact with that database, and two user interfaces (one for patrons, one for staff). Most ILSes separate software functions into discrete programs called modules, each of them integrated with a unified interface. Examples of modules might include:
- acquisitions (ordering, receiving, and invoicing materials)
- cataloging (classifying and indexing materials)
- circulation (lending materials to patrons and receiving them back)
- serials (tracking magazine and newspaper holdings)
- the OPAC (public interface for users)
Intellectual Property or Intellectual Property Rights (IP or IPR)): a legal concept which refers to creations of the mind for which exclusive rights are recognized
Metadata: data that provides information about other data. The word comes from the Greek "meta," meaning after, beyond, or along with, and the Latin fusion of the words meta and data. Meta is a term of Greek origin, meaning after, beyond, or along with (Meta, n.d.), while data is the plural of the Latin word datum, meaning something given or a fact (Datum, n.d.). Thus, the term metadata can be interpreted as referring to something that is associated with a fact or data. In the library environment, definitions of metadata focus on the representation of information resources, where an information resource refers to any digital or non-digital material carrying information, whether textual or non-textual, that can be made explicit.
OCR (Optical Character Recognition): Allows a computer to recognize and search for alphabetic (or other) characters within a scanned text (ie allows for “control F” function to “Find” words).
OPAC (Online Public Access Catalog): an online database of materials held by a library or group of libraries
Platform: the computer software that provides the structure necessary to develop a digital library. Components typically include data collection, a server with storage and editing capabilities, and a web-based search tool. ContentDM, Rosetta, and Viewshare are examples. (see below for details).
OAIS: Open Archival Information System, a model for collecting and preserving information in a digital format.
Professional Associations/ Conferences
ACM: Association for Computing Machinery. The world’s largest educational and scientific computing society, it delivers resources that advance computing as a science and a profession. ACM provides the computing field's premier Digital Library and serves its members and the computing profession with
leading-edge publications, conferences, and career resources. Next conference: see JCDL.
DFL: The Digital Library Federation is a network of libraries and related agencies pioneering innovative uses of information technologies and community expertise to extend collections and services. CLIR logo DLF is a program of the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR). Next annual conference:
Nov 3-6, 2013, Austin TX
IEEE: pronounced "Eye-triple-E," it stands for the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. “Advancing Technology for Humanity” is their slogan. Next conference: See JCDL.
IFLA: The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions is the leading international body representing the interests of library and information services and their users. It is the global voice of the library and information profession. Next annual conference: August 21-23, 2013, Singapore.
JCDL: The Joint Conference on Digital Libraries is a new conference this year. A combination of two other conferences, the ACM Digital Libraries
Conferences and the IEEE-CS Advances in Digital Libraries Conferences, it will focus on digital libraries and associated technical, practical, and social
issues. Next annual conference: July 22 – 26, 2013, Indianapolis.
TEI: Text Encoding Initiative. This year’s conference theme is “The Linked TEI: Text Encoding in the Web” and features a keynote lecture by Allen Renear (professor and interim Dean at UIUC’s GSLIS). October 2-5, 2013, Rome.