Computers in Libraries 2005, Day 1 (morning sessions)
Posted on March 16, 2005
Filed Under Computers in Libraries |
Here’s a quick run-down on what I listened to this morning:
9am - Intro (I think it was Dick Kaser):
- Best turnout in over 5 years.
- Over 2100 registered.
- From all 50 states and DC. 10 countries.
- 139 speakers and moderators, 62 exhibitors
Clifford Lynch (keynote):
No Powerpoint. Cool - I need a cheatsheet.
Clifford spoke on the history of the Internet and then projected possible future stuff:
- History of internet and web…
- In 1985, what we have now (the web) would have seemed like science fiction.
Current Trends:
- we’ll see a huge amount of historical content placed online.
- Entire cumulative amount of literature on certain subjects will be available online.
- We’ve been raised to think there’s a scarcity of content (limited amount of space on bookshelves, record stores, etc.). We’re now finding out that someone loves practically everything - it’s a move to abundance.
- Move to digital representations that stand by themselves. move from bib records and description to a move to full text. This is a huge cultural shift. We need to rethink metadata because of this.
- Images are plentiful - we can represent physical objects digitally. Physical things are much more accessible and preservable now. Like museums. (or local history/archives collections)
- TV stations, radio stations, printing presses, etc - all belonged to big organizations. Now you can have a computer of your own with a fast internet connection, and the big organization trend is shrinking.
- We can take networking ans wireless for granted - he hasn’t had to use a modem for a long time.
Future trends down the road:
- Images are going to become much more common discourse in electronic communication.
- Are we moving into an age of broader authorship? Tim Berners-Lee idea of the web was collaboration… we’ve seen the rise of blogs, photo blogs. It’s energized a large number of people.
- Age of popular authorship… some authorship will turn into a type of conversation.
- Large digital collections of historical content. For example - a photo of some confederate general usually has little to no descriptive content - Once you put it online, it becomes a conversation - hey, that’s my grandpa…. let me tell you about him. Content becomes conversation. That’s cool.
- Content designed for humans, and content designed for machines to read - we’ll see this division. There aren’t really maps now - they’re databases that output a map.
- Digital Preservation concerns are growing: larger interest in preservation for digital content.
- Starting to see “digital shoeboxes” of content (like family photos) that people want to preserve.
- Sensory integration. - Seeing this in the sciences. starting to see it in medicine. low end - surveillance cameras attached to the net
And his conclusion:
Embarrasing content is becoming an issue - 4th graders who put up a webpages - they’ll deal with that when they are adults, becuase their 4th grade info will still be out there.
Since then, I gave two presentations, so I haven’t really taken more notes… more to come fromt his afternoon’s sessions.
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