Publishing Innovators on Twitter

Mashable reports:

“A lively ongoing conversation is taking place on Twitter about where the publishing industry is headed. With digital media overshadowing its legacy media counterpart, publishers are struggling to figure out pricing, digital rights issues and how to market digital content. These are similar to the struggles the music industry has faced over the past few years.

Here are 15 Twitter users [including several publishers] Maria Schneider turns to for news and insight about how old school publishing is meeting its digital future. By following these publishing innovators, you can follow — and even participate in — the industry’s conversations as they take place in real-time.”

* Richard Nash

* Michael Hyatt: CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers

* Kevin Smokler: a friend of Chris Anderson

* Nathan Bransford

* Dominique Raccah

* Chris Webb

* Garrett Kiely: writes about familiar topics of this blog: digital books, copyright issues and the latest ebook developments

* Tim O’Reilly: yes, him again!

* Joe Wikert

* Guy L. Gonzalez

* Debbie Stier

* Mark Coker

* Cory Doctorow

* Don Linn

* Hugh McGuire

You can follow all of the people on this list by going to our customized “15 Twitter Users Shaping the Future of Publishing” TweepML group.

To read the whole article, go to her post at Mashable

 

journal pricing: what happens when you go online?

“The replacement of print by electronic as the predominant medium for access to scientific literature ranks among the most important recent developments in journal publishing. But how do, or should, journal pricing models reflect this shift? Here Alexander van Boetzelaer, Elsevier’s director of strategy for the Science & Technology Division, offers insights into how Elsevier is approaching electronic journal pricing, given that digital is here to stay.”

Read the full story at http://libraryconnect.elsevier.com/lcn/0703/lcn070317.html

 

Digital Books – What to do, where to go?

Thanks to one of my dear Facebook Friends, Gerry McKiernan, I came across a useful blog about ebooks (trends), called  ‘Digital Book Readers - eBook Readers Guide: reviews, articles, features, offers’

According to the post An Introduction to Popular E-book Readers last year, there were more sales for e-books than printed books. Mmm, not so sure about that one….  Either way, one can only agree with William J Linch, President of Barnes&Noble who stated earlier this year that  “The market hasn’t been that developed to date. We think it’s a big growth area going forward.”

What do you think? Any practical evidence how this trend is evolving within the publishing industry?  

More information at http://www.digital-book-readers.com/

 

LinkedIn Groups Worth Monitoring

Today I joined a LinkedIn Group, that may interest you too…

I was immediately drawn to it because of its description and the impressive list of members.

The desciption of “Modern Marketing for the New Information Age (MAPP)”:

“Marketing academic and professional content is becoming more complex by the day. We have a whole new information environment to deal with, which calls for some fundamental changes in the way in which we market scholarly content.

The MAPP has been established to give a focal point for the profession around which we can exchange ideas and experiences. In doing so, we can improve and prove the impact of our activities on the success of our organizations AND create a more satisfying experience for our customers.

By sharing our ideas and knowledge of best practice we can solve our collective problems together, giving us the time we need individually as marketing professionals to innovate and help our organizations compete effectively.”

How do you keep track of Online Publishing developments? Any LinkedIn or other groups you can recommend?

 

Hi Again!

Hi all,

I have decided to re-start this blog. As you can see, the focus has changed a bit.

Starting September 2009 I will tell you about Online Publishing Initiatives (OPI)

As before, I hope that in return, you tell me what you and your organisations are doing.

Your updates of European projects, announcements of new initiatives, etc., are very welcome. Feel free to contact me at FleurStigter@hotmail.com

Great to be back!

Best, Fleur

 

Good Bye!

Dear all,

A personal announcement…

To come straight to the point: Starting Mid May I will no longer work for The European Library / Europeana.

Since I started this blog to TELL you about The European Library and related developments within Digital Library world (well, that is, the European part), I decided to end this blog.  Maybe I will return in the future but for now, I wish to say goodbye and thank you very much for all your support.

Best to you all,

Fleur  

PS: To satisfy any possible curiousity My new employer is a big publishing house in The Netherlands, called SDU.

 

EU (culture) Projects launch Websites

Fleur updates you about two EU projects and mentions where you can find more information:

1. APENET

APENET will provide a common gateway to Europe’s archives and will inform visitors about archival material from across Europe.

Twelve European National Archives are involved in the project, and – as you may have expected – there is a strong interrelation with Europeana….

“Archives across the European Union will be easily accessible to EU citizens for the first time from a single entry point, and should improve public understanding of European history and culture. Therefore, APENET will also have a strong relationship with the Europeana and other European portals or gateways which hold information on archives, like Michael and QVIZ.” (eContentplus page)

Since recently the Project has a Website. You can find it at www.apenet.eu

Almost simultaneously another project, entitled ‘PrestoPRIME’, launched its own website.

2. PrestoPRIME

PrestoPrime “will research and develop practical solutions for the long-term preservation of digital media objects, programmes and collections, and find ways to increase access by integrating the media archives with European on-line digital libraries in a digital preservation framework. This will result in a range of tools and services, delivered through a networked Competence Centre.”

http://www.prestoprime.org
http://www.prestoprime.eu

 

OCR in Mass Digitisation – Conference announcement

[posted upon request]

On 6-7 April the first IMPACT Conference on ‘OCR in Mass Digitisation – Challenges between Full Text, Imaging and Language’ will take place at the KB – National Library of the Netherlands in The Hague.
The conference programme with additional information on the speakers is now available from the project website (http://www.impact-project.eu/news/ic2009/). Highlights include:

•  Many Hands Make Light Work: Collaborative OCR Text Correction in Australian Historic Newspapers by Rose Holley (National Library of Australia)
• Future Challenges for OCR Technology by Claus Gravenhorst (CCS)
• The Context of IMPACT by Ms. Patricia Manson, Head of Unit ‘Cultural heritage and technology enhanced learning’ of the European Commission (tentative)
• Measuring the OCR Accuracy across The British Library 2 Million Page Newspaper Archive by Simon Tanner (King’s College London)

 

And from the IMPACT project:

• Introduction to IMPACT by Hildelies Balk (KB)
• Library challenges for mass digitisation by Astrid Verheusen (KB)
• Adaptive OCR by Asaf Tzadok (IBM)
• A User Friendly Platform for Document Image Enhancement and Segmentation by Basilis Gatos (NCSR)
• Language Technology for Improving OCR on Historical Texts by Klaus Schulz (LMU)
• Digital Restoration and Layout Analysis: Challenges and IMPACT by Apostolos Antonacopoulos (PRIMA, University of Salford)
• Historical Lexicon Building and How it Improves Access to Text by Katrien Depuydt (INL)
• Decision Support Tools by Neil Fitzgerald (BL)

 

Registration is still possible at a fee of €110,-

IMPACT is a European project that aims to speed up the process and enhance the quality of mass digitisation in Europe. The IMPACT research programme will significantly improve digital access to historical printed text through the development and use of innovative Optical Character Recognition software and linguistic technologies.
IMPACT will also build capacity in mass digitisation across Europe. The fifteen partners (seven libraries, six research institutes and two private sector companies) collectively constitute a Centre of Competence that will share best practice and expertise with the cultural heritage communities in Europe.

 

If you would like to be added to the IMPACT mailing list to stay updated on the project’s progress, please send a request to impact@kb.nl

 

 

 

Vacancy Developer (The European Library)

The European Library is looking for a new technical developer (jr./sr.). Sounds interesting? Well let us know and send your resume!

We are looking for a (semi) experienced developer, who likes working in a team and in a fast paced environment. You should have some systems knowledge and – above all – a desire to learn new things.

Competencies:

• Analytical
• Problem Solving
• Able to play an active role in an international network and to get relevant people involved
• Able to circulate information to persons with various degrees of technical knowledge
• Good oral and written skills in English language
• “Customer satisfaction” oriented (absolute must have!)

Our offices are based in The Hague, The Netherlands. Before applying please ensure you can work in The Netherlands.

 

‘More translations, unique historical content and rich media – The European Library launches renewed website’

[Press Release]

 

February 17th 2009, The Hague (The Netherlands) – The European Library today announced a new site release of www.TheEuropeanLibrary.org, a free resource to discover the extensive learning and research materials, covering all subjects, from 38 national libraries across Europe.  Originally developed as a central point of access to Europe’s library material, the website now combines multilingual search functionalities with several online exhibitions and web2.0 tools.

 

The new portal incorporates many of the recommended enhancements from user feedback studies.  Top of the list was more multilingual facilities.  As a result, users can now navigate and scan over 330 collections in their native language.  Support materials, including FAQs and a first-time user guide, are available in 22 European languages.

 

Users also enjoy the portal’s rich media offerings.  The portal specialises in online exhibitions that showcase the collections of Europe’s national libraries.  A new, exciting exhibition on the Napoleonic Wars has been launched to coincide with the two-hundredth anniversary of the campaigns.  More than 200 rarities were collected from the national libraries of Spain, Portugal, France, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Denmark, the Netherlands and Serbia.  The exhibition shows unique material such as French constitutional chart (1814), sketches of Francisco de Goya (1810) and military maps showing how Napoleon planned his attacks.

Exhibition Space

 

 

Notes for Editors:

 

www.TheEuropeanLibrary.org is a service of the Conference of European National Librarians (CENL) offering free, item level, access to the combined resources, books, magazines, journals, manuscripts, sound and video archives, both digital and non-digital, from 38 of the 47 national libraries of Europe. Europeana.eu builds on the project management and technical expertise developed by The European Library.

 

Exhibition Foyer: http://www.theeuropeanlibrary.org/exhibition/

Collections: http://search.theeuropeanlibrary.org/portal/en/collections_all.html

 

Contact: Fleur Stigter, The European Library, Tel: + 31 (0) 70. 31.40. 182, Fleur.Stigter@KB.nl