Upcoming METS Opening Day

METS Opening Day October 15, 2005 in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

This event will provide an overview of the Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard (METS) schema, and discuss the basics of implementing digital library systems which use METS. Participants will be given an opportunity to see how to build METS documents from scratch, and learn about how other institutions are implementing METS. There will also be opportunities to discuss the technical details of implementing METS, including the use of creation tools, endorsed extension schema, and making METS documents available to users.

The event is free of charge, but attendees of the METS Opening Day must register. Registration is limited to 100 people. Registration and travel information will be available shortly. A preliminary program is available at:
http://www.loc.gov/standards/mets/program_canada.html

RLG DigiNews August 2005

The August 2005 issue of RLG DigiNews is now available. Volume 9, Number 4 includes:

Feature Article 1
Developing Digital Preservation Programs: the Cornell Survey of
Institutional Readiness, 2003-2005
by Anne R. Kenney and Ellie Buckley

Feature Article 2
Watch This Space: Ten Promising Digital Preservation Initiatives
by the RLG DigiNews Staff

Highlighted Website
UK Web Archiving Consortium

FAQ
Predicting the Life Expectancy of Modern Tape and Optical Media
by Vivek Navale

http://www.rlg.org/en/page.php?Page_ID=20744

Real-Time Audio-Video Lossless Encoding Card

Media Matters Gives First Public Demonstration of Real-Time Audio-Video Lossless Compressed Encoding Card at National Library of Medicine

Justin Dávila, System Architect and Technology Consultant for Media Matters LLC, gave the company's first public demonstration of its new Motion JPEG2000 lossless encoding card at the “Getting to Disk-based Lossless Digital Video Preservation” symposium held at the National Library of Medicine. The real-time audio-video encoding hardware provides mathematically lossless compression using wavelet-based algorithms, preserving video content in a Motion JPEG2000 digital file that is about one-third the size of uncompressed video with no loss of information, plus synchronized lossless audio in standard BWF format.

For the full press release:
http://www.media-matters.net/images/pressreleases/NLM%20MM%20MJPEG2k%20demo.pdf

LITA National Forum featuring MIC

2005 LITA National Forum to feature Moving Image Collections preconference

The 2005 Library and Information Technology Association (LITA) National Forum will be held September 29 - October 2, 2005, at the San Jose (CA) Marriott hotel. "Moving Image Collections" (MIC) will be presented as a preconference to the Forum, beginning the afternoon of September 29 and concluding the morning of September 30. Please see below for a description of the program. Registration for the preconference is $175 for LITA members, $210 for non members.

The preconference will explore best practices for describing and preserving moving images and digital video using metadata, as well as MIC's extensible metadata strategy for making digital resources accessible and useful to different audiences.

For more information:
http://www.ala.org/ala/lita/litaevents/litanationalforum2005sanjoseca/Default5678.htm