This presentation was given by Getaneh Alemu at TPDL-2011 workshop on “Linking Research and Education in Digital Libraries", held 28-29 September 2011 in Berlin. Getaneh was invited by the workshop organisers (Vittore Casarosa, Donatella Castelli and Anna Maria Tammaro) to present his perspectives and experiences in digital library education and research. For more information about the workshop http://www.dlib.org/dlib/november11/casarosa/11casarosa.html

1. Getaneh Alemu
School of Creative Technologies
University of Portsmouth
Workshop on
Research and Education in Digital Libraries
September 28th -29th 2011
International Conference on Theory and
Practice of Digital Libraries 2011
Berlin

2.  Current
 PhD Student at University of Portsmouth (2010-present)
 Title: ‘A Conceptual Framework for User-Driven Semantic
Metadata Interoperability in Digital Libraries’
 Past work experience
 Research Assistant at University of Portsmouth (2009-2010)
 Digital preservation metadata
 Librarian at Mekelle University (2001-2007)
 Education
 MSc in Digital Library Learning (DILL) (Oslo, Tallinn and
Parma, 2009)
 MSc in Knowledge and Information Management (Ghent,
2005)
 BSc in Library and Information Science (Addis Ababa, 2001)

3.  Conceptual foundations
 Digital library definition
 DELOS Reference Model
 DLF definition
 Research Methods & Theory of Science
 Digital Documents
 Information & Knowledge Management
 Major texts
 Lesk, M. (2004) & Witten, I.H. & Bainbridge, D. (2003)

4. Technical know-how
 XML
 RDF/RDFS/OWL
 Topic Maps
 Information retrieval (search algorithms)
 Digital library software (Greenstone)
 Metadata (Dublin Core)
 Interoperability (OAI-PMH)

5. Users and social issues
 Human Resources Management
 Users and Usage of Digital Libraries
 Access to Digital Documents

6.  Content
 Sound theoretical basis
 Digital library definitions
 Digital library architectures (DELOS reference model)
 Metadata interoperability
 DL protocols and standards
 Information management
 Users
 Joint organisation by different
universities
 Involvement of distinguished lecturers
 Diversity of student backgrounds
 Internship opportunities
 Master thesis requirement

7.  “We [in LIS] are struck by the poverty of
foundational theories” (Day, 2010);
 “The development of LIS should not rely on
some borrowed, pre-packaged theory” (Floridi,
2000)
 Is LIS a theory or model-based discipline?
(personal communication)
 The socio-technical perspective of digital
libraries (House, Bishop, & Buttenfield, 2003; Lagoze, 2010)

8.  Synergy between various DL frameworks
 Example:
 Streams, Structures, Spaces,
Scenarios and Societies (5S) (Moreira, et al,
2009)
versus
Content, user, functionality, quality,
policy, architecture (Candela, et al, 2007)

9. Building meaning
 “In the world after the Enlightenment, the
cultural task was to build knowledge. In the
miscellaneous world, the task is to build
meaning”
(Weinberger, 2007, p.222)
Constructivist learning approaches

10.  Inclusion of digital preservation
 Migration versus emulation
 Choice of file formats
 Complex objects
 Preservation of games
 OAIS reference model
 Digital preservation tools
 PRONOM, DROID, GDFR
 PLATO

11.  Emphasis on open access to
scholarly communication
 Open access models
 Self-archiving
 Open access mandates
 Open access journals

12.  Address data curation issues (Lagoze,
2011)
 Data lifecycle
 Data science expertise (data scientist, data curator,
eScience librarian)
 Open data
 Linked data
 IP privacy, and ethical issues associated with data
,

13.  Focuson user-driven systems and
services
(Weinberger, 2007; Shirky, 2005; Lagoze, 2010)
 Contextualisationwith emerging
technological trends and
paradigms
(Anderson, 2006, 2009; Weinberger, 2007)

14.  Familiarisation with European
Commission (EC) projects
 Planets, KEEP, DELOS, LiWA, PARSE.Insight, PROTAGE,
PrestoPRIME, SHAMAN, CASPAR, DPE, TEL, Europeana,
DL.org and many others
 Collaboration between EC
education programmes and EC-
research projects
 To engage students through internships, visits, conferences,
workshops, and career opportunities
 Lecturers should recommend areas/themes/topics for
thesis/dissertations