29 October 2008

Following the consensus of the EROMM Steering committee cooperating libraries can enjoy a 5 % discount on the regular price, when they order service copies through EROMM from other cooperating libraries. A list of these libraries will be found here.

13-17 October 2008

A) DPE/Planets/CASPAR/nestor Joint Training Event:
Starting out: Preserving Digital Objects - Principles and Practice

This training event will introduce participants to a number of key digital preservation principles and provide them with an opportunity to apply this knowledge through a number of practical, hands-on exercises.

Registration is possible still. For more information and to register for this event visit: http://www.wepreserve.eu/events/prague-2008/

B) DRAMBORA Auditor’s First Training Course

To support the take-up of the DRAMBORA Interactive toolkit and the use of the DRAMBORA methods this is the first training course for Auditors.

Detailed programme and registration at http://www.repositoryaudit.eu/training/prague-2008/.

15-16 November 2007

The German Assosiation of Libraries and the Bavarian State Library will hold a workshop at Munich, “Verfilmung und Digitalisierung: Bestandserhaltung schriftlicher Dokumente für die Informationsgesellschaft“. The topics addressed include quality of digitising, preservation of the original as well as the surrogate, handling of manuscripts, rare books and newspapers in the reformatting process, and funding.

See the programme: Verfilmung und Digitalisierung

24-26 October 2007

LIBER and EBLIDA have held a workshop on the digitization of library material in Europe at the Royal Library Copenhagen, Denmark. The programme concentrated on issues of strategic importance to European libraries, at a moment where many digitization projects are starting up or are being planned. How should we select what part of our collections to digitize? Should we build a European or a global registry of all digitized material, or is it sufficient to expose them to search engines? What are the long-term consequences for the preservation of the digitized documents? What are the legal issues to consider? EROMM has been represented at this event by W. Schwartz.

See the PowerPoint presentations from the workshop: Digitization of Library Material in Europe

September 2007

An international group of experts is to develop actionable recommendations on economic sustainability of digital information for the science and engineering, cultural heritage, public and private sectors. The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation are funding this two-year programme. Addressing the economic sustainability of digital preservation is indeed a topic of prime importance to the EROMM community.

Read the news at : OCLC

November 2006

In May 2006 a meeting was held in Washington D.C. to define minimal requirements of content for the bibliographic record, which gives the description of the digitised surrogate and the digital master. In the meantime LIBER, OCLC and EROMM concluded an agreement on sharing information on what is being preserved in digital form anywhere. Now OCLC has opened a free for all dedicated access to the Registry of Digital Masters. Regular exchange of records between EROMM and the RDM is currently being prepared.

See the RDM

May 2006

When the British Library hosted the first international CAMF Conference in London (23/24 May 2005, see below) it was announced that CAMF would have its own web pages to spread information on how to identify and deal with cellulose acetate as film base. These web pages have now been lauched. Among other links available from there is the CAMD (cellulose acetate microfilm database).

http://www.bl.uk/about/collectioncare/acetate/camfintro.html

Washington, D.C.: May 4/5, 2006

This meeting, which is organized jointly by OCLC|PICA and EROMM, is supported by LIBER. The central aim is to define minimal requirements of content for the bibliographic record, which gives the description of the digitised surrogate and the digital master. Based on this definition OCLC and EROMM have resolved to share information on what is being preserved in digital form anywhere. With libraries in America and Europe cooperating they hope to build the “Registry of Digital Masters“, which shall offer the most complete coverage of activity in this area. RDM and EROMM will both be offering the same set of information.

- R-RDM : Recommended elements in the bibliographic record of a digital surrogate -

Schriftliches Kulturerbe erhalten - eine nationale Aufgabe im europäischen Rahmen Leipzig: March 13/15, 2006

The German “Alliance for Preserving the Written Heritage” has held an international conference on strategic issues in preservation on the national and international level. Papers read at the conference will be accessible in June on the site

http://www.forum-bestandserhaltung.de/

January 2006

The National Library of Russia, St. Petersburg, has taken up membership in EROMM. The RNB is expected to contribute data on its own preservation surrogates and on surrogates produced by other members of the Russian library community.

The National Library of Russia web site

December 2005

The Database for Cellulose Acetate Microfilm, has been tested successfully. It has now been added as another service of EROMM to help its members and any other interested institutions to learn about cellulose acetate as a film base in microfilm. You will find information on distributors of microfilm and on important commercial collections of microfilm. You can add and enter your own information and questions at any point.

CAMD

December 2005

The EROMM Steering committee has created the opportunity for Consortia formed by libraries of two or more countries to take up membership. This opens the possibility to countries that are financially weak to work as EROMM Partners.

Read about Consortia as EROMM Partners

London, 23/24 May 2005

Cellulose Acetate has been used as film base until the early 1980ies. It has been revealed to be unstable in many collections with the imminent danger of loss of the microform and the information recorded on it. The Forum is organised to give up-to-date information on this problem and on how to address it. It will include reports from major libraries about action taken or planned and practical advice given by British Library experts.

Timetable and Registration

(Spezialsammlungen in Kunst- und Museumsbibliotheken)
Berlin, 22/23 October 2004

Several topics relevant to the EROMM audience were discussed at this AKMB workshop (programme): Preservation through microfilming and digitisation, cataloguing of surrogates, protecting of original collections, requesting of copies, access to the EROMM database and retrieval, etc.

Download the German language presentation (pps) of EROMM (3.95 MB)

September 2004

At this year‘s Annual Meeting the Steering Committee decided to give access to the requesting facility to all registered users without exception. This was done in response to users’ wishes and to libraries, who asked to use EROMM as a channel for requests for reproductions of their preservation surrogates.

Users will welcome this improvement of service. But sending of requests is only the first step. EROMM Libraries have to respond withoput delay to all incoming requests and orders. They must be aware of a considerable rise in numbers of requests. In support of libraries the EROMM Secretariat will send letters with detailed information to all libraries. EROMM Libraries are able to review and change contact data, which is filed at the EROMM host. This is one of the essential tasks to be done in adapting to the new situation. See the previous news item.

Read more about requesting via EROMM

August 2004

In a move to ease the dialogue among the growing EROMM user community a new feature has been introduced. Any registered user is able now to review and change her or his contact data, which is filed at the EROMM host. This is of particular improtance for EROMM Libraries, when handling requests. See the next news item.

See your contact data

Mikkeli, 10-11 June 2004

The 2004 Annual Meeting will be held at the National Library of Finland, Centre for Microfilming and Digitisation. Contributions will focus on

• Standards of preservation reformatting
• Broadening the use of the EROMM database
• Cooperation with other European initiatives

Revisit this site from time to time to learn about new developments.

File Formats for Preservation Austrian National Library, Vienna | 10-11 May 2004

File formats are a crucial layer, indeed a hinge between the bits in storage and their meaningful interpretation. The proper access to and display of content depends entirely on the ability to decipher the respective bitstream, and consequently on precise knowledge about how the information contained within is represented. Thus file formats are one of the core issues of any digital preservation approach, and file format obsolescence is a major challenge for anybody wanting to preserve digital files.
The ERPANET Seminar aims at giving an overview on these issues and at offering guidance based on practical experience. Requirements and best practices for archival file formats will be discussed, and issues such as file format registries and format validation will be treated.

More information

Audit and Certification in Digital Preservation University of Antwerp | April 14-16, 2004

The workshop will discuss the role of audit and certification in achieving and maintaining the appropriate level of digital preservation. It will provide insight in the phenomenon of audit, its purpose and the different perspectives. Issues will include possible audit frameworks and standards, the corporate roles and responsibilities, as well as the existing experiences in other areas such as financial management, government, and information systems. Practical experiences in various environments will be offered to stimulate discussion of the issues involved.

More information

Considerable investment of time and resources is needed to produce a digital version of a printed periodical and keep it in working order over time. This is perhaps the most important reason why the same periodical should not be digitised twice. Instead efforts should be directed to digitise material that has remained unaccessible in electronic form so far. This is why EROMM has emulated an input facility, which was created for the DIEPER project originally. Recording your digitised journal is now possible on this web site. If your activity involves more than digitising just one or two journals you should make your project known to anyone involved in creating preservation surrogates and users of EROMM in general.

Record your digitised journal & Record your project

Cataloguers often dislike using codes and especially so when codes have to be entered in fixed character positions. This is just what they are asked to do when giving a summary description of so-called physical details of reformatted material. From EROMM‘s experience we can tell that codes are not only disliked but that mistakes in coding cause this kind of information to become obsolete or even misleading. This is why EROMM is offering its help to cataloguers according to three of the most common bibliographic formats, MARC21, UNIMARC and MAB. Get your codes for surrogates in

Microform or Digital form

The user interface for the EROMM database has changed and will be amended further. Indexing is not yet compliant with the standard that we wish to offer to our clients. Still we decided to keep access to the database open to the public to avoid any inconvenience on their part.

Further changes will be seen during the next weeks (April - May, 2003). We apologise in case you experience problems in retrieval or requesting. Please report to the EROMM secretariat immediately if you have difficulty in accessing or using the service. Any remarks about the web display or contents of pages are most welcome and will help us to improve.

EROMM secretariat

Microfilming and Digitisation for Preservation Koninklijke Bibliotheek (KB) | The Hague, The Netherlands | April 14-15, 2003

Over the last years the role of microfilming in collection management has been somewhat overshadowed by the rise of digitization. Digitization has rapidly become popular as a way to open up collections for wider use, but its role in preservation of collections remains as yet debatable. Microfilming has long been an established surrogating method for preservation purposes, but seems less attractive than digitization in terms of access.

This workshop aims to clarify the position of microfilming and digitization by presenting an overview of the possibilities and requirements for combining the two approaches in preservation projects. It will look at the technical and organizational issues involved in developing methods that exploit the strengths of both approaches in an economical manner. Topics like producing microfilm to standards that allow subsequent digitization and the production of microfilms from digital masters will be discussed.

Quality control will be a central issue, not only in terms of producing durable masters, but also in terms of use. If users can no longer consult the originals, the surrogates put at their disposal, whether digital or microform, need to meet their requirements in every possible way. In developing workflows and negotiating contracts for outsourcing, criteria for meeting quality standards have to be specified in detail, and extensive cooperation between institutions and vendors is indispensable to achieve the highest possible quality within the available budget and time.

More information.

Lisbon, 25 November 2002

The purpose of this workshop is to present the state of the art in initiatives addressing the problem of the preservation of information in digital formats and media and to raise the national awareness for the problem and to promote national strategies for collaboration and specific steps to be taken at the national level.

More information. Registration form.

Amsterdam, 17-23 October 2002

Librarians, archivists and curators in charge of photographic materials need to know about the role of new technology in collection management. Digital imaging offers unprecedented opportunities for access to historical materials. But how can it be combined with established preservation methods in an integrated strategy, to ensure optimal access today as well as in the future?

SEPIA workshops on management of photographic collections in 2002 and 2003 will address this issue. The workshops will cover essentially the same topics and will be organized by the the National Photographic Conservations Studios and the European Commission on Preservation and Access.

More information. Registration form.

IX. international seminar CASLIN 2002
Podbanské, 23-27 June 2002

Microfilming and digitisation as a means of preservation of library collections will be among the topics discussed at this year‘s CASLIN seminar.

(More)

Göttingen, 3-4 June 2002

The ‘Allianz für die Erhaltung des schriftlichen Kulturguts‘, an informal association of libraries and archives in Germany has created a working group, which met for the first time in June 2002. Its objective is to make proposals for improving cooperation among major partners in the country in organising and planning preservation programmes centred on microfilming. Improving delivery of service copies and user access are among the topics discussed. The use of EROMM‘s database and requesting service will be instrumental in achieving these goals.

(More)

Berlin, 13-14 May 2002

The 2002 Annual Meeting has been held at the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin. It was chaired by by the new EROMM president Dr. Joachim Jaenecke. Contributions were focussing on

• National acitivities aiming at organising joint efforts of preservation in some of the twelve EROMM member countries
• Improving document delivery by creating sub-groups wihin the EROMM membership
• Possible addition to master records of hyperlinks pointing to digital access copies

Revisit this site from time to time to learn about new developments.