Collaborations
As a membership organization, RLG had a long history of
collaborative work. Here are some highlights:
2005
- RLG joins the Open Content Alliance to aid the mass
selection and digitization of library holdings.
- For the third year in a row, RLG is named an
E-Content 100 company for its innovative online services.
- The PREMIS Data Dictionary for
Preservation Metadata, a report produced in collaboration
with OCLC, is the foremost international effort in its field and wins
the 2005 UK Digital Preservation Award.
- The CAMIO database of digitized art museum
collections succeeds the AMICO Library, the popular art images database
RLG developed and launched in 1998 in partnership with the Art Museum
Image Consortium.
- Audit Checklist for Certifying Digital
Repositories, draft guidelines cosponsored by the National
Archives and Records Administration (NARA), tackles a key piece of the
digital preservation puzzle—how to establish trustworthy
digital vaults.
- At the National Archives in the UK, representatives
from eight national archives discuss the creation of a global archive
at the RLG-sponsored meeting, "International Archival Gateways."
- The RLG members forum "Libraries, Archives, and
Museums: Three-Ring Circus, One Big Show?" brings together
the three types of institutions to discuss their common
interests.
- RLG migrates all its systems and databases to an
open-systems platform for easier maintenance and applications
development.
2004
- RLG develops the EAD Report Card, the first automated
program that checks the quality of encoded finding aids, for the
benefit of the archival community.
- An RLG working group completes a year-long effort to
update the Descriptive Metadata Guidelines for RLG Cultural
Materials.
- Trove.net™, a spinoff of RLG Cultural
Materials, launches. It offers 160,000 images to the general public for
searching and licensing.
- RLG's student-friendly search engine, RedLightGreenSM, moves
out of pilot phase.
- RLIN cataloging tools are substantially updated and
released as RLIN21™.
- The OCLC-RLG joint working group on preservation
metadata (PREMIS) issues a major survey on digital repository practices
and trends.
- During the RLG forum "To Have and to Hold: Metadata
and Institutional Repositories," members discuss the practicalities of
metadata schemes and software systems for implementing institutional
digital repositories. Held twice, at Stanford and in the Netherlands,
these complete a series begun in 2003 with meetings in New York City,
Chicago, and Washington DC.
- The Society of American Archivists awards the C. F.
W. Coker Award to the RLG Best Practice Guidelines for
Encoded Archival Description. And for the second year in a
row, EContent magazine cites RLG as one of the 100 companies that
"matter most in the digital content industry."
2003
- RLG's free, student-oriented RedLightGreen access to
the RLG Union Catalog launches; Columbia University, New York
University, Swarthmore College, and University of Minnesota are early
adopters.
- The RLIN ILL legacy system is retired after the
SHARES partnership completes a year-long transition to RLG's ILL
Manager networked peer-to-peer system—streamlining processes
and reducing the cost.
- RLG sells Ariel, its document-delivery system, to a
for-profit firm that can expand the Ariel network while insuring that
it will continue to work with ILL Manager.
- New working groups are established to address
automated capture of technical metadata from digital cameras, how to
implement best practices in creating metadata for digital files, and
certifying trusted digital repositories.
- New publication goes online: RLG
Guidelines for Microfilming to Support Digitization.
- RLG and JISC hold the forum "Selection and
Collaboration in Digital Preservation."
2002
- RLG Cultural Materials, a subscription database of
digital objects for academic research, launches.
- RLG secures a grant of $250,000 to subsidize
digitizing materials for the study of the history of science and
technology; 12 members are recipients of the funds.
- A Web site is established as a resource for those
interested in digital preservation, including links to Open Archival
Information System reference model implementations, applications, and
related standards development.
- Working groups co-sponsored with OCLC release papers
on the topic of digital preservation: Trusted Digital
Repositories: Attributes and Responsibilities and A
Metadata Framework to Support the Preservation of Digital Objects.
- RLG writes the charge for a new task force on digital
repository certification, in collaboration with the US National
Archives and Records Administration.
- RLG holds a series of forums: "Metadata Matters";
"Where Libraries, Museums, and Archives Intersect";
“Introduction to METS "; and "Converging, Emerging Standards
for Digital Preservation."
2001
- The RLG Cultural Materials project gains momentum: It
receives grants totaling $2.325 million, and the number of contributing
members grows to 45.
- RLG joins the work on Metadata Encoding and
Transmission Standard (METS), the effort first launched by Digital
Library Federation to encapsulate information for archiving and
providing complex digital objects.
- The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation gives a grant to
support work towards the "RLG Union Catalog on the Web." (See 2003 for
the resulting "RedLightGreen" implementation.)
- RLG issues Cataloging Guidelines for
Creating Chinese Rare Book Records in Machine-Readable Form.
- The release of version 3 of RLG's Ariel document
delivery software provides Web delivery to patrons.
- The OCLC-RLG Preservation Metadata Working Group
issues Preservation Metadata for Digital Objects: A Review of
the State of the Art for public comment and A
Recommendation for Content Information.
- NISO Committee AU, co-chaired by Robin Dale (RLG) and
Oya Rieger (Cornell University) issues for comment the working draft
1.0 of Data Dictionary: Technical Metadata for Digital Still
Images.
- The RLG-OCLC Digital Archive Attributes Working Group
releases Attributes of a Trusted Digital Repository: Meeting
the Needs of Research Resources for public comment, earning a
"Scout Report Selection."
2000
- A new interface to RLG databases, Eureka, provides
access to catalog records in Arabic, Chinese, Cyrillic, Hebrew,
Japanese, and Korean scripts.
- The Program for Cooperative Cataloging adopts a
standard developed by RLG's Art & Architecture Group for
creating collection-level records to describe ephemeral and rarely
cataloged materials.
- The SHARES member partnership implements new
reimbursement protocols designed to encourage international
interlibrary lending.
- RLG publishes the book Moving Theory into
Practice: Digital Imaging for Libraries and Archives; on
the Web, it publishes (in conjunction with the Digital Library
Federation) Guides to Quality in Visual Resource Imaging.
- RLG and others hold an international conference and
workshop in York, England: "Preservation 2000" and "Information
Infrastructures for Digital Preservation."
1999
- SHARES Practitioners' Council formed.
- Public and Collections Services Advisory Group
formed.
- "Borrow Direct" pilot test begun.
- "Aspects of Digital Preservation and Archiving": RLG
forum at Emory University.
- RLG working-group-sponsored MARBI proposal 99-01
adopted to expand MARC 21 Computer File 007 fields to carry
preservation and reformatting information.
- "Managing Digital Imaging Projects" workshops in
Syracuse, NY, and Ottawa, Ontario.
- "Technical Metadata Elements for Image Files":
workshop cosponsored by NISO, CLIR, and RLG.
- "Providing International Integrated Access to Primary
Research Resources": RLG primary sources forum at Yale University.
- "Wade Giles to Pinyin Conversion Planning": RLG forum
at ALA annual conference.
- Two working groups guided RLG's Pinyin and Scripts on
Eureka projects for enhancing access to non-Roman script materials in
RLG's databases (work funded by a Henry Luce Foundation grant).
1998
- RLG Executive Briefing, a
monthly electronic newsletter, begins publication.
- An outsourcing vendor for finding aid encoding
certified for RLG members and special RLG-discounted rate negotiated.
- European Register of Microform Masters added to the
RLG union catalog (RLIN) to support reformatting decision-making.
- Tools: "Guidelines for Creating an RFP for Digital
Imaging Services", "Model Request for Information (RFI)", "Model
Request for Proposal (RFP)", and "RLG Worksheet for Estimating Digital
Reformatting Costs" created.
- "Managing Digital Imaging Projects" workshops held in
several US and overseas locations (1998-1999)
- "Digital Preservation Needs and Requirements in RLG
Member Institutions" survey; publication in 1999.
- ILL Practitioners Council formed; first regional
meeting held for SHARES front-line staff.
- "Joint RLG and NPO Conference on Guidelines for
Digital Imaging"; proceedings to be published in 1999.
1997
- Digital Collections Project: "Studies in Scarlet
(Marriage, Women, and the Law)," a collaborative project of seven
members (1996-1998)
- RLG DigiNews, an electronic news
magazine focused on preservation and digital technology, launched
(quarterly in 1997; bimonthly in 1998-1999 )
- All SHARES documents and directories put in
easily-accessible form on the web (1997-1998).
1996
- "Enhancing Access to Primary Sources
Internationally," joint CURL-RLG symposium; proceedings published 1997.
- "Local Access to Global Collections," joint CURL-RLG
symposium on international resource sharing; proceedings published
1997.
- "Preserving Digital Information: Report of the Task
Force on Archiving of Digital Information," joint RLG-CPA initiative
and publication.
- Finding Aids SGML Training (FAST) workshops held in
13 locations in the US and overseas. (1996- 1998)
- "Cost-Effectiveness of Ariel for Interlibrary Loan
Copy Requests" SHARES report issued.
1995
- "Selecting Library and Archive Collections for
Digital Archiving," symposium; proceedings published 1996.
- "Scholarship in the New Information Environment,"
symposium and 20th anniversary event; proceedings published 1996.
- "RLG Digital Image Access Project" (1993-1995)
symposium and publication.
- Resource Sharing Program planning workshop; "Vision
2000" report issued 1996.
- SHARES/PRESERV Preservation ILL Task Force report
issued.
1994
- RLG awarded Society of American Archivists'
Distinguished Service Award.
- "Digital Imaging Technology for Preservation,"
symposium and publication.
- RLG Archives Microfilming Manual
published; in 1995 this publication was awarded the Society of American
Archivists' Preservation Publication Award.
- RLG web site created to enhance communication with
members.
- Eureka for Law Reference Guide
published.
- RLG Forums of two types, regional and held in
conjunction with ALA meetings, begun with the aim of engaging members
while keeping travel expense low (1994-present)
- AMIS: Archives and Museum Information
Service Demonstration video issued.
1993
- "Electronic Access to Information: A New Service
Paradigm," symposium; proceedings published in 1994.
- Preferred Library Futures II: Charting the
Paths, report on an invitational workshop for university
campus information environment stake holders.
- Research Resources in American Literature project
(1993-1994).
- RLG Mid-decade Planning Group report issued.
- Great Collections Microfilming Project, Phase 4.
1992
- RLG Preservation Microfilming Manual
published.
- Technical Services in Large Research
Libraries: Seeking a New Paradigm published.
- Standing Program Committees disbanded and optional
programs created.
- Third vault in National Underground Storage facility
required.
1991
- Information Needs in the Sciences: An
Assessment published.
- Preferred Futures for Libraries,
report on workshops held on six university campuses.
- Chinese Rare Books Project (1991-1995)
- Ariel document-transmission software created for
SHARES program.
- Great Collections Microfilming Project, Phase 3.
1990
- "Photograph Preservation and the Research Library,"
symposium; proceedings published in 1991.
- Art Serials Preservation Project (1990-1992)
- On-site Access Guide to the RLG Archival,
Manuscript, and Special Collections published.
- Government Records in the RLIN Database: An
Introduction published.
- Archives Preservation Microfilming Project
(1990-1993)
- Long-term Serials Project launched.
- RLG Shared Resource Manual
revised and published.
1989
- Information Needs in the Social Sciences:
An Assessment published.
- "Computer Files and the Research Library," symposium;
proceedings published in 1990.
- Government Records Project: 16 state repositories,
plus the National Archives, collaborating on sharing government records
appraisal and disposition information in the RLG union catalog, RLIN
(1989-1991).
- Cooperative Preservation Microfilming Project, Phase
II concluded successfully in 1989.
- Great Collections Microfilming Projects, Parts 1 and
2. (1989-1992)
- Art and Architecture program cooperatively building
SCIPIO (online list of art auction catalog records) 1989-present.
- Increase in microform reels from members' cooperative
projects required purchase of second vault in National Underground
Storage facility.
- E-mail discussion groups introduced to improve and
speed member communications.
|