Poles apart – poles on-line

179 Pages·2002·8.1 MB·English

Poles apart – poles on-line
Proceedings of the 19thPolar Libraries Colloquy, 17-21 June 2002, Copenhagen
Edited by Kirsten Caning and Vibeke Sloth Jakobsen
Danish Polar Center
2002
Poles apart – poles on-line
Proceedings of the 19thPolar Libraries Colloquy, 17-21 June 2002, Copenhagen
Edited by Kirsten Caning and Vibeke Sloth Jakobsen
Danish Polar Center Publication no. 10. Copenhagen
Danish Polar Center, 2002.
© 2002 Danish Polar Center
Cover layout Irene Seiten
Printed by Special-Trykkeriet Viborg a-s
Front cover: Photo from The Arctic Institute collection of historical photographs
showing students from the Teachers College in Godthåb in the 1860’ies.
Photo H.J. Rink/© Arctic Institute.
Back cover: The participants of 19thPolar Libraries Colloquy gathered outside the venue on 18 June 2002.
Photo Henning Thing/Polarphotos
19th Polar Libraries Colloquy was supported by the IFLA´97 Fund, NordInfo, and Polar Libraries Colloquy.
This publication may be ordered from
Danish Polar Center
Strandgade 100 H
DK-1401 Copenhagen K
Denmark
Phone [phone]
Fax [phone]
Email: [email protected]
homepage: www.dpc.dk
Internetshop: www.polarshop.dk
ISBN 87-90369-56-4
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Contents
Hanne K. Petersen:Welcome to the 19thPolar Libraries Colloquy 5
Vibeke Sloth Jakobsen:Introduction 7
SESSION 1: Cooperation in the online age
Susan Grigg:Digital archives for Alaska 9
Daria O. Carle and Juli Braund-Allen:ARLIS, a model for successful partnerships in the online age 16
Lynn Lay:A collaborative effort to get online: a story of cooperation, frustration and success 22
SESSION 2: Information loss
Victoria Tchourikova:The importance of making access to Russian libraries and archives easy 27
Lyle D. Perrigo:Information and data preservation issues 28
SESSION 3: Databases
Kathleen Murray, Gale Dutcher, John Iliff and Susan Elliott:Circumpolar Health Information Center:
the first year and hopes for the future 35
Arto Vitikka:Developing a map search interface for Arctic Research Institute database using GIS system
integrated with SQL relation database 41
SESSION 4: The library users in the online age
Satu Ihanamäki and Maija Koponen:The Polytechnic Library and education in a sparsely
inhabited province 45
Martha Andrews: Electronically influenced changes in library users’ behavior: a case study at the Institute
of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR) 48
Helena Kokko: The library network and the active users in Lapland 54
SESSION 5: Bibliographic resources
Nancy C. Liston: The bibliography on Cold Regions Science & Engineering – now and the future 58
Sharon N. Tahirkheli: The evolution of the Cold Regions Bibliography Project through migration
and cooperation 62
SESSION 6: Picture collections
Silvia Sarti and Donatella Alesi: New trends of the Italian National Antarctic Research Programme Library:
projecting a database of Italian Antarctic expeditions pictures 68
Teresa Mullins: Snow and ice data sets at NSIDC: analog versus digital in issues of cataloging, archiving,
and access 70
Grete Dalum-Tilds: Historical Greenland online 75
SESSION 7: Arctic resources and collections
Fred Inge Presteng and Berit Jakobsen: Searching for polar information in Norway 83
Julia H. Triplehorn: Library services at the Keith B. Mather Library for its international clientele 86
Sylvie Devers: French Polar research and resources 89
Berit Jakobsen: Libraries at high latitudes 92
Marcel Brannemann: Useful links to two German bibliograhic meta databases 96
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SESSION 8: Planning the future
Elisa Jeremiassen: A Greenlandic Inuk librarian’s point of view on the future of Inuit libraries, language
and literature 109
Dorthe Søndergaard Jørgensen and Erika Nielsen: Groenlandica and the Ilisimatusarfik Library – past,
present and future 99
James H. Anderson: The ideal University of Alaska Science Library 104
SESSION 9: Polar literature
David H. Stam and Deirdre Stam: Silent friends – books and reading on polar expeditions 113
Raimund E. Goerler: Alone, a classic of Polar literature: questions and answers 120
SESSION 10: Polar publishing
Ron Inouye and D.W.H. Walton: Publishing and the scientific community 128
SESSION 11: International cooperation
Niels Einarsson and Philip N. Cronenwett: Bi-national electronic initiatives: the Stefansson experience 131
Shirley Sawtell: From Baffin Island to Cambridge to Baffin Island: making available a special collection held in
the SPRI to the Inuit community of Pond Inlet from where it originated 137
SESSION 12: Historic resources preserved for the future
Julia Finn: The Indian Affairs Annual Reports (1864-1990): a unique Canadian history source on the web 141
William Mills: Virtual Shackleton at the Scott Polar Research Institute 145
Brian Walmark and Louise Wuorinen: Whispers from the past. Part II 150
Laura Kissel: Have tape, will travel: the Polar oral history program at the Ohio State University 154
Anne Morton: Arctic America: the Hudson’s Bay Company and Knud Rasmussen’s fifth Thule expedition,
1921-1924 160
POSTERS
Brian M. Hartmann and Julia H. Triplehorn: Polar climate resources at the Keith B. Mather Library,
Geophysical Institute and International Arctic Research Center 166
Chisato Jimura: Information sources from Japanese polar research organizations 166
Silvia Sarti, Donatella Alesi and Mario Castorina: Italian policy for Antarctic data management:
The Siria Project 168
19th Polar Libraries Colloquy Business meeting 20 June 2002 169
Programme 172
List of participants 176
4
Welcome to
the 19th Polar Libraries Colloquy
Hanne K. Petersen versity of life on Earth, but apparently it serves
Danish Polar Center also as a basin for global pollution transported
mainly by atmospheric and ocean pathways from
Avery warm welcome to Copenhagen, to the Dan- sources located far away from the region. Even if
ish Polar Centre and to the 19th Polar Libraries Col- much of the Arctic remains in a natural state, its
loquy! Welcome to participants from all of the Arc- nature and wildlife is facing various threats
tic countries, and to friends of the Arctic nations. It caused by man.
is a pleasure to see you here in Copenhagen, and it The Arctic is highly visible in issues regarding
is a special pleasure once again to welcome the the climate change. According to scientific results
Greenlandic participants to the colloquy. as well as long-term observations by arctic resi-
I hope you will enjoy being in this historic part dents, climate change is already taking place with
of Copenhagen. You will find the Danish Polar a strong and largely unpredictable effect on the
Centre down the street in the middle of an area arctic nature and arctic communities.
where the business of the Royal Greenlandic Climate change is expected to bring about the
Trade Company was conducted for more than 200 highest temperature increases on Earth in the Arc-
years, until 15 years ago. Our building used to be tic. Thawing permafrost poses dangers to commu-
a cooper’s workshop where the barrels for whale nities and industries in many parts of the Arctic
oil were made. It was built in 1806 whereas the big and could, with increasing emissions of green-
neighbouring warehouse is from around 1765. The house gases, accelerate climate change. Climate
big warehouse is now being restored and will be- change may also lead to an acceleration of stratos-
come a cultural centre for the North Atlantic na- pheric ozone depletion in the region. Changes in
tions. In a few years we hope that the former Roy- ocean currents are possible and carry the risk of
al Greenland Trade area will be a centre for North severe effects on living conditions in some parts of
Atlantic culture. the Arctic.
I think this colloquy is important for many rea- To respond to these challenges the Arctic Council
sons, but I would like to focus on two areas. was established. The Arctic Council is an intergov-
The Arctic has a growing visibility in the global ernmental forum for representatives from all the
context. arctic countries. The arctic indigenous peoples
Capacity building and providing access to participate on a permanent basis.
knowledge in the arctic regions and about the arc- I have been a delegate from Denmark in the
tic regions is of paramount importance to issues Arctic Council. It is obvious to me that capacity
regarding the global climate change. building and cooperation among educational in-
During the last century Arctic communities and stitutions in the Arctic is very important for the
cultures have remained resilient despite huge so- Arctic communities.
cial, demographic and technological changes. Arc- The goal of the Polar Libraries Colloquy, to pro-
tic populations depend to a certain extent on tra- vide a forum for librarians and others concerned
ditional sources of livelihood, but traditional ways with collecting, keeping, and disseminating polar
of using the environment and its resources have information, is extremely important for capacity
become economically less viable, partly due to building, both on the local, the regional and inter-
technological advances. New economic activities national level. Information on all issues should be
are urgently needed to support the populations in retrievable for users anywhere.
the Arctic. An outcome of the extended cooperation in the
The Arctic is a very special component in the di- Arctic Council is the University of the Arctic. This
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is an international non-governmental organisation This conference will cover some of the current
dedicated to higher education in the Circumpolar issues in digital library research and hopefully
North. The University of the Arctic is a decentral- identify priorities for the next phase. The rapid
ized university offering programs of academic ed- development of networked information delivered
ucation and research, contributing to the regional to users directly through their desktop challenges
educational capacity, and stimulating cooperation the traditional role of libraries as a physical space
among participating institutions. I see this initia- and librarians as information professionals. How
tive also as an opportunity to strengthen the coop- can libraries meet the challenge? Will there be an-
eration among the Arctic libraries. other role for librarians – adding value to informa-
tion in the public domain. Gateway projects are
Another theme of the conference refers to what employing librarians to add value – for example
may be the biggest challenge to libraries not only by cataloging it on the Internet.
in the Arctic but all over the World, the new infor- I think everyone in this room has been faced
mation technologies. It is obvious that information with the fact that getting information is not diffi-
technology plays a major role in a region where cult but to get the right reliable information out of
distances are enormous and the population scat- the enormous amount of existing information,
tered, and where access to education cannot be that is the challenge.
taken for granted. I wish that you will have a stimulating and in-
Libraries all over the Arctic are providing tools teresting meeting. One thing is absolutely clear for
in increasing numbers for educational purposes. me. Despite all new information technology it is
Archival collections become accessible on-line, still important to meet like this – face to face – in
new information databases are opened every day order for the right spirit for future cooperation to
and the distance between knowledge and the stu- develop.
dent diminishes.
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Introduction
Vibeke Sloth Jakobsen man knowledge. Many important historical re-
Chair of the Organizing Committee sources are still located in old fashioned ways in
libraries and archives.
The 19thPolar Libraries Colloquy was held in 2 discussions were conducted during the collo-
Copenhagen 17-21 June 2002, in Gammel Dok, a quy, one on information loss, and one on polar
renovated storehouse on the harbour front. 59 par- publishing issues.
ticipants from 15 different countries attended the 3 posters were presented on the subjects of po-
conference. lar climate resources, Japanese polar research or-
The theme of the conference was Poles apart – ganizations, and Antarctic data management.
poles on-line, and 32 papers were presented during All these presentations show us, that even
the four days of sessions. though members of PLC are spread out over a
From Alaska to Lapland, we heard about co-op- vast geographic area, we seem to be facing the
eration projects ranging from digitizing historic same type of problems and to be engaged in very
archives, creation of virtual libraries, to libraries similar types of projects for the future.
actually merging their collections. Certainly not Amid-week break included a field trip to the
always easy tasks, a lot of hard work, patience, Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde, where two en-
and dedication are required. Concerns about thusiastic employees guided us through the col-
loss of information due to retirement as well as lections and told us about the excavation and
due to language barriers were raised. Many new preservation of the ships. The remainder of the
databases were presented to the audience in a day was spent in Esrum where lunch was served
variety of subjects from health issues to Jesuit at the organic café of the Nature Centre, followed
diaries. by a walk through the country side and a visit to
The issue of library users not physically using the Esrum Abbey.
the library facilities raises concern. Electronic in- During the week there were opportunities to
formation changes the behaviour of the users and join tours to the Danish Polar Center, the Royal Li-
questions the need for reader space. Will smaller brary’s Department of Maps, Prints and Pho-
libraries face the threat of closing down, or will tographs, and the National Museum’s Ethno-
we see more libraries providing distance services graphic Collection.
like in Finland.
Quite a number of libraries have started digitiz-
Acknowledgements
ing picture collections over the last couple of
years. We can now find historical as well as recent The success of the colloquy depended on suffi-
photos from both the Arctic and the Antarctic on cient funding, a lot of hard work from the organiz-
the web. ing committee, and most important of all enthusi-
Library resources and the prospects for collec- astic and committed participants. We were lucky
tions in Alaska and Greenland were presented. to have all of those.
Polar literature was viewed from new perspec- We received gracious funding from the IFLA´97
tives. Concerns about the future of polar publish- fund, NordInfo, and Polar Libraries Colloquy. Our
ing were raised. bookseller Arnold Busckprovided us with the con-
Asession on international co-operation showed ference folders.
us how important it is to establish contacts across The organizing committee at the Danish Polar
borders and what excellent projects these contacts Center consisted of Kirsten Caning, Kirsten Erik-
may result in. sen, Henning Thing, and Vibeke Sloth Jakobsen.
Even though a lot of information is available Several other staff members contributed in vari-
electronically now, we should not forget that it ous fields.
only comprises a small portion of the entire hu- We wish to thank Henrik Dupont and the staff
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members of the Royal Library’s Department of and her assistants for guiding us through the very
Maps, Prints and Photographs for taking the time interesting collection of Eskimo artefacts at the
to show us pieces from their magnificent collec- National Museum’s Ethnographic Collection.
tion. We also would like to thank Anne Bahnson
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Session 1: Cooperation in the on-line age
Digital archives for Alaska Project Jukebox, as they see themselves. In finan-
cial terms, each project depended on an external
partner for most direct costs except the sponsoring
Susan Grigg
curator’s time. This made it possible to experiment
Alaska and Polar Regions Department,
Elmer E. Rasmuson Library, University of without jeopardizing traditional curatorial and
Alaska Fairbanks service activities.
The transformation of the Wenger Eskimo data-
Abstract.The University of Alaska Fairbanks has base for the World Wide Web is nearly complete.
been using digital methods to improve access to It is now possible to search it from UAF’s library
historical and cultural sources for more than a server http://www.wengereskimodb.uaf.edu on
decade. Early projects used CD-ROM, but now the a PC loaded with Internet Explorer 5 or 6. It does
preferred method is the Internet. The Wenger Es- not display as well on a Mac, and does not open
kimo Database is now available over the World beyond the Web interface through other brow-
Wide Web. Most of the Project Jukebox multi-me- sers including Netscape, but we expect to solve
dia oral history databases are technically ready for these problems by modifying the search software
the Web but it remains to be determined whether to do on-the-fly conversion from XMLto HTML.
the participants in these projects are comfortable This will also enable highlighting of search
with universal access to their interviews. Over the terms in the search results. Once the performance
past five years, many Alaska repositories includ- of the database is completely satisfactory, it will
ing UAF, UA Anchorage, the Alaska State Library, also be available via the University of Geneva
and the Tuzzy Consortium Library have digitized http://www.wengereskimodb.unige.ch.
unique materials and put them on the Web. The Besides the convenience of Web access, the
next stage is to develop the Alaska Virtual Library maps and illustrations have been rescanned for
and Digital Archives. That project is expected to better quality, and the new search engine, a prod-
begin this fall. uct of InMagic, Inc., is easier to learn and more ac-
commodating to different users’ needs and exper-
My colleagues in the Alaska and Polar Regions De- tise. In this brief presentation I will call attention
partment have long recognized both the potential to some key features so that readers will be in-
of digital technology for making primary sources spired to “Enter” on their own.
more accessible and the value of collaboration for
turning that vision into reality. More than a decade The first step is to accept the Terms of Use. This is
ago, rare books curator Marvin Falk and oral histo- to protect both the remaining copyrights in the se-
ry curator William Schneider embarked on two im- lected works and the intellectual property of the
portant partnerships: the Wenger Eskimo Data- database itself.
base, where Marvin accepted an invitation, and the Next is the main search screen (Figure 1). The
Project Jukebox series of multi-media oral history Basic Search is a keyword search of the full text of
databases, where the initiative was Bill’s. In techni- the entire database. It will accept truncation and
cal terms, the defining feature of both projects is search multiple terms that are linked AND/OR –
that they began on CD-ROM before the emergence and directions for these features are just below the
of the World Wide Web, and moved toward Web search box. The basic search can also be delimited
delivery largely through retrospective conversion. by Eskimo/Inuit group, author, and date. Links to
In programmatic terms, both projects were de- both the classification of groups, or Eskimo Distri-
signed primarily to make historical and cultural bution, and the list of sources, or Bibliography, are
materials available to the Alaska Native peoples at the top of the screen. Because the groups are
represented in those materials – in the case of the closely associated with geographic areas, as delin-
Wenger project, as others saw them; in the case of eated in Ernest Burch’s 1982 mapping, it should
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Figure 1. Main search screen for the Web edition of the Wenger Eskimo Database, from the University of Alaska Fair-
banks in collaboration with Hubert and Beatrice Wenger.
be straightforward to select the one that will bring And finally, I will call your attention to two spe-
up the pertinent items. The date is that of the pub- cial features – a gracious acknowledgement of
lication, not the voyage of exploration. various libraries and librarians by Beatrice
The Advanced Search adds the capability of us- Wenger, and a charming remembrance of Hubert
ing pre-selected index terms. I understand why Wenger by his long-time Geneva collaborator
more recent documentary projects have usually Xavier Bouvier. The appreciation of UAF is more
digitized printed texts instead of transcribing than we deserve, though the kind words about the
them, but I am less convinced of the superiority of Scott Polar Research Institute are just the plain
indexing by optical character recognition. Word truth. The remembrance of Hubert Wenger echoes
wheels make it possible to browse all words ap- how I have heard him remembered at UAF,
pearing in the text and all words used in the in- though I arrived too late to be able to work with
dex. Keyword searches can be performed in the him myself.
captions as well as the texts.
The Map List provides citations for all maps in- I hoped this would be the Colloquy at which
cluded in the database, listing them first by coun- UAF would also announce a strong Web presence
try, then by citation. The adjacent Maps feature of- for the Project Jukebox oral history databases,
fers thumbnail and expanded views of the over- which were demonstrated on CD-ROM at Col-
sized maps associated with the texts. The new loquy in Cambridge in 1994. Many more Juke-
scans made this feasible. box projects have been completed since then, but
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