American Library Association (ALA) Midwinter Meeting Report
| Published date | 01 March 2006 |
| Date | 01 March 2006 |
| Pages | 5-12 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/07419050610668115 |
| Author | Christopher Cox,Hui Hua Chua,M. Claire Stewart,S.G. Ranti Junus |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science |
American Library Association (ALA)
Midwinter Meeting Report
Christopher Cox, Hui Hua Chua, M. Claire Stewart and S.G. Ranti Junus
LIBRARY HITECH NEWS Number 3 2006, pp. 5-11, #Emerald Group Publishing Limited, 0741-9058, DOI 10.1108/07419050610668115 5
The American Library Association
Midwinter Meeting was held in San
Antonio, Texas from January 20-25,
2006. The following are highlights from
the meeting. We have a range of
coverage and reviewers. Christopher
Cox gives us an update on groups
discussing digital media such as
HD-DVD and Blu-ray, electronic
reference books and RFID issues. Hui
Hua Chua writes about a discussion on
federated searching. M. Claire Stewart
reports on the inaugural meeting of the
ALCTS Preservation and Reformatting
Section's Digital Preservation
Discussion Group and a whirlwind
meeting on standards which included
the discussion of five standards and the
overall National Information Standards
Organization (NISO) structure. We
conclude with a review of the day long
program on OCLC Digitization
Standards sponsored by OCLC Digital
Collection Services & Preservation
Service Center by S.G. Ranti Junus.
The ALA is holding the ALA Annual
Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana
June 22-28, 2006.
The Library and Information
Technology Association (LITA) Digital
Media Discussion Group met on
Saturday, January 21 to share their
thoughts on digital streaming,
HD-DVD vs Blu-ray and multimedia
production in libraries. Approximately
40 people attended the majority
university librarians. Meghann
Matuwichuk, Assistant Librarian at the
University of Delaware, led the
discussion.
The digital streaming conversation
began with an announcement from a
member of the Virtual Library of
Virginia (VIVA) that the organization
had recently purchased PBS
onDemand. The product, the cost of
which was not divulged, provides
VIVA libraries with 200-300 popular
PBS titles, including the American
Experience, Ken Burns' documentaries,
and Scientific American Frontiers.
Content will be provided in the form of
MPEG's on DVDs which VIVA can
copy and/or digitize and then send to its
member libraries throughout the state.
The contract restricts access to students,
faculty and staff of VIVA member
institutions only, something which the
VIVA representative felt might be
difficult for smaller member libraries to
enforce. Access could be restricted via
IP address or login authentication.
There are a number of problems with
this product and digital media
streaming in general. First of all, some
filmmakers are nervous about PBS'
new product, concerned that licensing
and copyright might not be enforced.
Thus, VIVA only owns the content for
three-five years. At that time, some of
the content may be recalled and
replaced. This differs from
Annenberg's video on demand product
(www.learner.org/view_programs/view.
programs.html), which offers lifetime
ownership of downloaded titles.
Annenberg is also free. VIVA would
also have to purchase new titles as they
become available. Another concern
involved files from PBS which included
more than one episode. Could these be
broken up? How would they be
cataloged if they couldn't be? Good
examples exist for cataloging digital
media content ± the University of
Maryland's Films@UM being one.
Another complaint from the group was
that much streamed video content
cannot be viewed full screen, except on
a Mac, and often at a loss of picture
quality.
The next topic was HD-DVD vs
Blu-ray. The advantage of these new
technologies is that they have far
greater storage capacity than the current
DVD: three times more with HD-DVD
and five times more with Blu-ray. The
extra space comes about due to the
shorter wavelength blue laser (a blue
ray) which is used to read them,
allowing smaller pits of data and thus
more data to be stored on the disc. This
will also increase the streaming rate ±
up to 36Mbps from the current 11Mbps
± resulting in an even clearer picture.
The discs also have other benefits,
including being double-sided and hard
coated, thus less susceptible to damage.
Just like the old VHA/Beta debate,
there is no clear sense which
technology will win out, especially
since neither is available yet. Many
experts, including discussion leader
Matwichuk, put their money on Sony's
Blu-ray, which will be included in its
April Playstation 3 release. Sony has
connections in Hollywood and has
already convinced a number of
big-name studios to release their
upcoming movies in Blu-ray.
These technologies could have a
significant impact on libraries. First of
all, more available space will mean
more information stored on each disc.
This information could include the
usual extras DVDs currently come
bundled with, but could also include
related television shows or other
movies, even companion games. Whole
TV series could be included on one
disc. This would greatly increase the
prices of these discs and make
cataloging significantly more
frustrating. To learn more about these
new technologies, see ``Inside Tech:
Blu-ray & HD-DVD'' (Sound and
Vision Magazine, May 2005 ± www.
soundandvisionmag.com/article.asp?
section_id=2&article_id=826&page_
number=1).
The final topic of discussion was
multimedia production in libraries.
Lately more and more professors have
been requiring their students to create
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