Workshop on Building a Digital Library of the Middle East
Planning Meeting
August 4, 2005

The U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) convened a planning meeting August 4, 2005, in preparation for a workshop on requirements for a Digital Library of the Middle East with an initial focus on cultural heritage resources. Participants in the planning meeting included members of the coordinating committee and representatives of U.S. Federal agencies. The workshop is co-organized by IMLS and the Bibliotheca Alexandrina and will be held in Alexandria, Egypt, in 2006. Funding for the workshop is provided by the US/Egypt Joint Technology Fund and the National Science Foundation.

Mary Chute, Acting Director of IMLS, welcomed the group. Joyce Ray, Associate Deputy Director for Library Services and the IMLS representative on the workshop coordinating committee, facilitated the discussion.

Background

Marsha Semmel, Director of Strategic Partnerships at IMLS, began the background discussion by recalling the agency’s participation in a series of informal discussions convened by the White House and State Department beginning in 2003 on preserving and restoring the cultural heritage of Iraq. Those meetings became the start of a series of conversations between IMLS and representatives of the National Science Foundation, including Orin Shane, Steve Griffin, and Wanda Ward. Both IMLS and NSF were interested in supporting the creation of a knowledge repository, or digital library, of the cultural heritage resources of the Middle East. Such a resource could not only facilitate access to related cultural heritage resources in different types of institutions throughout the world but could also serve as a security and preservation repository in the case of theft or loss of physical resources. Because a narrow focus on Iraq would be meaningless in the context of artifacts and materials pre-dating its creation as a political entity, it was recognized that a broader concept was desirable. Wanda Ward, Director of the Office of Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences at NSF, introduced IMLS staff to Osman Shinaishin in NSF’s International Affairs Office. Osman suggested submitting an application to the U.S./Egypt Joint Science and Technology Fund for a workshop to discuss the digital library concept with potential partners in Egypt. The application required a partnership between a U.S. organization and an Egyptian organization. IMLS made contact with the Director of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Dr. Ismail Serageldin, and received a positive response from him. We submitted the joint proposal in Spring 2005 and received notice in June that it had been approved.

Joyce Ray explained that the anticipated outcome of the workshop is a report identifying a broad range of requirements for a Digital Library of the Middle East, including:

• technical architecture;
• cyberinfrastructure to support networks of users including researchers, content providers, educators, etc.;
• cultural heritage content resources; and,
• educational requirements for cultural heritage professionals who will produce and manage the content, as well as users, including educators and students, who will use the repository.

Based on the recommendations in the report, IMLS anticipates issuing a call for proposals for institutions in the U.S. to develop a technical architecture and an initial aggregation of content from U.S. cultural repositories, which would be shared with the Bibliotheca Alexandrina. The report could also stimulate grants from additional funders to address other needs identified in the report, including cyberinfrastructure, archaeological documentation projects, professional and user education, etc. Another goal of the workshop and the report would be to encourage investments in the digital library and users by other funders and by cultural heritage repositories both within and outside the U.S.

Steve Griffin, NSF Computer and Information Science and Engineering Directorate, explained that he has been involved in digital library activities at NSF since 1990. In that time it has become apparent that the same technology challenges that apply to advancing science also apply to cultural heritage resources and even surpass the challenges for science – i.e., handling artifacts such as cuneiform tablets, manuscripts, etc. In one project, for example, ancient manuscripts were scanned without opening them. This project was looking at the cover of the book to determine the cellular structure of the wood. The researchers were trying to determine if the wood was imported from Europe to Mexico, but they discovered that the scans could go through each layer—each page—of the book, so that it could be read without causing damage by opening it to read or scan it. Another project is running ancient scrolls through a medical device (a CT scan), applying computing power to read the scrolls without unrolling them. The important thing is that we can advance technologies, preserve cultural artifacts, and also make them available to many people. The Middle East is rich in cultural history and would make an ideal focus for a rich repository that could serve a number of purposes.

Osman Shinaishin, NSF Office of International Affairs, explained that the US/Egypt Joint Technology Fund is managed by the Department of State. Each agency manages activities related to its mission. Interest in this workshop was strong from the beginning and has become stronger. The Joint Fund approved three workshops at the last meeting in June, and this was one of them. NSF received a request for information from the Egyptian side yesterday as to who would be participating. He said the workshop could support travel to bring some additional people from the Middle East outside of Egypt. Osman mentioned NSF’s particular interest in cyberinfrastructure development to support research networks.

Maria Kouroupas, State Department Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, described several projects to safeguard Iraq’s cultural heritage that her office has undertaken or is tracking. The National Endowment for the Humanities set aside funding and guidelines to support U.S. institutions aiding Iraq and has made awards totaling one million dollars. The program has shifted many of its activities to Jordan because of the security problems in Iraq. The training of Iraqis is taking place in Oman and Jordan. State’s effort is about three million dollars. One project in the Office of Academic Programs had 20 museum employees from the Iraq National Museum come to the Smithsonian and participate in a practicum.

John Russell, an archeologist on leave to BECA from the Massachusetts College of Art, was in Iraq in 2003-4 to assess the status of cultural resources there. He helped repair and improve security at the Iraq Museum and assisted with restoration of artifacts damaged over the past 10 or more years. John also described the desperate situation of libraries and archives in Iraq.

Joyce Ray said she had spoken with representatives of both NEH and the Library of Congress about their efforts that would be relevant to a Middle East digital library. Although they were not able to attend this meeting, she will follow up with them. This project could provide a repository for deposit of digital assets that are being created by other projects.

Noha Adly, Director of Information and Communication technology Department and ISIS (International School of Information Science) at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, gave a presentation about the library and its collections, its convening role, and its work in digital libraries. The Bibliotheca Alexandrina has extensive digital capacity, including serving as a mirror site of the Internet Archives, and it is conducting research on transcription of digital documents in Arabic, which present particular challenges.

Other meeting participants expressed interest in including other materials, especially scientific resources, in the digital library. Joyce Ray explained that the framework developed should be broad enough to encompass other kinds of content. The initial focus on cultural heritage is driven by IMLS’s mission and the Bibliotheca Alexandrina’s mutual interest. Other organizations could provide other funds, subject to the Bibliotheca Alexandrina’s acquisitions policies and collecting interests. Noha Adly noted that there is a notable lack of access to scientific and research data in Egypt. She also noted that the high cost of Internet connectivity is a particular problem affecting access.

Ken Hamma, Executive Director of Digital Policy and Initiatives at the J. Paul Getty Trust, described the work the Getty is doing to document archaeological sites in Iraq. This is a Getty Conservation Institute/World Monuments Fund project with the Iraq Ministry of Culture and the Iraq State Board of Antiquities and Heritage. He said there is a need for a repository that is open and accessible, can serve as a long term caretaker of digital resources, and can address multilingual issues. He said that a digital library, or curated repository, is important to do now and will become even more so over the next 50 years.

Ron Larsen proposed that each participant be asked to submit a brief white paper prior to the meeting outlining his or her perspective on the issues to be addressed. He also suggested the possibility of hiring a professional facilitator to run the workshop. He has used facilitators who were graphic artists—they did a great job and kept everyone engaged.

Barrie Ripin, State Department Office of Science, asked if the workshop is envisioned as a one-time effort or if it would generate follow-on activities.

Joyce Ray said that IMLS planned to award a grant as a follow-on activity. Various parts of NSF have expressed interest in funding activities relating to the initiative, and IMLS will seek other potential partners. Osman Shinaishin suggested that the U.S./Egypt Joint Fund would consider joint proposals for activities such as a follow-up to this workshop.

Workshop Objectives

• Agree on a long-term vision;
• Assess the current information infrastructure in the Middle East and examine the potential for establishing advanced research networks;
• Identify a model for content aggregation, management, and preservation;
• Identify content scope and services; and,
• Document requirements as a roadmap for future actions.

Dates

January 15-17, 2006 [Note change: the workshop was initially scheduled for January 2-6].

Format

A combination of plenary sessions, technical break-out sessions, and general discussions, with some time devoted to tours of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, etc.

Technical Sessions and Discussions

• Identification of a Collaborative Framework for Aggregating, Managing, and Preserving Digital Content, and Providing Attribution and Access (including demos of current projects)
• Technical Requirements for Digital Libraries
• Identification of Resources (e.g. Middle Eastern Heritage) - Digital and Physical
• Resources and Needs for Establishing a Middle East Cyberinfrastructure
• Users and Usability (HCI)
  - Services
  - Investments in education and skills
  - Technological capabilities (bandwidth)
  - Economic conditions and pricing of services
• Utility ( i.e. measure the value of the resource) and Evaluation

Potential Participants (US, Egypt, Other Middle East Countries)

Content experts
Digital library experts
Educators
Cyberinfrastructure experts
Telecommunications service providers
Entrepreneurs
Philanthropists
Other funders

Joyce Ray said that IMLS and the Bibliotheca Alexandrina will work together to ensure representation by Egyptian and US counterparts, and others as appropriate, with complimentary expertise. Noha Adly mentioned that the Egyptian Ministry of Communications and Information Technology will be involved in identifying the telecommunications experts.

Desirable Characteristics of the Digital Library

• A framework that can accommodate resources from many sources and subject areas
• Content that has public value, is easily navigable, and is unrestricted for use
• Connected to a large network supporting wide-scale access and exchange
• Maintained in a trusted repository with appropriate redundancy to ensure long-term preservation and continuity of access