On 25 August, 2009, the National Academic Library of the Republic of Kazakhstan took part in the live video webchat meeting with Erich Kesse, participant of the IFLA conference in Milan, consultant on issues of collections preservation and digitization (past director of the Digital Library Center at the University of Florida, USA). Erich Kesse discussed “International and Collaborative Digital Library Projects”.
Specialists of the National Academic Library of the Republic of Kazakhstan asked a series of questions related to digitization processes, access of readers and their informing on digital collections. Questions and answers were as follows:
Which new methods of storing electronic information do you apply?
There aren't many 'new' methods, but the metadata is becoming more important that can be considered the newer.
How to make a book of high quality and small for its data volume?
There is a tendency to digitize a resource higher than necessary. You should evaluate what level of resolution is sufficient for your needs.
How much time do you use to create and prepare one electronic book copy from the very beginning of digitization up to putting it for users?
It will depend on speed of computer, speed of scanner, size of book. Average book in U.S. is 250 pages, 3 minutes per page, 750 minutes to scan a book. That is for a slower scanner. Professional scanning can be done with a trained technician who can be trained in a few hours. You will need a dedication of work and dedication to the quality of work.
What are the best ways of spreading information for publicity on available collections of digitized books?
Be viral with your publicity; create twitter, facebook, business cards with images of digital collection. Use the backside of a business card as advertising space and hand the ''pretty side'' up.
Is there any limitation in copying from books? Do readers have an access for downloading the whole book?
I think this relates to the issue of copyright. As far as I am engaged in technical point of digitization, I deal with providing data and in this situation I support readers. As I know, digital books are accessible in paginal view in your system, though using books is more convenient in PDF format: not everybody has twenty-four-hour access to Internet. Electronic document delivery services might be a task solution for accessibility of digitized books without affecting authors and their rights.
At the meeting, E.Kesse answered the questions sent from libraries and research institutes of Asia and Africa. Technical support of video webchat was done by U.S. Embassy in Rome.
On-line communication with Erich Kesse from the National Academic Library of the Republic of Kazakhstan was kept up by T.Yermekpayeva (World Literature Reading Room), N.Agzamova (Development Information Centre), and D.Khalelov (Sector of Automation and Database Support). Questions were asked by Z.Bayanova (Press-service) and Z.Amerkhanova (Sector of Automation and Database Support).
