Readex Holds Its Second Annual Digital Institute for Librarians and Scholars

Seminar Explores Progress and Potential of Web-Based Historical Collections

CHESTER, VT/October 28, 2004 — Readex, a division of NewsBank, inc., recently held its second annual Digital Institute. This intimate international forum is designed as an educational platform for exploring the challenges, opportunities, and accomplishments of the digital research universe, and is attended by a wide variety of scholars, librarians, and computer scientists from academia and government.

The Digital Institute was held from October 7th through October 9th in the picturesque New England village of Chester, Vermont. Distinguished speakers offered pertinent presentations to the more than 30 participants. Keynote speaker David Seaman, Executive Director of the Digital Library Federation, addressed the group with a presentation entitled “Mass and Malleability: Nimble Libraries and Mutable Books,” which warned about “the perils of rigidity in a Jell-O landscape.” Seaman urged academic publishers and research libraries to work cooperatively to meet their central challenge: “the transformation from isolation to integration.”

Other presenters included Judith Russell, U.S. Superintendent of Documents, United States Government Printing Office; Erich Kesse, Director of the University of Florida's Digital Library Center; Terry Reese, Head of Oregon State University’s Digital Production Unit; Mark Sandler, Collection Development Officer at the University of Michigan's University Library; Jesse Sheidlower, Principal Editor of the Oxford English Dictionary’s North American Editorial Unit; Perry Willett, Head of the University of Michigan's Digital Library Production Service; and Patrick McGlamery, Director of Libraries Information Technology Services for University of Connecticut Libraries. McGlamery said, "Competing on our collections is no longer a viable metric; now we should be competing on access and service."

According to Readex President David Braden, who hosted the seminar, “The Digital Institute offers a moment of pause in this dynamic field—a casual setting where a panel of recognized experts share thoughts and trade ideas among themselves and the participants. Topics these past three days have ranged from strategic issues and long-term visions to operational constraints and lessons learned. Everyone gets a chance to relax and make new friends, but the defining quality of the Institute is the furthering of our shared cause: improved preservation of and access to unique historical content.”

About Readex
For more than 50 years, the Readex name has been synonymous with research in historical printed materials and government documents. Recognized by librarians, students and scholars for its efforts to transform academic research, Readex offers a wealth of Web-based, primary source materials in the humanities and social sciences. Today, Readex, a division of NewsBank, inc., has established a leadership position among publishers by creating the digital Archive of Americana, a family of online collections that provides unprecedented access to the history, culture and daily life of the United States over more than three centuries.