Ever since the world-wide web made it possible to display graphics on the Internet, libraries have been scanning their older documents and pictures to provide access to them. From the middle of the 1990s thousands of libraries of all sizes began scanning parts of their collections, provided these with metadata and made them available on the web. The emphasis in these first, rather small, digitisation projects was on experimenting with different techniques for both scanning and building interfaces for the Internet. Along the way, methods for quality assurance, project management and business models became more professional. In line with the progress made in the field of digitisation, a profound knowledge of best practices has been developed. However, this knowledge is not available for all cultural heritage institutions who want to digitise their collections. Most of the smaller institutions lack experience and, moreover, the means to digitise in an efficient way. At the same time, the larger libraries are moving towards large-scale digitisation of historical texts while Google has already digitised millions of books from several libraries around the world. Although many libraries welcome the unprecedented access to all this information, Google has also been criticized for the inferior quality of their images, the emphasis on the English language, the violation of copyright laws and the lack of attention for preservation issues. The question therefore arises: can libraries do better than Google?With the i2010 vision of a European Digital Library, the EU has launched an ambitious plan for large-scale digitisation projects aimed at transforming Europe's printed heritage into digitally available resources. However, lack of knowledge and expertise slows down the pace with which this vision can be realised. What, then, are the main obstacles to large-scale digitisation, and how can we speed up the process and disseminate knowledge? In this paper the experiences from a number of large-scale digitisation projects at the Koninklijke Bibliotheek, the National Library of the Netherlands, will be
The Community of Open Scholarship Grassroots Networks (COSGN), includes 120 grassroots networks, representing virtually every region of the world and every research discipline. These networks communicate and coordinate on topics of common interest. We propose, using an NSF 19-501 Full-Scale implementation grant, to formalize governance and coordination of the networks to maximize impact and establish standard practices for sustainability. In the project period, we will increase the capacity of COSGN to advance the research and community goals of the participating networks individually and collectively, and establish governance, succession planning, shared resources, andcommunication pathways to ensure an active, community-sustained network of networks. By the end of the project period, we will have established a self-sustaining network of networks that leverages disciplinary and regional diversity, actively collaborates across networks for grassroots organizing, and shares resources for maximum impact on culture change for open scholarship.
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