Confessions of a Mad Librarian

I haven't had much time to post about stuff in the library world ... in part because I've been trying to do a real-world event about the library world.

If you're in the Bay Area, and you're interested in the Internet Archive's digitization effects, you are invited to a SLA San Andreas chapter meeting with Czeslaw Jan Grycz, of the Archive, give an update on the Open Content Alliance and the Open Library. It's taking place on October 3rd, at Piacere Restaurant in San Carlos. You can find out more about it here.

“The Open Library, Internet Archive and Open Content Alliance: A Progress Report” Speakers: Czeslaw Jan Grycz The Internet Archive October 3, 2006

The Google Book Search digitization project has gotten a lot of press, but it is not the only game in town. The Open Content Alliance (OCA) represents the collaborative efforts of a group of cultural, technology, nonprofit, and governmental organizations from around the world that will help build a permanent archive of multilingual digitized text and multimedia content. Member-contributors include the Internet Archive, Yahoo!, MSN, RLG, Adobe Systems, HP Labs, Xerox Corp. and a number of archives, libraries, museums and universities.

Czeslaw Jan Grycz
"Chet" (much easier to pronounce than his full Polish name) is currently Curator of Books and Collections at the Internet Archive, following a varied and successful career in academic and scholarly publishing, library research, and non-profit management.

For six years immediately prior to joining the Internet Archive, Chet was CEO of Octavo, a company founded in 1997 by John Warnock (co-founder of Adobe Systems). Octavo specialized in ultra-high quality digitization of rare and extremely valuable books from leading libraries around the world. It provided access to those books through innovative electronic and published editions/collections for both scholarly use and the pleasure of the general public, setting a high bar for standards in digital book imaging and visualization. Prior to his tenure at Octavo, Chet was on the staff of the Office of the President of the University of California, for 14 years at the University Press, and for 6 with the Division of Library Automation.

Not to brag, but I think a fun time will be had by most ...