Southern African Development Community

DEVELOPING KNOWLEDGE FOR ECONOMIC ADVANCEMENT IN AFRICA: 2ND INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON AFRICAN DIGITAL LIBRARIES & ARCHIVES - ICADLA-2

What	Conference
When	14th to 18th Nov 2011
Where	Johannesburg, South Africa (ZAF)
More Info	http://www.wits.ac.za/newsroom/conferences/13135/home.html
Download	vCal iCal

Published on 24^th Jun 2011

SECOND ANNOUNCEMENT AND CALL FOR PAPERS

The 2nd International Conference on African Digital Libraries and Archives (ICADLA-2), hosted by the University of the Witwatersrand, will be held in Johannesburg, South Africa from 14 - 18 November 2011.

The theme of the conference is Developing Knowledge for Economic Advancement in Africa.

We invite participation from all African countries, private and public international development organisations, and other countries aiding Africa.

ICADLA-2 will provide a platform for the realisation of the outcomes of ICADLA-1 and it will provide a forum for African Institutions to:

§  Access and examine options for capacity development in all strategic areas of digitisation;

§  Strengthen existing and build new networks and linkages necessary for knowledge sharing in the area; §  Understand the strategic and management issues of developing digital resources from digitisation to delivery;

§  Develop national digitisation programmes and strategies aimed at establishing the required digitisation infrastructure for access to, and long term preservation of, African scholarly and cultural digital content and the creation of digital libraries.

BACKGROUND

ICADLA-1 raised awareness among leaders and programme managers from African institutions and organisations about the need for digitisation and the role it can play in providing greater access to knowledge for development. The outcome of the conference was a "Declaration and Recommendations on knowledge for development in Africa and the digitisation of African knowledge and heritage". One of the key recommendations was that an African Digital Library and Archives Programme should be established and that this programme should spearhead the formulation of comprehensive policies, a strategic framework and a road map for digital libraries and archives on the African continent.

FORMAT

ICADLA-2 is a five day workshop and conference event. The format of ICADLA-2 will be a three-day training workshop designed for leaders and decision makers and a two-day strategic digitisation project planning conference.

Ø  3- Day Training Workshop - Digital Futures: from Digitisation to Delivery (14-16 November 2011)

The internationally acclaimed "Digital Futures: from Digitisation to Delivery" training event will be run by international expert Simon Tanner. Digital Futures is aimed at managers and other practitioners from the library, museum, heritage and cultural sectors looking to understand the strategic and management issues of developing digital resources from digitisation to delivery.

Digital Futures is taught as a combination of talks, discussions and exercises. To increase the amount of time for discussion and questions-and-answers within the course framework delegates are expected to have a base level of knowledge and would be expected to we have read the list of good readings to aid background knowledge as a delegate.

As a minimum requirement, we would expect all Digital Futures delegates to have worked through or to understand the course materials at the "Moving Theory Into Practice" Digital Imaging Tutorial created by Cornell University Libraries, available at: http://www.library.cornell.edu/preservation/tutorial/contents.html

Digital Futures will focus on issues of management and strategy beyond the technical overview that the Cornell material provides. Within Digital Futures, each course theme will have supplementary materials and suggested links as well as background readings. Delegates are expected to have read the supplementary materials in advance of the course.

The delegates are expected to work within the library, museum, heritage and cultural sectors and to hold a professional qualification or 5 years experience in these environments. They should hold a management or strategic position within the organisation and be capable to cascading the Digital Futures experience to their colleagues.

A high level of understanding of the technical underpinnings of digitisation is not a requirement, but at least the level of attainment from the Cornell Digital Imaging Tutorial is essential. Understanding of the impact and importance of digital resources and the Web is important.

Ø  2- Day Digitisation Project and Programme Planning Conference - Developing National and Institutional Digitisation Strategies (17-18 November 2011)

This strategic planning conference will bring together Directors of National Archives, Libraries and Museums and tertiary institutions across Africa to discuss how they can design and implement national digitisation programmes to improve the availability of and access to African scholarly and cultural digital content to enhance the continent's development efforts.

Ideally every country and/or Region in Africa should be represented at the Conference, particularly  National Directors of Libraries, Archives and Museums who will be able to provide information on the status of digitisation endeavours in their respective countries,  the challenges they are facing and  suggested  ways forward.

All delegates will be required to send in brief reports on their institutional or national digitisation initiatives and plans. Selected reports will be discussed to enhance information and knowledge sharing. Attention will be paid to the general digitisation vision and activities, intellectual property rights, the discovery architecture for digital objects, cooperation and mass digitisation and standards and policies. Conference themes and sub-themes will include:

 National and Regional Digital Library & Archives Strategies

 Capacity Issues and Resource Mobilisation

 Access and Ownership

 Policy and Legislative Frameworks

 Technical Issues

 Developing Collaborative Projects for National and Regional Projects and Programmes

SPONSORSHIP/FUNDING

Conference organisers are hoping to raise some funds for the sponsorship of selected presenters. It is envisaged that limited funding might be available for your participation, no commitment.

VENUES

The Workshop will be held at the University of the Witwatersrand.

The Conference will be held at The Rosebank Hotel.

Delegates are responsible for their own travel, accommodation and other costs and are encouraged to seek funding from their own institutions, or other sponsors.

For Information on Registration, Submission of Abstracts and Papers, Deadlines and Accommodation visit our Website <http://www.wits.ac.za/newsroom/conferences/13135/home.html>