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Part I: REFLECTIONS: Changes Brought by and in Digital Libraries in the Last Decade

In a relatively short period of time, spanning less than two decades or so, digital libraries became a global phenomenon, characterized by an accelerated, explosive growth. Especially in the last decade, digital libraries became the subject of a great many activities worldwide. The decade witnessed many new and diverse practical applications, increases in breadth and depth of research and development (R&D) on many fronts, continuing innovation, new legal and economic challenges, management changes, and more. A number of fields are involved, among the most prominent being information science, librarianship, and computer science. Many commercial enterprises are providing new and expanded digital resources and software for digital libraries.
The goal of the first theme of LIDA 2009 is to reflect on the changes that have occurred in the realm of digital libraries during this decade and explore and evaluate efforts, concepts and ideas that emerged. The general aim is not only to reflect and synthesize what went on, but even more so to help further development of current efforts, as well as development of frameworks within which diverse and future efforts could be compared, evaluated, and improved. It is a look back in order to look forward.

Contributions are invited covering the following topics (types described below):

• synthesis of research, practices, and values related to digital libraries that were prominent in the past decade; conceptual frameworks and methodological approaches that emerged
• reflections and evaluations of the impact digital libraries have had on various social enterprises – particularly as related to scholarship, education, and government
• reflections and evaluation of the impact digital libraries have had on individuals in their everyday life; changes in use and users of digital libraries
• assessment of changes that digital libraries brought to traditional libraries and vice versa, changes in digital libraries based on requirements of their host institutions
• growth in involvement with digital libraries of a variety of institutions such as museums, professional and scientific societies, and other agencies
• emergence and effects of mass book digitization efforts, such as Million Book Project, Google Books Library Project, and others; library participation in these projects

• examples of good practices that emerged in a variety of efforts, such as digitization, preservation, access, and others
• reflections on challenges and lessons learned from national, funded digital library research and application projects such as US National Science Digital Library Program, the European Delos and Digital Library Project, and others
• examination of international aspects of digital libraries with related trends in globalization and cooperative opportunities.

Part II: HERITAGE & digital libraries - digitization, preservation, access

Cultural heritage implies shared collective representations that have assumed the status of tradition. Increasingly such representations are created, circulated and accessed in digital form. Libraries and various information services have responded to proliferation of cultural and educational digital resources by articulating preservation strategies and preservation programs for e-heritage; they have conducted large-scale digitization efforts and have enabled the creation of significant cultural heritage archives and digital heritage collections in public access. These diverse efforts of the past decade are largely under-reflected, and the emerging e-heritage remains largely unexamined in its broader context. An expanded understanding of tradition, ancestry and heritage phenomena have also opened new possibilities for expression and access for individuals and communities. As heritage information is being redefined, and its preservation and dissemination have become more pertinent, the new challenges of heritage management in the digital realm have energized the heritage discourse among librarians, scholars, technologists and politicians. These groups are striving to find solutions for mediation of heritage across media, across different domains of significance, across the digital divide and technological constraints, and across institutional boundaries. This process has pragmatic and strategic implications for the information agencies in finding solutions to the problems of what to preserve and how, in shaping the contexts of mediation, in developing information systems and supporting technologies, and in reflecting on the social and political dimensions of heritage management.

The goal of the second theme of LIDA 2009 is to explore efforts, concepts and ideas related to defining and capturing the heritage records in digital libraries. It aims to bring together the heritage workers in library and information science and other fields interested in the topic to evaluate, compare, and advance their efforts.

Contributions are invited covering the following topics (types described below):

• theories and taxonomies of heritage as related to digital libraries and heritage libraries in a digital world
• dimensions of e-heritage and areas of significance (documents, monuments - cultural and natural, as well as ancestry records broadly conceived to encompass bio-cultural heritage)
• institutional perspectives on creation, dissemination, and access to heritage including local, national, trans-national and global strategies for digital heritage
• perspectives on heritage information: cultural, political, educational, economic, legal, socio-technological, bio-technological

• surveys of preservation activities, programs, projects, best practices
• technologies for heritage information management: solutions and challenges
• forms of heritage, their representations, and connection to artifacts, memories, and record-keeping practices
• specific concerns for library and information science (including but not limited to digital curation, web archiving, automation of cultural heritage archives, etc.)
• preservation efforts related to scholarly communication and the knowledge continuum.