Call for proposals--Digital preservation

Call for Proposals
Digits Fugit!
Preserving Knowledge into the Future
33rd Annual Museum Computer Network Conference
Location: Boston, Massachusetts
Meeting Dates: November 3 - 5, 2005
Proposal Deadline: February 12, 2005
Proposal Forms: <URL:http://www.mcn.edu/>

We've all spent a great deal of time and effort organizing vast
quantities of information in a variety of digital formats. We have
now realized the time has come to focus on preserving the valuable
results of that tremendous effort. In response, the theme for the
Museum Computer Network's 2005 conference will be Digits Fugit!
Preserving Knowledge into the Future. Come to Boston, where the
city's historic downtown will provide a perfect setting to remind us
of the value of preserving a proud past while keeping our eye firmly
on a glorious future.

As an organization, MCN has always championed back-office,
mission-critical, "heavy lifting" aspects of museum technologies. We
provided advocacy and professional development programs to help our
membership accomplish basic networking and database efforts that
transformed the record keeping part of museum work. For years now,
we have turned our attention to refining cataloguing standards,
image digitizing technologies, developing smarter systems for
inter-operability, sustainability, and electronic publication.

The good news is that collectively, we have become quite skilled at
creating and delivering digital resources! The not-so-good news is
that we now need to spend equally prodigious efforts at preserving
the fruits of our labor. And as we know, this is not lacking in
complexity! Fortunately, we have kindred spirits and friends in this
effort and we will be making every effort to bring as many of them
as we can to our conference. We will join forces with the Northeast
Document Conservation Center (NEDCC) who will produce a new two-day
curriculum on Digital Preservation at the Omni Parker House, just
before our conference. Speakers from Harvard, MIT, and the W3C will
be on hand to lead workshops and speak on panels, and we will
organize facilities tours of some of the more well-known digital
production and preservation sites in town.

Even though the theme will focus on digital longevity issues, MCN
conferences are always open for presentations on all of the other
technologies and concerns in our field. Accordingly, the Program
Committee is seeking presentations based on current and planned
activities or research that focus on one of the following broad
areas of interest:

    Preservation Metadata Standards
    Preservation Planning
    Preservation Policy Development
    Research and Evaluation
    Storage Technologies
    Standards and Interoperability
    Digital Rights Management

    Multimedia and Streaming Technologies
    Collection Information Management
    Collaboration and Data Aggregation
    Point of Sale and eCommerce
    Electronic Publication
    Imaging Technologies
    Intellectual Property Rights
    Management Issues
    Membership and Fund Raising

Proposals will be accepted in one of the following three formats:
panels, workshops or roundtables. Each session must have a
chairperson responsible for finding other speakers and coordinating
logistics. All chairs must be affiliated with an institutional
member or be an MCN individual member. Topics for the sessions
should fall into at least one of the categories listed on page 1 of
the proposal form. All proposals for sessions and/or workshops must
be submitted on the Call for Proposals form.

To obtain additional copies or get more specific
information, visit <URL:http://www.mcn.edu> or contact

    Susan Rawlyk
    403-288-9394.
    rawlyks<-a t->igs< . >net

Sam Quigley
President

Christine Bostick and Cathryn Goodwin
2005 Conference Co-Chairs


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 18:32
                Distributed: Saturday, January 22, 2005
                       Message Id: cdl-18-32-007
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