Wrocław, Access IT workshop, kwiecień 2010 r., aut. Monika Jędralska

1. Organization of the Silesian Digital Library
Monika Jędralska
The Library of Humanitas University

2. Digitization in Poland
● A large network of digital libraries: 53
● Most of them are built on dLibra platform
developed since 1996 by PSNC
● They are members of The Federation of
Digital Libraries and provide online access
to a total of 382,810 publications
● From 11th December 2009 those resources
are available in Europeana

3. Origin of The Silesian Digital Library
● Bottom­up initiative and agreement between the Silesian
Library in Katowice and the Silesian University (Users­
Founders) signed on 20th July 2006
● Since 10th November 2006 SDL is based on Agreement
on co­creation of the Silesian Digital Library ­ allows
more institution to join SDL Project

4. Start site
The Silesia Digital Library was launched on
27th September 2006
and gave access to about 500 publications at:
● www.sbc.org.pl
● www.digitalsilesia.eu

5. Aims
The mission of the project is to present online the cultural
heritage of Silesia in its historic and contemporary
diversity, publish the scientific property of the region and
support teaching and educational activities

6. Area – Participants are from
● Upper Silesia
● The Dąbrowa Basin
● The Częstochowa Region
● Cieszyn Silesia
● The Opole Land

7. Types of institutions
42 Participants:
Public libraries (21) Cultural institutions
✔ Voivodeship libraries Archives
✔ City libraries
Publishers
✔ District libraries
Schools
✔ Communal libraries
Religious associations
Academic libraries (8)
Museums
Private college libraries (7)
Regional associations
Educational institutions

8. Base for action
Agreement on co­creation of The Silesian Digital Library
Agreement on co­creation of The Silesian Digital Library
● The agreement is open in its character
● All institutions sharing its aims and representing the area
of culture, education and science can download it from
SDL's website, sign and send it to The Silesian Library

9. Organizational structure
● Participants­Founders: the Silesian Library in Katowice
and the University of Silesia in Katowice
● Supreme authority: Participants' Meeting
● Representatives of each institution can vote

10. Organizational structure
● The organizational coordinator: the Silesian Library
● The SDL content and its main infrastructure is situated
there. The Silesian Library supports the SDL domains,
provides the internet connection and administers its
system

11. Organizational structure
● Seven­member Coordinating Team ­ composed of
officials representing participating institutions (3 years)
● Research College ­ made up of professors from nine
institutions of higher education which are the SDL's
members (3 years)

12. Rules of the SDL
● There is no central control and selection of publications
(no approval body is needed)
● The choice of material to be published depends on the
member institutions
● Method of acquisition, preparing and the pace of
publishing is an autonomous decision of each Participant

13. Rules of the SDL
● Participants are offered free of charge service
● It's easy to become a member (sign an agreement)
● It's easy to give up

14. Rules of the SDL
● Many dispersed centers create a common resource
● All Participants have the same rights in terms of
publishing rules

15. Rules of the SDL
● Each Participant takes responsibility for solving the
problem of copyright, making sure the rights are
terminated or concluding an agreement with the owner
of the rights
● Each member maintains rights to the digital materials
and determines the period of their availability

16. Rules of the SDL
● Digital resource is identifiable as belonging to a Participant

17. SDL Forum
Communication tool between Participants

18. SDL Forum
Sample topics:
● Information about SDL
● Proposals and plans for publication
● Format for bibliographic description
● Organization and promotion of SDL
● Scanning and graphics processing
● Software and hardware

19. www.digitalsilesia.eu

20. www.digitalsilesia.eu
● Interface available in 5 languages
● Based on dLibra Reader Application
● The metadata schema is based on the Dublin Core
standard
● Materials are published in such formats: djvu (96%), pdf
(3%), but also jpeg, html, mpeg (audio) and x­flv (video)
● Descriptions of publications are indexed and searched
by global search engines

21. www.digitalsilesia.eu
The total number of publications
(August 2006 – April 2010)
17,857

22. Readers
The total number of readers
(August 2006 – April 2010)
6,718,824 users from 126 countries/teritories
Readers from all over the world

23. And what type of resources
might they find on SDL?