austraLasia #1935
The story of a region - and much more!
ROME: 30th August 2007 -- The story of the East Asia Oceania (EAO) Region has, of course, been six years in the making, day by day since the GC25 decision to create the region. And its progressive story as told by many contributors in the region through the EAO e-newsletter 'austraLasia' (which drew its name from the earlier region known as Australia-Asia, then including the Indian subcontinent), has also been six years in the making, indeed longer, since the e-letter in question took to the Web in October 1997. But its presentation through a neat, rapid and effective search mechanism has been nearly 12 months in the making. The painstaking task of entering the original texts and attaching appropriate metadata to them is not yet complete but has reached a stage where it is possible to present the material for public viewing.
The instrument which has made this possible is the Salesian Digital Library. The austraLasia collection on sdl.sdb.org is perhaps one of the best examples of the power and efficiency of this open source digital library system known in the wider world as the Greenstone system. This latter, pioneered by the University of Waikato, New Zealand, and fully supported by UNESCO, has revolutionised the possibilities of access for poorer nations, because its code is open, modifiable, and free. Indeed, the Greenstone team has been fully behind the development of the Salesian Digital Library by way of direct advice and technical assistance, and in accordance with Greenstone's principles, this has cost nothing.
SDL,as it is now known, has broad potential for the Congregation. Not only is the australasia collection now available, but a good number of documents held in www.sdb.org have been transferred to the system, for the time being duplicating the document collection. Two kinds of link to SDL have been included in www.sdb.org: a general link under the home page 'search' facility is one. Users will discover that for the documents that have already been transferred to SDL, finding a document is now much simpler, faster and more accurate, and can be done in many instances in the language of the user (beyond the five official languages of sdb.org). The second link is in the reserved area of sdb.org and takes users to the SDL reserved area. There is an additional area reserved only for provincials and provincial secretaries which is accessible on request.
The austraLasia collection will be progressively added to, in terms of newer items but also through the completion of metadata for existing items. There is now daily progress in the addition of documents, images, in fact any kind of 'digital object' from sdb.org and from additional resources. From the EAO region, additional languages are requesting entry. A Thai document collection will soon be available.
SDL is worth a glance either through direct entry or via www.sdb.org. The direct entry address once more: sdl.sdb.org (no WWW in front of that, please).
_________________
AustraLasia is an email service for the Salesian Family of Asia Pacific. It also functions as an agency for ANS based in Rome. For queries please contact admin@bosconet.aust.com . Use BoscoWiki to be interactive. RSS feeds - subscribe to www.bosconet.aust.com/RSS/rssala.xml Avail yourself of the Salesian Digital Library at at http://sdl.sdb.org
The story of a region - and much more!
ROME: 30th August 2007 -- The story of the East Asia Oceania (EAO) Region has, of course, been six years in the making, day by day since the GC25 decision to create the region. And its progressive story as told by many contributors in the region through the EAO e-newsletter 'austraLasia' (which drew its name from the earlier region known as Australia-Asia, then including the Indian subcontinent), has also been six years in the making, indeed longer, since the e-letter in question took to the Web in October 1997. But its presentation through a neat, rapid and effective search mechanism has been nearly 12 months in the making. The painstaking task of entering the original texts and attaching appropriate metadata to them is not yet complete but has reached a stage where it is possible to present the material for public viewing.
The instrument which has made this possible is the Salesian Digital Library. The austraLasia collection on sdl.sdb.org is perhaps one of the best examples of the power and efficiency of this open source digital library system known in the wider world as the Greenstone system. This latter, pioneered by the University of Waikato, New Zealand, and fully supported by UNESCO, has revolutionised the possibilities of access for poorer nations, because its code is open, modifiable, and free. Indeed, the Greenstone team has been fully behind the development of the Salesian Digital Library by way of direct advice and technical assistance, and in accordance with Greenstone's principles, this has cost nothing.
SDL,as it is now known, has broad potential for the Congregation. Not only is the australasia collection now available, but a good number of documents held in www.sdb.org have been transferred to the system, for the time being duplicating the document collection. Two kinds of link to SDL have been included in www.sdb.org: a general link under the home page 'search' facility is one. Users will discover that for the documents that have already been transferred to SDL, finding a document is now much simpler, faster and more accurate, and can be done in many instances in the language of the user (beyond the five official languages of sdb.org). The second link is in the reserved area of sdb.org and takes users to the SDL reserved area. There is an additional area reserved only for provincials and provincial secretaries which is accessible on request.
The austraLasia collection will be progressively added to, in terms of newer items but also through the completion of metadata for existing items. There is now daily progress in the addition of documents, images, in fact any kind of 'digital object' from sdb.org and from additional resources. From the EAO region, additional languages are requesting entry. A Thai document collection will soon be available.
SDL is worth a glance either through direct entry or via www.sdb.org. The direct entry address once more: sdl.sdb.org (no WWW in front of that, please).
_________________
AustraLasia is an email service for the Salesian Family of Asia Pacific. It also functions as an agency for ANS based in Rome. For queries please contact admin@bosconet.aust.com . Use BoscoWiki to be interactive. RSS feeds - subscribe to www.bosconet.aust.com/RSS/rssala.xml Avail yourself of the Salesian Digital Library at at http://sdl.sdb.org
