EMANI Project Meeting
Feb 15th - 16th, 2002
2/15/2002
9:00 AM to 7:00 PM
Springer-Verlag Heidelberg
Attendees:
Agenda topics
09:00-09:15
Welcome
Ruediger Gebauer
09:15-10:00
Aims and Scope
Joachim Heinze
10:00-10:25
Presentation - Springer LINK
Gertraud Griepke
10:25-10:45
Presentation - EMIS ELib server site
Hans J. Becker
10:45-11:00
Break
11:00-11:30
Presentation - Cornell University Library, Ithaca
Sarah Thomas
11:30
Presentation - Goettingen State and University
Library, Goettingen
Elmar Mittler
Presentation - Tsinghua University Library, Beijing
Guilin Liu
Presentation - Orsay Mathematical Library, Paris
Bernard Teissier
13:00
13:00-14:00
Lunch
14:00
Ongoing Archiving Projects
Bernd Wegner/Hans J.
Becker
Archiving Techniques
Frank Klaproth
Role of Formats and Standards
Thomas Fischer
Access, Structures, Identifiers
Heike Neuroth
Retrodigitization
19:00
Copyright Issues
Attendees:
Cornell University Library: Tom Hickerson, Sarah Thomas
Goettingen State & University Library: Hans Becker, Thomas Fischer,
Frank Klaproth, Elmar Mittler, Heike Neuroth, Alexander Huber
Tsinghua University Library: Guilin Liu
Orsay Mathematical Library: Bernard Teissier
Beijing: Xiaolong Chen
Zentralblatt MATH: Bernd Wegner
Springer-Verlag New York: Jerry Curtis, Ruediger Gebauer, Syed Hasan
Springer-Verlag HD: Richard Everett, Gertraud Griepke, Joachim Heinze,
Arnoud de Kemp
Welcome
Ruediger Gebauer

Ruediger Gebauer welcomed the guests

He thanked Bernd Wegner for providing the impetus and initiative of long-term preservation of
digital mathematical literature

Hoped that with a common objective and coordinated efforts and standardized formats we could
achieve goals of project
Aims and Scope
Joachim Heinze
Presentation: See “aims_and_scope_heinze.ppt"

“Global activity”

Common goal of Long term digital archive of content in mathematics

Differing needs according to customers: Scientists / Libraries / Publishers (Completeness,
Compatibility, & Convenience)

Impact factor for mathematical titles is unreliable method for measuring relative worth of titles

Over 80% of citations are to titles over 10 years - Mathematicians place a great deal of reliance on
past literature

“CONTENT COUNTS” (& Quality too!)
Presentation - Springer LINK
Gertraud Griepke
Presentation: Live demo (link.springer.de / link.springer-ny.com) See CD disk for detailed content info.
on mathematical books and journals published by Springer group of companies:

Over 5000 books in the field of mathematics

98 Book Series – Nearly 4,300 individual volumes comprising 1.3million pages

40 Journals (as defined by Goettingen State & University Library)
Presentation - EMIS mirror site
Hans J. Becker
Presentation: See “EMIS_becker.ppt”

European Mathematical Information Service

50 Journals, 30 Monographs

40 mirror sites worldwide

Formats: TeX (not public, requested for archiving), PS, (obligatory), DVI (Optional), PDF (highly
desirable)

Each journal has to agree to be archived (non abstained to date)
Presentation - Cornell University Library,
Ithaca
Sarah Thomas
Presentation: See “EMANI.ppt”

Very active library involved in numerous retrospective digitization projects

Ongoing archiving initiatives in many other subjects (Many funded by Mellon)

Mellon foundation will not fund “Dark” archives

Looking for synergy between projects to avoid unnecessary redundancies

Looking to develop formal digital preservation policy

Seek support for implementation of math archive

Continue research and share work with others
Presentation - Goettingen State and University
Library, Goettingen
Elmar Mittler
Presentation: See “sub2_mittler.ppt”

As with Cornell involved in many retro-digitization projects

Projects include: DIEPER, ERAM, EULER, ProPrint, CARMEN

Archiving responsibility for all German produced literature in mathematics

Format: “…should be readable without the use of specialized programs”

“Mark-up formats are better suited for archiving”
Tsinghua University Library, Beijing
Guilin Liu
Presentation:

Wealth of historical content spanning two millennia (incl Ancient Chinese Math texts)

As with other Chinese libraries - developing techniques in digital preservation

Act as host to CERNET – China Education and Research NETwork

Content on CERNET available to all (funded by library). Content outside CERNET (www) must
be paid by users – therefore important that content in hosted/mirrored within China

Over 10, 000 e-journals (5,000 English language)

Due to fiscal pressures increasing purchase of electronic media over print

Project: 1 million Book Project (In association with US partners)
Orsay Mathematical Library, Paris
Bernard Teissier
Presentation:

Presented from Mathematicians point of view

In France, Mathematical libraries are autonomous (Separate from main University libraries)

Network of 55 libraries with no legal status (Varies from 0.5 to 8 staff)

Orsay negotiate contracts on behalf of network

CNRS provided technical assistance and cooperation for Math Doc Cell project

Participate in EULER/LIMES

NUMDAM project – funding provided to archive four mathematical journals (50 year embargo)
The Cellule MathDoc is an Institute on Scientific Information (joint
institute CNRS -- Université Joseph Fourier, Grenoble) with missions at the
national level in France. The Cellule MathDoc
collaborates with mathematics libraries and departments in France (in
particular with the Orsay library) and with other national and
international partners as well. The Cellule MathDoc in particular monitors
the NUMDAM (Digitization of ancient mathematics documents) programme on
behalf of CNRS. More details on the Cellule MathDoc and on the NUMDAM
programme are available at the URL
http://math-sahel.ujf-grenoble.fr/NUMDAM/Public/Projet/numdam-annarbor200203.pdf
On going Archiving Projects
Bernd Wegner/Hans
J.Becker
Presentation: See “ONGOING.ppt” & “ongoing_archiving_becker.ppt”

Presented a list of ongoing projects in the field of Mathematics

Provides a good reference list for the EMANI group on related projects
Archiving Techniques
Frank Klaproth
Presemtation: See “techniques_kaproth.ppt”

Archiving – Permanent digital copy

Who pays? Substantial costs involved in Hardware/Software/Technical resources etc?
Role of Formats and Standards
Thomas Fischer
Presentation: See “file_formats_fischer.ppt”

Lively discussion on subject

Goals of archive – Preservation & Availability (Not necessarily compatible)

Trade off: Preserve “Look and Feel” or Content?

Trade off: Structured formats (Easy for User) & Mark-Up Formats (Open source)
Conclusions:

MathML – not yet available

XML not sufficient to present mathematical expressions

DVI, PS and PDF require special programs and are error sensitive

TeX is widely used, robust and readable (without formatting) with any text editor

“TEX IS THE FORMAT OF CHOICE” Thomas Fischer

Group agreed to archive using TeX and PDF & follow MathML development closely as future
format (Thomas Fischer will project lead investigation for group).
Access, Structures, Identifiers
Heike Neuroth
Presentation: See “core_metadata_elements_neuroth.ppt” & “ Carmen_sub”

Lessons from the CARMEN experience

Dublin Core is the lowest common denominator
Conclusions: Cornell will send representatives to work with Goettingen (David Ruddy/ Ted Turner)
Retrodigitization
Discussion:

Which language should we digitize – OCR questions?

Problems for publishers to find print copies of older titles. Libraries could help.

Intention of SV to eventually digitize all English language titles

Heavy investment means challenge of recouping investment (Idea of cost recovery not profit)
Conclusions:

Should not sacrifice quality in order to save costs

Focus on English language primarily and then others (German, French, Chinese…)

Take advantage of existing projects in area (eg Goettingen initiatives)

Work together to obtain grants where available

Reference linking would be a second step in project (Perhaps when new tools from other projects
come to fruition and are available in public domain) – Currently cost prohibitive
Copyright Issues
Elmar Mittler
Discussion:

Copyright issues related to retrodigitization are complicated

There are common problems shared globally with some specific national variances

International copyright is governed by Bern convention

Generally, copyright remains with rights holder for 70 years after death

Various international cases questioning who has copyright in digital arena (Author / Publisher?)

Questions raised about reliability of copyright fees distributed by national agencies
Conclusions: Working group required to investigate issues
FEB 16th – Next Steps Project Plan…
See detailed project plan distributed from SV - HD

Next meeting to be held at Cornell University on July 25th/26th

Following meeting to be held at Goettingen on Nov 22nd/23rd

Following meeting to be held in Paris some time in March 2003
All