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IOPDL Project

IOPDL Project

IOPDL Project has been processing since 2008 by Boaz Sunyoung Jin who believes it as her calling from GOD.

IOPDL model is proposed for the future international digital library. IOPDL is to make digital libraries’ collections all over the world freely accessible to the universal public, by providing a single international digital library platform and the multilingual service. It is also to provide a learning center for the public, especially for the disabled, in order to enlarge their educational opportunities at home, school, or elsewhere, anytime.  so that the public can access any digital resources all over the world for free or with at least limitations.

Five Requirements

To establish the proposed IOPDL, five requirements are suggested:

  • the General Requirement: evaluating existing digital libraries to select Well-Designed Digital Libraries (WDDLs);
  • the Technological Requirement: achieving interoperability among WDDLs using a Common Terminology to share their collections;
  • the Financial Requirement: building financial support model as a non-profit organization;
  • One United Organization Requirement: establishing and managing IOPDL; and
  • Unifying Languages: sharing collections of multiple languages all over the world.

IOPDL Projects

To conduct these requirements, IOPDL project has been processed with mainly three projects.

Activities

Aiming launching IOPDL official website in 2019, the next tasks that will be conducted during 2016-2019 are described in the preliminary proposal. The planned activities are to fulfill the main and specific purposes described in the Articles of Incorporation, and the charitable, scientific, and educational purposes as an exempt organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, or corresponding section of any future federal tax code.

The activities from 2008 to 2015 are mainly Evaluating Digital Libraries project, Common Terminology (CT) project, and Initiating IOPDL organization.

The Past Activities

International Open Public Digital Library (IOPDL) was proposed in 2008, as the National Open Public Digital Library (NOPDL), by who believes this is a calling from GOD. Since 2008, she continued the IOPDL project as a graduate student of Graduate School of Library and Information Science (GSLIS) in the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). A description of that earlier work and its continuation can be found on https://www.iopdl.org/news-and-history, and https://www.iopdl.org/iopdl-project.

To fulfill these requirements, the following research activities were conducted from 2008 to 2014 by Boaz Sunyoung Jin and committees of GSLIS in UIUC at Illinois:

Present Activities

Present activities of IOPDL Inc. from January 2015 to January 2016 are summarized into three categories: forming IOPDL Inc.; having cooperation with existing National or Well-Designed Digital Libraries (WDDLs) and being provided their metadata records to share; and seeking grants of the USA government and foundations, by the President and the Board of Directors of IOPDL Inc., at Illinois in the USA. These works are to establish a not for profit tax exempt organization, to receive and reuse metadata of national and universities libraries’ digital collections, and to develop techniques to share their resources for the public to access and (re)use them freely without limitations for their educational or other purposes. These activities do further the charitable, scientific and educational purposes under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, or corresponding section of any future federal tax code.

The activities to form IOPDL Inc. are as follows:

  • January, 2015.International Open Public Digital Library (IOPDL) Inc. is initiated at Illinois State, and has an Employer Identification Number.
  • March, 2015. International Open Public Digital Library (IOPDL) Projectwebsite, iopdl.org, is launched.
  • November 10, 2015. Three Board of Directors signed for the Articles of Incorporation of the not for Profit Corporation.
  • November 12, 2015 The Articles of Incorporation was filed with the Secretary of State as a Not For Profit organization.
  • November 16, 2015. The board of directors agreed, signed, and adopted Bylaws.
  • November 16 and 18, 2015. The board meetings were held at Illinois.
  • November, 2015. IOPDL Inc. is registered with the state of Illinois – the Charitable Organization Bureau at the Office of the Attorney General, and applied for tax exemptions under section 501(c)(3) of the tax code.
  • January 11, 2016. IOPDL Inc. is proved as a tax-exempt organization by IRS. The effective date of exemption is on November 12, 2015.

The activities to have cooperation with existing National or Well-Designed Digital Libraries (WDDLs) and to be provided their metadata records are as follows:

  • May, 2013. UIUC provided 0.39 million MARCXML records.
  • June, 2014. Harvard Law Library Innovation Lab provided 1.5 million records from Library Cloud’s Harvard catalog dataset that have links out to electronic resources.
  • June, 2014 and September, 2015. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) informed how to harvest their metadata from OAI-PMH, and their metadata harvested and used for empirical experiments to improve interoperability between different standards used in libraries, in 2014. 0.35 Million Qualified Dubin Core records of MIT are re-harvested from OAI-PMH for the planned activities by designed Python computer language program on September, 2015.
  • October, 2014 and May, 2015. Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) structured to support IOPDL project. 8 million records harvested from their websites and split into readable files in September, 2014. They are analyzed and their elements usage investigated by Python computer language program for the planned activities.
  • August, 2015. National Library of Korea provided their 40 thousand old rare electronic collections records in MODS, and analyzed and investigated their elements usage by designed Python computer language program.
  • October, 2015~January, 2016. Europeana provided tools and instructions to harvest their 43 million records that described by multiple languages. 31 out of 1827 provider sets are harvested and analyzed and their elements usage are investigated by Python computer language program for the planned activities.

The activities to have grant funds will be progressed by applying grants by the President of IOPDL Inc. at Illinois. If we have funds, we can officially launch IOPDL for the near future (aiming in 2019). Until we have funds, however, Presidents and staff are/will work full time as volunteers without payments, for good works for the public of the USA and the world.

The Planned Activities

The purpose of the planned activities is to launch officially International Open Public Digital Library (IOPDL) website in 2019. As a prototype, the IOPDL website will be a single portal of cooperating national and Well-Designed Digital Libraries (WDDLs): Digital Public Library of America (DPLA), Europeana, National Library of Korea, Harvard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. It is to make the public be able to access freely their high quality collections by cooperation. It is to develop technology to improve metadata interoperability between diverse standards used in libraries, and to provide multilingual services improving interoperability between different languages. It is to provide a learning-center to enlarge educational opportunities for the public, especially for the disabled, at home, school, or elsewhere anytime. It is to maintain and upgrade IOPDL services continuously. It is to fulfill further the exempt purposes as a not for profit organization, and the exclusive charitable, scientific and educational purposes under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, or corresponding section of any future federal tax code. The planned activities of the prototype will be conducted during 2016-2019.

After launching IOPDL official website as a single portal of cooperating national and WDDLs, IOPDL Inc. will expand the scope and do our best to provide the best services for the public of the USA and all over the world, and to keep the non-profit charitable, scientific, and educational purposes, as an exempt organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.

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