OVERVIEW
The main goal of this research program is to develop and evaluate
practices, frameworks, and tools for the design and construction of worldwide
distributed digital music archives and libraries. Over the last few millennia,
humans have amassed an enormous amount of information and cultural material
that is scattered around the world. It is becoming abundantly clear that
the optimal path for acquisition is to distribute the task of digitizing
the wealth of historical and cultural heritage material that exists in
analogue formats, which may include books, manuscripts, music scores,
maps, photographs, videos, analogue tapes, and phonograph records. In
order to achieve this goal, libraries, museums, and archives throughout
the world, large or small, need well-researched policies, proper guidance,
and efficient tools to digitize their collections and to make them available
economically. The research conducted within the program will address unique
and imminent challenges posed by the digitization and dissemination of
music media.
Projects
There are four major research projects within the program:
- Development and evaluation of digitization methods for preservation
of analogue recordings
- Optical music recognition using microfilms
- Design of workflow management system with automatic metadata extraction
- Formulation of interlibrary communication strategies
Funding
This program officially started in March 2004 with an infrastructure
funding (New Opportunities) from Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI).
An earlier version of this program had started in September 2002 and was
called DDMLL (Distributed Digital Music Libraries Laboratory). Other funding
sources include FQRSC (Fonds québécois de la recherche sur
la société et la culture, Government of Quebec), NSF (National
Science Foundation), CIRMMT (Centre for Interdisciplinary Reserach in
Music Media and Technology), and McGill University.
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