News Archive

News	Date
Prof. Chen will be the keynote speaker at the 7th International Conference on Asian Digital Libraries (ICADL 2005), Bangkok, Thailand, December 12-15, 2005.  Her talk, entitled "Thai's Invaluable Memory Celebrated via Global Memory Net," will include a unique collection of rare pictures of H.R.H. Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn from birth to the present, as well as those highlighting some of her recent memorable events and activities. This collection, as a part of Thai Memory, is presented in Celebration of the 50th Birthday of H.R.H. Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, the Patron of Thai Library Association.	12/01/2005
Dr. Ching-chih Chen chairs a session entitled "Content-based and object-specific image retrieval techniques for museum images" at the MCN@Boston: Digit Fugit! Preserving Knowledge Into the Future, Boston, MA on November 4, 2005.  At this session, Dr. Chen and her two collaborators spoke on their joint project funded by NSF, International Collaboration to Advance User-oriented Technologies for Managing and distributing Images in Digital Libraries," NSF/IIS-0333036 (PI: Ching-chih Chen, Co-PIs: James Z. Wang and Jianbo Shi, September 2004-August 2007).	11/04/2005
Prof. Ching-chih Chen delivered her invited speech entitled "New mode of universal access and Global Memory Net" at the International Conference on Universal Digital Libraries, Hangzhou, China, on November 1, 2005.  Copy of her speech can be found in Archive section.	11/01/2005
On October 26, 2005 OCLC announced that Ching-chih Chen, the PI of Global Memory Net, has joined OCLC Online Computer Library Center as Consultant to the President for global digital initiatives among libraries, museums and archival institutions. Check here for more information of the announcement. On September 30, 2005, Dr. Chen delivered a lecture at the OCLC Distinguished Seminar Series in Dublin, OH. Check here for details of her presentation.	10/29/2005
More of the first group of visiting researchers will leave for home soon. We will bid good bye to Nguyen Thi Tuan Linh and Nguyen Thanh Son from Vietnam National Ethnological Museum (VNTM), Hanoi, Vietnam on October 31, 2005. They have developed a multimedia database on the 54 minority ethnic groups in Vietnam with images contributed by VME. Haiyan (Haley) Li from Shanghai Jiaotong University (SJTU) will leave on Nov. 5th, who has developed a multimedia database on Chinese musical instruments as the first collection of the major world musical instruments. Boris Badurina from Osijek, Croatia will return to his teaching position at the University J. J. Strossmayer in Osijek on Nov. 6, 2005. In addition to his contribution to the Global Memory Net with selected collections of the Museum of Osijek, he has been the key technologist in our development of the latest versions (Versions 3.0 and 4.0) of the Integrated Multimedia Content System (i-M-C-S) of Global Memory Net. i-M-C-S is a multilingual, multiformat, and multimedia system with powerful searching capabilities. Zhang Hongjia (Jenny Zhang) from University of Hainan, China will return on Nov. 15, 2005. Jenny has developed a rich image database on the culture of "Li" minority ethnic group, as well as been involved with the developed of several other GMNet multimedia databases. Xiaobo Xiao from Xian Jiaotong Unuiversity Library will return at the end of November. In addition to the preparation of image databases related to artifacts in and around Xian, he has also been involved in system development work with Version 4.0 of i-M-C-S. Under the supervision of Dr. Chen, the contributions from these visiting researchers have been substantial, and we want to thank them all and wish them well in their endeavors! The experience and "memory" of the short visit will also be invaluable to all of us.	10/28/2005
On September 30, 2005, Prof. Chen delivered an invited lecture of the Distinguished Seminar Series of OCLC at the Kilgour Auditorium, OCLC, Dublin, OH. More information of this OCLC distinguished Lecture entitled  "New mode of universal access: The latest development of Global Memory Net," can be found in: http://www.oclc.org/research/dss/. For Abstract of the Lecture, http://www.oclc.org/research/dss/chen.htm. Lecture Announcement  and  Revised paper of the Lecture	09/30/2005
Mission accomplished! GMNet bid good-bye to Shengqiang Zhang who left for home in Chengdu, Sichuan, China after almost 5-month stay to assume an enlarged responsibility as the Head of Library Automation at Sichuan University. During his productive period at Simmons, he extended the Version 1.0 of GMNet's system functionalities to a completed Version 2 with fully integratrated Linus/Apache/PHP-based system with dynamic management components under Prof. Chen's guidance. We thank him for his contribution and a job well done!	09/02/2005
GMNet team visited the Capital during August 24-28, 2005. Much thanks to the great hospitality and thoughtful arrangement of Dr. Hwa-Wei Lee, Chief of Asian Division of the Library of Congress; and Director Peter Young of the National Agricultural Library, the group tours extensively the two national libraries, and had also plenty opportunities for information exchange. We also thank Ms. Jiwon Kim of National Library of Medicine for her introduction to the NLM's Historical Collection. In addition, they also capitalized the opportunity to get to know many historical sites and some of the rich collections of Smithsonian museums in the Washington DC area. This trip will leave them with much treasured memories for a long time!	08/28/2005
Dr. Ching-chih Chen delivered a lecture on "Global Memory Net: Possibilities for non-humanities contents" at the National Agricultural Library, Silver Spring, MD on August 26, 2005.	08/26/2005
Prof. Chen delivered an invited talk, entitled "Global World Library in the digital age: Potentials & challenges in the case of Global Memory Net," at the Whitall Pavillion, Jefferson Building, Library of Congress (LC) on August 25th, 2005. This talk was organized by the Asian Division of LC.  This talk was a follow up to an earlier invited speech delivered on July 19, 2004, entitled "Global World Library in the Digital Age: Potentials and Challenges in the Case of Global Memory Net," LC's Digital Future & You! a series of briefings sponsored by Library Services on digital initiatives. Invited Speaker. The Library of Congress has made this webcast accessible via their website: http://www.loc.gov/library/video/jul19-globalmemorynet/. (Requires RealPlayer.)	08/25/2005
GMNet welcome their latest visiting researcher, Xiaobo Xiao from Xian, China, who arrived on August 17, 2005. Xiaobo is the Vice-Head of Library Automation at the Xian Jiaotong Unuiversity Library. He is also a Ph.D. candidate in computer science of that university. He will be at the Graduate School of Library and Information Science, Simmons College for 3 months under the support of the US National Science Foundation participating in further system development and exploring the possibilities of integrating selective image contents related to the culture of Xian as a part of Global Memory Net under Prof. Ching-chih Chen.	08/17/2005
GMNet team welcome the visit of several staff members of the Asia Division of Library Congress -- Dr. Hwa-Wei Lee, Chief of Asian Division, Dr. Mi Chu Wiens, Head of Scholarly Services and Mr. Tien Doan, System Staff of the Division on August 8-9, 2005. Currently, Global Memory Net's Naxi Manuscripts is collaborative project with Dr. Lee using both the unique Naxi collection and metadata from the LC's Asia Division, and the GMNet's technologies. Further collaborative possibilities will be explored in the two-day meeting with the GMNet team at the Graduate School of Library and Information Science, Simmons College.	08/08/2005
GMNet team welcome their latest visiting researcher, Mrs. Haiyan (Haley) Li from Shanghai Jiaotong University (SJTU), who arrived on August 4, 2005. Haley is a System Engineer of the SJTU's Library. She is at the Graduate School of Library and Information Science, Simmons College for 3 months under the support of the US National Science Foundation exploring the inclusion of selective images of Chinese musical instruments as a part of Global Memory Net's collection under Prof. Ching-chih Chen. When completed, these instruments will be linked with sound files.	08/04/2005
GMNet welcome their latest visiting researchers, Mrs. Nguyen Thi Tuan Linh and Mr. Nguyen Thanh Son from Hanoi, Vietnam, who arrived on August 3, 2005. Linh is the Conservator at the Vietnam National Ethnological Museum (VNTM), Hanoi, Vietnam, and Son is an AV technical staff at the same museum. They are at the Graduate School of Library and Information Science, Simmons College for 3 months under the support of the US National Science Foundation and Ford Foundation exploring the inclusion of selective VNEM's image s as a part of Global Memory Net's collection under Prof. Ching-chih Chen.	08/03/2005
During July 27-30, 2005, Prof. Chen delivered the invited speeches, entitled "Digital Libraries and Universal Access: What Global Memory Net hopes to achieve?" at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (July 27), Institue of Scientific and Technological Documentation Center (July 28), National Library of China (July 29), and Palace Museum (July 30th) during her whirlwind week-long trip to Beijing, China. Invited Speaker.	07/27/2005
GMNet welcome their latest visiting researcher, Zhang Hongjia (Jenny Zhang) from Hainan, China, who arrived on July 20, 2005. Jenny is the Head of Library Automation at the University of Hainan Library. She will be at the Graduate School of Library and Information Science, Simmons College for 4 months under the support of the US National Science Foundation exploring the possibilities of integrating selective image contents related to the culture of "Li" minority ethnic group as a part of Global Memory Net's collection under Prof. Ching-chih Chen.	07/25/2005
Our latest visiting researcher, Boris Badurina from Osijek, Croatia, arrived on July 6, 2005. Boris is a member of the Department of Information Sciences, University J. J. Strossmayer in Osijek, Croatia, where he teaches courses in databases, digitization and web development. He will be at the Graduate School of Library and Information Science, Simmons College for 4 months under the support of the US National Science Foundation working in integrating selective image contents from the Museum of Osijek as a part of Global Memory Net's collection under Prof. Ching-chih Chen.	07/08/2005
Prof. Chen delivered an invited speech, entitled "New mode of universal access and Global Memory Net" at the International Conference on Universal Digital Libraries, Hangzhou, China, on November 1st, 2005. At the same meeting, Mr. Shengqiang Zhang, Head of Library Automation of Sichuwan University also gave a talk on his R&D work related to system development (v. 2.0) for Global Memory Net. Copy of their speeches can be found in the Archive section.	07/03/2005
National Science Foundation has granted the second-year support to Global Memory Net's R&D project, "International Collaboration to Advance User-oriented Technologies for Managing and Distributing Images in Digital Libraries." The two-year grant will enable the PI, Prof. Ching-chih Chen of Simmons College, to collaborate closely with the co-PIs, Prof. James Z. Wang of the Pennsylvania State University and Prof. Jian-bo Shi of the University of Pennsylvania, as well as collaborator in Taiwan, Prof. V. W. Soo of the National Taiwan University in continuing their advance digital imaging R&D. While Chen's group will continue to explore the image collection and metadata development and retrieval issues, Wang's team will concentrate on content-based image retrieval and progressive displaying of copyright-protected images R&D, Shi's team will focus on object-specific image retrieval activities, and Soo's team will continue its text- and ontology-based retrieval of images.	06/07/2005
Global Memory Net welcomes Visiting Researcher, Mr. Zhang Sheng Qiang, from Sichuwan University, Chengdu, China. Mr. Zhang is the Head of Library Automation of the Sichuwan University Library. He has joined Global Memory Net for 5 months from April to September 2005, mostly under the support of the United Board of Christian Higher Education in Asia and NSF/IDLP. In addition to explore the possibilites of Sichuwan University Library becoming a contributing collaborator, Mr. Zhang also concentrates his time in developing a workable dynamic PHP-based new version of the GMNet's web-based system together with additional search capabities such as sound, bilingual, and multi-database retrievals.	04/15/2005