Monday, April 22—Tuesday, April 23
The International Institute of Social History
The Netherlands

The RLG annual meeting in Amsterdam attracted a dynamic mix of attendees from ten different countries. The International Institute of Social History was the ideal setting, and IISH colleagues were wonderful and experienced hosts. The high-energy speakers challenged attendees to think, and each speaker built on the other presentations and the overarching theme.They were equally challenged and impressed with questions from the audience. As a result, discussions spilled over into interesting hallway conversations. Clockwise from upper left: program moderator Eric Ketelaar; conversation in the Institute's atrium; closing reception and canal tour; scenic Amsterdam

Reg Carr, director of University Library Services at University of Oxford and chair of RLG's Board of Directors, opened the meeting with particular thanks to Jaap Kloosterman and the staff of the International Institute of Social History. Carr pointed to this second annual gathering outside of the US as evidence of the "continuing internationalization of the consortium."

Jaap Kloosterman, director of the IISH, welcomed RLG members to excellent conditions in Amsterdam, noting that "The weather seems to be good and we don't have a government to speak of." He described the IISH as "a place that to some people is a Mecca, because we are one of the largest institutions in the world in this field of labor movements and social movements from everywhere." He and his staff gave participants a tour of both the Institute and the Institute's Web site, which "has already become the main interface between the Institute and users." With more than 8,000 pages, it attracts over 150,000 visitors every month for information in social history. Archival inventories are a primary feature; the Department of Virtual Exhibitions also draws many visitors. The site's virtual libraries—on labor, business, and women's history—are also popular resources for a large audience. A collection of digital social history archives, with 2.3 million newsgroup postings from the 1980s and 1990s, is nearly finished, to be available on DVD.

James Michalko, president of RLG, reported on highlights in the past year for RLG and focused attention on directions for the organization's future. He hailed the successful release of the RLG Cultural Materials service, saying "It is going to touch all parts of the organization and be part of what RLG is about." He also noted work in both digital preservation and resource sharing that has laid groundwork for real progress and problem solving in the near future. Recognizing the efforts underway explicitly or implicitly at RLG member institutions to establish their future roles in their communities, Michalko called for "the right balance between listening, leading, collaborating, supporting—and ultimately aligning our agendas so that we get the most out of the kinds of effort and investment that we are all making." Michalko also offered particular thanks to vice-president emeritus John Haeger as he closes more than two decades of service to RLG.

Ian Mowat, university librarian of the University of Edinburgh, took the floor to thank Nancy Elkington, RLG Member Services manager, as she prepared to depart for RLG's new regional office in New York City, "for the enormous work that she has done in the time that she has been in London." He credited her for the strength of the attendance at the meeting, saying "We have benefited enormously from her ability constantly to keep in mind the needs of individual institutions."

Eric Ketelaar, professor of archivistics in the Department of Book, Archives and Information Studies at the University of Amsterdam, moderated the meeting's program on Creating New Knowledge. He took the 400th anniversary of the establishment of the Dutch East India Company, the world's first multinational company, the first shareholders' company, and the first to establish a network of inter-Asian trade, as the paradigm for the meeting's theme. The Dutch East India Company created a huge archive of data—maps, trade and business records, accounts, economic and political reports, and so on. "Every time a ship went out and came back with a map," said Ketelaar, "it was the starting point or the basis for extending the knowledge which already existed. Today we have another globe, another territory to chart and to discover, and that is cyberspace."

The speakers looked to the future of data, access, and research. Both Robert Aiken of Cisco Systems (right) and Ian Foster of Argonne National Laboratory (far right) showed how the exponential growth of data, network and computing speed, and storage will revolutionize how research is done. Virtual organizations, ubiquitous computing, and intelligent agents of some form are becoming real, as teams of geographically scattered researchers around the world can share data instantaneously, pose questions that databases can answer themselves, and create new cross-discipline communities.

Ron Dekker of the Scientific Statistical Agency in The Netherlands addressed data and the social sciences, reiterating the tremendous growth of digital data on all aspects of society and the need for standardized access, effective tools, and collaboration.

Howard Bloom, a scholar videotaped in New York City, presented the perspective of a researcher who already works almost entirely online and made a case for accelerated access to yet more content—and, even more—for interpretive tools such as virtual reality and intelligent agents.

Ricky Erway of RLG presented a demonstration of how RLG Cultural Materials leads reseach in new directions, already forging surprising connections and interactions among artifacts and collections. The talks provoked lively discussion about just what role librarians, archivists, and curators can take as data brokers, preservationists, or interpreters, about what the explosion of digital material means for archiving, and about information versus access versus content.

Eric Ketelaar closed the meeting saying, "We have learned that there is an increasing complexity of data, increasing intensity, but at the same time increasing plurality of data. On the other hand, technology allows us increased access to enormous amounts of data . . . increasing possibilities and technologies to process the information, other modes for information processing. . . . You can't do it anymore on your own. That is one of the arguments in favor of consortia and collaborative projects like RLG. We are building bridges between our collections and the brains and minds of users everywhere.... We have to find ways to connect our reality with their reality and their expectations."

Lively between-session discussion

Attendees (among them John Haeger of RLG and Mike Crump of the British Library) learn about IISH collections from Huub Sanders, curator of audiovisual documents