Global Memory Net
Encyclopedia
Global Memory Net is a world digital library
of cultural, historical, and heritage image collections. It is directed by http://memorynet.org/director/ Prof. Ching-chih Chen], Professor Emeritus of Simmons College, Boston, Massachusetts and supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF)/International Digital Library Program (IDLP). The goal of GMNet is to provide a global collaborative network that provides universal access to educational resources to a worldwide audience. GMNet provides multilingual and multimedia content and retrieval, as well as links directly to major resources, such as OCLC, Wikipedia, Internet Archive, Million Books, and Google.
GMNet's initial collection starts with the invaluable images included in Prof. Chen's interactive videodisc and multimedia CD-ROM, entitled The First Emperor of China on the First Emperor of China's 7000+ terracotta warriors and horses. These are products of her earlier PROJECT EMPEROR-I, supported by the US National Endowment for the Humanities (1983-1986). The selective images of this project became the core collection of Chinese Memory Net (CMNet) and is named "Emperor Collection" in GMNet. Since 2002, the project's scope has expanded quickly to cover many countries' cultural collections.
Much of these unique collections are of great value to education and research and are not currently accessible due to distance, form, and technical barriers. This project is intended to find new ways to enable users to access and exploit these significant collections via the global network. Each collaborator of this complimentary and synergetic group possesses experience, knowledge, expertise, and capability in different but related research area(s). Each contributes either part of its superb culture and heritage collection, or cutting-edge techniques to facilitate the image retrieval.
GMNet‘s Collection is constantly growing, and its system and interface design are continually being upgraded and modified to take advantage of improvements in technology. Since September 2010, these activities have been supported by Global Connection and Collaboration, Inc. (GlobalCC).
and the original discovery and excavation of the Emperor’s terracotta army
.
Additional to the Asian collections are materials from around the world. A number of comprehensive collections are included, covering specific sites, cultures, and other overarching themes from content collaborators, including the UNESCO's Memory of the World, Asia Division of Library of Congress
, national libraries, academic institutions, and some private groups. These collections feature images of geographical locations and historical sites, historical manuscripts, maps, art, indigenous crafts, weapons, pottery and musical instruments. Every image is accompanied by metadata information. Images of musical instruments are linked with the audio and video files, and with notations. Metadata is recorded in multiple languages. In general, English is provided and is often also available in the local language of the object’s country of origin. A recent ongoing project is the multilingual and multimedia documentation of all the UNESCO
World Heritage Sites, known as World Heritage Memory Net
.
Collections in GMNet are broken up into the following categories to help users browse the extensive content:
In addition, GMNet also includes instant access to over 2530 digital collections from over 80 countries in the world in its World Digital Collections.
Information in GMNet is retrieved not only by the traditional way of searching by collection listings, country, or timeline, but especially by enhanced search methods including freely browsing, randomly looking for images of interest, finding similar images, zooming for details, and obtaining appropriate annotations.
GMNet's search capabilities include:
, Million Books, Google Scholar
and Google Books
, Wikipedia
, and Flickr
.
Digital library
A digital library is a library in which collections are stored in digital formats and accessible by computers. The digital content may be stored locally, or accessed remotely via computer networks...
of cultural, historical, and heritage image collections. It is directed by http://memorynet.org/director/ Prof. Ching-chih Chen], Professor Emeritus of Simmons College, Boston, Massachusetts and supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF)/International Digital Library Program (IDLP). The goal of GMNet is to provide a global collaborative network that provides universal access to educational resources to a worldwide audience. GMNet provides multilingual and multimedia content and retrieval, as well as links directly to major resources, such as OCLC, Wikipedia, Internet Archive, Million Books, and Google.
History
Global Memory Net superseded Chinese Memory Net (CMNet) http://www.memorynet.org/archives/gmnet/gmnet_archive.php, which was founded in 2001 as a NSF/IDLP project. It was intended to make Chinese cultural and heritage resources globally accessible in a multimedia format. "The experiences and knowledge gained from [CMNet] made me realize the need to rethink the model for information dissemination and use," wrote Prof. Chen in 2001. CMNet later expanded to represent global collections and officially became Global Memory Net in 2003.GMNet's initial collection starts with the invaluable images included in Prof. Chen's interactive videodisc and multimedia CD-ROM, entitled The First Emperor of China on the First Emperor of China's 7000+ terracotta warriors and horses. These are products of her earlier PROJECT EMPEROR-I, supported by the US National Endowment for the Humanities (1983-1986). The selective images of this project became the core collection of Chinese Memory Net (CMNet) and is named "Emperor Collection" in GMNet. Since 2002, the project's scope has expanded quickly to cover many countries' cultural collections.
Much of these unique collections are of great value to education and research and are not currently accessible due to distance, form, and technical barriers. This project is intended to find new ways to enable users to access and exploit these significant collections via the global network. Each collaborator of this complimentary and synergetic group possesses experience, knowledge, expertise, and capability in different but related research area(s). Each contributes either part of its superb culture and heritage collection, or cutting-edge techniques to facilitate the image retrieval.
GMNet‘s Collection is constantly growing, and its system and interface design are continually being upgraded and modified to take advantage of improvements in technology. Since September 2010, these activities have been supported by Global Connection and Collaboration, Inc. (GlobalCC).
Collections
Reflecting GMNet’s origins in CMNet and Prof. Chen’s earlier PROJECT EMPEROR-I, a interactive multimedia project http://memorynet.org/archives/gmnet/pei/products.html, the strongest portion of the collection’s content is from China and Asia. This collection includes over 8000 images and featured videos of this World Heritage SiteWorld Heritage Site
A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a place that is listed by the UNESCO as of special cultural or physical significance...
and the original discovery and excavation of the Emperor’s terracotta army
Terracotta Army
The Terracotta Army or the "Terra Cotta Warriors and Horses", is a collection of terracotta sculptures depicting the armies of Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China...
.
Additional to the Asian collections are materials from around the world. A number of comprehensive collections are included, covering specific sites, cultures, and other overarching themes from content collaborators, including the UNESCO's Memory of the World, Asia Division of Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
, national libraries, academic institutions, and some private groups. These collections feature images of geographical locations and historical sites, historical manuscripts, maps, art, indigenous crafts, weapons, pottery and musical instruments. Every image is accompanied by metadata information. Images of musical instruments are linked with the audio and video files, and with notations. Metadata is recorded in multiple languages. In general, English is provided and is often also available in the local language of the object’s country of origin. A recent ongoing project is the multilingual and multimedia documentation of all the UNESCO
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
World Heritage Sites, known as World Heritage Memory Net
World Heritage Memory Net
World Heritage Memory Net , a partnership project with UNESCO World Heritage Centre, is a global digital library of cultural, historical, and heritage multimedia collections related to the current 936 UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Of these 936 sites, 725 are cultural sites, 183 natural, and 28 mixed...
.
Collections in GMNet are broken up into the following categories to help users browse the extensive content:
- Antique Maps
- Arts, Paintings, Poetry
- Cathedrals, Churches, Shrines, Temples
- Ethnic Groups
- Historical Cities
- Musical Instruments
- National Libraries
- National Memories
- Old Civilizations and Culture
- Palaces- Ancient and Current
- Selected Museums
- UNESCO Memory of the World
- UNESCO World Heritage Sites
In addition, GMNet also includes instant access to over 2530 digital collections from over 80 countries in the world in its World Digital Collections.
Search Methods
When one enters GMNet, all collections can be searched using an open search box, which allows traditional search by metadata fields (such as title, date, location, keyword, source, etc.) in multiple languages. Advanced Search with additional Boolean Operators is available for both Collections and images by language and by multiple fields.Information in GMNet is retrieved not only by the traditional way of searching by collection listings, country, or timeline, but especially by enhanced search methods including freely browsing, randomly looking for images of interest, finding similar images, zooming for details, and obtaining appropriate annotations.
GMNet's search capabilities include:
- Content-based Image Retrieval (CBIR): This is one of the key features of Global Memory Net.
- A user can gain familiarity with an unknown collection through CBIR using Random and Browse image searches, which allow users to browse the collections without requiring knowledge of the language used to describe the records. Randomizing allows users to view a randomized overview of thumbnail images for a collection; users can then follow their visual or contextual interests and narrow their focus if they wish by using the Similar, Larger, and Info functions. Similar retrieves images of the same color and shape, and uses the CBIR developed by Prof. James Z. Wang at Penn State UniversityPennsylvania State UniversityThe Pennsylvania State University, commonly referred to as Penn State or PSU, is a public research university with campuses and facilities throughout the state of Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 1855, the university has a threefold mission of teaching, research, and public service...
, but modified in-house http://www.ala.org/Template.cfm?Section=archive&template=/contentmanagement/contentdisplay.cfm&ContentID=123671. Users can enlarge the thumbnail images (magnification varies with resolution) and also obtain additional descriptive information, including multilingual, multimedia and links where available.
- Traditional Search:
- When one has some knowledge of a given collection or of specific information that they are seeking within that collection, a search box allows traditional search by metadata fields (such as title, date, location, keyword, source, etc.) in multiple languages.
- Geographical Search:
- Collections are also accessible through a navigation bar link to a listing by country, leading to multiple browsable images and information.
- Temporal Search:
- All Collections are listed on a sliding timeline which links to individual Collection pages with information and browsable images. Users can scroll through the centuries viewing all relevant Sites Collections related to the time period of interest.
Linked Data
GMNet links to outside data sources to provide more additional information resources to the user. These resources include OCLC, Internet ArchiveInternet Archive
The Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It offers permanent storage and access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly 3 million public domain books. The Internet Archive...
, Million Books, Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Google Scholar is a freely accessible web search engine that indexes the full text of scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats and disciplines. Released in beta in November 2004, the Google Scholar index includes most peer-reviewed online journals of Europe and America's largest...
and Google Books
Google Book Search
Google Books is a service from Google that searches the full text of books that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical character recognition, and stored in its digital database. The service was formerly known as Google Print when it was introduced at the Frankfurt Book Fair in October...
, Wikipedia
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is a free, web-based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Its 20 million articles have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world. Almost all of its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the site,...
, and Flickr
Flickr
Flickr is an image hosting and video hosting website, web services suite, and online community that was created by Ludicorp in 2004 and acquired by Yahoo! in 2005. In addition to being a popular website for users to share and embed personal photographs, the service is widely used by bloggers to...
.
User’s Projects
Registered users may create up to 3 projects and save images in a durable portfolio within GMNet. As users search through the collections they can save and add notes and metadata to individual objects.Technology partners
- Howard D.Wactlar, School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon UniversityCarnegie Mellon UniversityCarnegie Mellon University is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States....
, Pittsburgh, PA, USA - James Z.Wang, School of Information Sciences and Technology, Pennsylvania State UniversityPennsylvania State UniversityThe Pennsylvania State University, commonly referred to as Penn State or PSU, is a public research university with campuses and facilities throughout the state of Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 1855, the university has a threefold mission of teaching, research, and public service...
, University Park, PA, USA - Jian-bo Shi, School of Computer Science, University of PennsylvaniaUniversity of PennsylvaniaThe University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
, Philadelphia, PA, USA - Von-Wun Soo, Chen-Yu Lee, Chao-Chun Yeh, Department of computer science, National Tsing Hua UniversityNational Tsing Hua UniversityNational Tsing Hua University is one of the most prestigious universities in Taiwan. The university has a strong reputation in the studies of science and engineering. Times Higher Education - World University Rankings is107in the world. Engineering and Science are the best in Taiwan...
, TaiwanTaiwanTaiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following... - Piero BaglioniPiero BaglioniPiero Baglioni is an Italian chemist and University professor at the University of Florence. Baglioni produced several innovations in the field of both inorganic and organic colloids. Baglioni is the author of more than 250 publications on books and largely diffused international journals...
, Rodorico Giorgi, Department of Chemistry, University of FlorenceUniversity of FlorenceThe University of Florence is a higher study institute in Florence, central Italy. One of the largest and oldest universities in the country, it consists of 12 faculties...
, Italy - Takashi Nagatsuka, Tsurumi UniversityTsurumi Universityis a private university in Tsurumi-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan. The precursor of the school was founded in 1953, and it was chartered as a university in 1963....
, Department of Library, Archival, and Information Studies, Yokohama, Japan
Content partners
- Global Memory Net, 2003 on - US Library of Congress, Asian Division; Hainan University, Hainan, China; Shanghai Jiao-Tong U, Shanghai; Sichuan University, Chengdu, China; Tsurumi University, Yokohoma, Japan; University J. J. Strossmayer, Osijek, Croatia; Vietnam Museum of Ethnology, Hanoi, Vietnam, etc.
- Chinese Memory Net, 2000-2002 - Peking University, Beijing; Tsinghua University, Beijing; Shanghai Jiao-Tong University, Shanghai, China; Academia Sinica, Taiwan; National Taiwan University, Taiwan.
- Piero BaglioniPiero BaglioniPiero Baglioni is an Italian chemist and University professor at the University of Florence. Baglioni produced several innovations in the field of both inorganic and organic colloids. Baglioni is the author of more than 250 publications on books and largely diffused international journals...
, Rodorico Giorgi, Department of Chemistry, University of FlorenceUniversity of FlorenceThe University of Florence is a higher study institute in Florence, central Italy. One of the largest and oldest universities in the country, it consists of 12 faculties...
, Italy
Related projects
- World Heritage Memory Net (WHMNet) Launched on April 29, 2011, WHMnet is a model global digital library of cultural, historical, and heritage collections related to the current 911 World Heritage Sites of 151 countries inscribed by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee.
- National Tsing Hua University Memory Net Launched on April 23, 2011, NTHU Memory Net was developed jointly by NTHU and Global Connection and Collaboration to create an online multimedia and multilingual knowledge base celebrating Tsing Hua’s Centennial Anniversary. NTHU Memory Net is based on the same conceptual framework and uses the i-M-C-S system which was developed for GMNet, and enhanced for WHMNet.
Awards
- American Library Association, “LITA names winner of 2006 Kilgour Award”, April 18, 2006, Accessed February 20, 2009.
- http://www.ala.org/ala/newspresscenter/news/pressreleases2008/march2008/beta08.cfmChing-chih Chen receives 2008 Beta Phi MuBeta Phi MuBeta Phi Mu is the international honor society for library & information science and information technology. Founded by a group of librarians and library educators, the society's express purpose is to recognize and encourage "superior academic achievement" among library and information studies...
Award], March 18, 2008, Accessed May 19, 2011.