Hotel reservations - make them now!

If you are coming to meta|morphosis 08 and have not yet made your hotel reservation the time is NOW to do so. The conference hotel is the Lexington Downtown Hotel and Conference Center (formerly the Radisson Plaza). The hotel is great and is very reasonably priced at $105.00 per night (add $25.00 for club level - free drinks in the evening!).

The phone number to call is 859-231-9000 and mention the UK meta morphosis institute.

We will have a welcome reception and registration event on Tuesday September 23rd at 6:00. More details on that later. For now - make your reservation!

Great program this year at meta|morphosis

We have some great speakers lined up this year for meta|morphosis 08. The keynote will be presented by Al Cross, the director of the Institute for Rural Journalism. He will speak about the importance of preserving small town newspapers.

Errol Somay from the Library of Virginia will be speaking about issues related to outsourcing: writing rfp's, pitfalls to avoid, vendor relations, etc. Errol is a great speaker and I think everyone will find his presentation informative.

This year we are also fortunate to have Derek Jenkins from IImage Retrieval, Inc. Derek has a background in IT and is an expert in scanner technology. Derek will be offering a session on what to look for in a scanner and how to objectively evaluate scanner performance.

New this year are the hands-on sessions we are offering on day 2. Participants will be breaking into smallish groups and will cycle through sessions on film scanning, image evaluation, and digging into metadata.

This all will add up to an even better experience for participants.

ch-ch-ch-changes

I'm looking forward to this year's meta | morphosis, not just because of the wonderful people and new friends we always make (that's always nice) but because the program has been expanded to include some much needed (and much requested) hands-on exercises. I'm especially looking forward to the metadata exercise - Analyzing your metadata problems. We all have 'em - in vaying degrees - and I always learn something new when Kathryn Lybarger is steering the boat, which she will be doing for this particular hands-on section.

For those unfamiliar with Kathryn, she's an extremely good teacher - patient and able to explain even the most complex of gobbeldy-gook into something that's understandable. A quiet, somewhat unassuming woman, her technological prowess will astound and amaze. If this was a circus, she'd be the headlining act!

meta|morphosis 08

Space is filling up for meta|morphosis: the kentucky film-to-digital institute. Major vendors for equipment and outsourcing services have been confirmed to participate. If you are interested in digitizing content you have on microfilm, this is an excellent opportunity to get a real head start. Small group sessions on analyzing metadata at the batch level, evaluating microfilm for scanning, and image analysis will offer participants real world practical knowledge that can be applied to in-house or outsourced projects.
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Converting microfilm assets to digital content?
Are you interested in converting newspaper holdings?
Are you interested in seeking funding to participate in conversion projects?
Do you anticipate outsourcing a film to digital project?

Register now for “meta|morphosis: the university of kentucky film-to-digital institute” which is scheduled for September 24th-25th, 2008 in Lexington Kentucky.
The program will help you learn to:

• determine when digitizing from microfilm is the best solution for you
• evaluate microfilm and determine if it is appropriate for digitization
• strategically select content
• decide whether to do the project in-house or to outsource it
• make good images
• write an RFP
• select a vendor
• explore partnerships to your advantage
• seek appropriate funding
• get started in film-to-digital conversion
• move your program forward
• improve your grant applications

Registration is now open at http://www.regonline.com/metamorphosis08 Space is limited in order to provide an excellent learning opportunity for participants. Both prior institutes sold out early so do not delay in registering.
Registration is $260.00 ($325.00 after September 10 if there are any spaces still available) and includes the opening reception, and breakfast and lunch on both days of the institute. Reduced rates are available at the conference hotel until August 26th.
Feedback on the previous institutes has been excellent. It may be noted that five of the six new National Digital Newspaper Program awardees are prior meta|morphosis participants.