Museum and library directors, school deans, curators, registrars, archive managers, and others will converge in Denver on June 24 and 25 to learn about the wonderful world of digital content. Participants from all over the country will attend presentations on creating and preserving digital content, planning digital projects, increasing access to collections, and protecting digital investments.

Nothing could epitomize the conference theme, Collaboration in the Digital Age, better than the partnership among the city’s three major cultural institutions -- the Denver Public Library, Colorado Historical Society, and Denver Art Museum – that are all working closely with IMLS and Heritage Preservation to host forum events.

I am particularly pleased that China will be represented at the conference. International participants Fei Xiao, an associate research fellow from the National Museum of China, and Pinhong Su, a research librarian from the National Library of China, will participate in this cultural exchange as a direct result of a visit I made last year to the People's Republic of China. As a member of the first U.S. delegation of federal cultural officials to China, I met with Sun Jiazheng, the Chinese Minister of Culture and signed an Implementing Accord for Cultural Exchange to encourage an "active and steady flow of cultural exchange programs between China and the United States." We are delighted to share what we know with our international colleagues.

I am also pleased that IMLS, the Kress Foundation, and Humanities Colorado were able to provide stipends for 61 forum participants. These people were chosen based on their outstanding leadership abilities and their institutions’ forays into digitization. We expect great things from this group and from all who attend the Denver forum.

Participants will bring their enthusiasm and networks to the conference and will take away valuable guidance from leaders in the field of digitization. They will also take home an extensive glossary of digital preservation terms and an updated guide to online resources. The glossary, the updated guide, and the entire proceedings will be available on the IMLS Web site at www.imls.gov/collections, which is fortunate because this free forum, the second of the Connecting to Collections initiative’s National Tour, "sold out" quickly.

Digitization is one of the keys to collections care, and IMLS has invested substantial resources in developing our digital future. I hope you will explore the Digital Collections and Content Web site that contains descriptions of digital resources developed by IMLS grantees at http://imlsdcc.grainger.uiuc.edu.

We hope and expect that this Web site, developed by the University of Illinois Library, the Graduate School of Library and Information Science (Center for Informatics Research in Science and Scholarship), and IMLS, will continue to be enriched with worthy IMLS- supported digitization projects.

- Anne-Imelda M. Radice, Ph.D., Director, IMLS

“Digital Libraries and the Global Economy: National and International Perspectives on the Knowledge Universe,” Joyce Ray (session chair), Associate Deputy Director for Library Services, Joint Conference on Digital Libraries, Pittsburgh, PA, June 17-19.

“Education for Digital Stewardship: Librarians, Archivists or Curators,” Joyce Ray (workshop co-organizer), Associate Deputy Director for Library Services, Joint Conference on Digital Libraries, Pittsburgh, PA, June 20.

“Opening of the Stone Hill Conservation Center,” Anne Radice, Director, Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MA, June 20-21.

“Connecting to Collections National Tour,” Anne Radice, IMLS Director, Denver, CO, June 24-25.

“Taking Control: Guidance and Best Practices for Digitizing Collections,” Joyce Ray (session moderator), Associate Deputy Director for Library Services, IMLS Forum on Collaboration in the Digital Age, Denver, CO, June 24-25.

“Connections Lab,” Christine Henry, Senior Program Officer, Connecting to Collections Tour “Collaborations in the Digital Age,” Denver, Co, June 24-25.

“American Library Association Annual Meeting,” Anne Radice, IMLS Director, Anaheim, CA, June 26-30.

“We the People Picturing America,” (panel program), Mary L. Chute, Deputy Director for Libraries, American Library Association 2008 Annual Conference, Anaheim, CA, June 28.

State Programs Site Visit to North Dakota, Robin Cabot, Senior Program Officer, Bismarck, ND, July 14-18.

“IMLS Native American/Native Hawaiian Museum Services Grant Program and Other IMLS Initiatives,” Sandra Narva, Senior Program Officer, 2008 National Institutes for Tribal Archives, Libraries, and Museums -- Caring for American Indian Objects, July 15.

“Visitor Studies Association Annual Conference: Theory, Practice & Conversations,” Mary Estelle Kennelly, Associate Deputy Director for Museum Services, and Christopher J. Reich, Senior Program Officer, Houston, TX, July 16-19.

State Programs Site Visit to Georgia, Laurie Brooks, Associate Deputy Director, Savannah-Atlanta, GA, July 21-23.

“West African Museums Programme,” Schroeder Cherry, Counselor to the Director, Dakar, Senegal, July 21-27.