Date: Sun, 14 Jul 2002 19:27:37 -0400 From: John Unsworth Subject: NINCH report NINCH, the Networked Initiative for National Cultural Heritage, is an affiliated organization of the ACH: we exchange membership with them, and (according to the Treasurer's report) we have not yet paid our $500 membership fee for this year ($500 being the lowest level of membership). I have been a member of the NINCH executive board for the past couple of years, and I have also been involved in several NINCH projects, including: The International Database of Digital Humanities Projects http://www.ninch.org:16080/programs/data/ The Guide to Good Practice in the Digital Representation and Management of Cultural Heritage Materials http://www.ninch.org:16080/programs/practice/ Best Achievements: Community Report http://www.ninch.org:16080/programs/report/ Building Blocks http://www.ninch.org:16080/bb/project/project.html Computer Science and the Humanities http://www.ninch.org:16080/programs/science/roundtable.html But NINCH is perhaps best known for the mailing list (NINCH-ANNOUNCE) which its Director, David Green, uses to circulate news of interest to the digital cultural heritage community, and for the Intellectual Property workshops that NINCH has hosted at a number of universities and other venues during the past couple of years. All of these are initiatives that should be of interest to ACH as an organization, and to its members, individually. Moreover, NINCH represents a rare professional crossroads, bringing together at its members' meetings representatives of libraries and museums, publishers, scholars and teachers, and others concerned with networked cultural heritage. I'll have more to say about possible collaboration between NINCH and ACH in my report on the proposed exploratory committee (item 6.6 on the agenda), but here I will just say that at present, NINCH is on the ropes financially, and seriously in danger of ceasing to exist. If ACH could see its way clear to increasing its level of membership in NINCH, say from $500 to $1000, the gesture would have more than symbolic importance. ITEM FOR VOTE: Resolved that the ACH should contribute $1000 to NINCH, as a membership fee, in the interest of helping to ensure the future survival of NINCH as an organization.