(This is the text for a podcast that is presently not available. This will be updated as soon as possible.)
Welcome back for my final podcast for IRLS 571, this is Verlene Schafer and today I am going to review some digitization projects. Digitization has been growing as a vital way to access archival materials without compromising their condition. But as more and more information sources are born digital, digitization becomes less of a optional method and more of a necessity for libraries to maintain their collection and meet user demands.
The Technical Advisory Service for Images (TASI) website offers a wealth of valuable information whether you are beginning a digitization project or working on an existing one. The site outlines four basic areas to consider which I will use to review some sites. They are managing, creating, delivering, and using a digitization project.
Managing –
It may seem that managing would come after the creation of a project but it is important that you know what you are getting into before you start a project. You need to know your limitations such as budget, time constraints, copyright issues, metadata, and once all these are considered, organizing resources for longevity, and overseeing the day to day project management. TASI notes that “each main area has its own set of key activities. While many of these tasks will follow each other in a linear fashion, they are seldom distinct and may overlap considerably.” Management should be considered in the development of the project and then continued while implementing the other areas of digitization.
The Online Archive of California (OAC) has been available now for nearly 15 years. It has grown by forming partnerships with other libraries and organizations such as the California Digital Library. This organization “brings together historical materials from a variety of California institutions, including museums, historical societies, and archives and provides over 120,000 images; 50,000 pages of documents, letters, and oral histories.
The University of Pittsburgh has a Digital Research Library (DRL) which from the beginning focused on creating text-based collections though they have now added photographs, map images and audio-visual materials. That growth requires foresight and an ability to adapt as the media changes and develops. Unfortunately, this collection requires a user/student account to access the contents, which is something I will address in a moment.
Last, there is the Collaborative Digitization Program (CDP) which began in the fall of 1998. Once again it requires good management to have a project continue for nearly a decade and the site notes that the key to the success of the CDP is collaboration.
Creating –
Creating a digital collection is more than just the scanning and loading of images and documents, though this step does require some attention to detail and quality. The Cornell tutorial site Moving Theory into Practice: Digital Imaging for Libraries and Archives, based on a book by the same name, emphasizes the need for quality control as “an integral component of a digital imaging initiative to ensure that quality expectations have been met.”
The other aspect of creating is the metadata used to describe the items. Metadata supports navigation and file management, so it is vital that this information be well organized. The OAC provides a large number of photographs but when focusing a search to the date or publisher or the list of photos, the searches often don’t sort the information properly. This happened when a photo had a number in the title. It would sort that number in with the dates, even though at times the photo provided a date that would place it elsewhere in the list. Problems like these make it hard for users to find the resources they are seeking and also can complicate management of the collections.
Delivering-
Once the collection has been created it is important that the database be made available to users. Points to consider are the size and quality of images. Not all users have the same access points and so items need to be formatted to the various needs. The Cornell Tutorial suggests “if resources allow, the best approach is to offer multiple versions of images, taking advantage of greater capacity where it exists, but also supporting low bandwidth connections with lower quality images.” The OAC search offers a thumbnail view of images which guides users to find what they are looking for. This is a great way to allow user to browse a collection. The CDP has a great collection of Colorado Historical Newspapers but it loads large images and can be time consuming to navigate, but the images are quality, and a thumbnail view of a newspaper would hardly be informative about the content for the user. Collection developers need to consider their collection as well as the users when developing the presentation and delivery.
Using - Technical Advisory Service for Images
There are several things to consider for user access to digitized materials. TASI advises that “a search mechanism is planned and implemented, to make best use of the available Metadata and to fit within the delivery mechanism. User access and digital rights management must be considered.” Plans need to include who is going to be able to access the data. For the CDP and OAC anyone can view the materials, but the University of Pittsburgh requires a user account to access their digital library. The CDP allows users to download PDF files of their newspaper archive but photographs are subject to copyright restrictions which vary depending on what collection they belong to. Some state that use of digital images found on a website is permitted for private or personal use only, while others may not be reproduced in any way without permission. These policies must be made clear to protect the collection’s integrity and to protect the user from breaking the law.
While the scope of creating a digital collection can seem overwhelming using tutorials like the one provided by Cornell, and reviewing other collections, can help to guide your own collection development. The information needed is available and with careful planning and management organization, digitization can give users valuable information that otherwise they would not have access to.
This is Verlene Schafer for IRLS 571 wishing you a happy holiday season. Thanks for listening.
December 15, 2007
December 4, 2007
Social Software Podcast
(This is the text for a podcast that is presently not available. This will be updated as soon as possible.)
Welcome to podcast #5, this is Verlene Schafer for IRLS 571 and today I will be discussing more types of Social Software and how they are being used in libraries today. I covered podcasting, bookmarking and wikis in previous blog entries and today I’ll be talking about blogging, sites like Facebook and MySpace, and Twitter. For those who aren’t familiar with this topic, then first I think it is important to define social software. In his article Social Software in the Library, K. Matthew Dames defines social software as “an umbrella term that applies to any tool that allows two or more persons to collaborate while each person is in a different location.” He adds that “the ultimate goal of social software is to build a community of practice or knowledge network in which participants constantly give and receive valuable information.”
Many libraries use types of social networking tools but they are often so commonplace anymore that librarians may not include them in the list of tools that are making waves amongst librarians today. Email, while not as immediately social as other applications, is ordinary by today’s standards of technology. Most library websites now feature an “Ask a Librarian” IM option as a way to answer ready-reference questions for users that is now considered commonplace. IM-ing is developing new multimedia applications too. Soon we will be instant videoing as we now instant message and instant image each other.
Another tool that is commonplace is blogging, although blogs are becoming more interactive methods of communication than the online journals they have been in the past. In the past, the majority of blogs were published in text only. Several blogs now feature an IM window also. There are even more changes as users add audio and video elements, bringing a multimedia trend to blogging. Librariesinteract.info, an Australian library blog site provides a short list of collaborative or group blogs which is also a new trend. This would be great for libraries since no single person would bear the responsibility of adding info and there would be many different opinions voiced in one blog, including users. This is much like a wiki, which is another collaborative tool that allows for group participation that I covered in an earlier blog entry.
The social networking tools that seems to be creating the biggest buzz, are sites like Facebook and MySpace. These types of sites have gotten some bad press because teens are posting inappropriate content. In her online blog, Information Wants To Be Free, Meredith Farkas touches on this topic. She states that librarians “can play a valuable role in educating young people about online privacy and the possible negative effects of putting too much of yourself online. If you want to prevent all the problems of MySpace and Facebook, the key is educating the parents,” which is another way librarians can have a positive influence on users.
Many of the major librarian blogs have covered this aspect of social networking and library profiles on MySpace and Facebook. The biggest problem seems to be the libraries that create profiles with no content. It needs to benefit the library users. Farkas notes that “some of the libraries in MySpace and Facebook have put a profile up, but they have not tried to make it useful to their patrons at all. Just putting up a profile does not make the library seem cool, nor does it make the library more visible.” The Librarian in Black feels that library profiles on these sites are improving as more users are responding positively to library profiles.
Farkas sums up this concern well as she states, “there is a big difference between ‘being where our patrons are’ and ‘being USEFUL to our patrons where they are.’” Her article contains many useful links with more valuable information on this topic. On the Library Revolution blog site an entry discusses using blog entries for FAQ’s adding “with the proliferation of library blogs, [the author is] always surprised to see how few libraries blog their reference questions… especially the common ones.”
One last application that occurred to me recently is a use for Twitter. Twitter asks the question, “What are you doing?” and allows you to send a small update (limited to just 140 characters) to your followers. For areas and people that don’t have easy access to libraries and other information centers, there is usually some type of mobile library available. Imagine getting bookmobile location updates sent to you as it travels its route. Or a library could set up book wait-lists with twitter so that when an item you have on reserve comes in, it lets you know. More info on Twitter, and how it is used is available on Caroline Middlebrook’s blog or on the Twitter home page.
The possibilities are limited only by lack of imagination. Anything’s possible.
Welcome to podcast #5, this is Verlene Schafer for IRLS 571 and today I will be discussing more types of Social Software and how they are being used in libraries today. I covered podcasting, bookmarking and wikis in previous blog entries and today I’ll be talking about blogging, sites like Facebook and MySpace, and Twitter. For those who aren’t familiar with this topic, then first I think it is important to define social software. In his article Social Software in the Library, K. Matthew Dames defines social software as “an umbrella term that applies to any tool that allows two or more persons to collaborate while each person is in a different location.” He adds that “the ultimate goal of social software is to build a community of practice or knowledge network in which participants constantly give and receive valuable information.”
Many libraries use types of social networking tools but they are often so commonplace anymore that librarians may not include them in the list of tools that are making waves amongst librarians today. Email, while not as immediately social as other applications, is ordinary by today’s standards of technology. Most library websites now feature an “Ask a Librarian” IM option as a way to answer ready-reference questions for users that is now considered commonplace. IM-ing is developing new multimedia applications too. Soon we will be instant videoing as we now instant message and instant image each other.
Another tool that is commonplace is blogging, although blogs are becoming more interactive methods of communication than the online journals they have been in the past. In the past, the majority of blogs were published in text only. Several blogs now feature an IM window also. There are even more changes as users add audio and video elements, bringing a multimedia trend to blogging. Librariesinteract.info, an Australian library blog site provides a short list of collaborative or group blogs which is also a new trend. This would be great for libraries since no single person would bear the responsibility of adding info and there would be many different opinions voiced in one blog, including users. This is much like a wiki, which is another collaborative tool that allows for group participation that I covered in an earlier blog entry.
The social networking tools that seems to be creating the biggest buzz, are sites like Facebook and MySpace. These types of sites have gotten some bad press because teens are posting inappropriate content. In her online blog, Information Wants To Be Free, Meredith Farkas touches on this topic. She states that librarians “can play a valuable role in educating young people about online privacy and the possible negative effects of putting too much of yourself online. If you want to prevent all the problems of MySpace and Facebook, the key is educating the parents,” which is another way librarians can have a positive influence on users.
Many of the major librarian blogs have covered this aspect of social networking and library profiles on MySpace and Facebook. The biggest problem seems to be the libraries that create profiles with no content. It needs to benefit the library users. Farkas notes that “some of the libraries in MySpace and Facebook have put a profile up, but they have not tried to make it useful to their patrons at all. Just putting up a profile does not make the library seem cool, nor does it make the library more visible.” The Librarian in Black feels that library profiles on these sites are improving as more users are responding positively to library profiles.
Farkas sums up this concern well as she states, “there is a big difference between ‘being where our patrons are’ and ‘being USEFUL to our patrons where they are.’” Her article contains many useful links with more valuable information on this topic. On the Library Revolution blog site an entry discusses using blog entries for FAQ’s adding “with the proliferation of library blogs, [the author is] always surprised to see how few libraries blog their reference questions… especially the common ones.”
One last application that occurred to me recently is a use for Twitter. Twitter asks the question, “What are you doing?” and allows you to send a small update (limited to just 140 characters) to your followers. For areas and people that don’t have easy access to libraries and other information centers, there is usually some type of mobile library available. Imagine getting bookmobile location updates sent to you as it travels its route. Or a library could set up book wait-lists with twitter so that when an item you have on reserve comes in, it lets you know. More info on Twitter, and how it is used is available on Caroline Middlebrook’s blog or on the Twitter home page.
The possibilities are limited only by lack of imagination. Anything’s possible.
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