Accessing digital images

Last Friday I was part of a panel at the Pioneer (public) Library System meeting. The purpose was to get the libraries interested/excited about providing digital content to their patrons.

Blanche Warner of the Naples Public Library told about a community funded project that digitized a local person’s love letters, sent home during the Civil War.  The project was outsourced. The search capability is good and the letters are a lot of fun to read. She also showed a clip of the local news doing a piece on the collection, great PR.

I talked about the things I wrote about in my last blog entry.

April Younglove and Debbie Emerson of the Rochester Regional Library Council (RRLC) talked about the FLAG Heritage project of putting local images on CONTENTdm. FLAG is in the process of merging with a similar New York State project, New York Heritage. They explained how the libraries could get involved and how much support they are able to give. (A lot)

It seemed like quite a few librarians were interested in pursuing some of these options. I hope they are able to follow through.

Thinking on updating

I am working on brainstorming two things at once.

1. What to included when updating the current archives webpage to look more like the library webpage.
2. Content for a presentation I’ll be doing next week of my use of digital images.

Luckily, both things seem to require much the same content.

For the presentation I have:

• Providing research materials for faculty
• Working with a class building a wiki with information on campus buildings
• Cataloged images in the OPAC, with links to images in the holdings field
• PR through the library blog
• Images added to the RRLC CONTENTdm project, FLAG Heritage

Ideas for the near future:

• Using an online site like dipity.com to build timelines, campus buildings, college presidents, any other ideas?
• Setting up Twitter and Facebook accounts to make more people aware of our collections. See: National Archives (@archivesnews) on Twitter
• Setting up a Flickr account to post images and get feed back on who, when, what and where on photos that we are clueless, or almost clueless about. Similar to the Library of Congress project. Have any of you tried this? How did it go?

All suggestions gratefully accepted.

Mind map presentation

I thought the presentation using the mind map last Friday went rather well.  It made it easy for me to keep track of where I was going, and also let the audience know.  I just opened each node as I talked about it, then closed it again, so the map didn’t become confusing. I think I preferred it over PowerPoint, because I have a tendency to forget which slide is coming up next with PowerPoint, and with MM I always knew where I was and where I was headed.

It was a very informal presentation, and I didn’t get any feedback on using the MM, only the presentation.  I’m hoping it worked for my fellow archivists as well as it worked for me.

Of course there always has to be a problem.  When I hooked up to their projector the fonts on my screen went tiny.  On the MM I just zoomed in and it was find. When I got to demonstrating EAD with Notetab, however, I couldn’t find any zoom function.  I could barely read it on my laptop screen, let alone the projection.  I could have probably reset the screen resolution, but didn’t think of it at the time.  It really doesn’t help much when you get the solution while driving home.

Using mind mapping for a presentation

I have been using mind mapping for organizing my work flow in the archives.  I recently agreed to do an informal presentation for RRLC’s College Archivists Roundtable so I decided to try it out as a presentation tool, rather than Powerpoint.

You can download free software for mind mapping at freemind.sourceforge.net if you want to try it out.

The presentation is on EAD so I begin with a center circle with EAD then add nodes for Who, Why, What, How and Resources.

I attach nodes to each of these, e.g. How has nodes for EAD Cookbook and Archivist’s Toolkit.

Each of them have nodes, e.g. EAD Cookbook has three; Download, starting a finding aid, troubleshooting.

Then each of those has nodes.  It ends up looking like an illustration of evolution.

A couple of advantages are

• You don’t have to have all the branches open at once. You click on a node to expand it to the next level.  This keeps it from being visually intimidating when you start out.
• You can add links to external webpages  or programs and documents on your computer to each node.

The presentation is on Dec 4th.  I’ll report back to you.

 

Who
Maintained by the SAA EAD Roundtable
Cookbook/Notebook <../../../../Program Files/NoteTab Light/NoteTab.exe>
Detailed download and set up information in the Cookbook
installing EAD DTD
Customizing with your institutions information. Address etc.
Starting a Finding Aid
File \ New
In sidebar under files \ New EAD
Fill in template
Top Level Metadata
Controlled Access
Template
Add term
Administrative Information
I didn’t use much here but you might
Detailed description <dsc>
File or series
Container types down 6 levels
Troubleshooting
Any tag started must be closed
<ead> </ead>
<scopecontent> </scopecontent>
<head> </head>
Nesting
<dsc><c01><did><unittitle></unittitle></did></c01></dsc>
Can’t use &
Search/replace & -> and
Why
“standardization of collection information in finding aids within and across repositories.”
EAD (Encoded Archival Description
Who
Maintained by the SAA EAD Roundtable
Why
“standardization of collection information in finding aids within and across repositories.”
What
“a non-proprietary de facto  standard for the encoding of finding aids for use in a networked (online) environment”
FORMALLY DEFINED mark up language
HTML; XML
DTD (Document Type Definition)
XML can use differnet DTD for different purposes
EXAMPLES
specifies how an EAD document will appear
Resources
EAD Help Pages <http:/www.archivists.org/saagroups/ead/index.html>
OAC Best Practice Guidelines for Encoded Archival Description <http:/www.cdlib.org/inside/diglib/guidelines/bpgead/bpgead_1-2.html>
EAD Tag Library <http:/www.loc.gov/ead/tglib/index.html>
EAD Cookbook <http:/www.archivists.org/saagroups/ead/ead2002cookbook.html>
Dowload Cookbook PDF <EAD2002cookbook.pdf>
Alone in the Archives (start 5/17/2006) <http:/lcb48.wordpress.com/2006/05>
How
Cookbook/Notebook <../../../../Program Files/NoteTab Light/NoteTab.exe>
Detailed download and set up information in the Cookbook
installing EAD DTD
Customizing with your institutions information. Address etc.
Starting a Finding Aid
File \ New
In sidebar under files \ New EAD
Fill in template
Top Level Metadata
Controlled Access
Template
Add term
Administrative Information
I didn’t use much here but you might
Detailed description <dsc>
File or series
Container types down 6 levels
Troubleshooting
Any tag started must be closed
<ead> </ead>
<scopecontent> </scopecontent>
<head> </head>
Nesting
<dsc><c01><did><unittitle></unittitle></did></c01></dsc>
Can’t use &
Search/replace & -> and
Archivists Toolkit <../../../../Program Files/Archivists’ Toolkit 1.5/Archivists’ Toolkit 1.5.exe>
Highlight Resource
Click on reports icon
Select Report “Finding Aid”
Select output
PDF
HTML
Archivists Toolkit <../../../../Program Files/Archivists’ Toolkit 1.5/Archivists’ Toolkit 1.5.exe>
Highlight Resource
Click on reports icon
Select Report “Finding Aid”
Select output
PDF
HTML
What
“a non-proprietary de facto  standard for the encoding of finding aids for use in a networked (online) environment”
FORMALLY DEFINED mark up language
HTML; XML
DTD (Document Type Definition)
XML can use differnet DTD for different purposes
EXAMPLES
specifies how an EAD document will appear
Resources
EAD Help Pages <http:/www.archivists.org/saagroups/ead/index.html>
OAC Best Practice Guidelines for Encoded Archival Description <http:/www.cdlib.org/inside/diglib/guidelines/bpgead/bpgead_1-2.html>
EAD Tag Library <http:/www.loc.gov/ead/tglib/index.html>
EAD Cookbook <http:/www.archivists.org/saagroups/ead/ead2002cookbook.html>
Dowload Cookbook PDF <EAD2002cookbook.pdf>
Alone in the Archives (start 5/17/2006) <http:/lcb48.wordpress.com/2006/05>

Sharing images

I learned a few months ago that Alumni House is scanning all of the yearbooks.  I only found out when they needed to borrow one they were missing.  Now Jared, Hobart Alumni Dir, is getting us together to see how we can support each other in these scanning projects.  How great is that?

Also, last week Sara and I went to a OCLC/RRLC workshop on CONTENTdm.  I think the meeting this morning will give us a opportunity to suggest the group lobby for buying CONTENTdm because Alumni House, Communications and the Library can all use it.  We’ll see what happens.

Special Collections

Every since we had the Archives evaluated with an RRLC grant, I’ve become obsessed with the books in our special collections.  I allow myself a little time each day to go mining for another possibly valuable book.

Since I started here in 2003 all my time has been spend figuring out the archives.  I never had the time to look at the books.  Now I’m having such fun!

Are any of you responsible for special collection in addition to the archives?

Archives Survey

We were part of the RRLC Conservation/Preservation Project and last week we had a visit from John F. Dean, former director of the Department of Preservation at Cornell.  He spent about four hours with me, asking and answering questions, looking at the collections and environment and making suggestions.  He was so helpful, I felt like I got a great class in archives in a few hours.

That was Thursday and he had a report to us on Monday!  He praised the colleges’ support of the archives, the enthusiasm of our student workers, and the value of some of our rare books.  He also had recommendations we will be able to use to convince the administration of our need for equipment to log the temperature and relative humidity, a HEPA filter vacuum cleaner, and water alarms.

We also need to shelve the rare books by size and he gave suggestions.  He got me interested in learning more about rare book librarianship, so I’ve started scoping out resources.

I’m also rethinking the amount of time and materials we are putting into some collections that have been sitting here forever.  More thoughts on that soon.

Flickr

I am participating in an RRLC online continuing education course called “RRLC Learning 2.0″.  The course covers blogs, LibraryThing, and instant messaging, all of which I already use regularly.  But it also covers Flickr and online word processors, which I have no experience with.

So with the excuse of it being continuing ed I finally got in there and learned about Flickr.  I particularly liked the discussion of how it would be useful in a library setting.  It is very easy to use!

Now all I have to do is remember to bring a camera to work and I’ll be able to show you what our current archives looks like, and keep you up to date and the construction progress.  The studs for the walls of the workroom are up!

2nd Life

I was lucky enough to go to a workshop on Second Life done by Jill Hurst-Wahl at the Rochester  Regional Library Council  in December.  Jill is a great trainer!

I had tried 2nd Life at home earlier in the year from home.  It turned out my computer didn’t have enough memory.  This intrigues me and I wanted another shot.

After the workshop I spent some time at work (better equipment) trying again.  I got in and was able to do everything on Orientation Island.  I changed my appearance, learned to walk and fly, learned to communicate.  I was having a great time and looking forward to seeing Information Island, but my display was constantly flashing colors and patterns over what I was doing.  My final decision was that my Video card wasn’t up to the task.  Bummer!  I guess I have to wait until the “average computer” catches up to the 2nd life requirements before I can have a 2nd life.

It does seem like an interesting learning tool.

So many workshops…so little time.

After just getting all charged up on AT yesterday, I went to an RRLC workshop today on Environmental Concerns & the Care of Graphic Materials.  So I’m all charged up about that.  Now I’m taking two weeks vacation, but the first thing I do when I get back is go to a workshop on Scrapbook preservation.  I get excited about all these things, it makes setting priorities difficulty.  At least I’m never bored.

The workshop today was done by Michele Hamill and Tatyana Petukhove, both of Cornell.  Michele covered photographic materials, Tatyana artistic works on paper.  I have absolutely no art background so I picked up a lot from Tatyana, but a lot went over my head.  She did leave me feeling like I wish I were younger, I would love to get a degree in paper conservation.

Michele’s presentation was right on point for me.  I had been to other such workshops, but it was when I was just starting.  Now that I’m more grounded in what I am doing, I feel I added a great deal to my knowledge.

Here are the tidbits I noted, so I won’t forget while I’m on vacation:

• Our stereographs are spread out throughout the photo collection.  I think we should bring them together as a collection, so they can be housed in the correct size plastic slides and acid free container.
• We should think about digitizing our slides, when we finish the photo collection, because the equipment for viewing them is disappearing.
• Photo paper we buy for printing our digitized images should always be the same brand as the printer.
• Sara and I should work together on a proposal for creating an environmentally controlled space to house both the archives and the fine art collection.

Shopping list

• We should buy those cool little lighted magnifiers for looking at artifacts, and a couple of those little spatulas for turning pages.
• Determine what we need to buy for proper housing of both the art collection and oversized archives items.
• A bigger paper cutter to handle to big tagboard sheets we use for phase box making.
• Keep pushing for more shelf space.

Stray thoughts:  A good student worker job for next year would be to replace the labels on the document boxes.  Some are falling off, others have been scratched out and corrected with pencil as we went along.  I’m thinking it might be a good idea to put numbers on the boxes with a sharpie, to facilitate reshelving (in the right place.)

That’s it for a couple of weeks, I’m off birdwatching!