Thursday, May 24
Opening Keynote Address
The Digital Preservation Network
James Hilton (VP and CIO, University of Virginia)
Session 1A (Amphitheater 204): “Collaborative Collection Spotlight”
The Sissy Farenthold Papers Digitization Project: Creating an Online Exhibit through Cross-Departmental Collaboration
Gina Bastone, University of Texas at Austin
Abstract
Frances T. “Sissy” Farenthold is a well-known, important figure in Texas politics and the national women’s movement. She also spent much of the last four decades working on global human rights issues. The Bernard and Audre Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice partnered with the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History to identify, organize, and digitize Farenthold’s papers relating to human rights. The Rapoport Center has created an online exhibit focusing on Farenthold’s human rights work, placing it in the context of her life as a lawyer, legislator, activist, and important mentor to numerous women. It is aimed at human rights and women’s rights researchers and historians, as well as a more general audience that is interested in Farenthold and the issues she is so passionate about.
The Rapoport Center has completed a website featuring a selection of scanned documents from Farenthold’s papers, as well as video interviews with Farenthold and Genevieve Vaughan, her collaborator on a number of projects. The scanned documents and interviews focus on Farenthold’s work with the anti-nuclear peace movement of the 1980s, particularly her efforts with women’s groups for nuclear disarmament and for women’s human rights. The website includes contextual and historical background information about Farenthold, the organizations with which she worked, and the larger historical events of the time (such as significant peace movement protests and the Reagan-Gorbachev Summits). You can view the website here: http://www.utexas.edu/law/centers/humanrights/farenthold/
In order to bring this project to life, multiple departments across the University of Texas have played a role, making it a truly collaborative effort. The project initially started as a capstone project for a Master’s student in the School of Information. Faculty and staff from the School of Information and the Center Women and Gender Studies gave the student consultation and advisement. Support staff from the Rapoport Center, the Briscoe Center, and the School of Law had a hand in making the website, through help with back-end site design, photo and document scanning, and video editing. Several undergraduate interns worked on every step of the project, from an initial inventory of the papers to the final proofreading of the website copy.
Our presentation will focus on the history of our project and a short demo of the site. We will also share some lessons we learned from the process. Here are a few of those lessons:
• Know what you are capable of and what you cannot do
• Do not be afraid t ask for help
• Be sensitive to others’ workloads but also be assertive
• Be open to change – every draft and iteration can be improved
• When working in a non-profit setting (such as in archives and the human rights sector), utilize free resources as much as possible
Keywords
online exhibits; digitization
10 Weeks to Success: How to Quickly and Effectively Build a Collaborative Digital Collection
Christy Edina Allen, University of Texas at Arlington
Abstract
Creating a digital collection typically requires a lot of time and thoughtful planning. But what would happen if you only had 10 weeks to plan and build a digital collection from scratch? That was the dilemma faced by the University of Texas at Arlington when the Center for Greater Southwestern Studies, the Library, and the Department of Modern Languages collaborated on the digital collection “A Continent Divided: The U.S. – Mexico War.” This ambitious effort involved scanning and describing dozens of items, writing detailed essays and biographies, translating Spanish language materials, and designing/building a MySQL database and website to access the collection. All of this and more was accomplished in less than 3 months. Digital Projects Librarian, Christy Allen, will discuss the project and offer insights, guidance, and lessons learned, relevant to anyone who may be implementing a digital collection in a brief period of time.
Keywords
digital collections; project management; descriptive metadata; websites; databases
The Browning Letters Online
Darryl B. Stuhr, Baylor University
Abstract
The Baylor University Electronic Library Digitization Group partnered with the special collection Armstrong Browning Library in summer 2011 to digitize, and place online, 2,800 letters written to and from Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett. Wellesley College also joined the partnership and offered to share 573 of their digitized letters with Baylor to help develop the virtual collection of Browning Letters. Baylor was excited to partner with Wellesley because they own the original love letters of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett.
The presentation will share the Digitization Group’s experience and will cover the collaborative component of the project, in-house and outsourced digitization, project workflow including data migration between systems, batch loading metadata and objects into The Baylor Library digital collection access system CONTENTdm, and the handling of full-text transcripts to the digital objects.
The target audience is libraries interested in mounting digital letter collections and those interested in collaborative digital projects.
Keywords
digitization; metadata; CONTENTdm
Session 1B (Room 102):
Enhancing Educational Access to Art
Jessica Higgins, Unmil P. Karadkar, Karen Pavelka, Catherine Zinser, University of Texas at Austin
Abstract
On campus art museums bring value to the university community by serving as custodians of paintings, sculptures, prints, and drawings and by providing instructors with access to rare artifacts of cultural significance. While the museum staff is committed to helping faculty locate items of interest, they are hard pressed for time and do not always possess the domain-specific vocabulary used by instructors in diverse disciplines. The disconnect between artifacts that are organized by museum professionals but used by faculty in various disciplines affects the use of these artifacts. We aim to address this issue by enhancing a collection of prints and drawings at the Blanton Museum of Art with a rich, domain-specific description that meets the expectations of a multi-disciplinary faculty. The acclaimed collection of the Blanton museum includes over 13,000 artifacts and supports education in a variety of disciplines. The collection manager provides access to specific prints and drawings upon request from this closed collection. The metadata related to the prints can be accessed only through computers situated in the museum, further limiting access to it. Thus, instructors are unable to browse the collection at their convenience and rely heavily on the Blanton staff to provide suggestions for relevant works. This practice results in a small pool of items being viewed repeatedly, while other prints of interest go unnoticed.
Taking a used-centered design approach, we have created a prototype repository of richly described artifacts from this collection. The descriptive metadata is informed by results of faculty interviews in the areas of Art, Art History, French, and Architecture. The repository is created using an open source repository software, called CollectiveAccess, and the metadata uses the Getty Institute’s CDWA Lite schema. The resulting repository is thus based on open standards, improving the potential for its use by various demographics on campus, as well as, improving its visibility for remote users and repositories through interoperability protocols.
We are currently evaluating this prototype repository. In the first stage, we are evaluating our design with the help of the instructors who set the expectations for this repository. This evaluation will help us fine tune the interface features, repository architecture, as well as our use of the CDWA Lite schema.
Keywords
repository application; CDWA Lite; descriptive metadata; relational metadata
The Wiki Method: All the promised of Web 2.0 for minimal fuss
Joy Marie Perrin, Natalie Bueno, Texas Tech University
Abstract
Since 2009, we have been looking for a way to revamp Texas Tech University’s Digital collections. In December of 2010, we started discussing the idea of using a wiki for displaying the collections. Using Mediawiki (the same software that Wikipedia uses) and the Mediawiki Semantic Extension, we processed a few key digital collections into the wiki. We have started testing the wiki digital collections with Faculty in Spring 2012. The benefits of the method have been immediately apparent. We have more control over how our collections are displayed than we ever have. We have more options for collaboration since wiki’s are designed to be edited from the browser. This has allowed us to do experiments in crowdsourcing OCR correction, and playing with semantic web concepts in digital collections. In this presentation, we will review the work we’ve done at Texas Tech. We will discuss the many options for how to organize digital collections in Mediawiki, some interesting uses of the Semantic Extension, and describe some of the response we’ve gotten from faculty during our testing period.
Keywords
wiki; semantic web; digital collections
Session 2A (Amphitheater 204):
Texas Digital Library: Building a Connected Texas
Mark McFarland, Texas Digital Library
Abstract
The ability of scholars and institutions to provide access to research data, publications, and special collections of materials has become a necessity for all institutions of higher learning. This need provides a tremendous opportunity for libraries to provide leadership on their campuses, and the services and organization created by the Texas Digital Library consortium has become more relevant than ever.
The membership of the Texas Digital Library has recently adopted a strategic plan that sets goals and provides structure to the paths of member institutions as they work to build a presence for digital libraries on their campuses and build connections that reach well beyond the borders of Texas. In order to achieve this vision, the Strategic Plan lays out four ambitious initiatives aimed at:
1. growing scholarly content hosted by TDL;
2. marketing TDL services effectively to our member institutions;
3. developing collaborative special collections; and
4. mining the talents and skills of members to augment the talent and expertise of TDL staff.
In this presentation, we will discuss how TDL is working to execute on these initiatives, as well as provide updates on ongoing software development projects, collaborations with partners outside of Texas, and ongoing efforts to provide TDL members with the highest level of quality of service and organizational development.
TDL Technical Team and Infrastructure Update: A Focus on Member Support
Ryan Steans, Texas Digital Library
No abstract.
Session 2B (Room 102):
Stream it! Providing a Video Reserves Service at UT Austin
Laura Schwartz, Georgia Harper, University of Texas at Austin
Abstract
Introduction/background. For over a decade the UT Libraries has provided the Butler School of Music faculty and students with a well-regarded, heavily-used streaming audio reserves service. During these same 10 years, The Fine Arts Library has tried to create an analogous video service, but it has proved to be much more challenging. We have finally identified the hurdles and how we are going to jump them. These hurdles include copyright, setting up an infrastructure, and identifying equipment and staffing.
Need. Faculty affiliated with the College of Fine Arts are heavy video users. In 2009 the Audio Visual Library was integrated into the Fine Arts Library and the faculty booking service came along with it. This service processes over 2300 requests per year for 289 faculty. Some videos are shown to over 1000 students per semester. It makes little sense to have so many faculty members all competing for the same video to show in their classroom when it’s possible to make these videos available to anyone at any time. Furthermore, with services like Netflix Streaming, Amazon Instant Video, and iTunes Video, patrons expect libraries to provide a similar service. And finally, faculty come from institutions where streaming video is available, places like Northwestern University and the University of Tennessee. They are very disappointed when we can’t offer similar services.
Current Status. In 2009, the UT Libraries beta tested streaming video reserves. Faculty involved in the test wanted us to continue to offer these services and we do so, but only for a very select number of faculty.
Challenges
• Copyright/Fair Use. We must establish a reasonable fair use standard that faculty, staff and students understand and accept, so we can provide services in a way that meets our faculty’s needs while also respecting the interests of copyright owners. We expect that if we must decline a request, the reasons should be clear and alternative access should be easily and cheaply available to students through commercial services such as Netflix, Amazon and iTunes.
• Infrastructure. At this point in time, vendors are offering streaming files and services for which we do not have the proper infrastructure to support. The Libraries is, however, setting up a workflow and infrastructure that will allow us to acquire, catalog and serve streaming video files. Next, we will tackle the infrastructure for a streaming video reserves service.
• Funding for equipment and staff. Fortunately the UT Libraries has a workflow in place to digitize video. When the limited service we offer now is opened to more faculty, our equipment and staffing capacity will have to be evaluated.
Way forward/conclusion. The pressure is mounting. Other faculty wish to be included in the service we offer only a few right now. Ten years is long enough to “be in development.” I hope to say this year that this is a service we provide to all faculty at UT Austin.
Keywords
video reserves; streaming audio
Tools for Crowdsourcing Manuscript Transcription
Ben W. Brumfield
Abstract
What do you do with that diary after you’ve scanned it? One increasingly popular option is crowdsourcing — allowing members of the public to add tags, comments, or transcriptions to the scans. However, while crowdsourced transcription projects have enjoyed some success, the field of transcription tools is still young and the tools themselves are fairly immature.
This presentation will survey the field of crowdsourced manuscript transcription projects and the tools they employ, highlighting the issues that may inform the choice of a tool for an institution. It will then explore the capabilities and weaknesses of Scribe and FromThePage, two radically different tools for manuscript transcription.
Keywords
manuscript transcription; digitization; crowdsourcing; outreach; documentary editing
Session 3A (Amphitheater 204):
Suggestions for Effective Collaboration on Digital Projects
Hannah Tarver, Jeremy Moore, University of North Texas
Abstract
The UNT Libraries Digital Projects Unit regularly collaborates with other departments, campus entities, and external institutions. We currently have over two hundred partners of various kinds contributing to the more than 260,000 digital objects in our system. Our presentation will discuss procedures and techniques that can help to streamline collaborative projects, and outline some of the concerns that institutions may want to keep in mind when starting similar projects. We will focus on providing suggestions to help others have more successful collaborative digital projects including: considerations at the initial point of contact, managing the practical aspects of the process to make digitization run smoothly, and the benefits of collaborative projects for participants and the users that access their digital items.
Keywords
digitization; collaborative projects; digital objects; project management
Outreach and Collaboration: Strategies for Digital Repositories
Laura Waugh, University of North Texas
Abstract
The University of North Texas (UNT) launched the UNT Scholarly Works repository in October 2010. Since that time, UNT Scholarly Works has continued to grow as a tool for promoting access to the research, scholarship, and creative activities from the university’s community. This digital repository was built into an existing infrastructure and its increasing growth has relied heavily on successful faculty outreach and collaboration within the UNT community. This presentation traces the development of our digital repository and discusses strategies for reaching faculty, developing relationships within an organization and beyond, and collaboration to support digital repositories and promote open access.
Keywords
digital repositories; faculty outreach; collaboration; open access
Session 3B (Room 102):
A Digital Repository for the World of Physical Culture
Lesley Caldwell, Brent Sipes, University of Texas at Austin
Abstract
The H.J. Lutcher Stark Center is a burgeoning special collection library, archive, and museum that celebrates the world of physical culture and sports. The collection includes hundreds of thousands of cataloged — and mostly uncatalogued items — ranging from historical nutrition texts to decades old weightlifting equipment. Led by scholar-athletes Jan and Terry Todd, the Stark Center opened its doors in 2008. One of the largest donors to the Stark Center was Ottley Coulter who is recognized as the first historian of bodybuilding. A circus strongman, writer, and one of the founding fathers of weightlifting in the United States, Coulter was a hobbyist collector saving thousands of newspaper clippings, correspondence, and weightlifting publications. The Todds met Coulter in 1964, and eventually acquired his personal collection in 1975. Housing the Coulter collection and other rare materials, the Stark Center’s collection is the largest of its kind and the staff recognized the need to make their collection accessible to researchers unable to travel to their University of Texas location. The presentation will begin with the assessment process we went through when selecting our software solution. As a new institution with one dedicated librarian and no in-house technical staff, we had to consider our limited funding and staff size in our planning. Ultimately we chose to go with the open-source solution DSpace. Next the presentation will cover the steps necessary to create a digital repository, from testing and training to data transfer. With that we will share the issues we faced throughout the development cycle. For example, though Ottley Coulter was a collector, he was not a librarian. The items in his collection are briefly labeled if labeled at all. Hence, issues with controlled vocabulary stemmed from the fractured and chaotic nature of the Coulter clippings. Features of the presentation will include our transfer of 3,500 files from File Maker Pro into DSpace, the benefits and limits of optical character recognition (OCR) for archival documents, our rationale for and design of a one-page external submission form, and a tour of our DSpace collection. Our presentation will give insight into the struggles and successes of setting up a new library and establishing best practices for building an information repository in a start-up institution. The platform that DSpace provides for organizing rare materials and making them accessible to sport historians across the world is something Ottley Coulter could never have imagined when he started clipping newspaper stories one-hundred years ago.
Keywords
digital library
The Story of the Realia Collections at UT Austin: How Three-Dimensional Teaching Objects Can Intersect with Digital Libraries
Annette Buckley, University of Texas at Austin
Abstract
In the theme of collaborative digital projects between cross-campus university entities, I will present the story of The Realia Collections (TRC) at the University of Texas at Austin, spanning the following topics:
• Survey of how comparable Association of American Universities members promote their physical object collections online
• TRC’s purpose and creation process
• Potential for expansion and evolution
• Possible replication at other institutions
TRC was entirely conceived and built within one semester (Fall 2011) by a group of ambitious master’s candidates. Not only was the project an interdisciplinary effort between UT’s School of Information and Art History Department, but as evidenced by the over two dozen people on its Acknowledgements page, it exemplifies the enthusiasm of departments for contributing to new digital tools to aid in scholarship.
TRC is an online directory-type finding aid that lets individuals locate the realia (three-dimensional objects used for teaching or research) scattered throughout the dauntingly large UT Austin system. Individuals may then follow up with those collections’ administrators to conduct research. The website does not discriminate against housing institution; collections are in university departments, cultural centers, research labs, museums, etc. It also allows for group maintenance via both a chief administrator and individual collection managers, who may log in and update relevant metadata about their collections. Overall TRC serves a viable model for uniting physical objects through a digital environment, which not only promotes the respective collections and departments, but also helps differentiate the university and its holdings from comparable research institutions in the AAU.
Besides giving the back story of TRC, I will also highlight the ways that my group dealt with particular challenges we faced, e.g. determining how much metadata to include, choosing a controlled vocabulary for finding similar types of collections, and customizing the back-end of the website to offer long-term administrative usability.
Link to TRC: http://herbie.ischool.utexas.edu/realia/index.php
Session 4A (Amphitheater 204):
Student Scholarship: A Valuable Asset and Explaining Downloads
Patricia M. Shields, Nandhini Rangarajan, Texas State University
Abstract
This presentation draws on the experience of a group of Texas State student papers which have been downloaded over 370,000 times (400 papers) for average downloads of over 900. These extraordinary download rates are a product of department and library collaboration. Using these Master of Public Administration, capstone papers as a kind of best practice the presentation will examine 1) compelling ethical arguments for widespread distribution of well vetted student papers; 2) successful library/academic department collaboration; 3) factors that influence downloads (using regression analysis); 4) ways student papers are being used; and 5) suggestions for ways enhance inter-university collaboration, and use of student papers.
Keywords
student scholarship; graduate students; download
Session 4B (Room 102):
Streaming Texas – A case study of the Texas Archive of the Moving Image
Megan Peck, Texas Archive of the Moving Image
Abstract
In an online environment proliferated by video, but in which few organizations are independently streaming their own content, the Texas Archive of the Moving Image (TAMI) has rapidly developed as a leader in the field.
TAMI is an independent 501(c)3 organization dedicated to promoting the preservation of and access to Texas’ moving image heritage. The organization’s focus is to digitize and provide easy access to these materials via the web, communicating Texas history across the state, nation, and world. Since kick off of their main program, The Texas Film Round Up in 2008, the archive has digitized nearly 14,000 moving image items, of which over 1,500 have been described and uploaded for free public access in the Online Video Library.
Elizabeth Hansen, Director of Outreach and Education, and Megan Peck, Digital Librarian, will present a case study of TAMI’s approach to connecting with communities, both online and real world.
The discussion will address a number of considerations used to develop a holistic strategy for connecting with users. This strategy incorporates social media and other tools used to invite the public to the library, as well as measures to shape the library user’s experience, such as the building and curation of relevant collections, and the providing of a crowd sourcing tool to foster user participation and contribution.
The panel will report on successes achieved and challenges faced in its implementation and management of this strategy, and show off some selections from the collection.
Keywords
social media; curation; digital content management; crowdsourcing
nCDS – Showcase of Collaborative Digital Projects
Rob Walker, Southern Methodist University
Abstract
This presentation will highlight the collaborative projects of the Norwick Center for Digital Services (nCDS), a division within within Southern Methodist University’s Central University Libraries. nCDS has partnered with other institutions to create rich and varied digital collections (digital collections.smu.edu/all/cul). Partners include Southwestern University, the Dallas Museum of Art, The Dallas Public Library, the Amon Carter Museum, as well as cross-campus entities including the Bridwell, Hamon, DeGolyer and Fondren Libraries, the University Archivist, and the SMU Public Affairs office. New this year to the nCDS is the SMU Digital Repository (digital repository.smu.edu) and this collection would also be promoted. Presented by Rob Walker, Director of the Norwick Center, this session would give details about the positive benefits of collaboration, and describe in detail how these collaborations are formed.
Keywords
digital collaboration
Friday, May 25, 2012
Session 5A (Amphitheater 204)
Building Relationships with Researchers and Enhancing the Library’s Reputation through Digital Services
Colleen Lyon, University of Texas at Austin
Abstract
Connecting with faculty, students, and staff is a major objective for many librarians. We do this through many avenues like reference, instruction sessions, collection development activities, library and university committees, and participating in department or university events. One very meaningful, and perhaps overlooked, way to interact with our campus community is through our digital services.
Every step within a digital project offers an opportunity to develop or enhance long-term collaborative relationships with researchers at your institution. Facilitating the creation and management of a digital collection is one of the best ways to get to know researchers. This is a point-of-need activity that usually involves sitting down with a researcher and having an in-depth discussion with them about their work; something which would be very difficult to schedule in any other way. These discussions are great opportunities to involve subject librarians who can enhance the conversation and improve the final product. Getting other librarians involved includes the added benefit of making digital services more visible within the library.
As the Digital Repository Librarian at the University of Texas at Austin, I’m involved in several digital services offered on our campus: the University of Texas Digital Repository, electronic journals*, conference management*, blogs*, and research wikis*. My job is really about building relationships, not necessarily trying to sell our services. During this session I will discuss how I’ve been able to leverage the services we offer and develop meaningful relationships that frequently lead to researchers referring their colleagues to me. These referrals are a far more effective recruitment tool than even the best crafted email or elevator speech.
Participants in this session will learn how to use digital services as a springboard for starting discussions with faculty and students on campus, how to recognize unique relationship-building opportunities, how to manage these relationships, and how to successfully continue the relationship after a digital project has concluded.
*Offered in collaboration with Texas Digital Library (TDL)
Keywords
digital services; relationship-building; library services
Connecting with Users Beyond Language Boundaries through Multilingual Information Access for Digital Collections
Jiangping Chen, University of North Texas
Abstract
Very few digital collections in the United States support multilingual information access (MLIA) that enables non-English users to search, browse, recognize, and use information from multilingual digital objects. In the increasingly global knowledge society, libraries and museums need to design and implement effective and efficient MLIA in order to serve broader user groups and to sharing information with global societies.
This presentation will discuss and demonstrate a research project titled “Enabling Multilingual Information Access to Digital Collections: An Investigation of Metadata Records Translation,” which is a collaboration of four entities: The Department of Library and Information Sciences in the College of Information at the University of North Texas(UNT); the UNT Libraries Digital Projects Unit (DPU); the School of Information Management at Wuhan University, China; and the Autonomous University of the State of Mexico (UAEM) in Mexico. The project is jointly funded by U.S. Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS: http://www.imls.gov/) and UNT. It aims to evaluate the extent to which current machine translation technologies generate adequate translation for metadata records, and to identify the most effective metadata records translation strategies for digital collections.
During the first year of this project, the research team developed HeMT (http://txcdk-v10.unt.edu/HeMT/): a multilingual participatory platform for human evaluation of machine translation. HeMT is used by three types of users including translators, evaluators, and reviewers. It consists of six major modules: User Management, Manual Translation, User Training, Evaluation, Result Visualization, and Multilingual Lexicon Management. HeMT can be used by digital libraries and machine translation communities for conducting manual translation and machine translation evaluation tasks. A usability testing has been conducted during the development of HeMT. Evaluators recruited from China and Mexico have used HeMT to perform the evaluation of metadata records machine translation. The evaluation results can be visually presented and viewed in real-time.
The second phase of this project will focus on exploring effective Multi-engine Machine Translation (MEMT) strategies in order to provide guidance for digital libraries that are interested in implementing MLIA. In order to train our MEMT system, we are seeking for collaborations with libraries in China and Mexico through our partners in these two countries. Specifically, we expect to obtain metadata records in Chinese and Spanish to develop the language models for metadata records for English-Chinese and English-Spanish machine translation. Our future work will focus on evaluating and implementing the metadata records translation strategies identified from this project through collaborating with 1-2 digital collections in different subject domains.
Digital libraries should connect effectively with their users and collaborators for sustainable development and services. This presentation will also discuss challenges and benefits of crowdsourcing and collaboration based on our experience in this project.
Keywords
metadata records; machine translation evaluation; multilingual information access
Session 5B (Room 102):
The Susanna Rowson Digital Compendium: Rethinking Data in Humanities Research
Spencer D. C. Keralis, University of North Texas
Abstract
The Susanna Rowson Digital Compendium is a new project at the University of North Texas Libraries that seeks to challenge the way digital humanities scholars think about data. Susanna Rowson’s _Charlotte Temple_ was the best-selling novel in pre-_Uncle Tom’s Cabin_ America. Rowson’s work, since its recovery in the 1980s, has been of increasing scholarly interest to researchers and educators working in Early American and Atlantic World literature. In addition to providing authoritative, clean e-texts of Susanna Rowson’s novels, plays, songs, and poems for text mining and teaching, the project will experiment with cloud-sourced methods of bibliographic research and database development.
We also seek to pioneer a reassessment of bibliography as a core humanities information set. It is precisely because bibliographies adhere to specified formats that the data they express can be used for GIS mapping, temporal animations, network visualization, and other heuristic exercises that have the potential to expand knowledge in literary history and criticism.
The goals of this presentation are to: 1) generate interest in the Compendium among the Texas Digital Libraries community, 2) to encourage discussion of data in the context of humanities research, and 3) to encourage Digital Librarians to think creatively about how their work can contribute to digital humanities research.
This project is a partnership between the UNT Libraries and scholars at UNT, NYU, LSU, and UT-Arlington.
Keywords
susanna rowson; e-texts; text mining; humanities data; gis; bibliography
“Mapping the Southwest”: UNT-UTA Collaborative Project
Daniel Gelaw Alemneh, Ann Hodges, Jerrell Jones, University of North Texas, University of Texas at Arlington
Abstract
Mapping the Southwest is a 3-year project (2010 to 2013) funded by a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) We the People grant. For this project, the University of North Texas (UNT) Libraries partner with the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) Library’s Special Collections to digitize 5,000 historically-significant (mostly) rare maps. The collection includes maps dating from 1493 to the present and features noted cartographers. While containing maps of all parts of the world, the collection particularly emphasizes the region of the Gulf Coast and the Greater Southwest, which has been defined as the area comprising the state of Texas and the other southwestern states annexed by the United States after the U.S. War with Mexico of 1846-1848.
All of the materials digitized for this grant project will be available online for free public access through The Portal to Texas History. More than 1,000 items are already available at http://texashistory.unt.edu/explore/collections/UTAM/browse/. We have registered almost 20,000 uses, and as we complete the project, we expect even more users around the world to access this new collection. In addition to showcasing the cartography of the region, the Mapping the Southwest project seeks to promote best practices and to advance the capacity of academic libraries to reliably curate, preserve, and provide seamless access to historic maps, atlases, and related wide-format items.
This panel brings together diverse stakeholders and provides information on the project’s background, deliverables, workflow, and major areas of activity. The participants on this panel will discuss a number of issues from both institutions’ perspectives:
• The UTA group will discuss the importance of the collection, selection criteria, cataloging and metadata operations (including workflow for maps without existing MARC records), preparation of the maps for transporting, and the possible impact of the project in facilitating access to such unique and valuable resources.
• The UNT team will discuss organization and management of collaborative activities, workflow for capturing and processing digital images of the maps, assessments and enhancements of the quality of the digital images and metadata records, ensuring long-term access and key lessons learned along the way.
As we are now starting the second half of the Mapping the Southwest project lifecycle, the project team looks forward to sharing its progress at the upcoming 2012 TCDL Conference.
Keywords
mapping; wide format digital items; geography; maps; greater Southwest
Session 6A (Amphitheater 240): “Big Data”
Implementation of a Texas-Sized Research Data Repository
Chris Jordan, University of Texas at Austin
Abstract
At the end of 2010, the Regents of the University of Texas funded an investment of $23 million in research cyberinfrastructure, including a replicated, multi-petabyte research data repository and a dedicated research network linking all 15 UT campuses. The Texas Advanced Computing Center has led the effort to design and deploy the research data repository, which is now operational and supporting researchers from Austin to El Paso. This presentation will discuss the human and technical challenges of deploying large-scale research data infrastructure, and provide an overview of the design from a non-technical standpoint, explaining the concept of operation for the project, how it is situated relative to projects like TDL, and how staff at TACC have worked to engage and educate researchers from all UT campuses to make use of this valuable resource. Future directions for the project, including long-term preservation, will also be addressed.
Keywords
research data management; repository management; cyberinfrastructure
Archiving on the go: Facilitating auto-archiving of evolving digital collections
Bethany Scott, University of Houston
Abstract
For more than 10 years now, archivists have proclaimed the importance of early intervention during the records creation process in order to assure their long-term preservation. In the academic context, the infrastructure and services needed are still in process of definition – while librarians are ready to provide instructional materials and guidance to implement metadata management plans, ongoing support for researchers creating their collections is not in place. Moreover, typical institutional repositories do not provide storage services for working /ongoing collections, or widespread support for issues like bulk uploads, overall amount of storage space, metadata creation, or privacy protection that such a collection requires.
This project presents a case study of guiding an evolving digital collection that has expanded beyond the creator’s (and the IR’s) capability to easily manage and preserve it.
In this presentation, we will first describe a unique collection of digital fine art photography, the working process and information management actions of the creator, and his needs for a digital archive system to easily store, search, and retrieve files for further editing. Through a detailed interview, we gained information about the artist’s process of working, from taking photographs, digitally processing them, and storing them on external hard drives. The current collection is very large, both in the number of individual files and in the typical file size – often over 3 GB per image. Because the collection currently spans over 100 individual hard drives, it is both unwieldy to search and manage images, and it is more vulnerable to data loss through hardware failure. A secure and easy to use remote storage solution will allow him to organize and view his entire collection at once, and this improvement will save time in processing activities, so that the artist can devote more time to creating new images. TACC provides the computational resources and research and development expertise to implement this system. We will discuss the benefits (such as the ability to work with developers to improve bulk uploads and metadata mapping ) and the limitations of this case study (such as the slow transfer speeds encountered through some networks, and the problems of human error in applying file naming conventions for automated metadata extraction).
By becoming involved in the artist’s information management processes during this early point in the file life cycle, we not only allow him to more efficiently manage his own time, but also ensure that the files are accessible and well organized for the archivists and researchers who may be dealing with the collection in the future. As digital collections continue to evolve it will be crucial to provide long-term, secure storage and preservation. The increased high-performance storage resources now available facilitate this goal. More proactively approaching the creators of research collections to provide data management services complement the storage availability, allowing researchers to continue to create, curate and preserve their own collections.
Keywords
digital records; digital preservation
Web Archives and Large-Scale Data: Preliminary Techniques for Facilitating Research
Nicholas Joel Woodward, Kent Norsworthy, University of Texas at Austin
Abstract
The Latin American Government Documents Archive (LAGDA) is a collaborative project of the University of Texas Libraries, The Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection, and the Latin American Network Information Center (LANIC) at The University of Texas at Austin that seeks to preserve and facilitate access to a wide range of ministerial and presidential documents from 18 Latin American and Caribbean countries. Web crawling is conducted quarterly using the Internet Archive’s Archive-It application. The resulting Archive contains copies of the Websites of approximately 300 government ministries and presidencies between 2005 and the present.
Currently, LAGDA is comprised of approximately 66.6 million documents archived from the Internet, totaling 5.6 terabytes of data. The collection increases in size by an additional 250 gigabytes with each quarterly crawl. Content in the Archive includes not only the full-text versions of official documents, but also original video and audio recordings of key regional leaders, all archived in the ARC file format produced by the Heritrix web crawler. Archive contents include thousands of annual and “state of the nation” reports, plans and programs, and speeches by presidents and government ministers. The data include HTML-formatted pages, Microsoft Word documents, Adobe PDF files and RTF documents, as well as various audio and video formats. The collection includes only sparsely populated metadata.
Promoting research of the collection is a central component of the LAGDA project, and towards those ends staff has collaborated with researchers at the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) using the LAGDA data to develop text-mining methods for document representation and classification. This includes implementing several strategies to mechanically classify and categorize information contained in the Archive in order to facilitate search and browse capabilities. Additionally, LANIC and TACC have worked together to create methods for research on sub collections in the Archive, e.g. presidential speeches or ministerial documents. Preliminary results of these efforts have been encouraging, and they are the initial steps on the path towards solutions that will make large-scale data more accessible to researchers.
The challenges presented in LAGDA are similar to those faced by academic libraries across the country as they are increasingly faced with “big data” collections that necessitate new strategies for data analysis tools. Nascent projects such as LAGDA provide some initial insights into how academic libraries can work collaboratively to facilitate research on the types of large-scale collections that are increasingly prevalent in today’s digital world.
The presentation will focus on the following components:
Challenges presented by Web archived data
“Big data” and data-driven research
The role of libraries in data analysis
The future of “big data” and libraries
Keywords
web archiving; big data
Session 6B (Room 102):
Lifecycle Management of ETDs: Toward a Collaborative Approach to Stakeholders’ Involvement in ETDs Curation
Daniel Gelaw Alemneh, Shannon Stark, Geneva Henry, University of North Texas; Rice University
Abstract
Electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs) represent a wealth of scholarly and artistic content created by Master’s and Doctoral students in the degree-seeking process. The successful management of ETDs requires effort across the entire lifecycle to ensure that ETDs are preserved and made accessible in a manner that today’s users expect. This poses challenges and presents opportunities to those who organize and provide access to ETDs.
This presentation will highlight and discuss the early findings of an IMLS-funded project on Lifecycle Management of Electronic Theses and Dissertations. The project aims to enhance ETD curators’ and other institutional stakeholders’ knowledge and skills, by promoting best practices and creating tools that address specific needs in managing ETDs throughout their lifecycle.
The project partners are the University of North Texas, the Educopia Institute, the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations, the Virginia Tech Libraries, Rice University, Boston College, Indiana State University, Penn State University, and the University of Arizona. They will develop and share a toolkit of guidelines, educational materials, and a set of software tools for life-cycle data management and preservation of ETDs. This project will take place over a two year period from October 2011 to September 2013.
Keywords
electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs); lifecycle management
International Collaboration and Digital Archives: The Guatemalan Police Archive Project at UT Austin
Jade A. Diaz, Kent Norsworthy, University of Texas at Austin
Abstract
This presentation will showcase a large-scale collaborative digital initiative undertaken at UT Austin in 2011: the Guatemalan National Police Historical Archive (AHPN) project. We believe the AHPN project provides a compelling example of how libraries can leverage the power of collaborative relationships—both across campus and globally—to build digital research resources that are transformative in nature. The presentation will provide a description and overview of the processes used by the University of Texas Libraries to construct a universally accessible digital archive from a collection of over 10 million digitized pages of records from Guatemala.
The AHPN project story begins in 2005 when Guatemalan investigators fortuitously discovered nearly 8,000 linear meters of documents created by the Guatemalan National Police in a series of rat- and cockroach-infested abandoned buildings. The documents included hundreds of thousands of identification cards, vehicle license plates, photographs, and police logs. More importantly, they included loose files on kidnappings, murders, and assassinations created during nearly four decades of intense civil conflict beginning in the 1960s. The government and police had long denied the existence of this National Police archive, particularly during truth commission investigations in the 1990s.
After this discovery, the Human Rights Ombudsman office assumed custody of the Archive under an order issued by the nation’s Civil Court. In 2009, responsibility for the AHPN was transferred to the Ministry of Culture where it is under the direction of the Archivo General de Centroamérica (AGCA), Guatemala’s national archive. With over 80 million pages of documents, the AHPN represents the largest single repository of documents ever made available to human rights investigators.
Following years of painstaking work to clean, identify, classify, organize, describe and digitize the documents, in 2009 the AHPN opened a professionally-staffed public reading room to provide access to the digitized documents for anyone who could visit the Archive in person. Staff continue to digitize around the clock and, as of March 2012, they had completed scanning of over 12.5 million documents, predominantly those from the most intense years of conflict, 1975-1985.
In December 2011, the AHPN and UT Austin took the bold and unprecedented step of putting the entirety of the digitized collection online with unfettered universal access. At ahpn.lib.utexas.edu, created at UT through a campus-wide partnership, users can now search or browse the entire contents of the digital archive. In this way, an important part of the nation’s historical patrimony has been preserved and opened up for all citizens to consult as they work to discover and make sense of their own history.
In addition to detailing the background on the AHPN itself, this presentation will cover the following areas:
• Collaborative nature of the project
• Technologies used for the digital archive
• Process used to build the web presence
• Challenges in the areas of design, development, and the project itself
• Lessons learned
Keywords
digital archives
Closing Keynote Address
John P. Wilkin (Associate University Librarian for Library Information Technology, University of Michigan; Executive Director, HathiTrust)
Workshops, Tutorials, and Birds of a Feather Sessions
Please note that some workshops will be held in the Perry-Castaneda Library (PCL) on the UT campus. The PCL is a short walk from the AT&T Conference Center.
Because space is limited in some rooms, please sign up for workshops and BoF sessions if you plan to attend.
Friday, May 25, 2012
BoF: Promoting our Digital Collections to the Academic Community: “If We Build It, We Hope They Will Come”
Ann Howington, University of North Texas
1:00 – 2:00 PM | Room 101 (AT&T Conference Center)
Abstract
We invite participants to join in a discussion about how your digital collections are being used and/or how you are promoting them to academic researchers. We will look at what we are doing now to teach patrons about our digital collections, as well as where we want to go in this area of disseminating digital library information. This session will allow everyone to discuss and brainstorm about innovative ideas to reach out to academic faculty and students, making our target audiences aware of the rich digital collections available from our institutions. We have invested a lot of time and money into these collections, and now we should consider how to invest more effort to promote them to our respective academic communities.
Keywords
promoting digital collections; collection use; marketing
Beyond PPI: Image Scanning for the Rest of Us
Rob Walker, Southern Methodist University
1:00 – 2:00 PM | Room 102 (AT&T Conference Center)
Abstract
This demonstration will feature simple but useful techniques that help determine the proper resolution for image scanning. The presenter will lead a demonstration, using procedures developed by the Norwick Center for Digital Services, that will show how to select the proper settings for image scanning factoring in labor, resolution, file size and longevity. The demonstration will also explain scanner technology as it applies to determine resolution, and also demonstrate the importance of straightening on the platen versus in “post”. Finally the presenter will make a case for thinking in terms of image arrays instead off “ppi” (or “dpi” for you old-schoolers)! Attendees will be able to return to their institutions and organizations armed with practical techniques for image scanning.
Keywords
scanning; digitization; ppi; resolution
Digital Post-Processing in Photoshop: How to Edit a Variety of Digital Images for Preservation and Online Access Using Photoshop
Laura Stennett
1:00 – 4:00 PM | Room 1.202 (Perry-Castaneda Library)
Abstract
Audience: Digital Library Personnel, Digital Lab Managers, Individuals interested in digitization
Application: slides, historical materials, photographs, government documents, text based information
Post-processing can be performed in a variety of different ways depending on the type of material being edited. How you choose to process a photograph should be very different from how you might handle a book, for instance. This workshop will cover best practices to use when scanning a variety of materials and how to edit images using Photoshop to optimize the experience of your customer and/or viewer. The workshop will also cover questions to ask before beginning a project such as: (1) Who is my audience? (2) What is the purpose of this collection? (3) What is the material being scanned? (4) How will this information be accessed? (5) Will this item be digitally preserved? and other questions that will help ensure you provide the end user with the most appropriate product.
Keywords
digital post-processing
Vireo Workflow Demonstrations
Laura Hammons, Stephanie Larrison, Texas A&M University; Texas State University
1:00 – 3:00 PM | Room 4.102 (Perry-Castaneda Library)
Abstract
The Vireo ETD Submission and Management System is a workflow management tool with the flexibility to accommodate the needs of diverse institutions. In this demonstration, participants will have an opportunity to compare and contrast how Vireo is being utilized at several Texas institutions of higher education. Presenters will describe how Vireo has been integrated into the institution to accommodate existing processes and policies, as well as examine how Vireo (and ETD) has prompted positive change within the institution. Graduate School and Library collaborations, administrative user setup, and student/faculty end user issues will also be addressed. Finally, participants will have an opportunity to engage in discussions with presenters and other participants regarding ETD workflow best practices.
Keywords
Vireo; ETDs
BoF: From On Film to On Line: Bringing New Access to Moving Image Collections
Elizabeth Hansen
2:00 – 3:00 PM | Room 101 (AT&T Conference Center)
Abstract
Moving Images provide a unique set of challenges to librarians in regards to both digital preservation and access. For organizations with small moving image collections, these materials often get pushed to the backburner due to lack of equipment and resources. For institutions with large collections, video can be a problematic area rife with copyright restrictions, nonstandard formats, and sometimes near unusable material. In this Bird of a Feather Session, conference attendees will meet to discuss their experiences and challenges with digitization, file management, and the online presentation of moving images as well as engaging users with digital video materials. The session is open to any attendee with an interest in digitally presenting video. Topic can include: file formats, content management, streaming services, web development, social media, trends in presentation, usability, search engine optimization, legal issues, etc. Upon meeting, the group will follow an “un”-conference model to determine a set of 4 -5 questions/topics to discuss as a group relating to the larger topic of moving image preservation and access. This will provide the opportunity for attendees to share experiences, best practices, challenges, and suggestions. Through conversations with colleagues, the session will provide an opportunity to build relationships across the state’s with professionals facing the same challenges.
Keywords
moving images; film; video; digitization; the web; websites; users
Using Batch Load to Create a Repository Collection
Mira Greene,
2:00 – 4:00 PM | Room 102 (AT&T Conference Center)
Abstract
Abstract: Batch import can be used to load multiple files simultaneously to populate a collection within a repository. Although batch import can only be performed by the Texas Digital Library (TDL) staff, considerations need to be taken into account when sending files for loading. Each item to be imported can contain the item metadata, item files, and a contents file listing the bitstream file names.
Once the batch load has taken place, items in the collection can be edited to create or edit the metadata, change the bitstreams, move items to another collection, or permanently delete an item. Use of the browse features (by issue date, authors, titles, or subjects) allows items to be identified easily.
A case study of a successful batch load and editing of images of a microscope collection will be presented. This collection set contained 89 photographs as .jpg files. While the microscope collection was described on the Blocker History of Medicine Collections website, no metadata files were available for the photographs. Once the .jpg files were batch loaded, each item was edited to add the metadata and additional images of microscope cases and signatures. This was accomplished by using the “browse collection by title” and “edit this item” features once the correct image was identified. Metadata taken from the Blocker History of Medicine Collections website comprised creator, date created, description abstract, relationship of collection, and subjects.
Goals: To generate more interest in adding collections to institutional repositories in TDL. Participants will know how to prepare files for batch loading by TDL staff. In addition, participants will learn the methods of browsing through the items and the options available to edit both metadata and bitstreams. Metadata available from descriptions on a website will be analyzed for Dublin Core use in an institutional repository.
NOTE: Attendees should bring their laptops to the workshop to participate in hands-on instruction.
Literature: Phillips, S. (n.d.). Dspace Batch Import Format. Retrieved from http://www.scottphillips.com/files/2009/06/dspacebatchimport.pdf.
Walsh, M. P. (2010, September). Batch loading collections into Dspace using Perl scripts for automation and quality control. Information Technology and Libraries, 29(3), 117-127.
Keywords
descriptive metadata; repository management
Poster Presentation Abstracts
Tapping into our Users’ Expertise: A crowdsourced transcription project
Kathryn Stallard, Southwestern University
Abstract
Southwestern University owns a small 44 page diary written in 1846 by a soldier who fought at the Siege of Monterrey. Collaborating with Ben Brumfield and using his beta software (FromThePage), Southwestern University successfully crowdsourced the transcription of this hard-to-read diary. A researcher who happened to be using another of Southwestern’s Texana collections was invited to participate in the project and ultimately transcribed the entire diary before the project even went public. The researcher, a serious amateur historian, added considerable valuable content including the identification of key individuals and place names.
In addition to illustrating how one researcher’s knowledge and expertise served the institution – as well as the researcher, the project also provides an example of a potential academic digital humanities venture. For example, a Texas history class could have taken on the transcription, requiring students to do considerable research to provide the commentary that our expert amateur historian had in his head.
The project URL is: http://beta.fromthepage.com/ZenasMatthews
Keywords
crowdsourcing; digital preservation; user relations; digital humanities
Creating a Journal Backfile on TDL
Natalie West, Texas A&M University at Galveston
Abstract
The Laffite Society, an organization devoted to the study of the pirates Jean and Pierre Laffite, approached TAMUG about hosting their publications and archive of materials. The Society has three publications already in digital format but no permanent hosting. I will share methods of putting the information up on TDL with the assistance of Laffite Society members in providing metadata.
Keywords
journal backfiles; OJS
Piloting Online Campus Publications: How Archives and Digital Services Made the Sorin Oak Review Come Alive
April Palmore Sullivan, Eric Frierson, St. Edward’s University
Abstract
Our poster will cover the lifecycle of a project that jumpstarted digital initiatives at St. Edward’s University in Austin, Texas. By partnering with the faculty advisor and student editors of the annual campus literature and arts journal, we were able to demonstrate the value of archives and library digital services, and create a unique online version of a respected campus publication.
As with any pilot project, we encountered various challenges including how to digitize back issues, displaying the content online, creating original metadata, and setting up a sustainable, scalable approach to these types of projects.
What resulted is an impressive example of how library digital services can add value to student and faculty initiatives. Using open source software, such as Omeka and Open Library’s Book Reader, we have created a lasting partnership that will serve as a template for many more to come.
Keywords
campus publications; digitization; open source software; descriptive metadata; digital preservation
Vireo Connections
Stephanie Larrison, Texas State University
Abstract
The purpose of this poster is twofold. I will illustrate the reciprocal relationship between the Vireo Users Group (VUG) and Texas Digital Library (TDL), and I will also show how Vireo connects the graduate schools and libraries.
As a TDL user group, the VUG gathers and prioritizes constituent needs to guide the future development of the Vireo ETD Submission and Management System. This submission system has resulted in much stronger connections between graduate schools and libraries.
Keywords
electronic theses; electronic dissertations; ETD
Dungeons, Dragons, and Documentation Strategy
Katrina Windon, Ryder Kouba, Emilia Mahaffey, Ian Collins, University of Texas at Austin
Abstract
As part of the Digital Archiving and Preservation course at the University of Texas at Austin School of Information, we conducted a project in partnership with the Briscoe Center for American History Video Game Archive to preserve (via migration and emulation) a classic video game, Advanced Dungeons and Dragons: Champions of Krynn. In addition to following basic digital preservation practices like creating disk images, ensuring the integrity of copies using checksums, creating access copies so that the original and archival copies may remain undisturbed, and ingesting materials into DSpace (at the project’s end, files will be transferred to the custody of the Briscoe on the UT Digital Repository), we decided to go a step further for the Briscoe. Concerned with how users access and interact with video games in a digital repository, we were interested in the context in which original users accessed the game, and how this can be conveyed to modern researchers. For video games, we feel, and for this game in particular, a simple archival description may not be able to adequately introduce the game to researchers.
Particularly for a game like Champions of Krynn, which emerges from the tradition of a table-top, paper-and-pencil, multiplayer game, and which in its digital form likewise embraces complexity and world-building, external resources reflecting the social context in which the game was originally played (channels for frustration, sources for walk-throughs, friends’ saved game states), are, we feel, a significant property, even if not one found within the original digital object. How, then, we wondered, can we emulate this context for archival researchers? As a solution we propose presenting external documentation (such as gaming forums and magazines) as well as to archivist-created access materials such as walk-throughs, discussion of the game’s origins and the original gaming experience, saved states, and interactive tools to encourage user input (as a sort of documentation strategy, to compensate for original materials that are no longer available) and interaction (such as a forum, or the capacity for users to save their own games, as played in the emulator, into the archive for access by future researchers). Our poster will discuss types of materials available, intellectual property rights concerns in archiving such materials, and the potential for archivists to create (or facilitate the creation of) supplementary materials themselves.
Keywords
digital preservation; access; emulation
TxETDA: Connecting Texas ETD Professionals
Laura Hammons
Abstract
The Texas ETD Association (TxETDA) was formed in 2009 with a mission to provide a network of support for ETD professionals in the state of Texas, and to connect them with organizations and resources that enrich the work they do. Toward that goal, TxETDA has collaborated with organizations such as the NDLTD, USETDA, and the TDL to draw together experts and novices alike to examine institutional practices, address common challenges, and stay abreast of current advances in the field. This poster presentation will examine the mission and goals of TxETDA, demonstrate current initiaves, explore connections to other ETD-related orgnanizations, and encourage greater engagement by ETD professionals throughout the state.
Keywords
electronic theses and dissertations; ETDs
Metadata Quality Enhancement for Large Digital Collections: Web Browser Automation with Selenium IDE
Andrew James Weidner, Daniel Gelaw Alemneh, University of North Texas
Abstract
Creating and maintaining accurate descriptive metadata for digital objects is one of the best ways to connect with digital library users and maintain those connections over the long term. Good metadata empowers users to not only discover exactly what they searched for, but also to locate relevant resources that they did not expect to find. Metadata quality characteristics for digital libraries depend on many factors, including: the types of resources the repository offers and the users’ needs, which vary across the spectrum of user communities. The metadata quality issue is particularly acute if there are multiple institutions participating in collaborative digital projects that employ diverse naming schemes for their documents and files. Furthermore, harvesting large sets of documents from open repositories presents a number of challenges for creating accurate descriptive metadata. For example, metadata schema do not always map well, creating disconnects when published in the local repository. In the aforementioned cases, substantial rework is usually required to create descriptive data that meets local repository standards.
The University of North Texas (UNT) digital libraries group utilizes various tools and mechanisms to ensure metadata consistency and precision across all digital resources. Pre-populated controlled vocabulary terms in its Web-based Dashboard editing interface enable metadata operators to easily select standard values via drop-down menus and auto-suggest for text input fields. In addition, careful mapping prior to ingest facilitates accurate conversions among various metadata element sets. Crosswalks also facilitate exporting metadata records to other systems. To support these activities—in cases where post-ingest metadata normalization will enhance recall and precision for its digital objects—the UNT Libraries recently implemented Selenium IDE as a tool for streamlining the process of editing large sets of metadata records. Created by the Web development community in order to simplify the process of testing Web applications, Selenium IDE is a Firefox browser plug-in that provides an integrated development environment for creating, debugging, and running Web browser automation scripts.
This poster will discuss the complex set of tools and actions required to maintain usable and sustainable digital collections and demonstrate how Selenium IDE facilitates metadata editing for large digital collections by automating a range of data entry tasks. Any institution that employs a content management system with a Web-based metadata editing interface can potentially benefit from Selenium IDE’s automation capabilities.
Keywords
descriptive metadata; controlled vocabularies; metadata normalization; software
Self-archiving of Published Articles in the Institutional Repository: A case study of the workflow, transaction costs, and yield rate for the Department of Physics & Astronomy at Texas A&M University
Jo Ann Bianchi, Gail Clement, Robert McGeachin, Texas A&M University
Abstract
Scholarly communication librarians rely on a variety of approaches to recruit content for their universities’ Institutional Repositories. Chief among these approaches is archiving faculty authors’ published articles in the Repository, where the works are stored, preserved, and disseminated over the Internet to users worldwide without charge. Cited benefits of the self-archiving approach include: the immediate ‘freeing’ of the research literature from publishers’ paywall barriers; mitigation of the ‘serials crisis’ problem for libraries struggling to cover the cost of rising journal prices in the face of static or decreased serials budgets; and more effective digital preservation for the research literature (Gadd, Oppenheim, and Probets, 2003).
The benefits of self-archiving, however, come at a price – namely, the transaction cost of investigating the copyright status of each article to be archived and, where necessary, securing the permission from the copyright holder (often times the journal publisher) to redistribute the article via the university’s open access repository. In spite of the popularity and longevity of article self-archiving as a content recruitment practice for Institutional Repositories, there is little data on the costs and success rate of this approach. Without such data, library administrators and IR managers have little means to determine the return on investment for this form of IR content recruitment.
TAMU’s Digital Services & Scholarly Communication unit has undertaken a study to identify the transaction costs of article self-archiving and to calculate the yield rate of this IR content recruitment approach. Using, as a test set, the total population of published articles from the current faculty of the Department of Physics & Astronomy, the authors are seeking permission from the copyright owner (most often, the publisher) to archive each work in the Texas A&M Digital Repository. We have devised a methodology for locating and analyzing the policies and permissions documents from each publisher; tracking the time involved in securing permissions; and calculating the yield rate — the percentage of articles from the original test set that are determined to be eligible for archiving in the IR.
Keywords
self-archiving; copyright transfer agreements; journal publishers
Adventures in Curation: Providing Access, Context and Outreach to Baylor’s Digital Collections
Eric Ames, Baylor University
Abstract
The concept of curating collections may have its roots in the museum field, but increasingly libraries are looking to techniques employed by curators to find ways to make digital collections more accessible, relevant, and useful to their end users.
The Digitization Projects Group at Baylor University has taken the proactive step of synthesizing many of its outreach and contextualization efforts into the newly created position of Curator of Digital Collections. Eric S. Ames serves in this capacity and has spent the past six months exploring new ways to connect the more than 150,000 items in the Baylor University Libraries Digital Collections with potential users.
In this session, Ames will explore ways Baylor is using a mix of library and museum techniques to achieve these goals, including:
– Enhancing context for collections
– Using social media to connect with users
– Community outreach opportunities like sponsorships and participation in workshops, presentations and more
– Creation of a unified brand identify for digital collections
This session will be of interest to attendees from institutions of all sizes, from smaller digital collections to libraries with robust holdings and specialized staff. The approach will be to explore how library staff can use a planned approach to collection curation to create more engaged, more informed users.
Keywords
social media; collection curation; outreach
An Institutional Repository’s Role at the Briscoe Center
Zach Vowell, Brisco Center for American History, UT Austin
Abstract
At the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History’s digital archives staff have found the University of Texas’ institutional repository, University of Texas Digital Repository (UTDR), useful for the preservation and access of certain archival materials. This presentation will detail how UTDR fits into the Briscoe Center’s digital archives initiatives, as well as its limitations. The presentation will also offer some suggestions on how the repository’s role at the Briscoe Center may evolve.
Keywords
rights management; institutional repositories; digital preservation
Digital Asset Management Systems (DAMS) Working Group @ UT: Pooling Efforts to Find Solutions
Liz Gushee, Harry Ransom Center; Melanie Cofield, UT Austin Libraries
Abstract
Many, if not all, collecting repositories face challenges managing their digital materials. The scale of this content, and the complexity of issues surrounding the preservation and long-term access to these materials, often stretches the human and monetary resources available to a single repository. Under these circumstances, several units at The University of Texas at Austin have come together to leverage shared efforts and resources and to achieve common goals.
With the Harry Ransom Center serving as project lead, the Digital Asset Management Systems (DAMS) Working Group is a collaboration between the Briscoe Center for American History, the Tarlton Law Library, the Visual Resources Collection at the School of Architecture and the Ransom Center to identify, test and ultimately recommend a DAMS as a tool to facilitate the management of digital materials across campus units.
Our poster theme fits within the suggested conference topic of collaboration among cross-campus entities. The goal of our poster is to provide readers with a solid understanding of our collaborative work, including: the scope of the project; the nature of participating units and their digital materials; how the work is being accomplished; realised and desired project outcomes; and the rewards and challenges of working together.
Keywords
digital asset management
Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard
Leta Negandhi, University of North Texas
Abstract
The Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard (METS) was created to encode metadata for objects in digital libraries. In accordance with the rapidly changing technical landscape, more information is digitally created and converted from analog to digital formats. Users expect information to be digitally available, and more and more digital libraries are being developed to meet this need. This poster contains a look at METS history, it’s use of the World Wide Web Conventions (W3C) XML schema, it’s seven main elements, example of a METS profile, and a look at how some institutions have successfully used METS.
METS is a useful tool for digital library metadata creation because:
1. It provides for descriptive, administrative, and technical metadata.
2. It uses the WC3’s XML schema conventions, which allow for not only simple text to be included in the metadata, but also uniform resource identifiers (URI’s). This allows METS to directly link to digital content that supports or helps with describing a digital object.
3. It uses only seven main elements: header, structural map, file section, structural link, behavior section, descriptive metadata, and administrative metadata. Each element has it’s own declaration markup tag and descriptive attributes. These elements can be put in any order, repeated, removed, and new elements can be created as suits the library’s needs. This makes METS ideal as a crosswalk between metadata schemas and as a supplement to other schemas.
METS is still in development by the Digital Library Federation. It is hosted by the Library of Congress at http://www.loc.gov/standards/mets/. This site has a list of registered profiles and other support materials such as a listserv and a wiki. METS is a fully supported, active, and well-used schema. It is an excellent tool for digital libraries to use when creating digital collection and sharing metadata.
Keywords
metadata standards; metadata; METS; schema; XML
Enhancing Content Visibility in Institutional Repositories: Maintaining Metadata Consistency across Digital Collections
Ahmet Meti Tmava, Daniel Gelaw Alemneh, University of North Texas
Abstract
In the last decade, a growing body of the scholarly information and instructional materials produced by universities existed primarily in digital format. New digital technologies not just increased the productivity of scholars but also enabled them to manage their own digital content in ways that facilitate interdisciplinary collaboration, and accelerate the pace of discovery and innovation. The available literature on IRs indicates that faculty members are typically best at creating, not necessarily preserving, new knowledge. According to Palmer et al., (2008), the goal of IR is to collect, preserve, and make persistently accessible a variety of scholarly materials. Academic institutions have increasingly recognized that an institutional repository (IR) is an essential infrastructure of scholarly dissemination.
Generally IRs have a wide range of content and each institution has to make its own decision of what items and types of materials are to be included in an IR. In addition to faculty e-prints and student electronic theses and dissertation, different repositories have encouraged tangential scholarly IR items such as open access journals, academic newsletter, campus-wide publications, and other academic or administrative documents to be included. Different libraries define their open access IR in a broad sense as an archive that houses peer-reviewed intellectual work, related to research and teaching that may also include materials representing cultural, historical and administrative documentation. Therefore, an IR is not simply a fixed set of software and hardware. It can take many forms and hold different content. According to the most recent (March 2012) OpenDOAR report, out of 2180 repositories worldwide, the most common IR software platforms are: DSpace (39%), Eprints (15%), Digital Commons (4%), DLibra (3%), OPUS (3%), Greenstone (2%) Div a-Portal (1%), others (14%), and unknown possibly locally developed software (18%).
However, regardless of repository software deployed, metadata plays a key role in describing and managing digital objects of different formats to effectively integrate the contents of IR into the existing services and collections. Open access digital repositories have implemented the Open Archive Initiative-Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH) as a mechanism to achieve interoperability in the exchange of meta-information with other systems. The greater consistency in metadata will lead to more faceted searching by sophisticated open source search engines. Thus consistency is the key factor in successfully managing different scholarly works in IRs and in making information more widely and easily available to users. This poster will discuss strategies to deal with the task of maintaining consistency and the creation of and adherence to institutional-specific policies for metadata quality.
Keywords
repository management; metadata; metadata standards; software platforms; metadata interoperability; metadata consistency
Accessing Technology Can Address Gaps in Healthcare
Rachael Robertson, Victor Prybutok, Joseph Oppong, University of North Texas
Abstract
Background: To ensure the well-being of consumers through diagnosis and treatment, medicine has advanced to levels of excellence and has resulted in a 90% survival rate among consumers; however, gaps remain in diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation healthcare. As the aims of healthcare have been accomplished and accelerated, infectious and chronic diseases now account for new diagnoses and treatments across groups of people with different demographic and psychographic characteristics. At the same time, people suffering from illness stumble upon challenges when seeking access to care and to initial intake, or triage.
Problem: Even though technology in medicine has advanced to new levels, slow application processing, delayed medical record availability, and lack of access to specialized medicine has impeded consumers’ progress toward receiving necessary healthcare services.
Objective: To understand the nature of the burdens consumers face during a progression including several levels of slow access to healthcare treatment due to lack of integrated technology; to investigate self-service technologies by testing innovative interventions and capabilities; and to contribute to health and medical facilities’ advancement of ensuring consumer accessibility without delays.
Approach: The approach will be compiled from needs assessments, statistical tools, and generalizability of evidence. Therefore, the degree of importance placed on various determinants may be of particular interest to hospitals’ practices in the marketplace.
Keywords
technology; veterans; healthcare; needs analysis; needs assessment; department of learning technologies
A Collaborative Effort to Digitize the Freshwater Mussels of Texas
Edward Warga, James Kennedy, Colleen Von Ehr, University of North Texas
Abstract
In August 2011, the Elm Fork Natural Heritage Museum, in collaboration with the University of North Texas (UNT) Libraries and the Texas Center for Digital Knowledge, completed the Digitization of Texas Freshwater Mussels project to digitize and provide access to a significant collection of regional freshwater mussel specimens. With funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the eighteen month effort successfully generated a digital research collection and established the Elm Fork Natural Heritage Museum as a contributing partner of the UNT Digital Library. The digital collection is accessible at http://digital.library.unt.edu/explore/collections/JOSEPH/browse/.
The project team digitized a collection of approximately 1500 physical specimens and their associated collection records. The collection includes examples of a majority of the freshwater mussel species endemic to Texas. The images and collection records supplemented with additional physical description data support the research needs of a community of users including biologists researching mussels, educators, and citizen scientists. It serves as an historical distribution record and an aid in taxonomic identification.
The contributions of each of the project partners will be presented with focus on the collection development workflow including identifying user needs, creation of digital objects, transfer of objects to the Digital Library, project evaluation, current usage statistics, and future prospects for collaboration. The poster will also highlight the challenges of mapping collection metadata from Specify, a biodiversity collection management system, to the UNT Digital Library system and its effect on functionality.
Keywords
digitization
Developing a Digitization Strategy for Audio-Visual Collections
Savannah Gignac
Abstract
The original objective of my Capstone was to create digital preservation masters and digital accessibility of raw footage from the 1997 WITNESS documentary, “Bought and Sold: An Investigative Documentary about the International Trade in Women”. This material is from the HRDA’s partner organization, WITNESS, a Human Rights organization. The collection is currently held in the Human Rights Documentation Archives (HRDA) at the University of Texas. The raw footage is in the analog format of 26 NTSC Hi8 video tapes.
After being faced with some digitization hurdles from the Hi8 format, not only was the digitization process important, but also to put in place a policy manual for others on how to preserve this important Human Rights material seemed necessary.
With both the PCL’s Digital Lab and HRDI’s assistance, I have developed a policy and procedure manual for the digitization of Hi8 materials. This project will be put into the workflow of both the Digi-lab and HRDI after my Capstone has been completed. By using Final Cut Pro, proper technical equipment and Glifos, the raw footage files have been made accessible to UT scholars as well as being digitally archived and preserved for future use. The mp4 files without copyright restrictions have been uploaded to Glifos and featured on their own webpage, accessible to the UT community.
The content of the footage is invaluable for Human Rights, Women and Gender studies research. By preserving and providing access to this material, University of Texas scholars will have the ability to investigate Human Rights issues relating to the global sex trade, illustrated by the historical evidence shown in interviews and investigative footage. WITNESS, will also be able to provide this reformatted material for organizational uses such as awareness, human rights activism and historical record.
Keywords
digital preservation; digital archives
The Problem of Obsolescence in Audiovisual Digitization Projects
Wendy Martin, Anna Lamphear, University of Texas at Austin
Abstract
The collections of the University of Texas Libraries are rich and diverse in audio and audiovisual holdings and ensuring that these materials are accessible to our patrons now and in the future is a priority for the Libraries. However, in their current formats, analog AV materials present unique preservation challenges, as the carriers degrade quickly and playback equipment is becoming increasingly difficult to procure and maintain.
This poster documents the vast array of analog audio and audiovisual assets held by the Libraries and contrasts these holdings against our current Audio and Video Digitization Workstation playback capabilities. The poster will help to articulate the urgent need for a holistic assessment of hardware needs in the overall Digitization workflow before obsolescence of equipment, formats, and expertise leads to a tragic loss of invaluable research content. Finally, strategies are offered for how to best meet the challenges presented as a result of obsolescence.
Keywords
audiovisual digitization; audiovisual reformatting; equipment obsolescence
Reframing the Digital Library: Making Digital Collections More Relatable to Users
Elizabeth German, R. Niccole Westbrook, Valerie Prilip, University of Houston
Abstract
At the University of Houston Libraries, a group of librarians working with unique digital collections were interested in reaching out to liaison librarians for assistance in making the UH Digital Library, a repository for unique digital items, more relevant to the faculty and students. From conversations with the local liaison librarians, an idea was formed that if users could be exposed to items in the Digital Library in a way that was relatable to them, they would want to see more because of the thrill of discovering what the library had to offer. In order to manifest this idea, the project team focused on developing an easy to use system that provides access to a curated collection of visually compelling images from the Digital Library organized by common subject theme for use in presentations, projects, and classroom materials. This poster will describe the application, called Image Cafe, that was collaboratively created in order to increase user access to digital collections in a way that was relatable to faculty and students.
Keywords
user outreach; collaboration
Enhancing a Digital Repository with Objects’ Embedded Metadata
Serhiy Polyakov, University of North Texas
Abstract
This poster describes the techniques of enhancing discovery and presentation of digital objects with embedded metadata extracted from the documents submitted to the digital repository.
The goal of the ongoing project at the Texas Center for Digital Knowledge is developing the repository solution for management, discovery, and presentation of heterogeneous digital objects (text documents in various formats, spreadsheets, presentations, images, archives, etc.) The target users are organizational departments of all levels, research projects teams, and individual researchers. The target users are also submitters to the repository and they are not expected to supply rich descriptive metadata with the submitted objects. This aspect stresses the importance of not only fulltext but also metadata embedded in the documents that is rarely utilized in the digital repositories.
We have chosen a set of open source solutions to implement the digital repository system. These are Fedora Commons repository platform, Drupal content management system, and Islandora framework with additional services: search server Apache Solr/Lucene, search service Fedora Generic Search, and search toolkit Apache Tika. We have developed a technique that extracts the values (if exist) of the following embedded metadata elements from the documents on submission: Title, Author, Last Author, Company, Description, Content Type, Image Resolution, Page/Slide/Paragraph/Word Count, Revision Number, Date Created/Modified/Digitized/Printed, Protection Status, and others. This embedded metadata augments fulltext, descriptive metadata supplied by submitters, and technical metadata in search and presentation of the digital objects.
Keywords
digital repository; indexing methods; embedded metadata; search process
Enhancing Educational Access to Art
Jessica Higgins, Unmil P. Karadkar, Karen Pavelka, Catherine Zinser, University of Texas at Austin
Abstract
On campus art museums bring value to the university community by serving as custodians of paintings, sculptures, prints, and drawings and by providing instructors with access to rare artifacts of cultural significance. While the museum staff is committed to helping faculty locate items of interest, they are hard pressed for time and do not always possess the domain-specific vocabulary used by instructors in diverse disciplines. The disconnect between artifacts that are organized by museum professionals but used by faculty in various disciplines affects the use of these artifacts. We aim to address this issue by enhancing a collection of prints and drawings at the Blanton Museum of Art with a rich, domain-specific description that meets the expectations of a multi-disciplinary faculty. The acclaimed collection of the Blanton museum includes over 13,000 artifacts and supports education in a variety of disciplines. The collection manager provides access to specific prints and drawings upon request from this closed collection. The metadata related to the prints can be accessed only through computers situated in the museum, further limiting access to it. Thus, instructors are unable to browse the collection at their convenience and rely heavily on the Blanton staff to provide suggestions for relevant works. This practice results in a small pool of items being viewed repeatedly, while other prints of interest go unnoticed.
Taking a used-centered design approach, we have created a prototype repository of richly described artifacts from this collection. The descriptive metadata is informed by results of faculty interviews in the areas of Art, Art History, French, and Architecture. The repository is created using an open source repository software, called CollectiveAccess, and the metadata uses the Getty Institute’s CDWA Lite schema. The resulting repository is thus based on open standards, improving the potential for its use by various demographics on campus, as well as, improving its visibility for remote users and repositories through interoperability protocols.
We are currently evaluating this prototype repository. In the first stage, we are evaluating our design with the help of the instructors who set the expectations for this repository. This evaluation will help us fine tune the interface features, repository architecture, as well as our use of the CDWA Lite schema.
Keywords
repository application; CDWA Lite; descriptive metadata; relational metadata
Digitizing and Making Accessible Marine Science Journal, Contributions to Marine Science
Liz DeHart, University of Texas at Austin
Abstract
The University of Texas Marine Science Institute is considered the oldest and most significant marine research facility on the Texas coast. It has published its own scientific journal, Contributions in Marine Science (CMS), providing institutions all over the world with important data and research since 1945. The collection is a unique and scientifically irreplaceable journal which is housed in the Marine Science Library, one of the science branch libraries of the University of Texas Libraries in Austin. The most recent issues include reviews and monographs of basic or regional information in marine science, with emphasis on the Gulf of Mexico and surrounding areas.
The journal is currently not available online to the marine community. The plan is to increase greater access for this unique collection by transforming back issues into digital format and make them accessible online in the UT Digital Repository (UTDR). A future project would focus on moving new issues to online publishing through Open Journals System (OJS), hosted by TDL
Keywords
digital preservation; digital repositories; online journal; marine science