Browsing by Subject "digital collections"
Item 10 Weeks to Success: How to Quickly and Effectively Build a Collaborative Digital Collection(2012-05-25) Allen, Christy; University of Texas at ArlingtonCreating 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.Item Audiovisual Accessibility Builds a Bridge to Diverse User Communities(2022-06-07) Morrow, Melissa; Mumma, Courtney; Park, KristiA cross-institutional team from the Texas Digital Library consortium has developed a webinar series to address the need for awareness of accessibility for audio/video digital collections and to offer solutions for repository managers. The series presents the basics of improving the accessibility of digital audio and video (AV) collection materials hosted in the digital repositories of libraries and archives within the TDL membership. Supplemented by a birds-of-a-feather session at the Texas Conference on Digital Libraries (TCDL) 2022, the webinars provide a deeper understanding of the many benefits—aside from simply satisfying legal requirements—of providing alternative media such as captions/transcripts and other accessibility remediations. Additionally, they aim to demystify key concepts and share common approaches and practical first steps to adapting the accessibility of digital (digitized and born-digital) AV holdings, as well as discussing strategies for making the business case for accessibility. This poster is intended to report on our model for collaborative learning around accessibility issues for A/V collections and share outcomes of the series.Item Automating Digital Collection Processes(2016-05-25) Starcher, Christopher; Luttrell, Robert; Texas Tech UniversityProcessing digital collections is tedious and time consuming. It is also susceptible to human error. Although it is impossible to automate all digital collection creation processes, at the Texas Tech University Libraries, we have taken steps to automate many of our processes in an effort to expedite digital collection creation and to eliminate human error where possible. The University Library and the Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library conduct digital collection projects autonomously and collaboratively. While some of the processes at each library are similar, others are unique to the individual environments. In this presentation, we will discuss the needs of each environment and reveal the solutions implemented to meet those needs.Item The Browning Letters Online(Texas Digital Library, 2012-05-25) Stuhr, Darryl; Baylor UniversityThe 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.Item Collection Development for an Environmental Science Digital Library(2009-05-27) Hall, Nathan; University of North TexasThis presentation will focus on University of North Texas Libraries’ strategies for creating digital collections and services from datasets for users outside of formal education and research in support a proposed international digital library for environmental science. Some collection development for the Environmental Science Digital Library (ESDL) will stem from harvested web content from the government domain (.gov). These materials will include environmental policy and documentation from the websites of various federal agencies and departments from before the 2008 election, after the 2008 election, and following the 2009 inauguration. As a result, the collection will allow users to see how federal policies changed during the transition from the Bush administration to the Obama administration. The ESDL will also host content contributed from institutional partners. This would include white papers, datasets, images, video, simulations, and applications. Much of the ESDL content will be born digital. This will provide the opportunity and challenge of generating new content and services by compiling information from discrete data sources to create new applications. An example of such a service would be a map that imported data from one source, measuring soil, water, and air quality. Layering that map over another one with regions encoded by environmental policy would be useful for determining how environmental policy has an impact on measures of environmental quality. The team developing the ESDL believes that the values and consequences of environmental science are important to a broader range of users than many other academic disciplines. The target audience of the digital library will be citizens and policy makers due to the ongoing needs of these groups for reliable information about environmental science and policy. This presentation will address the TCDL 2009 topics of interest by discussing how the ESDL project will create digital library services for a broad range of users, and how the digital library will add value to its collections through the use of imported datasets.Item Digital Collections in a Small Archives: Using Google Services to Help Present and Promote An Oral History Project(2014-03-14) Wolfe, Erin; University of KansasProviding online access to media collections, such as oral histories, can be challenging to do well, particularly for smaller institutions with limited resources. This presentation will focus on a recently completed project in which the Dole Archives leveraged freely available tools to provide access to a high profile oral history collection in a variety of formats, including streaming audio/video, full text searching capabilities, and a finding aid with direct links to digital content. By integrating Google services into our own website, the project receives benefits both from (a) local branding and exhibit/content hosting and (b) the increase of visibility of the materials to a wider audience through Google-based searches. Designed with end-user access in mind, it is our hope that this project will help to expand our audiences beyond the academic and be useful (and usable) for a variety of purposes, from K-12 student research to serving as a case study for future fundraising opportunities. This presentation should be of interest to institutions looking for a low-cost approach to providing online access to media collections or those who may be interested in seeing a new approach to using web-based tools to provide access to archival materials.Item Digital Collections Units as Learning Labs(2016-05-25) Boeke, Cindy; Southern Methodist UniversityAs Digital Humanities and Digital Scholarship (DH/DS) become increasingly popular in many academic departments, digital collections can be used as teaching tools and/or the basis of projects for both undergraduate and graduate courses. SMU’s Norwick Center for Digital Services (nCDS) has created a variety of educational opportunities that are linked to curricular needs, including an MLS practicum, DH/DS practicum, digitization tours, lab demonstrations, and graduate seminars. We have a long-standing practicum program with the two local library schools. Over the past six years, we have trained 31 MLS students and graduates how to digitize special collections, create metadata, and upload items into CUL Digital Collections. Several of them are now employed as digital librarians throughout the area. More recently, we added a Digital Humanities Practicum that is helping SMU and local graduate students and professors with their DH/DS career development. nCDS staff teach the students digitization, metadata creation, and digital collections development using CUL Digital Collections. Over the past seven years, nCDS has provided guided tours of our digital photography studio and digitization/metadata lab that include background overviews on CUL Digital Collections and the digital library profession. Tours are given to a wide range of audiences, including potential donors, writers, community organizations, scholars, staff, and myriad people who are interested in the digitization of special collections. More recently, we have added an educational component, which incorporates lab demonstrations that match specific course needs. Our 30-minute nCDS Digital Services Tour, divided into three stations, gives students an overview of digital photography, digitization/metadata creation, and digital collections. We have also conducted a three-hour graduate seminar, where students were taught concepts relating to copyright, digital collections development, digital photography/digitization, metadata creation, digital preservation, and information architecture. The practicums, tours, demonstrations, and seminars are a team effort, involving all members of the nCDS staff. The most important result we are achieving is a much closer relationship with the campus and local community. We see great potential to increase such activities in the future.Item Digital Image Collections @ University of Hawaii(2016-05-25) Chantiny, Martha; University of Hawaii at ManoaPresent wide range of uses of open-source software "Streetprint" (LAMP-based, pre-Omeka-type application) - including making unique and fragile scrapbooks and research materials available as digital surrogates. See: http://digicoll.manoa.hawaii.edu/Item Digitizing San Antonio’s LGBTQ publications: A Portal to the City’s Queer Past(2014-03-25) Gohlke, Melissa; University of Texas at San AntonioToo often in the past, records of gay, lesbian, and transgender persons have been discarded or destroyed sending important filaments of history into the trash bin of time. Fortunately, queer publications that survive provide vital glimpses into the evolution of the communities that produced them and are an important source of ascertaining how gay, lesbian, and transgender organizations and individuals perceived and reacted to the world around them, built communities, and captured the pulse of their evolving culture. As interest in queer history and culture grows, efforts to collect, preserve, and digitize LGBTQ materials have intensified. The long-term benefits of preserving queer records such as LGBTQ serials through the digitization process cannot be understated. As more materials are digitally preserved and made available, opportunities for access and conservancy are greatly expanded. This presentation will cover one such opportunity at the UTSA Libraries Special Collections. In 2012, UTSA Libraries Special Collections began a collaborative project with the Happy Foundation, a San Antonio non-profit GLBT archives. The project entailed digitization of several decades of queer periodicals housed at the foundation. This effort coincided with the purchase of a Zeutschel overheard scanner by the UTSA Libraries. The process included pickup, transport, digitization, and return of loaned periodicals and finally, ingest of digital objects and metadata into CONTENTdm. Two challenges came to light during the project: 1) tracking down publication creators to secure permission to digitize items and make them available on the internet 2) handling content that might be perceived as extremely provocative, pornographic, or possibly offensive. At present, the UTSA Libraries Special Collections staff has digitized the bulk of local queer serials held at the Happy Foundation. These represent the basis of UTSA Special Collections Digital GLBTQ Publications collection which includes the Calendar, the Marquise, River City Empty Closet, Out in San Antonio, and San Antonio Community News. WomanSpace and Rainbow Garden Club newsletter, also included in the digital collection, are physical records held at UTSA Special Collections. While the Digital GLBTQ Publications collection features primarily San Antonio periodicals, issues of queer serials from elsewhere are also represented. Several issues of One magazine, the nation’s first homosexual publication, are housed at the Happy Foundation and are available digitally through UTSA. Records donated by local and regional LGBTQ organizations and individuals, such as Lollie Johnson, San Antonio Lesbian Gay Assembly, the Texas Lesbian Conference, and San Antonio activist Michael McGowan augment UTSA Libraries Special Collections digital holdings of queer publications and provide research opportunities for scholars, students, and members of the community.Item Diversity Evaluation and Vendor Communication: The Effect on a Collection(Texas Digital Library, 2021-05-24) Speer, ElizabethItem Dynamic Display of Collections in CONTENTdm(2010-05-17) Watkins, Sean; University of HoustonCurrently, CONTENTdm does not have the ability to create dynamic pages for a single collection. This poster presentation will highlight how the University of Houston Libraries made collections within CONTENTdm display dynamically on a page. Learn the steps needed to publish collections and have them appear within a single page or on multiple pages without having to edit or add pages for new collections. This new process enables collection managers to publish collections to "landing pages" or "about pages" more efficiently without having to know any code or having to remember to post them in multiple locations.Item Effective Tools for Digital Object Management(2009-05-27) Moore, Jeremy; Fisher, Sarah Lynn; University of North TexasThe organization of digital files during the development of digital collections is as important as the organization of physical objects on library shelves. Digital objects can be lost as quickly as they are created without an established system for file naming and digitization workflow, resulting in lost time and productivity. The UNT Digital Projects Unit (DPU) has developed several methods for the digital object management of book and image collections including, but not limited to, standardizing the process of object file naming and using logical folder organization matched to an internal Wiki. These methods, while unique to our lab, are based on simple principles that can be implemented at any institution. A digitization workflow begins with the organization of the physical objects in a logical and traceable way so retrieving the correct item to digitize does not interfere with production. In an environment where multiple technicians are creating digital content from the same source material, it is key that everyone knows the current status of the project so material does not get scanned repeatedly or not get scanned at all. The DPU utilizes a combination of physical tags, numbered carts, and an internal Wiki allowing for a parallel work environment. The internal Wiki also matches folder hierarchies in the digital realm and provides a layer of redundancy for when — not if — a file is misplaced. Before the first digital object is created it is important to have identifiers assigned to each object. A unique and persistent identifier is used throughout the digitization process for file naming, structuring folders, and linking metadata records with digital objects. Upon digitization, the digital object is moved through a series of folders stacked in order of process from 1 to 7: ToQC ToDekew ToResize ToOCR ToMetadata ToUpload Uploaded Ordering files into folders based upon the action needing to be applied allows more time to be spent on processing the files than determining what needs to be done next. Additionally, this workflow is broad enough to allow for the multifarious projects undertaken by the DPU. Books require different handling than image collections. Photographic image collections can be more straightforward in their management as digital objects as each physical photograph usually has only one digital constituent (or two if you scan the back of the photo), but when a book is digitized many images are created. The DPU uses MagickNumbering, an internal naming schema for books that logically handles both object-order and pagination, while offering a robust quality control method. Through the use of MagickNumbers, an entire book can be managed in a single folder as master TIFF files. By applying these methods the DPU is able to work on multiple projects at a given time while keeping a high level of organization, quality control, and output. The methods mentioned are also scalable from a project consisting of only a handful of photographs to a 100-year run of yearbooks to 10,000 negatives.Item Energy Systems Laboratory:Building a Repository Collection and Planning for the Future(2008-06-09) Koenig, Jay; Haberl, Jeff S.; Gilman, Don; Hughes, Sherrie; Texas A&M University; Energy Systems LaboratoryThe Energy Systems Laboratory (ESL) is a division of the Texas Engineering Experiment Station and part of the Texas A&M University System. First established in 1939, the ESL maintains a testing laboratory on the Riverside Campus in Bryan, Texas, and offices on the main campus of Texas A&M. The group consists of five faculty members from the Department of Mechanical Engineering, as well as three faculty members from the Departments of Architecture and Construction Science. The lab currently employs approximately 120 staff members, including mechanical engineers, computer science graduates, lab technicians, support staff, and graduate and undergraduate students. The Lab focuses on energy-related research, energy efficiency, and emissions reduction, and has a total annual income for external research and testing exceeding $4.5 million. With energy research and policy at the forefront of public discussion, both academic and political, the urgency of making this research publicly available is very high. The Energy Systems Laboratory collection in the Texas A&M Digital Repository is unique in a number of ways. After first contacting the library in March 2005, the ESL became one of Texas A&M's earliest adopters of the repository. The collection is very diverse, and contains conference proceedings, published articles, technical reports, and electronic theses and dissertations produced by students affiliated with the ESL. The ESL is also the first repository client to take the initiative of assigning staff members to learn the batch loading process for themselves, both relieving library staff of the burden and allowing the collection to expand even more rapidly. The collection has also successfully made the transition, despite some challenges, from the original DSpace interface to the Manakin-themed repository now in place. After three years, the collection remains one of the largest collections in the system, continues to grow as more of the group's research and publications are added to the collection, and is held forth as a model collection to prospective repository clients in the Texas A&M community. This is a testament to the Energy Systems Laboratory's dedication to the building of their repository collection, and their clear understanding of the advantages of open access. This presentation will discuss the excellent working relationship built between the Energy System Laboratory and the library, and how much relationships can be fostered with other collections as the repository expands. It will also recount the events leading up to the ESL's original adoption of the repository, and will chronicle the evolution of the repository collection, the addition of new content, the transition and adaptation to new technology, the copyright and other challenges faced, and the group's future needs for additional tools and services.Item Evolving Collections: Building an Infrastructure to Preserve the Power of Silence(2010-05-18) Jordan, Chris; Texas Advanced Computing CenterThe rise of digital data as a central component of 21st century research is a well-documented phenomenon, but examples of working institutional infrastructures to manage and preserve this data are relatively few and far between. The Texas Advanced Computing Center at The University of Texas at Austin is involved in a multi-year effort to build such an infrastructure, with an emphasis on collecting and managing digital data during the research process and a corresponding deep level of interactions with researchers and projects in a variety of disciplines. Collection and dissemination activities in areas from digitization of Natural History collections to documentation of ongoing Archeological investigation will be presented, and the infrastructure needs presented by this diverse community of practice will be discussed. Finally, the design of the present infrastructure will be discussed, along with the rationale for that design and the plans for future expansion of the capacity and functionality of a system which will enable and preserve a comprehensive record of research for future generations.Item Introduction to DSpace [presentation](2017-03-14) McElfresh, Laura Kane; Lindsey, NerissaItem Introduction to DSpace [video](2017-03-14) McElfresh, Laura Kane; Lindsey, NerissaItem Los Primeros Libros(2010-05-17) duPlessis, Anton; Texas A&M UniversityThe Impresos Mexicanos del Siglo XVI project will build a digital collection of the first books printed in Mexico before 1601. These monographs are very important because they represent the first printing in the New World and provide primary sources for scholarly studies. Approximately 220 unique titles are held in institutions around the world. While it is a specific goal to acquire at least one example of each unique surviving imprint, it is important to acquire as many copies as possible since marginalia, typographical variants, ownership marks, and other copy-specific attributes are often critical for interpretation and other purposes. Institutions in the United States and Mexico hold most of these first books.Item Matching a Digitization Project’s Workflow to the Collection and Its Owner(2009-05-28) Logan, Tim; Stuhr, Darryl; Baylor UniversityWhile there is a general pattern to the workflow for digitization projects, each collection and its owner-sponsor offer a different set of challenges and opportunities for managing the collection processing, especially regarding the creation of metadata for the collection. This presentation will include a general description of workflow for digitization projects: intake, digitization, file processing, metadata, and destinations, and then focus on a description of options for the workflow for individual digitization projects, with particular emphasis on metadata creation. Additionally, there will be samples from various examples project instruction manuals, each of which is adapted to the specific needs of the collection and its materials. The Digitization Projects Group of Baylor’s Electronic Library serves in part as a digitization service provider for other campus libraries and collections at the university. The Digitization Projects Group is relatively new, and the number and complexity of digitization projects it manages continue to expand. Through experience with previous projects, the group has learned that a clearly defined workflow is critical to success, with special emphasis placed on the creation of effective metadata. We have learned that one size does not fit all; each collection is unique, and the workflow should be adapted to take advantage of the knowledge and skills of the library of entity that owns the physical materials, or other provisions must be made for cataloging. We continuously revise and adapt our project workflow model to match the characteristics of a given collection with the time and skill sets of the personnel involved with the project. Since the Electronic Library has no physical holdings of its own, candidate projects are brought to the EL from a variety of sources — donors, potential donors, campus libraries, and other university collections. After a description of the general workflow model, the presentation will use as examples 5 different digitization projects that are currently in progress or have been recently completed. Each project illustrates a different schema for the distribution of metadata responsibilities, leveraging the resources available from various sources to accomplish the necessary work. Examples will include: Guthrie Civil War letters, which had descriptive data assigned by a skilled technician who was not a trained librarian; Gospel Music Restoration Project, which involves a complex metadata schema in XML created by a trained and experienced metadata librarian; 19th Century Women Poets Collection, which pulls existing catalog information from the university’s integrated library system; Oral History transcripts, which merges data from the ILS and a stand-alone FileMaker database, managed by an MLS librarian employed outside the library; Spencer Sheet Music collection, for which cataloging has been outsourced to a professional company that works from scanned images of the shelf list cards and of the original materials. The various projects illustrate that there are multiple solutions for managing the responsibility for creation of metadata, and the best method is often determined by the nature of the collection and the skill set of the sponsoring collection owner.Item Metadata Quality in Texas Woman's University's Digital Collection(2013-03-26) Bookman, Amber; Texas Woman's UniversityAccessibility to information despite physical proximity is now an expectation of many students and professionals. However, few appreciate what it takes to translate physical media and archival items into digital representations that can be stored, searched and retrieved virtually. A collection developed around a well-formed structure and metadata schema is necessary to address the complexities of this representation issue. However, the actual content and how it is entered will ultimately determine the usability of a digital collection. The Woman’s Digital Collection curated by Texas Woman's University Libraries is one case that exemplifies some of the challenges of creating quality metadata records for a rapidly expanding collection. Inconsistencies within this one collection are typical of those that are likely to occur elsewhere as the demand for digital content increases. In identifying the issues that adversely affect the completeness, accuracy and consistency of the information populating these records, solutions for avoiding these problems emerge that can be applied to future projects.Item More Than Words: Thinking Critically About Digital Collection Material(Texas Digital Library, 2023-05-18) Roig Blay, Karla; Murphy, Devon; Suarez, Alex; Sanchez, KarinaGalleries, libraries, archives, museums, and special collections (GLAMS) are grappling with the presence of harmful content within their collections, and harmful language within their collection descriptions. Many have recently published their own statements seeking to acknowledge these issues, and are navigating the ways in which to manage and address potentially harmful content and description within their digital collections. During our birds of a feather, we aim to engage with colleagues from institutions across the state who are facing similar questions about the management and presentation of harmful content, and attempting to address harmful language in their collection descriptions. We will begin by defining harmful content and harmful description, and introduce initiatives taking place at the University of Texas Libraries and at other institutions around the state. The conversation will create space to discuss the ethical concerns that arise with broadened access to these materials, and examine the impact that they can have on those represented, particularly from historically excluded communities. Participants will be able to share strategies, resources, and lessons learned from their experiences managing harmful content and language in their collections.