Texas Conference on Digital Libraries Proceedings

Permanent URI for this communityhttps://hdl.handle.net/2249.1/4513

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10 Weeks to Success: How to Quickly and Effectively Build a Collaborative Digital Collection
(2012-05-25) Allen, Christy; University of Texas at Arlington
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.
A "3-Stage Banner" Concept for DSpace
(2016-05-25) Zhang, Zhongda; University of Oklahoma
Like many statewide consortial repositories, the SHAREOK system in Oklahoma (https://shareok.org) strives to present a unified appearance while giving partner institutions some control over their own branding, as well as custom branding for their internal customers’ communities and collections. We’ve implemented a mobile-responsive “3-stage banner” concept that allows for a uniform shoulder anchor, a block for the institution’s logo, and a block for the community or collection logo.
30,000 pixels and Above: Challenges in Adapting a Camera-Based Capture System for Multi-Shot Image Stitching
(Texas Digital Library, 2019-05-23) Mazzei, Erin
While a final preservation image file is appropriate for most institutional and research needs, certain special projects may require more detail than can be provided in a single scan or capture. In these cases, combining multiple images may deliver the necessary quality, but present technical and logistical challenges to imaging equipment that must first be overcome. Prompted by a recent request to deliver images suitable for creating large promotional banners, this 24x7 presentation proposes to describe the methods used at Texas State University’s Alkek Library by the Digital and Web Services department (DWS) to test, capture, and successfully "stitch" multiple photographs into a single file. The presentation will also cover the evaluation of several scanner and capture station configurations, lighting, material handling, and image post-production techniques; as well as lessons learned in the process.
A Cursive Training Program to Improve Metadata Records for Cultural Heritage Materials
(Texas Digital Library, 2024-05-22) Washington, Alma; Fisher, Sarah Lynn; McIntosh, Marcia
Cultural heritage materials often include handwritten elements that must be deciphered by metadata creators to ensure accurate description at various levels. While the University of North Texas Digital Libraries division is undertaking projects to investigate the use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools for handwriting transcription, the accuracy and speed of these tools has not caught up to the threshold acceptable for metadata creation for our current projects: the need to describe thousands of handwritten materials on a deadline cannot not wait for AI projects to advance the work. Thus, the responsibility of deciphering those materials falls to metadata creators. The UNT Digital Projects Lab has a large group of students creating metadata who were not familiar with handwriting styles such as cursive. Once staff identified the need for training in this area, they conducted an informal survey of those working in the Lab to assess their ability and confidence to read handwritten materials. The students who reported a low confidence level – as well as others who felt they could benefit -- are participating in an online training program where they are practicing cursive. This talk will report on the program’s design, resources, and methods, as well as the number of students in the program, their experiences, and if they felt that learning to write in cursive has improved their ability to read these handwriting styles. We will also discuss how handwriting analysis and graphetics can inform the process of metadata creation for handwritten elements of these materials.
A Digital Image Library: Making it possible with Facial Recognition
(Texas Digital Library, 2023-05-17) Prud'homme, Max; Peta, Lokesh
Ensuring the discovery and preservation of digital archival assets is an important aspect of digital curation work at the Oklahoma State University Library. In the fall of 2023, the university archives resumed their machine learning work after conducting a successful pilot project that explored the use of facial recognition techniques to curate a high-value archival collection. With support from Library Administration, the digital archives are moving forward with the development of a dynamic search engine, using machine learning, to improve the predictability and performance for searching thousands of digital assets. To achieve this, the team is constructing a model that is easily trainable and an interactive application to search images more efficiently. With consideration to scalability and sustainability, the facial recognition technology used in the pilot project is being extended to a larger and more diverse dataset of face images. The presenters propose to showcase the project flow, context, planning, design and architecture in a demonstration/tutorial-like presentation. They will address challenges and initial feedback, with a particular focus on scalability, sustainability, as well as ethical issues associated with facial recognition technology.
A Path to Open and Accountable Digital Preservation Collaboration
(Texas Digital Library, 2023-05-17) Mumma, Courtney
In addition to hosting NDSA Innovation Award-winning Digital Preservation Services, TDL is part of an informal affinity group called the Digital Preservation Services Collaborative (DPSC). We are a group of digital preservation organizations united in our commitment to preserve the cultural, intellectual, scientific and academic record for current and future generations. We came together because digital preservation is a cultural-heritage-wide challenge that is best accomplished together. We may be best known for having published the Declaration of Shared Values in late 2018, a document which provides standards to which our community can hold us accountable. The values that inform and direct our collective work are collaboration, affordability and sustainability, inclusiveness, technological diversity, portability/interoperability, openness and transparency, accountability, stewardship continuity, advocacy, and empowerment. Digital preservation requirements differ broadly across units and between institutions, and decisions are too often made for the short-term based predominantly on real or imposed resource scarcity. This understanding, alongside recent developments in the digital preservation ecosystem, inspired the DPSC to revise and expand the Values statement. We are witness to the growing ubiquity of commercial Digital Preservation vendors in community and professional spaces, which has precipitated the increased uptake of their technologies and investment from institutions. Digital preservation-focused professional associations, including TDL, witness the United States suffering from a dearth of digital preservation leadership and guidance. This presentation will discuss these values and efforts to curb trends that do not align with them.
A Pilot Study on Social Science Graduate Students’ Data Core Competency
(Texas Digital Library, 2023-05-17) Zhou, Xuan
Providing ongoing data management instruction for graduate students has become increasingly prominent in research projects. In Research Data Management (RDM), many researchers have identified different data management skill sets required for data curators, researchers, or students. Yet, literature does not provide sufficient evidence for determining the need for RDM training from social science student researchers’ perspectives. To our knowledge, few empirical studies exist that examine social science graduate students’ RDM practices. Understanding students’ experiences with research data and research data training, and their perception of RDM—identifying their data core competency status—can help develop a knowledge base for RDM education. Our research designed a pilot study for a data core competency measurement to examine how important data competence was regarded by social science graduate students and the status of their data core competence. Results demonstrated the importance of building an academic atmosphere where RDM best practices are valued in graduate social science programs. Additionally, we launched a pilot exam to evaluate students' data core competency using 16 questions to address each stage of the research data life cycle. Future studies on the development of standardized data core competencies measurement are suggested to build on our preliminary findings.
Accessing the Inaccessible: Capturing and re-purposing metadata prior to digitization to ensure adequate description and access
(2018-05-16) Pierce, Gregory; Niño, Ana
In October of 2017, UNT Special Collections embarked on a large-scale digitization project involving a portion of the highly requested A/V materials from the NBC-5/KXAS Television News collection, using a third-party vendor. Until 2017, portions of the collection were digitized through discrete patron requests, or smaller projects carried out during downtime. This new project involved digitizing the collection s entire UMatic tape holdings; roughly 2,000 tapes covering broadcast news stories aired between 1976 and 1986. The UMatic holdings were prioritized for digitization due to preservation concerns about their age, degradation, and the decreasing availability of UMatic tape players. Consisting of over 140 boxes, with an average of 14 tapes per box, each tape case contains one UMatic tape and one or more handwritten index cards with descriptions of the tape s content. We estimate this project will produce over 50,000 individual news clips for ingestion. How does an institution efficiently and adequately describe over 50,000 digital objects with enough access points to make them searchable to patrons, including film and television producers wishing to license footage on restrictive deadlines? The estimated time it would take to upload, describe, and publish these clips on the Portal to Texas History, is nearly 3 years. How can we ensure access and searchability in the meantime? The estimated time it would take to upload, describe, and publish these clips on the Portal to Texas History is nearly 3 years. This presentation provides a detailed look at how we used snapshots to help repurpose metadata, then harnessed linked data tools in Excel and WikiMedia to create access to tape content titles. We will talk about prioritizing content access during digitization and how those priorities evolved as we realized the full scope of the collection. We ll discuss how we created the initial database using linked data in Excel, transferring that data to our in-house wiki space using WikiMedia, as well as how the system is being used today. More importantly, we will discuss how capturing and making physical metadata accessible during digitization of the physical objects can increase efficiency in other digitization projects.
Accessing the Making Cancer History® Voices Oral History Collection
(2015-04-27) Garza, Jose Javier; MD Anderson Cancer Center
The Historical Resources Center of the UT MD Anderson Cancer Center has been collecting oral history interviews since 2000. With over sixty participants and several hundred hours of interview footage, the archives is using the Oral History Metadata Synchronizer (OHMS) and CONTENTdm (CDM) to facilitate access to the interview collection. Since 2009, the archives began experimenting with various platforms to ensure access to both audio and text version of the oral history interviews while protecting the privacy of MD Anderson faculty, staff, and patients. The entire oral history collection is described using an internal coding scheme to allow cross-referencing among key topics in the interviews. After consideration, the archives believes that combination of OHMS as the delivery platform and CDM as the searching tool will create a searchable ecosystem that provides access to the interviews will preserving internal metadata structure of the interviews.
ACRL Diversity Residencies as a Recruitment Method toward a More Inclusive Workforce, or Diversity Residencies: It’s Complicated
(Texas Digital Library, 2023-05-17) Thompson, Jeremy; Sanchez, Karina; Chamblee-Smith, Genevia; Oduok, Ima
For decades, residencies and fellowships have been a way to train early-career librarians in the practical applications of their MLS theoretical knowledge. They have been used as pathways for professionals from marginalized backgrounds to get their feet in the door of academic institutions. The ethics and efficacy of residencies is gaining attention as a research topic, particularly among former and current residents. With UT Austin, and now TDL, hosting the only ACRL Diversity Residency programs in Texas, how can other institutions in the state learn from their examples? How can other academic libraries implement residency programs of their own that benefit the host universities and the residents without tokenizing? This panel presentation will involve current library residents to discuss the practicalities and the experiences of diversity residencies.
Adding The Chronicles of Oklahoma to the Gateway to Oklahoma History Digital Library
(Texas Digital Library, 2021-05-24) Dobbs, Katherine
Airtable Basics to Bring Your Work to Life!
(Texas Digital Library, 2023-05-18) Hernandez, Gabrielle
Airtable is a relational database that makes all your program’s data actionable. All your data is synced across all your workflows which allows updates to happen in real time without the hassle of manually updating information. As digital librarians, our work is constantly changing and our time is extremely valuable. Airtable can help us track our ever growing list of innovations, projects, data, and roles. In this demonstration, participants will learn the basics of Airtable to help bring their spreadsheets and workflows to life by structuring, syncing, and storing data in a way that fits each of our unique needs. It can also help organize our workflows by creating processes that can be shared with your entire team. With a few basic skills, you can create a sustainable way to let Airtable do the heavy lifting freeing up your time and mental load allowing for a healthier work life. By the end of the presentation, participants will: *Have a better understanding of Airtable *Learn the basic structure and commands of Airtable *Receive hands-on practice on how to create relational databases
All Aboard: Bringing the Community Forward to Fedora 6.0
(Texas Digital Library, 2021-05-24) Wilcox, David; Griffith, Arran
All In For the Bears: The History and Impact of the Baylor University Libraries Athletics Archive
(2015-04-27) Stuhr, Darryl; Ames, Eric
When members of the Digital Projects Group in Baylor’s Electronic Library first sat down with legendary football head coach Grant Teaff, they couldn't have predicted the scope and impact the resulting Baylor University Libraries Athletics Archive (BULAA) would have on preserving university history, raising funds and promoting morale with alumni. Darryl Stuhr – Assistant Director for Digital Projects – and Eric Ames – Curator of Digital Collections - will address the history of the project, its workflow and mechanics, and its impact on donors, Bears supporters and historians around the world. Attendees will gain insight on how to manage a multi-source digital collection, tips on selecting outsource service providers and soliciting support from nontraditional givers.
An Empirical Survey of the Analytic / Continental Divide
(Texas Digital Library, 2023-05-16) Barta, Walter
What is the difference, if any, between analytic philosophy and continental philosophy? Contemporary philosophers tend to identify themselves, and so contemporary philosophy is divided, roughly along these lines. Thus, two fields of discourse, the analytic and the continental, have emerged. But is this division substantive or rhetorical? Is it helpful or harmful? What are its effects inside and outside the discipline? Can these categories be concretely defined, or are they nebulous and provisional? Some metaphilosophers, like C. G. Prado, in A House Divided, have suggested that analytic philosophy and continental philosophy are distinguishable based on respective focuses, and that the divide falls along lines, such as these: problem solving versus political engagement, philosophical analysis versus synthesis (e.g. a genealogical orientation), bottom-up versus top-down approaches to disciplinary hierarchy. Others have suggested that the analytic/continental divide is erroneous, illusory, merely rhetorical, or simply nonexistent. Each of these constitutes a claim that is empirically testable against the fields of discourse of the two (sub)disciplines through a comparison of textual data: the presence of logically valent as opposed to politically valent words, manner of reference to historical figures, and distribution of textual citations. Inasmuch as these correspond to quantifiable metrics, each of the aforementioned questions may have a discrete and demonstrable empirical answer. The use of empirical and statistical surveys in philosophy is unusual, but its recent implementation by David Chalmers (as in his recent “What do Philosophers Believe?”) and other influential philosophers has proven its ability to develop important insights.
Animating Digital Libraries
(2016-05-24) Williamson, James; Southern Methodist University
Cultural heritage institutions and archival repositories are increasing their presence online with social media and are working to make a bigger impact online while making the best use of staff time. One of the ways that these institutions have been successful in reaching communities on social media has been through the adoption of internet communication and language. Significantly, more institutions are using frame animation to create GIFs (Graphic Interchange Format). GIFs created from movies, TV shows, artwork, etc. are ubiquitous on the internet. By taking physical and digital materials from their collections and manipulated them to create looping videos, animated artwork, and 3D models, institutions have found a way to adapt this internet currency to promote their archival holdings. This workshop will instruct participants on how to use image editing tools to create 3 types of GIFs used by cultural heritage institutions and archival repositories on the web. The instructor will lay out the underlying techniques that go into creating these GIFs step by step. The first part of the workshop will facilitate the use of several still images of an object to create a 3D like model. The second part of the workshop will help participants work with digitized video to create a looping video. The third part of the workshop will train participants to animate a piece of artwork. The workshop will conclude with a discussion on the issues surrounding the use of these techniques and how they can be addressed. The workshop will last 2 hours. Participants in the workshop will need to bring their own laptop along with a version of either Photoshop or Photoshop Elements. Both are available as a trial version for 30 days. To better facilitate hands on instruction, the number of participants will need to be capped at 25
Applying Visual Arts Pedagogy in the Training of New Digital Imaging Technicians
(2014-03-14) Rankins, Derek; Moore, Jeremy; University of North Texas
We propose a 24x7 presentation that provides insight into the training methods of UNT’s Digital Projects Lab. Derek Rankins and Jeremy Moore apply pedagogy from their visual arts backgrounds while training new digital imaging technicians. When students learn to scan items first, we assert they internalize a series of steps that, when completed, signify the job is done regardless of how the final image appears. Instead, student assistants now begin with quality control tasks so that they learn the difference between “good” and “bad” images before they are asked to create anything. This is further extended by having the students participate in peer reviews and buddy training sessions. The presentation will include sample images of common mistakes across a variety of imaging platforms.
Approaches developed to ensure accuracy and consistency of metadata for TRAIL reports
(2017-05-24) Rosenbeck, Craig; University of North Texas
The TRAIL collection is a compilation of technical reports funded by government research and published primarily ranging from 1920’s to 1980’s about a variety of topics. The TRAIL consist of National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) and Non-NACA objects and TRAIL stands for Technical Report Archive and Image Library. The collection consists of approximately twenty thousand objects spanning thirteen decades, covering fifty states and forty-seven countries. The University of North Texas (UNT) libraries harvested records NACA reports from the NASA website with existing metadata. There were some reports harvested from other TRAIL initiatives. The scanning of the Non-NACA reports were mostly done at the UNT libraries. In the early phases of the project, which was approximately around 2010, partial records were done, with intention of completing them at a later date. After the initial phase of the project, metadata is based on MARC records and editing was done at the UNT libraries in order to meet UNT libraries’ standards. Metadata came from different sources and had different levels of remediation. We needed a way to evaluate which records are most in need of editing and to identify problems we specifically wanted to target, instead of editing every record. There are special aspects for quality control implemented to safeguard accuracy and consistency in the digital library. The UNT libraries chose two primary issues pertaining to the TRAIL project, which could be identified and quantitatively measured. The first issue relates to incomplete records, records not having all eight required fields. The UNT libraries metadata guidelines define a minimally-viable record as having values for each of the eight required fields include: (main title, language, content description, subject, collection, institution, resource type, and format). Since, field values can be measured by the system, we can easily find records that are not “complete” based on that criteria and keep track of the number of records completed. The second primary issue refers to records that have creation dates at the first of month. This criterion is crucial because UNT libraries discovered there were discrepancies in the frequency of dates falling at the beginning of the month, mostly records harvested from NACA. The possible reason is due to a requirement or an issue entering dates into the database. An identifiable/measurable action can be implemented making minor changes to increase overall accuracy of these specific records. The priority is given to completing and fixing records of scanned objects. The graphs will display measured progress improving consistency and completeness of metadata in collection. An explanation will be given on why UNT libraries chose the criteria and other problems occurred that are not measurable. A description will be given on how improvement of findability and user experience. This poster may assist other institutions in identifying measurable problems in their metadata related to accuracy, consistency, or completeness. The implications presented in this poster, shows UNT libraries designed a plan, justified the plan, and able to show measureable results; which allows other institutions to begin implementing consistent steps to improve records.
The Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Latin America
(2014-03-25) Kung, Susan; University of Texas at Austin
The Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Latin America (AILLA) is a completely digital repository at the University of Texas at Austin, LLILAS Benson Latin American Studies and Collections. AILLA has no physical presentation space; its collections are accessible only through its website (www.ailla.utexas.org) via parallel interfaces in both English and Spanish. AILLA's primary mission is the preservation of irreplaceable linguistic and cultural resources in and about the indigenous languages of Latin America, most of which are endangered. Most of the materials in the archive are primary field data that were collected and deposited (donated) by linguists and anthropologists for whom audio and video recordings are a central part of their research methodology. Many indigenous organizations have also donated the results of their investigations to AILLA. The majority of AILLA's collection consists of audio and video recordings of discourse in a wide range of genres, including conversations, many types of narratives, songs, political oration, traditional myths, curing ceremonies, etc. Many recordings are accompanied by transcriptions and translations of the speech event. Other textual resources include dictionaries, grammars, ethnographic sketches, fieldnotes, articles, handouts and PowerPoint presentations. The collection also contains hundreds of photographs. AILLA's secondary mission is to make these valuable and useful resources maximally accessible via the Internet while simultaneously protecting personally, culturally and politically sensitive materials from inappropriate use and supporting the intellectual property rights of the creators. AILLA's system of access levels allows creators and depositors to have finely-grained control over their materials, which lets them restrict their entire collections or only certain files within the collections. For example, recordings might be public while transcriptions might be restricted or vice versa. Sensitive materials are protected; however, AILLA's directors, manager and depositors believe strongly that accessibility is equally important. Historically, very little of the fruit of linguistic and anthropological research has been genuinely available to the indigenous communities in which the research was done; AILLA aims to rectify that imbalance. Restrictions tend to keep speakers out, while researchers can generally gain access to archival materials through the academic network. Resources that are publically accessible can be heard and read by all speakers. Our policy is that if a resource can be made public, it should be made public; but if it is sensitive, it should be protected. Our goal is to ensure that the unique and wonderful resources preserved at AILLA can be used to maintain, revitalize and enrich the communities from which they arise. AILLA was intended from the outset to function as a partner with its depositors, providing them with a means of both preserving and sharing, under appropriate terms, the fruits of their work with the indigenous peoples of Latin America. The archive accepts any legitimate resources that can be housed in a digital format.
Archivematica Across Texas
(2018-05-16) Buckner, Sean
This poster depicts the academic institutions in Texas currently using the Archivematica digital preservation software to preserve digital content. The poster displays each institution overlaid on a map with key information from each regarding their implementation(s), content preserved, workflows, and/or points of contact. The poster also briefly presents the Texas Archivematica Users Group (aka A-TEX) and explains the group s purpose, intent, and online presence. Lastly, a brief description of Archivematica is offered for those interested in learning more about the system.

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