2024 Texas Conference on Digital Libraries
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/2249.1/156932
We’ve adapted, innovated, and survived, but now it’s time to reignite our curiosity! The Texas Conference on Digital Libraries welcomes you back to Austin to share your new endeavors and inspire each other with pioneering projects, services, and ideas. The TCDL Planning Committee invites you to consider how curiosity brings life and imagination to your work in libraries and archives. We can’t wait to see what you bring to TCDL.
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Item A Cursive Training Program to Improve Metadata Records for Cultural Heritage Materials(Texas Digital Library, 2024-05-22) Washington, Alma; Fisher, Sarah Lynn; McIntosh, MarciaCultural 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.Item Archivematica Birds-of-a-Feather(Texas Digital Library, 2024-05-22) Scott, BethanyThis Birds-of-a-Feather session is aimed at TCDL attendees who are Archivematica users -- or Archivematica-curious -- to participate in a broad discussion and ask for advice on implementing Archivematica and customizing it for their institutions' digital preservation use cases.Item Assessing, Processing, and Preserving UH Libraries’ Digital Archives: a TDL Resident Librarian Collab(Texas Digital Library, 2024-05-22) Oduok, Ima; Scott, BethanyThe Special Collections department at the University of Houston has a backlog of born digital materials that were donated with analog items. Once upon a time, several files were transferred from physical media to the network drive before the original media devices were placed in storage. An inventory spreadsheet was created. And this is where our story begins… Processing and preserving born digital materials poses particular challenges for university special collections and archives. Our project is a joint effort between the University of Houston’s Special Collections and Preservation and Reformatting Department, and the Texas Digital Library, to develop some workflows that can be shared with the larger digital archival community in the state. This presentation gives an overview of the project goals, steps taken so far, and future plans. Some of the main challenges we are seeking to address include: various types of file formats, handling different types of storage media, description and finding aids, and tailoring digital preservation system workflows. The presenters will also welcome feedback and ideas from attendees, encouraging knowledge sharing and potential future collaborations.Item AVAnnotate: Curating AV Digital Exhibits with IIIF and the Gloria Anzaldúa and Stella Adler Archives(Texas Digital Library, 2024-05-21) Clement, Tanya; Wintermeier, Trent; Turner, SamThis two-hour introductory workshop will teach participants how to use AVAnnotate (https://av-annotate.org/). First, participants will learn the AVAnnotate application, which starts with creating or using existing IIIF manifests, developing annotations, and building static web pages with GitHub Pages to present and share digital exhibits. Workshop leaders will teach through showcasing example AVAnnotate exhibits by showing the process used to create projects using recordings from the Gloria Anzaldúa collection at the LLILAS Benson Latin American Studies and Collections and the Stella Adler film collection at the Harry Ransom Center. The Adler and Anzaldúa collections are significant case studies that demonstrate AVAnnotate approaches to developing interventions into practices around creating AV access at LAMs, which are often made less accessible because of cultural, privacy, or copyright concerns. Finally, participants will be invited to discuss protocols for accessing audiovisual artifacts at their respective institutions, and how applications such as AVAnnotate can facilitate engagement with AV collections. AVAnnotate is an application and a workflow, designed by Dr. Tanya Clement and Brumfield Labs, which allows users to build digital exhibits of annotated audiovisual artifacts. AVAnnotate is free to use and leverages open-source resources such as GitHub and IIIF, making it well suited for archivists and librarians promoting accessibility and discovery with audiovisual archival collections held at libraries, museums, archives (LAMs), and other cultural heritage institutions. The workshop seeks to add to the digital toolkit for LAM professionals and researchers and to spark conversation about the changing nature of LAM AV archival practices for access and discovery. BEFORE THE WORKSHOP: The presenters suggest you create a free GitHub account (https://github.com) and bring a laptop and headphones if available.Item Better Together: Case Studies from the Digital POWRR Peer Assessment Program(Texas Digital Library, 2024-05-21) Clark, Kristin; Benson, Rebecca; Fiegel, JaneFrom January 2022-June 2023, three cohorts of six people were selected to participate in the Digital POWRR Peer Assessment Program, an IMLS and NEH funded project. The program provided a structured opportunity to learn about digital preservation concepts and engage in assessment, goal setting, and implementation activities in a supportive environment. In this poster, two participants from Cohort 3 and one participant from Cohort 1 will share highlights of their experiences in the POWRR Peer Assessment Program including how they assessed their digital preservation practices, outputs of the program, challenges, and progress they have made in action plans and goal setting.Item Blazing into New Collaboration: Digital Projects at UTA Libraries(Texas Digital Library, 2024-05-22) Russell, WhitneyUTA Libraries at the University of Texas at Arlington has started a new collaborative approach to digital projects and initiatives throughout the organization, and has created a Digital Project Steering Committee, which includes stakeholders across the libraries who are involved with digitization, digital humanities projects, and systems and web development support. This presentation will go over the decisions made for who is part of this committee and what authority they have in determining project workflows through the various libraries departments.Item Building Flexible & Replicable Digital Repositories(Texas Digital Library, 2024-05-22) Bennett, J.J.Drawing on prior successes with modular digital repositories, The University of Texas at Austin Libraries is continuing to evolve our architecture and thought processes as we embark on a series of strategic projects. Moving away from monolithic frameworks run on a virtual environment, we are standardizing development of new digital asset management systems and repositories with the use of Dockerized container-based services deployed with Kubernetes and using Github Actions to create a Continuous Integration, Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) pipeline. This approach significantly improves ease of deployment, scalability, resource management, maintenance, reproducibility, and future-proofing. Our new repositories are designed with modular and swappable services that allow for future iteration on or replacement of significant pieces without the need for a total rebuild of the underlying applications. Custom backend services providing python-based APIs and messaging queues provide the foundation for a diverse ecosystem that can accommodate an array of front end frameworks and other integrations. Our current initiatives include increased leverage of the Oxford Common File Layout (OCFL) via Fedora 6 in combination with SOLR to minimize the less-reproducible customization of unique relational databases. We are also exploring solutions to batch ingestion with repository agnostic microservices that can offer greater flexibility, performance, and more efficient resource allocation. Our briefing will discuss the strategies, technologies, and frameworks we are utilizing as we continue to evolve how we design and build digital archives for a wide variety of collections.Item Case Study, Jr.: How Digital Preservation System Designs Can Impact Workflows(Texas Digital Library, 2024-05-21) Banuelos, ChristopherHow might an institution work around the limitations of their digital preservation system? As an example, or mini-case study, I will explain how our organization, Rice University, modified our archival information packages to work with our preservation system's ingest process. In this case, we are using Archivematica to properly store our digital archival packages. The system can only ingest packages that are around 30 GB in size. However, we have several collections that are significantly larger. For example, the Houston Asian American Archive's digital collection is over 590 GB. How can we ingest this collection when there is a 30 GB threshold per package? Through much trial and error, we devised a workflow that allows us to split our package into multiple parts and use the preservation system to link the parts to back to each other. With this poster, Rice will happily share how we accomplished this task.Item Centering Humans in AI-enabled Manuscript Transcription(Texas Digital Library, 2024-05-21) Brumfield, BenHow can artificial intelligence be used to support humans instead of replacing them? This presentation demonstrates how we integrated Handwritten Text Recognition (HTR) into the FromThePage crowdsourcing platform while keeping humans central to the transcription process. We asked ourselves how can we introduce enough friction into our user interface that volunteers have to think rather than blindly trusting machine generated data, while still using AI to speed up their work and increase their pleasure? Our focus lay on enhancing user experience rather than on character error rates or model training. We will discuss design considerations, implementation specifics, and the initial outcomes of user testing conducted by the State Library of New South Wales and their Digital Volunteer working group.Item Coding logically: Using unplugged and digital tools to teach K-12 programming in academic libraries(Texas Digital Library, 2024-05-21) Shea, MichelleAt Texas A&M University- Central Texas, the university library has run free and ongoing coding logic camps for K-12 learners. In its first year, this camp was presented on a digital learning platform with the use of embedded videos, printable activities, coding word problems, and task-based scenarios for the Python language, as run in Trinket and Visual Studio Code. Participants were encouraged to post comments using discussion boards or utilize a virtual meeting room, open during specific weekday hours, to share questions with a student worker tutor. For subsequent years, we have hosted in-person sessions that incorporated simple robots, iPad programs, and Raspberry Pi devices with peripherals to help students build fundamental coding logic skills. In a four-day format, learners are introduced to algorithms, variables, strings, lists, conditional statements, loops, and functions through lesson scaffolding, which is built upon relatable examples and practical application of concepts. Students are seated next to partners to promote peer-based learning, but they are also provided support from the primary instructor during both unplugged and plugged activities. Each child leaves camp with a notebook of definitions, sample code, examples from working in pairs, and a desire to explore more text-based coding. We have piloted this program with smaller groups, but the concept is scalable, based on the number of devices available for hands-on engagement and the amount of instructors or support staff present to balance student-to-teacher ratios.Item Connecting Fedora Users Birds-of-a-Feather(Texas Digital Library, 2024-05-22) Slater, Dustin; Griffith, ArranReturning to in-person gathering has reignited the energy in the Fedora community and the program team is seeking new and unique ways to connect their users to each other. Building on the strong sense of community, Fedora is looking to understand their current user base and help identify meaningful ways they can continue to support their community as Fedora 6.x continues to gain in popularity and migration efforts are on the rise. This Birds-of-a-Feather session will give Fedora users an opportunity to gather, share their work, discuss roadblocks/barriers they’ve faced and what solutions they implemented, and draw on the expertise of their peers in an in-person setting. We are looking to bring Fedora users, old and new, from the former South Central States User Group (SCSFUG), back together to reconnect with their community. All are welcome.Item Copyright Curation for Digital Collections: It’s Not Always Clear-Cut – A look at the workflows, tools, and communications for this process(Texas Digital Library, 2024-05-22) Scott, MeganThe Texas Tech University Digital Scholarship Lab supports the university community by transforming traditional scholarship such as teaching, research, and primary archival records into diverse digital resources made available on Dspace. The TTU Digital Collections is a repository of digitized books and primary sources while the Southwest Collections hosts digital archival collections for a number of the Southwest Collections/Special Collections Library holdings. Due to the unique nature of these collections, the items are not always in the public domain. We use “curation” to refer to the process of determining the copyright status of the items in the collections that the Digital Scholarship Lab receives. As you can imagine, this is a very tedious process. However, it is necessary to respect copyright for these collections. We don’t want to spend time taking records down or be in any legal trouble for putting records up that should not be made available. This presentation will cover the workflows and tools used for copyright curation and highlight unique considerations we have faced while digitizing different types of collections. For example, contacting small local organizations such as churches, women’s leagues, etc. for our Historical Cookbook collection, determining copyright for items published outside of the United States, or tracking down publishers that have changed names or been part of multiple mergers. The presentation will conclude with lessons learned and overall implications for metadata, rights, and access to unique digital collections.Item Copyrighted Collections as Data Idea Lab(Texas Digital Library, 2024-05-23) Potvin, SarahThis Idea Lab session, prompted by the presenter’s planning for an IMLS-sponsored National Forum on copyrighted collections as data, asks participants to consider the feasibility of developing computationally accessible collections within and across their institutions. We will introduce different models for provisioning copyrighted collections as data, ranging from high-resource, controlled access data capsules to downloadable extracted features .csv files aligned with minimal computing. We will also explore the distinctive user needs that animate these projects, both for curators of copyrighted data, and for researchers. What shared possibilities can we identify, particularly working across Texas digital libraries, for building and sharing thematic collections of copyrighted material? What are our researchers and students seeking to learn from computational access to these collections of contemporary culture? In addition to imagining the wide-ranging possibilities, this Idea Lab will focus on questions of implementation by encouraging a clear-eyed understanding of the obstacles and barriers to this work.Item Creating and Supporting Collections as Data Birds-of-a-Feather(Texas Digital Library, 2024-05-23) Guzman, Allyssa; Pierce Meyer, Katie; Shensky, MichaelThe Always Already Computational: Collections as Data project (2016-2018) interrogated the idea of collections as data and offered the field a framework for considering the computational use of library and archival collections by scholars. Examples of computational use as defined by the Collections as Data Project include techniques like mapping, text analysis, visualization, network analysis and more. Collections as Data: Part to Whole (2018-2021) continued work in this area with a focus on responsible implementation and helped provide a foundation for ongoing conversations on this topic. Inspired and informed by the collections as data framework, we have experimented with applying computational methods to the curation of our collections at our organization and regularly work with users who are applying computational methods to digital collections. We know that colleagues at other institutions are likewise engaging in this type of work and this group hopes to facilitate a conversation among TDL attendees who were also inspired by the concept of collections as data. Through this session we aim to provide an opportunity to discuss how our various institutions are creating collections that can be used as data, facilitating their discovery, and supporting their use. In this conversation we plan to address themes such as ethics, methods for developing data from collections, promotion, AI, and responsible use. Interested in joining or continuing the conversation around collections as data in the TDL community? Please fill out this form, even if you’re not able to attend the session.Item Cultivating Community Collections at Texas Tech University Libraries Digital Scholarship Lab: A look at the processes, workflows, management, and progress of these projects(Texas Digital Library, 2024-05-21) McEniry, Matthew; Scott, MeganIn 2021, the Texas Tech University (TTU) Libraries Digital Scholarship Lab was tasked with finding community collections to digitize and make available. The Lab identified three community partners (Museum of TTU Paleontology, Museum of TTU Clothing & Textiles, and National Wind Institute) and have since worked/are working with three others (TTU Agricultural Education, TTU Human Sciences, and First Baptist Church of Lubbock). This presentation will look at the cultivation of these communal relationships, how we prepared for these projects, our management of resources, how we created workflows to suit them, and how much progress we've made. The most important aspects of working with external partners will be highlighted. Some of the more curious conflicts and interesting situations will also be laid out. Finally, a glimpse into plans of how the Lab wants to improve our discoverability and increase our offerings for future partners will round out the session.Item "Did you RTFM?": The Challenges of Developing and Maintaining an In-House AV Unit(Texas Digital Library, 2024-05-22) Gunner, Nat; Zoghlin, Natasha; Glazier, ArynCritical to the efforts of digitization and preservation are working machines for audiovisual material. Without maintained equipment, AV media is unplayable and un-transferable, resulting in a serious loss of archival information. The Briscoe Center has identified a widening gap in knowledge and availability of effective repair and maintenance work on this legacy equipment, and has begun developing a knowledge base focusing on this work. At the beginning of 2024, after multiple open-reel decks were identified as having various issues preventing them from working in good condition, as well as the unreliability of local repair services, we began to collect information and documentation that might shine a light on how to repair these machines. We have called on resources including other AV archivists and specialists, enthusiast forums, and whatever manuals we can acquire to understand maintenance as simple as cleaning, all the way up to knowing the ins-and-outs of the machines we use. However, scholarship in this area is thin, and resources for learning these skills are increasingly limited. Our policy has shifted from just learning the skills to collecting any and all forms of information related to playback equipment. This includes the aforementioned resources, and also any playback gear whether it is broken or not so that we can have a full picture of the equipment that exists. Through this we aim to provide knowledge to the community of AV specialists and generate questions that further develop our understanding of this looming threat to cultural heritage.Item Digital Humanities Data Speculations(Texas Digital Library, 2024-05-22) Potvin, Sarah; Wermer-Colan, AlexImagine: a networked, libraries-owned and governed approach to developing and sharing copyrighted collections as data across institutions. This speculation unfolds against the backdrop of vendor monopolies over copyrighted digital collections, which package collections for the purposes of reading alongside Text Data Mining portals, complete with specialized dashboards that can map and calculate the patterns of words across a set of texts. This lightning talk will overview efforts to develop a framework and recommendations for libraries to have a stake in stewarding copyrighted collections as data. Beginning with the core use case of published works of science fiction, the talk will outline planned next steps in the project.Item Digital Preservation Interest Group Meeting(Texas Digital Library, 2024-05-23) Mumma, CourtneyThe TDL Digital Preservation Services Interest Group (DPIG) will have an opportunity to meet in person to connect with other Texas-based digital preservation practitioners and discuss current issues. For more information about the DPIG, please see the wiki.Item Discovery Birds-of-a-Feather(Texas Digital Library, 2024-05-22) Gardner, BonnieCalling all web developers, application developers, UX specialists and anyone working with or interested in digital library discovery for a discussion about how we make our digital collections findable, accessible, and retrievable for our users. This session will provide an opportunity for show-and-tell and discussion topics that include discovery technology stacks, design, aggregated searching, personnel and maintenance requirements, and more. Open to all TCDL attendees.Item DSpace User Group Meeting(Texas Digital Library, 2024-05-23) Park, Kristi; Johnson, Emily; Ford, Linsey; Lyon, Colleen; Woodward, Nicholas; Lauland, NickThe annual in-person meeting of the TDL DSpace Users Group (DUG) is open to all conference attendees. This year’s meeting will feature presentations on managing embargoes in DSpace, the upcoming DSpace 8 release, and the US Repository Network’s CORE Discovery Pilot. The TDL DUG works to create an active community among DSpace users that facilitates mutual support for DSpace use and repository management; takes on collective projects for the benefit of the TDL consortium; and connects the TDL user community to the global open source DSpace community.