Fab's Father

How not to do it

2009-09-07T12:07:00.001-07:00

After having gone live with our digital collections using CONTENTdm, I can offer some do's and don't when creating a digital collection. In our case it was primarily photograph collections.

First, start with a couple of small manageable collections, not large collections. By small I am suggesting 100-200 images. At this point, you have little if no experience working with digital images and CONTENTdm. Why start with large collections that are more unmanageable than you realize. With small collections you can easily make corrections to the records and you will get experience using the software, the controlled vocabularies, and the general feel for the workflow that will be involved. Changes will constantly being made as this is a trial and error period.

Second, work with collections that are not just processed, but also have been researched. At the same time don't assume a processed physical collection will be organized in a manner conducive to a digital collection. What's in a box together doesn't necessarily equate to an organized collection. Having the research done also helps tremendously. Otherwise you are constantly stopping to do more research which interferes with the workflow.

Third, get more than one person's perspective from the very beginning. Each person brings different work and life experiences to the project. No single person can recognize the multiple perspectives that a image/collection can be viewed from.

Fourth, be selective on what you are digitizing. Ten images of the same building from slightly different angles does not improve the digital collection.

Fifth, think outside of the box. Just because they are in the same archival collection doesn't mean they have to be in the same digital collection. When a group of organizations are working together on their digital collection website it may make sense to pull photos from a variety of collections to create a single new digital collection. An example might be a collection of 1906 San Francisco earthquake photos. If multiple organizations have photos of this event it may make better sense to pull them together to create a new digital collection.

Sixth, communicate with everyone working on the project. Communication is crucial especially in a consortium site. It's a team project and everyone's thoughtful input can only improve the digital collections.

Seventh, take your time. You want to continue to move forward, but you don't want to sacrifice quality for quantity. And you don't want to always be backtracking and making corrections.

I could probably keep on going with this list, but my hands are tiring.

Authority Services

2008-12-16T19:28:00.000-08:00

Do library administrators understand the concept of authority control?? Hey, I'm in cataloging and I still have issues in understanding all that is involved with authority control and the services that we have outsourced in this area. I do know that we need it. It's not a maybe, it's a necessity. We unfortunately have a library administrator who doesn't truly understand the need for authority control and doesn't appear to have any interest in learning. There's a mental wall blocking out any sense of rationale on the subject (one of among many subjects).

Should we care?? I keep telling myself don't sweat the small stuff and it's all small stuff, but we are being led in a direction that makes no sense at all. Do we do authority control ourselves, as we did in the past or do we just forgo this activity? Lacking the staff we may just have to do sporadic checking and move on. We have enough issues with the catalog without adding this to the pile. Don't sweat it. Keep telling myself don't sweat it.

It's the gifts

2008-12-16T19:13:00.000-08:00

It's not the materials we are purchasing that need original cataloging, it's the gifts that we add to the collection. We are in the process of cataloging Fetish& which has pictures of good luck charms/fetishes that attendees of the 1997 MTV video music awards presentation brought in to be photographed. Such an odd item, that may have some relevancy in an academic library, but only some.

Maybe I shouldn't complain, it's keeping us busy and we are learning to expand our skills by stretching our brains to catalog unusual items.

Artists' books are another area that is stretching my brain. Trying to edit or create records for the odd sorts of materials that are artists' books-- expensive artists' books. These materials are always a challenge.

There's still work to do

2008-12-02T18:46:00.000-08:00

Just a few thoughts to pass on.

Outsourcing of work to create efficiencies doesn't necessarily mean we don't have work to do.

Non-catalogers and library administrators are not recognizing and acknowledging that there needs to be a lot of time devoted to the maintenance of the catalog and to the individual records that make up the catalog. So, there may be services/options to automate a variety of processes, including cataloging, but there still needs to be ongoing maintenance and revision of records to ensure that URLs are connecting properly and the database is clean. We can continue to add records through automated processes, but that leads to duplicate bib records that need to be cleaned up and other related issues.

This also applies to the work related to electronic resources that are being purchased to replace paper periodicals and monographs. There are services such as Serial Solutions to aid in the management of these resources, but vendors are constantly making changes that they do not necessarily notify us about. Someone is always going in and cleaning up holdings information and resolving connectivity issues that need to be fixed at our end.

These services are great, but they don't run properly without ongoing oversight by a real person or persons.

A related thought. Just because you take "professional" librarians off the reference desk doesn't mean there is no reference desk. Someone else needs to come in a take on that responsibility in some manner. Work is shifted and adjusted, it doesn't disappear.

Annual posting

2008-12-01T19:41:00.000-08:00

Looks like it's been over a year since I last posted an entry to my blog. I just read a couple of my previous postings and initially wondered who wrote this. Then I realized that I wrote it over a year ago. It appears that my writing style changes when I start to blog. Not necessarily a better writing style than normal, just a different style. Maybe I think someone is actually going to read the posting, so I change to what I think might be a more acceptable style. Hey, do I sound academic? literate? somewhat literate? Questions to ponder until the next installment.

Hello, It's been a long time.....

2007-09-25T13:08:00.000-07:00

Is cataloging dying out? Is it an area of the profession that is becoming unnecessary, obsolete and antiquated? That's the word I seem to be hearing and I don't know why. Not everything can be copy cataloged and if you look at OCLC you know that there are large quantity of poorly constructed cataloging records. So you can't just accept any record you find in OCLC.

Will metadatars replace catalogers? One of the trends occurring in academia is to bring in new MLS graduates to do the metadata in a unit separate from the library. At least that is what I heard at a workshop I attended last week. Shouldn't some catalogers be transitioned into metadata positions? It's basically the same set of skills that are being used in both activities. MARC is a metadata schema so it should be an easy transition.

Maybe I should just assume I will be a member of the last generation of catalogers. In the future we may just have Google to serve the needs of all users. They will have digitized everything and make it easily searchable for everyone. Hey, Google do you have any jobs for old geezers like me? I can type. That's still a transferable skill, isn't it?

Are Reference Desks Dying Out?

2007-04-23T12:45:00.000-07:00

That's the title of the article in the April 20, 2007 issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education. Well, are they or aren't they? In the article some surveys have indicated that students want the traditional reference desk while others have the opposite result. Is that such a surprise?? University campuses are different. Libraries can be different too. What works in one library will not always work in another.

The article also talks about using library clerical workers to staff the reference desk. So where are they getting all of these clerical workers? Are they hiring more staff to work the desk? I doubt it. Most likely they are pulling staff from other areas and having them work some hours on the desk. So it's not the reference desk that's dying, it's the use of librarians staffing the reference desk.

Maybe we should rename the reference desk to service desk. That would be more appropriate and correct.

Week 9, Thing 22 and 23

2007-03-31T12:37:00.000-07:00

Well, I tried to look at ebooks and audiobooks. I did not feel comfortable having to register for everything and then have to download software in some cases. These extra steps could be very frustrating for users. This as well as many other library products lack any standardization so users have to learn and adapt to every vendors site. This is so irritating and making their use more complicated than it has to be. Why can't there be some standard interface with these products? Why does each vendor feel the need to create their unique site with unique software needs? Please simplify if you want people to use your product!!

I basically have an aversion to trying to read an entire book online. For me that is not a viable option. I don't want to read a monitor.

Well, the final entry to the 23 things. It has been mostly an entertaining educational experience. I learned more than I thought I would and feel like I have advanced in my knowledge of the technical/internet world. I am sure there is much more to come. In fact, I'm sure there are a great many other existing sites that we did not even touch on in this excursion through 23 things. How do you find and evaluate all the sites? How does anyone find time to investigate all these sites? And just think of all the new sites and services that are in the process of being developed at this moment. It's more than I can handle at this point. Good luck to us all.

Week 9, Thing 21

2007-03-31T12:24:00.001-07:00

How do you stop the podcast??? I got it started and can't get it to stop!! The site I went to did not state the length of the podcast as far as I could tell. It would have been useful to have that information available before I got into it and now can't get it to stop. Oh, I just figured out how to get it to stop.

I also found out I lost my Bloglines account that I had set up. I did not go to my email account and respond to their validation email in a timely basis. I guess I need to start all over with that system. After figuring out how to get back on I added an RSS feed for Chronicle Books.

At this point I question the real use of this application in libraries. I am much more visual and would prefer to have at least a powerpoint presentation to coincide with the audio. I'm sure someone will find something useful from this.

Week 9, Thing 20

2007-03-31T11:42:00.000-07:00

YouTube. My first thoughts when I was viewing it right now were "this is entertaining" and "are there copyright issues to be concerned about". Then I thought, how could this be applied to libraries? Maybe we could have a page with a variety of links that provide directions to the restrooms or the copier from each workstation or service point in the library. We can suggest people go to the YouTube for directions to the restrooms. We just need some short video clips to provide that useful information. Or maybe even kiosks at various locations throughout the library. There would be buttons to select "directions to restroom", " directions to copier" etc. The user would select a button and the video will display with the directions.

I guess in reality instructional information videos could be made available through YouTube. The library could have their own page(s) in Youtube with all sorts of informational videos. Throw in a few comedy shorts to keep users entertained.

week 8, Thing 19

2007-03-31T11:25:00.000-07:00

I revisited the LibraryThing website and added to my shelf. I guess I should know how to create a link to my shelf from this blog, but I don't or I forgot how to do that. I copied the URL so you can copy and past the address. Sorry about that.

See my bookshelf at http://www.librarything.com/catalog.php?view=shigaki&shelf=shelf

I looked at one of the public libraries and how they are using this site. I can see it helpful to highlight newly acquired materials in their collection, if that is what they were trying to do. For libraries with very very small collections it would be useful too.

Of the books I have on my bookshelf, Tortilla Curtain and The Good German were held by quite a few readers. For the other books I listed there weren't so many other readers. I guess I'm not reading the really popular materials. People should read Ann Purser. For a light mystery read she is great.

Week 8, Thing 18

2007-03-31T11:14:00.000-07:00

I took a look at the Zohowriter site. I found a couple of features intriguing. I liked the fact that there were some templates available for use. Why recreate something new for some basic layout features. The fact that more than one person could work on the file at the same time would be useful if doing a group paper.

Week 7, Thing 17

2007-03-31T11:02:00.000-07:00

I did the posting to the library wiki under the favorite books page and entered my blog address so you know I have been there. I'm still skeptical about the use of a free for all wiki in libraries. I could see classes using it to develop a group project or as a means of communication among classmates. In a library???

Week 7, Thing 16

2007-03-31T10:38:00.000-07:00

Wiki's. I took a look at the St Joseph County Public Library (SJCPL), Princeton Public Library, and the ALA conference sites. I found the SJCPL site to be well organized and easy to follow. It also seemed like it wasn't a wiki. Could I have been at the wrong site. It looked like library staff had control of what was input. I browsed through the cookbooks page where they highlighted the basic cookbooks all kitchens should have, such as the Joy of Cooking. Then there were links to their catalog records for cookbooks on different health concerns, such as high cholesterol. Good use of the wiki application.

The Princeton wiki scared me as most wikis do. Since anyone can post and edit how do you control what people are writing about a book or anything? Does someone have to review all entries before they are posted to the public? As a library, whatever is posted will reflect on the library. I'm afraid of inaccurate information being posted or libelous information being posted.

The ALA conference site was lacking. A number of things I clicked on really didn't get me to anything. This would have been a great place to post minutes of meetings and summaries of programs in an organized fashion. At least the places I went to did not seem organized. Just a bunch of people blogging instead.

Week 6, Thing 15

2007-03-31T10:18:00.000-07:00

Library 2.0 and what it means. Well, what does it mean? In general I think it means that libraries need to adjust their ways of operation to include popular technological methods and easy for the user methods. If libraries don't adjust soon and quickly our existence and necessity will be questioned?!? One writer suggests that at his institution there is a ratio of 1 librarian to 608 students. There is no way they can provide effective training for all those students given the ratio. But what is the solution?? At our library the solutions are too varied and too many. Users will expect the traditional services and the new services on top of that. Libraries are not receiving venture capital to explore and expand. How are we to do this with what always appears to be shrinking resources? Maybe we need to reduce the spending on developing the collections as one author suggested. You will never be able to have everything to meet everyone's needs and in most libraries circulation is down. So why build collections? Once we get Library 2.0 started there will be Library 2.1, 2.2, etc. How do we stay ahead of the game??

Week 6, Thing 14

2007-03-31T09:50:00.000-07:00

Technorati!?!? Now this is a site I probably won't be frequenting. I did the different searches for Library2.0 and guess who came up?? Minerva's page. I haven't been able to truly understand the joys of blogging these past few months. I'm not sure if I ever will. Maybe when I retire and have more free time available I might get into blogging.

I tried a couple of other searches and to me it's difficult to determine what is being retrieved. I undoubtedly need to spend more time exploring.

I did view some of the videos that were readily available. Now that was fun and entertaining. Some people are very creative and have a lot of time on their hands. Will this be the start for a Steven Spielberg wannabe?

Week 6, Thing 13

2007-03-31T09:21:00.000-07:00

Yes, that was del.icio.us. Now I know what del.icio.us is about. April would refer to this term and it just went over my head. I started my de.icio.us account by adding LibraryThing.com. I actually opened a free account on their site. Its embarrassing to admit, but I basically kept a paper version of LibraryThing. I would read a book and add it to my handwritten list in a notebook I've been maintaining for a number of years. It's not that I read a lot, but I would want to read another book by an author I had read before and I just could not recall the name of the book or the name of the author. I may keep the LibraryThing going after this exercise is completed. It's a helpful tool for middle aged people like me who can't remember anything.

Week 5, Thing 12

2007-03-29T16:29:00.000-07:00

Well, I tried Rollyo. At first I did not grasp the concept of what it was doing. After talking to April and Christine I got gist of what its purpose was. I tried to create my on Rollyo for some cataloging sources. I added a couple of public domain sites from Cataloger's Desktop and a couple of sites I had bookmarked. I did not register, so I am not sure if what I created was retained or will be retained for any period of time. I see the usefulness of the site. If we could do it in our library's website --or can we?

Week 5, Thing 11

2007-03-29T16:00:00.000-07:00

I took a look at Reader2 site. I spent about 20 minutes with it and couldn't really get a grasp of what it was supposed to do. I put in the titles of a couple of books I have recently read and there were no similar books to read listed. Came up with zero--nada--nothing. They had some "chicklit" materials on one of their front pages, but they were not the types of things I normally read. Some of the other titles were for graphic novels. Again, not my thing. All sites are not created equal and this one fell quite short of equal for me.

Week 5, Thing 10

2007-03-29T15:19:00.000-07:00

I've moved on to online image generators. This was a relatively easy exercise that I had some fun with. I'm not sure if the people in this photo would find it fun, but hey I'm making this and I can do what I want to do. These three individuals supported and still support to some degree the government publications/depository program at our library. This photo is at least 4 years old and the male individual of lesser physical stature sure doesn't look like that these days. He's looks like he has a nice tan or the camera makes him look very tanned.

I added Jack Nicholson. Somehow the wording seemed suited for this image.

Image generators, if I had the time and the digital photos I can see myself wasting time on these sites.

Week 4, Thing 9

2007-03-29T15:03:00.000-07:00

I looked at the various blog pages that were listed in the exercise. Is there something wrong because I don't get it? So much of what I looked at was basically people's useless ramblings. Or am I being too critical? Maybe you need to go through a lot of useless information until you get to things that may be of some value.

One of the sites kept giving me zero hits. The site looked like a skeleton site map so it might be that they were having some technical problems.

I learned that a lot of American Idol viewers are not happy that Sanjaya is still on the program. Some of them are getting very threatening in their postings. I'm getting to see that these blogs give so many people the opportunity to spread vicious ideas and opinions. But hey, who's reading them. Uh oh, I guess me.

Week 4, Thing 8

2007-03-29T14:38:00.000-07:00

RSS Feeds. My first attempt at adding an RSS feed to my blog reader was a frightening experience. I went to the local NBC station web page and got an RSS feed for some type of local news. All of a sudden there were about 60 articles fed my way. As I'm sitting there wondering what am I going to do more articles arrive. Time to unsubscribe from that feed.

I then went to Bloglines and looked at their site for most popular feeds. I added a variety of feeds on environmental issues and a variety of other things. I tried to add book reviews from the New York Times and the Washington Post, but I received an error message. As I selected 10 feeds for my blog reader I encountered a number of feeds that would not work properly.

The more I read about these blogs I wonder who reads these crazy things. In general, most of the stuff is just entertainment on a computer. Some parts educational, but for the most part entertainment. You see how people can be creative using the tools available to them to create some sometimes humorous videos. Where do they find the time?

Week #3, Thing 6,7

2007-03-29T14:25:00.000-07:00

I looked at Mappr, Flickr Color Pickr and Montage a number of weeks ago and looked at them briefly today. Very entertaining and I enjoyed the colors. I guess I would have to take some digital pictures somewhere along the way to create my own montage with pictures that would have any real meaning to me. Lacking a digital camera and a relatively new home computer I guess that won't be happening anytime too soon.

I can see how people can get a bit addicted to all this technology though. It would tire out my hands, but you might have a nice product in the end.

#7 Write about anything techie?? I guess this is about as techie as I am going to get for awhile. No plans to purchase a digital camera or new computer. I get techie every night with the channel changer on the tv. One changer for changing the channel, another changer to adjust the volume and another changer if I want to watch a DVD. My cats can even use the channel changer. Of course the don't do it on purpose, but their little paws can wreck havoc with the tv.

I can operate my microwave oven. Does that count? Oh, i just attached a printer to one of the student assistant pcs today and it worked.

Week 3, Thing 5

2007-01-22T11:37:00.000-08:00

This week involves looking at digital photos on Flickr. I browsed the site a bit and decided to play it safe with a photo of the library where I work. This the entrance to the library from the campus side. I explored a little more and retrieved the cat photo from Flickr and added it to this blog. Pretty simple thing to do, amazingly enough.

Week 2, Things 3 & 4

2007-01-20T09:06:00.000-08:00

Well, I created a blog. At least I think I did. Welcome to my blog. So far still not too distressing. A bit confusing when the system asked for my email address. Will this blog create additional email? Hopefully, something will be posted here that will be of some interest or entertainment value for someone out there in the big wide internet world. For thing 4 I submitted an email registering my blog for the rest of the library to monitor as part of the program.

Week 1, Thing 1 & 2

2007-01-20T08:59:00.000-08:00

Am I learning?? Am I having fun?? I survived week 1 without any distress. Will that continue to be the case? We will see. For thing 2, I viewed the 7 and 1/2 habits tutorial as requested. I have no problem accepting responsibility for my own learning, but I do have some issues with viewing problems as challenges. Aren't problems, simply problems? No I need to change my attitude if I am to forge my way through the 23 things. Onward....