techMETRO

Coming This April: Semantic Web: Linking Up Libraries and Beyond

In collaboration with the the Archivists Roundtable of Metropolitan New York and the Library Association of the City University of New York (LACUNY), METRO is pleased to present “Semantic Web for Librarians & Special Collections” with Corey Harper, Metadata Services Librarian from New York University.

Date: Thursday, April 8, 2010
Time: 10:30 – 12:00 pm
Place: The Graduate Center, City University of New York, Skylight Room (9100, 9th Floor), 365    Fifth Avenue, between 34th and 35th Streets.
Fee: $25.00 for METRO and Archivists Round Table members; $40 for non-members. ART members contact Cynthia Tobar for the ART promotional code.
Registration: http://bit.ly/bcsgII

Description:
Discovery systems and library web interfaces increasingly need to make use of metadata in a variety of formats and from myriad sources. With existing library technology, this is only possible through metadata harvesting and normalization, federated search, or some combination of the two. Both of these solutions are post-hoc, and don't scale to the growing volume of data newly becoming available. Additionally, none of the standard library methods for metadata interoperability allow re-combining fragments of metadata at a finer granularity than the metadata record. This talk will focus on the technologies, philosophies and data models underpinning the Semantic Web and will demonstrate how these principles can improve metadata interoperability across library repositories and beyond.

Looking at library metadata in a broader context and "web-ifying" it has the potential to allow libraries to more effectively re-purpose and re-use their own data and more easily integrate new data sources into our discovery environments. Additionally, publishing linked data allows others on the web to make innovative and effective use of librarian-created metadata such as controlled vocabularies and authority control schemes to allow for re-combining fragments of metadata at a finer degree of granularity than the metadata record.

Speaker Bio:
Corey A Harper has been the Metadata Services Librarian at NYU since early 2007.  Much of that time has been spent on an ILS migration, and on the implementation and upkeep of a next-generation Enterprise Search System: ExLibris' Primo. This experience has further convinced him of the need for more rigorous data modeling and the use of common web protocols to support metadata interoperability. Prior to coming to NYU, Corey was nearly-a-cataloger-but-instead-a-Metadata-Librarian, as well as a Digital Library Developer and accidentally a systems librarian at the University of Oregon.

Gearing Up for METRO's First Pecha Kucha Event

On March 11, METRO will host our first Pecha Kucha event. Pecha Kucha (pronounced in three syllables like "pe-chak-cha) is a an exciting presentation format that provides an innovative, efficient, and entertaining platform for sharing information with an audience.

The format is simple. Presenters are allowed 20 slides, which automatically advance every 20 seconds for a 6 minute, 40-second presentation. METRO's first Pecha Kucha event (March 11, 5:30-7:30 at METRO's Training Center) will focus on "library technology" and provide METRO members with the opportunity to showcase projects, concepts, ideas they'd like to share with other librarians in the city. Check out the videos below for some examples of how Pecha Kucha is done.

This evening event will also feature refreshments and an opportunity to network with other members of the METRO community. This event is offered free-of-charge as a way to share information among institutions and individuals in the METRO membership. Click here to register for this free event (required): http://bit.ly/aNyuZu.

Pecha Kucha events thrive on participation and experimentation.Contact Jason Kucsma to let us know you'd like to give your presentation a spin. 

Two METRO Special Interests Groups Discuss Podcasting and Digital Project Planning

Friends of METRO know that we host and facilitate Special Interest Groups (SIG) for librarians and information professionals in the metropolitan New York region. Over thirteen groups meet regularly to discuss current events, pressing issues, share resources, and network. Next month, the Library 2.0 SIG and the Code4LibNYC SIG will convene to tackle two areas of technology and outreach for libraries. Please read on for details, and RSVP to let them know you're coming! 

MARCH 3, 2010 :: Library 2.0 SIG
Time: 10:00am-noon
Topic: Podcasting in Libraries
Location: METRO Offices: 57th E. 11th St, New York, NY  (4th Floor)
RSVP: Via GoogleForms or by email to let co-conveners Caroline Fuchs or Kathryn Shaughnessy know if you can make the March 3rd meeting.This meeting will cover an overview of podcasts and podcasting, and how these resources are being used in our current METRO libraries. Please bring your ideas and your willingness to share examples to the March meeting.  As always, feel free to put up links to examples of handy podcasting resources on the Lib2.0 wiki.

MARCH 16, 2010 :: CODE4LIBNYC SIG
Time: 10:00am-noon
Topic: Project Management for Digital Library Services
Location: METRO Offices: 57th E. 11th St, New York, NY  (4th Floor)
RSVP: Email co-conveners Kevin Reiss or  Joanna DiPasquale if you are planning to attend.

Practicing active project and portfolio management in creating products and services promises great rewards in improved communication, efficiency and productivity. The promised rewards can prove elusive, however, as attempts to standardize best practices across a department or institution can be stymied by resistance to change, differing needs, uneven experience, and a multitude of confusing tool choices. Attempting such an implementation can be daunting as it becomes difficult to know even where to begin.

Eric Stedfeld and Jennifer Vinopal will share some of their experiences with project and portfolio management as it has been applied at New York University , especially in the digital library area of NYU Libraries. Eric will present a brief framework that puts general project management principles in context. He will then provide background on some project management initiatives in NYU's information technologies and digital library environments. J ennifer will bring things up to date with the digital library group's current evolving practice, extending to portfolio management across projects and
services.

Handheld Librarian Online Conference :: Live Twitter Feed

Mashups, Management, and Copyright this March at METRO

Join METRO for one or more of three workshops this March for librarians, archivists, information professionals, and students interested in digital collection creation and management.

March 4, 2010
Library Mashups:
Exploring New Ways to Deliver Library Data

Instructor: Nicole Engard, Director of Open Source Education, ByWater Solutions
Time: 10:00am-1:00pm
Fee: $75 METRO; $50 myMETRO members; $100 non-members
Register and Information: http://bit.ly/axRg3W
Description: Nicole C. Engard, editor of "Library Mashups: Exploring new ways to deliver library data", will explain what mashups are, how they can be used and share examples from libraries around the world. In the first half of this workshop, attendees will learn about some of the tools they can use to mash up library data with content from the web to reach more patrons. Examples include using maps to enhance library data, using Flickr for digital collections and creating library websites with data from several information sources. After learning the basics and seeing examples from other libraries around the world, attendees will have a chance to create a website with WordPress.com pulling data from several sources on the web.

March 9, 2010
Planning and Managing Digital Projects

Instructor: Laurie Gemmill, Digital Program Services Manager, Lyrasis
Time: 10:00am-4:00pm
Fee: $150 METRO members; $100 myMETRO members; $200 non-members
Register and Information: http://bit.ly/ceqD0l
Description: This workshop covers all aspects of digital project planning, including: process development, project planning (including setting standards), identifying resources and budgets. The workshops will also address plan implementation, including developing workflow, quality control, collaboration, and evaluation.

March 17, 2010
Copyright for Digital Project Planning

Instructor: Linda Tadic, Professor, New York University
Time: 10:00am-4:00pm
Fee: $75 METRO members; $60 myMETRO members; $100non-members
Register and Information: http://bit.ly/9vfWW8
Description: Increased user demand for online content and wider acceptance of digitization as a preservation action requires librarians and archivists to become familiar with how copyright law intersects with their digital project planning. This workshop approaches copyright from the collections and project management perspective. An overview of Section 108 and how to analyze underlying or third-party rights in textual, visual, audio, and moving image content will be discussed. Metadata that can be captured as part of the legal due diligence process will be described in context so the purpose of the metadata is clear. We will perform exercises with common digital project scenarios.

For any questions, please email [email protected] or call Migdalia Cortes at 212.228.2320 x26.

Workshop Recap: Digital Preservation Tools, Systems, and Services

The following guest post comes from Timothy Ryan Mendenhall, a student at the Graduate School of Library and Information Studies at Queens College, CUNY. He attended the third workshop in our Digital Preservation Workshop Series and agreed to share his recap here. 

On Thursday, January 28, Tyler Walters led a packed workshop at the METRO headquarters entitled Digital Preservation: Tools, Systems, and Services. After coffee and cookies, the morning got off to a brisk start with a quick overview of the theoretical and practical fundamentals of digital preservation, which are necessary to evaluate the quality and effectiveness of any digital preservation tool or initiative. But theory is of little use without practice, so Walters launched into a discussion of the types of implementations and strategies which have emerged to respond to the challenges posed by digital resources. As in the analog sphere, one of the major difficulties with digital resources is that there is no "one size fits all" preservation strategy or tool. Therefore, each institution must determine the proper fit for its own institutional profile. Accordingly, in the first exercise, workshop participants were asked to design a repository model for a made up institution with a diverse set of resources. This task proved much more challenging than it may sound, and my group found it difficult to get beyond some of the basic questions pertaining to copyright, policy, and budget concerns. Nonetheless, we did manage to sketch out some basic ideas, and the ensuing group discussion was fruitful.

After lunch, the imperative to enact sound preservation policy and initiatives for digital objects was thrown into stark relief when a bug in a single Power Point slide confounded the computer's operating system mid-presentation, threatening to shut down the visuals. After some fruitless wrangling with the system, Walters was about to abandon the digital presentation and lecture from printed handouts of the slides, when a workable solution presented itself—migration of the Power Point file to PDF. If such a failure to render a digital file can occur from a disconnect between two contemporary, presumably compatible computers and operating systems, imagine the difficulties in store decades down the line if information professionals don't act now!
   
The afternoon presentations, which focused on software systems for preservation repositories, such as FEDORA and Rosetta, on resource-sharing initiatives and digital asset management consortia such as MetaArchive and DuraCloud, and finally on micro-tools like JHOVE which hone in on specific tasks associated with the OAIS repository model, were of the greatest benefit to me as a participant. With such a wide variety of initiatives being tested right now, it can be overwhelming to get a handle on each individual project's goals, specializations, strengths and weaknesses. Out of a mass of confusing acronyms, the workshop helped participants understand the unique nature and scale of these initiatives, services, and tools. As with physical preservation strategies, certain tools fit certain repositories better than others, and before contracting with a vendor or committing to a digital asset management software, it is necessary to find right fit for your institution's collection. Thus a small specialized repository might be better suited to partner with MetaArchive than with a larger program like the Internet Archive, to give an example. The ensuing exercise, in which our small groups evaluated different softwares and initiatives to determine which was the best fit for our made up repository from Exercise 1, really did help us compare and contrast the different services available.
     
The program ended with a quick presentation by ExLibris representatives on their Rosetta software, developed in cooperation with the National Library of New Zealand. As we left the METRO Training Center, we might not have become experts on digital preservation, but at least we now all had a much better grasp on the available resources to get a program started, which might be the most daunting hurdle to overcome in digital preservation. 

Digitech Newsletter :: February 2010

METRO Catalog Goes Digital, Interactive The METRO Course Catalog is your guide to all of the courses, seminars, and other professional development opportunities available every season from the Metropolitan New York Library Council. And now it’s going green! Beginning this year, METRO Course Catalogs will be distributed in electronic format for instant access to the information you need and quick links for easy online registration. We’re reducing our carbon footprint while making it easier than ever for you to take advantage of METRO learning programs. Download the interactive online catalog here: http:bit.ly/METROSP10 New York Public Library Releases Beta Map Rectifier NYPL's recently released "map warper" toolkit presents a unique opportunity for the library and its global community of users. Warper crowdsources the rectification of digitized maps in the NYPL digital collection -- allowing users to overlay historic maps onto more precise maps we're used to seeing/using these days. Visitors are invited to either browse rectified maps or view the short 10-minute tutorial and help rectify some maps on their own. "The great thing about the warper is that it represents an attempt by NYPL to really collaborate with the public to offer more sophisticated access to its collections," said Josh Greenberg, Director of Digital Strategy and Scholarship at NYPL. "There's no way we would be able to rectify all of our digitized maps ourselves, and this 'crowdsourced' model promises a way for users to both get more engaged with the collections AND contribute their work back." The warper toolkit is also being used to recify maps for relief and rebuilding efforts in Haiti: http://maps.nypl.org/relief/. We could say more, but you really should just sign up and engage the toolkit here: http://maps.nypl.org/warper/. METRO to Host Library Tech Pecha Kucha Pecha Kucha (pronounced in three syllables like "pe-chak-cha) is a an exciting presentation format that provides an efficient and entertaining platform for sharing information with an audience. The format is simple. Presenters are allowed 20 slides, which automatically advance every 20 seconds for a 6 minute, 40-second presentation. METRO's first Pecha Kucha event (March 11, 5:30-7:30 at METRO's Training Center) will focus on "library technology" and provide METRO members with the opportunity to showcase projects, concepts, ideas they'd like to share with other librarians in the city. This evening event will also feature refreshments and an opportunity to network with other members of the METRO community. This event is offered free-of-charge for METRO and myMETRO members as a way to share information among institutions and individuals in the METRO membership. Click here to register for this free event (required): http://bit.ly/aNyuZu. If you are interested in presenting at this event, please contact Jason Kucsma. Digital Collection Spotlight: Picturing the Museum: Education and Exhibition at the American Museum of Natural History Each month we take a moment to share digital collections created by METRO members. Recommend a collection for the spotlight by emailing [email protected]. Visual display of natural science has been a cornerstone of the mission of the American Museum of Natural History since its inception. Solidly based on the Museum's scientific exploration and research, AMNH educators, librarians and exhibition specialists have labored to make the knowledge and wonder of the naturalworld available to the public. Their efforts and those of their successors were, in turn, documented by museum staff and other photographers. The Museum's Research Library now manages its historical photographs and is following in theMuseum's tradition of making its history and visual resources widely available for the people, for science, and for education. View the collection here: http://bit.ly/bEPmn2. View this and more collections at digitalMETRO, an online directory of digital collections created and maintained by METRO libraries. Special Interest Group to Address Mobile-Friendly Websites for Libraries The Smart Phones and Mobile Computing Special Interest Group will be convening on Wednesday, February 24, 2010, from 3:00 to 4:30 at METRO to discuss "Mobile Versions/Skins for Library Web Sites." The meeting will feature talks from Matt Benzing, Information Technology Librarian, (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY) Michael Lascarides (User Analyst, Strategic Planning, New York Public Library) This SIG is for librarians, from all types of libraries, interested in smart phones and other emerging mobile computer technologies, and exploring innovative ways libraries can use these technologies to enhance staff workflow, provide patron services, and support patrons who use these tools. RSVP at http://bit.ly/mobilesig New NYU Blog Connects Archives and Special Collections The new year brought with it a new addition to the NYC library and archive blog community. The Back Table is a project of New York University's archives and special collections community aimed at strengthening the connections between NYU's archives and special collections and the communities they each serve independently. "The blog grew out of a series of conversations between staff at NYU's special collections where we realized that we were all doing really interesting things, and grappling with many similar issues," said Hillel Arnold, Project Archivist at NYU’s Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives. "In the very short time the blog has been up, we've already received several responses from people interested in donating material to our various repositories." The blog will feature contributions from professional staff of the Fales Library and Special Collections, the Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, and the New York University Archives, in addition to the professional staff of library departments that handle special collections, like the Preservation Department. Keep tabs on this and other related NYC library and archives blogs via the METRO Netvibes Universe. Ithaka Releases Print Collections Decision-Support Tool As part of their commitment to helping libraries maximize the management of their print collections while also ensuring long-term preservation within library systems, Ithaka S+R recently released "What to Witdraw" report. The report, concluded "that journals that are adequately digitized and preserved in digital form, contain few images, and are preserved in an appropriate number of print repositories, may be safely withdrawn from library collections without threatening their preservation." Ithaka S+R's Print Collections Decision-Support Tool aids librarians in making decisions about their print collections based on the logic of the "What to Withdraw" report. Libraries considering deaccessioning print titles may consider using the tool as one part of the entire collection development process. "Many librarians around the country have expressed an interest in making use of it, and following ASERL's endorsement a number of libraries have indicated plans to utilize it in their decision-making processes," said Roger Schonfeld, Manager of Research at Ithaka S+R. "I hope that as a result of this project libraries will be better able to allocate their print management resources to collections that are needed in that format, ensuring that the format migration does not threaten vital preservation needs." Read more about and download the tool here: http://bit.ly/b70OhT  Digitization and Emerging Tech Workshops and Events March: 04 - Library Mashups: Exploring New Ways to Deliver Library Data 09 - Planning and Managing Digital Projects 11 - Library Technologies Pecha Kucha 17 - Copyright and Digital Project Planning April: 15/22 - Mastering CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) 20 - Introduction to Metadata for Digital Projects 27 - Digital Imaging and Scanning: Principles and Practice May: 04 - Realizing a Culture of Assessment in Libraries: Three Perspectives (Panel Discussion) 05 - Essential Zotero: Mastering the Next Generation Research Tool 14 - Leveraging the Cloud: Cloud Computing and its Impact on Library Services 21 - Design Thinking Boot Camp Add these and other related events around NY and the world to your Google Calendar by subscribing to the METRO Calendar: http://bit.ly/metrocalendar. Newsfeed  The best of January's Tweets from the tweetMETRO feed (http://twitter.com/tweetMETRO): Do your part to protect NY libraries http://bit.ly/aLhv14 Just Posted: Elisabeth Stern's recap of METRO's "Risk Assessment for Digital Collections" workshop http://bit.ly/d98uRY Library 2.0 Special Interest Group is about to kick off their meeting this morning. On tap: widgets and gadgets in libs RT @jweise: California Digital Library Mass Digitization Projects Update: 2009 in Review http://bit.ly/ag3fnr (via @CalDigLib) Interesting conference coming up at Yale - The Past's Digital Presence http://digitalhumanities.yale.edu/pdp/ Notes now available from the ALA Midwinter meeting of the #LITA Emerging Tech Interest Group http://bit.ly/841wPx RT @epistemographer: Check out http://maps.nypl.org/warper/ , set up an account and build some geospatial data! introducing: The Back Table, a blog highlighting archives and special collections at NYU http://bit.ly/4Pkpnj RT @skeskali: An open letter to the library community from Gale: http://bit.ly/4Z8dQq Check out videos from CNI's very own Vimeo channel http://bit.ly/5JBxLn Ithaka launches Print Collections Decision-Support Tool - helps ensure preservation; aids in de-accession http://bit.ly/83FD9J Cooper-Hewitt Nat'l Design Museum's new exhibit features iPhone/Touch experience http://bit.ly/5RfqiQ WLS's Terry Kirchner interviewed for article about technology keeping the library vibrant http://bit.ly/77e6FJ CNI closing plenary vid - "Beyond Illustration: New Dimensions of 3D Modeling of Cult. Herit. Sites & Monmnts http://bit.ly/6tNnRq HRVH Hist. Newspapers takes first step to providing access to historic NY newspapers http://bit.ly/6qpo2U RT @tadawes: 10 Librarian Blogs To Read in 2010 (LIS News): http://tinyurl.com/ygwcqdm Don't forget to tag your tweets with #metrolibs to aggregate news of interest to other METRO libraries. Have other news you think we should be sharing with subscribers to this list? Tweet us at http://twitter.com/tweetmetro.

Workshop Recap: Risk Assessment for Digital Collections

The following guest post comes from Elisabeth Stern, a graduate student at the Graduate School of Library and Information Studies at Queens College, CUNY. She attended the second workshop in our Digital Preservation Workshop Series and agreed to share her recap here. 

The Metropolitan New York Library Council (METRO) hosted the second of a three-part informational Digital Preservation Workshop Series on December 16, 2009. Like the first part of this series, this professional development program was led by Liz Bishoff of BCR and Tom Clareson of Lyrasis.  Both are seasoned professionals in the field of library science and have extensive experience with digital library initiatives at the regional, national, and global level. Bishoff is director of Digital & Preservation Services at BCR while Clareson serves as Senior Consultant at Lyrasis.   

This workshop, “Risk Assessment for Digital Collections,” focused on the methods that could be used by institutions to help guarantee the safety of their digital archives and collections.  Bishoff and Clareson stressed the importance of digital preservation risk assessment, and they carefully worked through a template outlining goals and guidelines for assessing risks to digital resources.

This Risk Assessment template covered 9 areas that institutions might examine in order to mitigate risk to their collections:

• The template advised developing a mission statement for the institution that includes long-term dependability of access to digital items.  This might include a description of what’s being collected, legal mandates, documentation, etc.
• The importance of having a proper inventory for a digital collection was explained thoroughly; including the consequences involved in having multiple file formats.
• The template advised institutions to question its organizational fitness.  Bishoff and Clareson stressed the importance of an institution’s non-financial resources; i.e. its staff and training of staff.
• Finances, however, are always important so the template illustrated the fact that one must figure the amount of financial resources needed from an institution in order the achieve projects pertaining to their digital repository.
• Legal issues were certainly emphasized.  Bishoff and Clareson explained that there could be severe consequence to a person and his institution if maintaining the contractual and legal rights to control a digital collection is inefficient or incorrect in some way.

After discussing the first five critical first-step areas for assessing risks to digital collections, Bishoff and Clareson defined good methods of preservation and responsibility that might be taken if one’s agency already has digital preservation policy in place:

• Strong emphasis was put on preservation and quality control.  Bishoff and Clareson explained that an institution must develop goals based on mission statements pertaining to the maintenance of the collection.  Areas to consider when creating these objectives could include file formats, decisions regarding the repository’s infrastructure, rules about emulation or migration, etc.
• For a digital collection, in terms of preservation and item accessibility, pertinent and accessible metadata may be the most important aspect.  The template strongly advises that institutions compose a statement regarding the role, use and creation of the metadata associated with the items in their institution’s collection.
• Once a collection has been established, its preservation is impossible without the proper, trained staff working in appropriate positions.  The roles and responsibilities associated with the upkeep of a digital collection must be well-defined and outlined. 
• Finally, Bishoff and Clareson outlined the need for evaluating and updating a collection.  They explained that monitoring will often show need for updates and revisions in plans, policies, technology, file formats, etc. 

During the question and answer period, people were very eager to share stores about the digital collections where they work and the methods being used at their institutions in attempt to improve organizational procedures, risk management, and disaster planning, for example.  It was extremely remarkable to witness people from all areas of the field talking about such similar issues and the problems associated with them.

When Ms. Bishoff spoke about assessing and managing the risks in one’s digital repository, she discussed conducting an audit of digital collections using DRAMBORA (Digital Repository Audit Method Based on Risk Assessment). DRAMBORA allows an auditor to inspect and review an institution’s digital collection and mitigate its risk. It appears to be an extremely useful tool for institutions interested in executing a self-audit.

During a live display of how DRAMBORA might be implemented, Clareson and Bishoff provided a deep explanation of digital risk assessment and disaster mitigation.  While work in the field is ongoing and mission-critical, it must be noted that Bishoff and Clareson warned that digital risk assessment is still an emerging field whose methods are unfinished and imperfect.  They explained that this is a rapidly changing field with new ideas being put forth daily, and advised staying current with the newest technologies and practices through more workshops, local and national discussion groups/ listservs, and trade journals.

A report from the third workshop in this series, “Digital Preservation Tools, Systems, and Services,” will be forthcoming on this blog.