techMETRO

Takeaways from the Digitization Special Interest Group Meeting on Digital Preservation

The Digitization Special Interest Group, convened by Cynthia Tobar and Mike Handis (both at the Mina Rees Library, CUNY Graduate Center), met today to discuss digital preservation issues for libraries and archives. The meeting featured a panel presentation with John Mignault (New York Botanical Garden), Andrea Buchner (Gruss Lipper Digital Laboratory at the Center for Jewish History), and Jennifer Vinopal (New York University).  It was a great discussion spanning workflows, technology solutions, and policy. Here are some of the resources the panelists recommended and handed out to participants:

RECOMMENDATIONS FROM JENNIFER VINOPAL 

Title: Digital Curation for Preservation
Authors: Tyler Walters & Katherine Skinner, for ARL
http://www.arl.org/bm~doc/nrnt_digital_curation17mar11.pdf

Abstract: Digital curation refers to the actions people take to maintain and add value to digital information over its lifecycle, including the processes used when creating digital content. Digital preservation focuses on the “series of managed activities necessary to ensure continued access to digital materials for as long as necessary.” In this report, we highlight the intersection of these actions, specifically focusing on how digital curation must facilitate the preservation of our shared digital memory 

Title: Digital Preservation of Moving Image Material?
Author: Howard Besser
Abstract:  An overview of the changes in production and distribution technology of moving image and its impact on the AV archiving process. Special attention is given to two paradigm shifts: from managing complete productions to asset management and from preservation of the physical object as an artifact to the preservation of individual content items. Although published in 2001, this article is still relevant today. 
http://www.prestocentre.eu/library/resources/digital-preservation-moving-image-material
Note: old, but still considered relevant by the author 

Title: SDS Final Report
Title Gloss: Supporting Digital Scholarship, a Mellon-funded project to explore library adoption of "born digital" content created during faculty-driven research
Summary: the report contains six sections and four appendices. The next section examines the problem that the project set for itself. Section 3 discusses the significant properties method. Section 4 looks at levels of collection. Section 5 discusses our work in collecting born-digital projects. Section 6 contains the results of an extensive investigation of policy issues.
http://www2.iath.virginia.edu/sds/SDS_AR_2003.pdf
Note: old, but still considered relevant by the authors 

RECOMMENDATIONS FROM JOHN MIGNAULT

 The Digital Curation Google Group at http://groups.google.com/group/digital-curation?hl=en&pli=1. Pretty active list and a good way to stay on top of what's going on in the field. Skews slightly geekwise.

The Biodiversity Heritage Library at http://biodiversitylibrary.org - BHL (of which my library is a founding member) is both an access and preservation project and is interesting from the standpoint of 12 variously sized libraries coordinating a preservation project for all their pre 1923 biodiversity literature.

Archivematica at http://archivematica.org - Archivematica is a new open source archiving and preservation system which already handles an impressive number of file formats. Interestingly it is distributed as a "virtual appliance" - a virtual machine that has the software already and installed and configured.

RECOMMENDATIONS FROM ANDREA BUCHNER

RLG/OCLC Working Group on Digital Archive Attributes (2002). Trusted Digital Repositories: Attributes and Responsibilities. Retrieved March 22, 2011 http://www.oclc.org/research/activities/past/rlg/trustedrep/repositories.pdf 

Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (2002). The OAIS Reference Model. Retrieved March 22, 2011 http://public.ccsds.org/publications/archive/650x0b1.pdf  

NISO Framework Advisory Group (2007). A Framework of Guidance for Building Good Digital Collections. Retrieved March 22, 2011http://www.niso.org/publications/rp/framework3.pdf

The Center for Research Libraries (2007). Trustworthy Repositories Audit & Certification (TRAC): Criteria and Checklist. Retrieved March 22, 2011 http://www.crl.edu/sites/default/files/attachments/pages/trac_0.pdf

Blue Ribbon Task Force on Sustainable Digital Preservation and Access (2010). Sustainable Economics for a Digital Planet: Ensuring Long-Term Access to Digital Information. Retrieved March 22, 2011 http://brtf.sdsc.edu/biblio/BRTF_Final_Report.pdf

Library of Congress (2011). Sustainability of Digital Formats: Planning for Library of Congress Digital Collections. Retrieved March 22, 2011 http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/formats/

Digital Preservation Policies

Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR( (2007). ICPSR Digital Preservation Policy Framework. Retrieved March 22, 2011 http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/ICPSR/curation/preservation/policies/dpp-framework.jsp

Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR( (2007). Digital Preservation Policy Framework: Outline. Retrieved March 22, 2011 http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/files/ICPSR/curation/preservation/policies/dp-policy-outline.pdf

Library and Archives of Canada. Digital Preservation Policy (2006). Retrieved March 22, 2011 http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/collection/003-200-e.html

National Library of Australia (2009). Digital Preservation Policy. Retrieved March 22, 2011 http://www.nla.gov.au/policy/digpres.html

Digital Imaging Standards

Puglia, Steven, Jeffrey Reed, and Erin Rhodes (2004). Technical Guidelines for Digitizing Archival Materials for Electronic Access: Creation of Production Master Files – Raster Images. (2004). Retrieved March 22, 2011 http://www.archives.gov/preservation/technical/guidelines.pdf

Recommended Workshop

Nancy McGovern. Digital Preservation Management: Implementing Short-term Strategies for Long-term Problems. Digital Preservation Workshop Sponsored by the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR)

 

Planning and Managing Digital Library and Archives Projects comes to METRO with @acocciolo

METRO is pleased to welcome Anthony Cocciolo, Assistant Professor at Pratt Institute School of Information and Library Science, to the METRO Training Center on March 23 for our "Planning and Managing Digital Library and Archives workshop. The workshop is part of our yearly workshops on essential skills for building digital colllections. Read more about the workshop below and register here.

Is building a digital collection enough? What comes next? How do we guarantee long-term access? Can we afford to do this? These and other issues will be considered in this workshop designed for both librarians and archivists interested in creating or maintaining digitization projects within their institutions. The first part of the workshop will be dedicated to establishing a purpose, perspective and strategy for your digital project so that it has the best chances for community impact and success. How will your digital collection be made meaningful and interesting to patrons? What learning goals motivate your effort? What about born-digital material? The second part will be dedicated to establishing a solid technical, organizational and resource infrastructure needed for the successful execution and maintenance of your digital project. This section will cover issues such as long-range budgeting and funding, ensuring technical elements as well as human resource infrastructure, adopting sensible standards, and ensuring legal and ethical compliance. And lastly, the course will conclude with strategies for evaluating your digital project for its efficacy.

Who should attend:
Librarians, archivists, and students interested in launching or maintaining digitization projects

By the end of this program, participants will:

• Be able to develop a strategy for a successful digital project
• Have the necessary information to evaluate their technical, organizational, and resource infrastructure for digital project readiness and make adjustments to ensure readiness.
• Be able to evaluate their digital project for effectiveness
• Be able to make legal and ethical judgments related to digitization

Twenty Dollars + Two Hours = Keys to Successful Digital Collaboration

You can't even take your significant other to a talkie in the city for $20, but $20 will get you into our feature-length webinar on the keys to successful digital collaboration. Featuring the seasoned digital pioneer, Liz Bishoff, this webinar will include the role of leadership, defining responsibilities for each partner in a collaborative, and other essential ground rules for building successful collaborative initiatives.

Whether your organization is embarking on a digital project for the first time or is collaborating with a new partner, join us from 1:00pm to 3:00pm and take away these valuable tips to ensure success!

Registration fees: $20 members; $20 myMETRO; $40 non-members
To register, please visit: http://bit.ly/935aR4 

This session will be recorded, and registered participants will have access to the archived recording if they are unable to attend the session during the scheduled t  ime.

Two New Collections from Columbia U. Libraries and New-York Historical Society Added to digitalMETRO

Two new digital collections were recently added to digitalMETRO, the Omeka-powered directory of digital collections created and maintained by members of the Metropolitan New York Library Council. Take a minute to review these new collections, and don't forget that it's easy to add your collection to the directory.

The Biggert Collection of Architectural Vignettes on Commercial Stationery at Columbia University Libraries

The Robert Biggert Collection of Architectural Vignettes on Commercial Stationery was donated to the Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library by Robert Biggert in honor of Lisa Ann Riveaux. This unique collection of printed ephemera contains over 1,300 items with architectural imagery spanning the dates 1850 to 1920, in more than 350 cities and towns in forty-five states, as well as the District of Columbia and U.S. possessions. The collection's billheads, letterheads, envelopes, checks, and business cards document the rise of the United States as an industrial nation, in often elaborate vignettes of factories, warehouses, mines, offices, stores, banks, and hotels.

Read more about and access the collection here. 

Manuscript Collections Relating to Slavery at New-York Historical Society

The site offers access to fourteen of the New-York Historical Society's most important collections of source materials documenting the history of slavery in the United States, the Atlantic slave trade and the abolitionist movement. The collection includes account books and ship manifests documenting the financial aspects of the slave trade; legal papers such as birth certificates and deeds of manumission; and political works and polemics. The materials range from writings by the abolitionists Granville Sharp, Lysander Spooner and Charles Sumner to the diary of a plantation manager and overseer of slaves in Cuba, Joseph Goodwin, and that of a former slave in Fishkill, New York, James F. Brown. The collection also provides access to the archives of abolitionist organizations such as the New-York Manumission Society and the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, as well as the records of the African Free School, which document the education of free blacks in early nineteenth-century New York. With nearly 12,000 pages of text dating from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, this collection constitutes a rich archive of primary source materials on the history of slavery, the slave trade, and the abolitionist movement.

Read more about and access the collection here.

New Digitization Special Interest Group Conveners Announce Two Fall Events

The new conveners for the METRO-hosted Digitization Special Interest Group, Cynthia Tobar and Michael Handis (both at Mina Rees Library, CUNY Grad Center) have announced two important meetings for the Fall. All meetings are free and open to librarians, library workers, archivists, and students interested in learning about and discussing digitization projects. Read on for details and RSVP information:

The revamped Digitization SIG at METRO now not only focuses on the sharing of information and strategies related to the many aspects of implementing digitization projects but also what can be done with these projects once they have been created. Next-generation library tools take advantage of Web 2.0 technologies and can enhance the use of digitized materials. Group membership includes any librarians and library workers who are interested in digitization initiatives or managers of digitized projects who want to keep up with current technological trends and how it can enhance access to their projects. All members of varying levels of technological expertise and comfort levels are welcome. Be sure to visit our new site at http://libguides.metro.org/digsig!

Basic Imaging for DIY Digitization Projects
Date: Thursday, Oct 7th, 2010
Time: 10am-12pm
Location: Metropolitan New York Library Council, 57 East 11th Street, 4th floor, New York, NY 10003-4605
RSVP for this free event: http://bit.ly/ddCNSb

During this session led by Ken Allen, we will learn about the advantages, limitations, ideal applications, and benefits of a small digital imaging project and about the process of digitization.

Speaker: Ken Allen, Managing Partner of Ken Allen Studios (NYC) & Ken Allen Digital (Alexandria, VA)
Ken Allen has been working in the field of photography for over 20 years. Before launching Ken Allen Studios in Brooklyn, New York, and Ken Allen Digital in Alexandria, Virginia, Ken provided digital imaging and digital asset management solutions to publishers, museums, and not-for-profit organizations, handling large collections of digital assets. With his experience working with film, vintage and contemporary photographs, and digital photographic technology, Ken is committed to working with institutions to improve the management of photographic collections and the implementation of digital archives.

Metadata vs. Cataloging: How is this different from cataloging?
Date: Thursday, Nov 11th, 2010
Time: 10am-12pm
Location: Metropolitan New York Library Council, 57 East 11th Street, 4th floor, New York, NY 10003-4605
RSVP for this free event: http://bit.ly/dC7XIY

Join us for a roundtable panel where we will be discussing the similarities/differences between metadata librarians and traditional catalogers. Topics of discussion will include: metadata job functions-do they vary from institution to institution?; metadata as opposed to cataloging; can good catalogers be just as efficient metadata creators? (are these skills transferable?).

Panelists: Corey Harper, Metadata Librarian, NYU; Melanie Wacker, Metadata Coordinator, Columbia; and Mark Sandford, Special Formats Cataloger, William Paterson University Library (NJ)

If you have topic suggestions or are interested in presenting at future meetings please contact Michael Handis or Cynthia Tobar.

Digitization In the Real World...Now Available

It's been about a year in the making, and we're excited to announce that METRO's collection of digitization case studies from small to medium-sized collections is now available! Clocking in at about 34 chapters and 590 pages, we hope this book will serve as a useful and comprehensive guide for information professionals as they plan and implement a wide range of digitization projects of their own. Read the complete press release for the book after the preview, and please consider picking up a copy!

Let's Get Digital!

Librarians in the metropolitan New York region have two opportunities coming up to add some tech skills to their wheelhouse. Please read on for details:

There is only one week left to register for “Mastering CSS (Cascading Style Sheets)” with instructor KB Ng on April 15th and 22nd.  Take this opportunity to update your web design skills by learning a technique that will save you time and improve the appearance of your site. Participants should be familiar with basic HTML, but no programming background is needed.

Registration fees: $250 members; $150 myMETRO; $350 non-members
To register, please visit http://bit.ly/couqYA or contact Laura Forshay at [email protected], 212.228.2320 ext. 10.
This program will take place at METRO: 57 East 11th Street, 4th Floor, New York, NY 10003

-AND/OR-

Develop your basic digitization skills at METRO on Tuesday, April 27th from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm as instructor Michael Bevans presents “Digital Imaging and Scanning: Principles and Practice.” 

This introductory course requires no previous scanning skills, and will focus on the basic principles of scanning and image quality control while establishing routines to ensure productivity and repeatability.  Additional topics will include image resolution and file formats as well as common image editing techniques.

Registration Fees: $75 members; $60 myMETRO; $100 non-members
To register, please visit http://bit.ly/9iUprw or contact Laura Forshay at [email protected], 212.228.2320 ext. 10.
METRO is located at 57 East 11th Street, 4th Floor, New York, NY 10003.

Listen: Project Management for Digital Library Services

A recording of the March 8, 2010 Code4LibNYC Special Interest Group meeting is now available. The meeting featured Jennifer Vinopal and Eric Stedfeld from New York University discussing project and portfolio management for digital library services.

Code4LibNYC - March 8, 2010

Download slides from the presentation here.

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.

Digitization in the Real World: Call for Participation

The Metropolitan New York Library Council (METRO) is pleased to announce a call to participate in a forthcoming book, tentatively titled Digitization in the Real World: Lessons Learned from Small to Medium-Sized Digitization Projects. This book is intended to document experiences with digitization projects that fall outside the spectrum of mass digitization initiatives that have tended to be more thoroughly discussed and documented. Digitization in the Real World will be co-edited by Professor Kwong Bor Ng (Queens College, CUNY) and Jason Kucsma (METRO).

Your experiences will provide useful case studies on what works and what does not for libraries, archives, museums and other cultural heritage organizations managing small- to medium-sized collections. Librarians, archivists, and students stand to benefit from your experiences — learning about the how the key elements of digitization projects play out in diverse institutional contexts. How was your project started? How was it implemented? What organizational and technological obstacles were encountered, and how were they overcome? Were they overcome? What new solutions did your project implement, and were those experiments successful or not? What are some of the lessons learned from your project? Is your project still growing? If not, why?

The scope of these case studies will inherently diverge, and we encourage that diversity. A book that candidly discusses your projects will be of great value to other libraries, archives, museums, cultural institutions, and graduate school students in library science and archives programs.

If you’d like to participate, please submit the following information via email on or before August 31, 2009.
Name:
Email:
Institution:
Chapter Abstract: 500-1000 words describing the scope of your project and key elements you intend to address in your chapter.

Should your proposal be accepted, you will be notified by September 21, 2009 with chapter guidelines and editorial suggestions. The final chapter would be due on December 14, 2009, upon which it will be sent for double-blind peer review. The book is scheduled to be published by METRO, and you will, of course, receive a copy of the book.

CONTACT:
Jason Kucsma
Emerging Technologies Manager, METRO
jkucsma_at_metro.org

Professor KB Ng
Associate Professor, Graduate School of Library and Information Science, Queens College, CUNY
kbng_at_qc.cuny.edu


ABOUT METRO:
The Metropolitan New York Library Council (METRO) was chartered in 1964 by the New York Board of Regents to “promote and facilitate utilization of existing resources and to develop additional library services in the New York metropolitan area.” Today, with 250 member organizations throughout New York City and Westchester County, METRO is the largest of New York State’s nine reference and research library resource systems, and one of the largest library service organizations in the world. Since 2005, METRO has provided over $300k in digitization grants to fund over 30 small to medium-sized digitization projects as part of its Digital Library Services Plan.

ABOUT THE EDITORS:
Prof. Kwong Bor Ng is an associate professor at the Graduate School of Library and Information Studies, Queens College, CUNY. His most recent publication is Using XML, published by Neal Schuman in 2007. His other book (co-edited with S. Rummler), Collaborative Technologies and Applications for Interactive Information Design: Emerging Trends in User Experiences, will be published in Sept 2009 by IGI Global.

Jason Kucsma is the Emerging Technologies Manager at the Metropolitan New York Library Council where he manages METRO’s Digitization Grant Program and is the point person for member inquiries related to the resources, training and referral services associated with digitization, digital preservation and emerging technologies issues. Jason received his M.A. in American Culture Studies from Bowling Green State University and an M.L.S. from the University of Arizona School of Information Resources and Library Science. He is currently working part-time on a certificate in Digital Information Management (University of Arizona), is part-time lecturer in Rutgers’s Library and Information Science graduate program, and is a recent graduate of ALA’s 2009 Emerging Leaders Program.