Digitization 101: The words “library” and “librarian”

Jill Hurst-Wahl, a digitization consultant, talks about the terms “library” and “librarian”, and how these words tend to produce erroneous visions of what a modern library is and what today’s librarian does.

Digitization 101: The words "library" and "librarian".

Digital Gough Map launched

A fifteen-month research project of the earliest surviving geographically recognizable map of Great Britain, known as the Gough Map, provides some revealing insights into one of the most enigmatic cartographic pieces from the Bodleian collections. The findings are recorded on a newly-launched website www.goughmap.org.

Shared via www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk

New Blog: Collection = Connection

There is a new blog discussing collection development. The purpose of the blog is to present new ideas about library collections and to provide a forum to discuss changes in the practice of collection management and development.

It is sponsored by the Collection Management and Development Section of the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services (ALCTS), a division of the American Library Association.

Check it out at: Collection = Connection

Writing Sample

This is a writing sample in the form of a paper that I prepared for an Intro to Reference Sources class at St. John’s University. It is in two parts to facilitate download time.

Gen Paper pp 1-7

Gen Paper pp 8-14

Professional Development Certificates

Hands-on CONTENTdm Workshop_2011

Introduction to Arrangement and Description of Historical Records_2010

Business Reference 101_2010

Digital-Projects_2010

Metadata_2010

Digitization Symposium_2010

Archives I_2009

Archives II_2009

Poster Session_2008

Web 2.0 for Librarians_2009

Proposal-Writing_2008

Tech-Writing_2007

Photoshop_2007

Metadata Visualization

From the Indiana University Libraries web pages:

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“The sheer number of metadata standards in the cultural heritage sector is overwhelming, and their inter-relationships further complicate the situation. This visual map of the metadata landscape is intended to assist planners with the selection and implementation of metadata standards.

Each of the 105 standards listed here is evaluated on its strength of application to defined categories in each of four axes: community, domain, function, and purpose. The strength of a standard in a given category is determined by a mixture of its adoption in that category, its design intent, and its overall appropriateness for use in that category.

The standards represented here are among those most heavily used or publicized in the cultural heritage community, though certainly not all standards that might be relevant are included. A small set of the metadata standards plotted on the main visualization also appear as highlights above the graphic. These represent the most commonly known or discussed standards for cultural heritage metadata.”

http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/~jenlrile/metadatamap/

Islandora Project at University of Prince Edward Island

The Islandora is an open source framework under development at the Robertson Library at the University of Prince Edward Island. Islandora combines the Drupal and Fedora software applications to create a robust digital asset management system that can be used for any requirement where collaboration and digital data stewardship, for the short and long term, are critical (Excerpt from “About Islandora” page).

About Islandora page 

Video: Virtual Research Environment – 2 Years Later, by Mark Leggott

A Pathfinder for all things Superman

 About the Superman Pages:

This pathfinder (follow link below) is intended to guide the user through a broad range of informational resources about the fictional character, Superman. A variety of subject areas is covered across multiple media types, including web sites, books, and journals. The seven main categories are General Information, Film & Television, Comics, Books & Articles, Spinoffs, Creators, and News. Most categories offer external web site links except for the Books & Articles and the Creator sections, which may reference printed material. 

http://sites.google.com/site/bizbagged/home

Sign of the Times

OK, how many of you remember these lines from the movie Miracle on 34^th Street?

Fred Gailey: Your Honor, every one of these letters is addressed to Santa Claus. The Post Office has delivered them. Therefore the Post Office Department, a branch of the Federal Governent, recognizes this man Kris Kringle to be the one and only Santa Claus.
Judge Henry X. Harper: Uh, since the United States Government declares this man to be Santa Claus, this court will not dispute it. Case dismissed.

Retrieved Jan 17, 2010 from: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0039628/quotes

                                                                              

Well, I couldn’t help but think of the movie scene mentioned above when I looked up the Subject Authority Record for Web 2.0 at the Library of Congress Authorities web site, and discovered that a description of Web 2.0 was found on Wikipedia! So, since an agency of the legislative branch of the U.S. government declares this site to be authoritative, then I will not dispute it!

Power to the people!

http://authorities.loc.gov/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?AuthRecID=7305856&v2=1&HC=1&SEQ=20100117201843&PID=CwTa44Njtg3hx3KN1-ae0PzM684iU

Digital Librarians

Jill Hurst-Wahl, MLS, is a digitization consultant who writes a blog on Digital Libraries. She recently posted a useful article about the career path of Digital Librarians here:

http://hurstassociates.blogspot.com/2009/12/digital-librarians.html