Hunter Library Insider - for Staff and Faculty of the library

Website

Most of the work of this month has focused on the website and finishing up aspects of Year II implementation.  Keep watching for new material going up.  Much of the work going up is what the grad students did this year.  I have been working closely with them to develop and edit material.  The plan is for these pieces to be up before the next Advisory meeting.  Keep your eye out for new Lesson Plans (5 or 6 of them); Bibliography with journal articles; books are fully annotated; a new How-to section; the addition of Festivals from the Links/Resource page; and a new page on Chair-making in The Crafts section.  Team list revisions and corrections have been complete and will be added to the About the Project section; press articles were scanned and will be added to the site.

Heritage Partners’ web content

George and Melissa are working on the Train section and Michelle is completing a number of pages on Penland that will be accessible from both The Story section and The People. As the site becomes more dense, these double access points will help with the navigation.  Each of these HP-contributed sections is long, so it is necessary to place them into the current the web structure for easy access.

Database

We have material going up on the database every week, so please take a look at these items.  One thing that I’ve noticed is that some of the newer and more complete data makes some of the original material look skimpy.  We will have to go back and revise some of those earliest entries.  Also we might take a look at items that went up as individual scans and consider whether or not they’d be better accessed as compound objects. Creating a compound object preserves the integrity of a set of items and makes it easier to browse our growing archive.

Audio/video

We’ve got audio up and video on the way.  We have had some feedback as to the difficulty of accessing the audio so Melissa is working on that.  As to the video, it is in process.  We hope to have a few workable clips up before the end of Year II.

Usability testing

We have begun to outline the goals and protocols for the project’s upcoming usability testing.  This will be carried out by mStoner, a nationally known firm that holds a larger contract with the university to redesign its website.  A small team of us has defined our test group, one that covers four target audiences (from our original grant application): researchers, craftsmen, students, and the general public.  If you know of someone who falls into one of these groups—and who is not too familiar with the Revival or the site—we need testing volunteers.  The test will take about an hour and will be held on campus. Outside of this specific test, there will be on online test component.  We are working as well with teachers through our Teacher Advisory.  This well covers the spectrum of our defined audience.

K-12

We have scheduled an all-day workshop for our Teacher Advisory Group.  This will take place on May 11th in the Mountain Heritage Center and at the WCU Fine and Performing Arts Center.  We have a few new teachers who have heard about the project and asked to participate.  With a few teachers that have dropped out of the group, our teachers group remains at about a dozen area teachers.

I-26 display

The Craft Revival project is partnering with HandMade in America to create a display at the Welcome Center on interstate 26 at the North Carolina state line into Tennessee.  At the Welcome Center, there is a large display case that runs along two walls.  We have this exhibit space from June all the way through until December.  This will introduce the project to tourists at the height of several overlapping tourist seasons, including July 4th travelers and into the fall leaf season.  Right now our plan is for a static exhibit but, should we receive Year III funding for a freestanding kiosk and digital display, we may be able to install the kiosk on site before the show ends in December.

Site Visits

I am trying to make it around to each HP site for one last site visit for Year II.  These one-on-one meetings are very helpful as Partners usually have a lot to say and our group format never gives anyone enough time.  At the Guild, Deb showed me a number of large format photographs of Craft Revival craft workers that were used at Guild fairs; we’ll be borrowing these for the I-26 display.  I met with George and Michelle to review the work they are doing for the website (see HP content above).  I plan to get around to everyone else this month.

Staff changes

Metadata Librarian Brian Sealy is leaving the Hunter Library to pursue other interests.  Since January Brian has been receiving Partners’ disks, revising metadata to conform to project standards before uploading onto the database.  Brian—with Catalog unit head Tim Carstens—is training some of the Cataloging staff on Content dm.  We also say goodbye to grad students Patrick Velde and Jada Hansen and wish them well.

Grant match

Those HPs who have contributed funds to the project will be receiving calls from Project Assistant, Catherine Baker.  To complete our Year II requirements, we need to spell out just what you’ve spent and back up those figures with copies of receipts and/or checks.  The state requires paper documentation for all expenses.

Advisory Meeting

The last quarterly board meeting will be on May 23rd.  We will start at 9:30.  Parking should be easier as the regular school session is out.  Please respond to Catherine as we’ll need a lunch count for catering.

Anna