NEWSLETTER April 2006
With the grant application for Year II submitted, the focus of work in April cast an eye toward completing our Year I goals.
STORYBOARD
In terms of the Craft Revival website, our end-of-year goal is to develop a coherent storyboard. The full story of the Craft Revival-albeit abbreviated-will be presented on the Phase I storyboard pages; Phase II of the story will add significant detail during Year II of the project. During April, I drafted pages that cover 1/an overview of the Craft Revival, 2/historical sketches of partner sites, and 3/the first sequence of historic crafts (weaving). These draft sections will be sent to Advisors and Partners for review before the next-and last-advisory meeting. Melissa and I are working on re-organizing the site and refining its look. Within a few weeks, we'll declare Phase I of site development “done” in anticipation of its public release. The website URL-http://craftrevival.wcu.edu-will then be announced publicly.
In viewing the site, you will also see how the storyboard pages work with the database. A page includes image(s) and different types of links. These include: 1/a word or phrase that connects to a single image record in the online database; 2/text that activates a preset search to multiple database items; 3/explanatory material delivered via pop-ups or mouse-overs; and 4/links to outside websites that appear in separate windows so user doesn't “exit” the site. I am sure this will become clearer when we review the site together at the upcoming meeting.
WEB CONSULT
The project has enlisted the services of mStoner, WCU's web re-design consultant, to refine navigation and to make sure we are conforming to growing web standards. Representatives of this nationally known firm will evaluate the project site after our May advisory meeting and provide an assessment in the form of a written report. This report will be shared with you at our first Year II Advisory.
DATABASE
Final Year I images are being loaded and coded into the database. After dvds are receives from you, the images and data go through a thorough review. Data is examined for accuracy, consistency, and relevance, so when you are “done,” we are only halfway through the process. Please take a look. We have successfully loaded 21 images from Penland, 79 from the Mountain Heritage Center, 60 from the Folk School, and 23 from Special Collections. Thank you for working hard to meet our Year I goals.
COMPOUND IMAGES
Melissa has worked out the bugs in creating compound images and has converted several brochures to that format. I think you will like it. At our May meeting we will talk further about this.
BUDGET
I have been meeting with Bil's administrative assistant Dora Riouff to tally expenditures for the year. We are right on target and are in good shape as we approach budget cut-off dates. Fortunately, LSTA gives us until September to finish our end-of-year report.
PERMISSIONS
In our Year I budget, we have funds for paying permission fees. If you have any pieces in your collection that require payment of a use fee, we can take care of that. Note that we don’t have funds for this purpose in Year II, so even if you haven’t yet scanned an image, we should pursue the permission. To help with that we’ve hired Kate Rubick who will be getting in touch with you. Kate has worked through permission issues on past projects and she is really good, so when you hear from her, be sure to respond.
GRAD ASSISTANTS
We will be hiring two graduate assistants for the upcoming academic year, as well as two undergrads. I am attaching the graduate assistantship job description. Please feel free to circulate the description as we want to recruit excellent candidates. The positions can be used for students already enrolled in a WCU graduate program, or can be used to recruit new candidates. This is an excellent opportunity.
TEACHER LIAISON
Mary Jean Herzog of WCU's department of Educational Leadership and Foundations has joined our team as Teacher Liaison. She will coordinate the formation of a teacher advisory, solicit teacher input, and-with K-12 teachers-create lesson plans or other education-related activities for the website. George Frizzell noted that Learn NC recently added a detailed lesson plan using Kephart material. Please take a look at: http://www.learnnc.org/lessons/walbert1144759085
Mary Jean and I recently met to discuss plans to involve area teachers and we look forward to your suggestions. We could really use incentives to encourage teacher buy-in and hope that our Partner schools might be able to work with Herzog to provide teachers with complimentary craft-related experiences that can draw them into the project.
ADVISORY MEETING
The last Advisory meeting will be held on Wednesday, May 17th. Remember, we are starting at 9 am instead of 10. The meeting will again be held in the Hunter Library 2nd floor conference room and we will again be providing lunch. A student will be taking a count of those who plan to attend so that we can give an accurate head count to catering. I will be alerting you to the completion of the Phase I website approximately a week before the meeting to give you time to review the site. The website review will be the primary focus of our discussion.
SUMMER
I will be on vacation in June and will be returning to campus on July 1st with the start of the project's Year II. Bil and I have been talking about hosting a dinner for Heritage Partner directors to acquaint them about the project. We are expecting the WCU Provost to attend and have invited the Chancellor as well. This Directors' Dinner will take place in late July or early August, before school starts. Do let us know right away if any weeks are out for you and your director. Please encourage your directors to attend this event.
PUBLICITY PLANS
We are currently working on a poster to announce the project URL and expect to have it finished this summer. We are planning a public event in September, during the week prior to Mountain Heritage Day. We have yet to set the specifics for this event; this is something we can talk further about at the meeting.
Anna
Hunter Library | Library Insider | Last updated: 5/3/06 Melissa Young