Newsletter: August 2007
Year II Evaluations
During the late spring and early summer of Year II, the Craft Revival project underwent a series of evaluations. In May three days were spent on Usability Testing by the mStoner group, which submitted a subsequent report. In June, Ginny Daley evaluated the database, producing an in-depth Database Assessment with recommendations. In early August, the Project Archivist and Project Leader met with NC ECHO Director, Emily Gore to evaluate the project at the end of Year II. Gore’s recommendations were written up for further discussion and review by Project Director, Bil Stahl.
K-12 Component
Also, as part of the evaluation process, Teacher Liaison Mary Jean Herzog submitted all lesson plans to Learn NC and to the project’s Teacher Advisory Group. The lesson plans were approved with minimal recommended changes. Mary Jean is currently revising these for uploading onto the website.
Content Review
The Project Leader submitted all web pages to an in-house review. Pages are being read and edited by Hunter’s Bob Strauss and Ann Hallyburton and by Scott Philyaw of the History Department. Their recommendations are being incorporated into the website.
New Entry Portal
As per the Usability Testing recommendations, a fourth portal is being added to the Home Page. Apparently users were confused by the fact that they could “enter” the site via three of the four blocks of images on the Home Page; the fourth was the project’s “title page.” Working with Melissa, we moved the title up top and added a fourth means of entry. This solution also solved the issue of giving greater visibility to the collection, recommendations by both Ginny Daley and Emily Gore.
New Staff
Jason Woolf completed his work at the Southern Highland Craft Guild this month and returns to full-time graduate studies. He will work as project research assistant during this academic year. Bil assigned someone from IT to work as project administrator who brings much needed experience in budget management to the table. The Hunter Library search for a Metadata Librarian was not successful, so we are still one person short on the project team. Ginny and Tim Carstens, head of Cataloging, will team up to fill this role.
Friends of Mountain History
Anna presented two programs to an audience of 60 public history professionals at the semi-annual meeting: one on digital exhibitions, the other on the Craft Revival project itself.
Heritage Partners/Advisory meetings
We are temporarily suspending our quarterly Advisory meetings so that Heritage Partners can meet as a group. In all-day sessions, HPs will work on issues involving scans that have been uploaded, correcting images that do not meet project standards.
Anna
Hunter Library | Library Insider | Last updated: 9/5/07 Melissa Young