NEWSLETTER February 2006
LSTA SITE VISIT
The activity that has dominated this month was our preparation and follow-up for the LSTA site visit. A team from Raleigh came to campus on February 6th and 7th and traveled to the Campbell Folk School. They were concerned by the possibility of snow and had to make due with a conference call with Penland. I prepared lots of documentation in advance of their visit as well as an on-screen presentation of our website and database. Their report arrived on Feb. 24th. In general, they were very pleased with the project and our progress. They made specific recommendations that will affect the draft of our Year II work plan. I will circulate the LSTA Site Visit Report to Heritage Partners.
YEAR II GRANT APPLICATION
The Year II grant application is due in Raleigh on March 22nd. We received the final application forms and go-ahead on February 24th, along with the Site Visit report. I am working on a draft of our Year II grant and will be circulating that in advance of our March 8th meeting. The morning session of that meeting will focus on your input to the grant application. We will have a few weeks to incorporate suggestions into the grant application and get it out on time. Over the past two weeks, I worked with Dora Wike, Bil’s Administrative Assistant, to calculate Year I expenditures; Bil and I met to discuss the Year II budget.
PROJECT STAFF
Assistance to Heritage Partners is being provided by well-trained student assistants. In January I worked one-on-one with students to bring them up to speed on scanning and data input. Two graduate students are working closely with the Mountain Heritage Center to digitize photographs of items in their collection. An undergraduate student worker had traveled to the Folk School for two all-day sessions to assist David with scanning and metadata input. All of the students have worked in Special Collections from time to time. Michelle has expressed her preference to complete the scanning and metadata herself. One of the discussions that I would suggest for our March 8th Partner workshop is to talk about the value of such assistance and how it can be made more effective in terms of our output during the remaining months of Year I. Likewise, how do we adjust our project to provide assistance in Year II?
DATABASE REVIEWS
Although it has taken a while, we have worked out a satisfactory means of working through loading items into Content dm and reviewing them for consistency and metadata. I am tracking metadata changes and adding notes into the Training Manual for Year II. These changes are also being incorporated into the database in a dynamic way; in other words, Melissa is adding to our on-line controlled vocabularies as we move through the project. This week Brian Sealy is in Raleigh attending the NC EHCO Digitization Workshop and, no doubt, will bring back additional information for us.
DATABASE
In my most recent meeting with Bil, we are concerned that project Partners are not meeting target goals. While we realize that, perhaps, initially we were overly ambitious, even scaling back, we are a far cry from our original plan. We had agreed to a goal of having 50 images from each partner loaded into the database by the end of January (in advance of the site visit). Instead, we had a total of 40+ images completed. At our March meeting we need to discuss our quantitative goals. On the upside, the quality of images and data is good and the visual content of the site is beginning to take form.
PRESS RELEASE
The project’s first press release went out to all NC papers. If you see the article, please clip it. I will be working with the university’s public relations department to create a poster and/or an announcement of the new URL for the project’s promotional website: http://craftrevival.wcu.edu. Right now our About the Project site can be accessed from this URL. The rest of the project, including the site prototype and ever-expanding database, remain on the Library Insider page.
NCCAT
This month we’ve had several meetings with NCCAT to solicit their suggestions as to how to more effectively involve teachers in creating a website with maximum usability. While NCCAT’s suggestion was to hold a teacher workshop focused on the Craft Revival project next spring, the Site Visit report suggested that we defer this until Year III and, instead, work more directly with area teachers during Year II. I am in touch with WCU’s College of Education to draft a plan to involve teachers during our Year II grant year.
WEB CONSULT
As you may remember, the project had funds to pay an outside web consultant. Since the university is working with a web firm on the re-vamping of the university’s website, Bil suggested we use the same firm to answer our questions. I had my first meeting with mStoner, the consulting firm out of Chicago. We are working on an overall plan for Year II. Specifically, we will be working with this firm on three aspects of our project: 1/ to make sure that what we are doing in Years I and II will not preclude the addition of more complex materials (streaming audio and video) in Year III; 2/ to assess our site in terms of navigation with an eye toward functional aesthetics; and 3/ to devise and implement a method of usability testing with a particular emphasis on use by teachers.
YEAR II PARNERS
The Craft Revival is one of western North Carolina’s most significant untold stories and Cherokee craftsmen played a large part, and in many ways, were its inspiration. I am pleased that the Museum of the Cherokee Indian and Qualla Arts and Crafts Mutual, Inc. will be coming on board. Also, on another matter, I was recently contacted by Deb Schillo, the librarian at the Southern Highland Craft Guild, and our conversation soon turned to the Craft Revival Project. Because of staff changes at the Guild, we had deferred their involvement until Year III, listing them as a Cooperating Partner rather than a Contributing Partner. But in these recent conversation, it looks as if the Guild will be able to join our team as a Year II Heritage Partner.
ADVISORY MTG/DAY-LONG PARTNER WORKSHOP
Our spring Advisory meeting will be held on Wednesday, March 8th. The past format has been working well. Advisors and Partners attend the morning session (10-noon). This session will focus on our grant application. In the afternoon (1:30-3:30) Partners and Project Team will work through specific issues with regard to scanning procedures or problems and planning for realistic goals to conclude Year I of the project. We will again be providing lunch for Advisors and Partners. I look forward to seeing you all again.
Anna Fariello
February 28, 2006
Hunter Library | Library Insider | Last updated: 3/1/06 Melissa Young