Newsletter: May 2008
Database entries
The project Home Team is entering the last of the project’s Year III entries. We’ll be preparing a chart of submissions for the project’s 3rd year and a cumulative tally of Heritage Partner images. We have asked Partners to hold off submitting additional images without first checking with us. Our aim is to facilitate a smooth transition from our Year III Home Team to the team that will be working during Year IV. This will include the new Metadata Librarian taking the place of both Tim Carstens and Ginny Daley who will be rotating off the Home Team. Both will stay involved with the project.
Format Field
The new Format field is fully implemented. Take a look at the Browse page and note the new field between the image and the Description. This field will help the viewer understand what they are looking at. We selected a very short list of unambiguous terms that didn’t seem to overlap. The Format field’s controlled vocabulary includes: Photograph, Publication, Letter, Unpublished document, Historical artifact, and Craft object. We also added a few that are specific to this project: Newsletter and Postcard, as well as a few we might use in the future: Sound Recording, Motion Picture, and Map.
Access images
After much deliberation, testing, and soliciting input from Heritage Partners, the Home Team is making a change to the database that involves replacing the 72 dpi Thumbnails with 300 dpi Access images and eliminating the need to direct the viewer to the “larger image” field. This change will allow the user to use the tool bar to manipulate the image, allowing for greater clarity and ease of navigation. From the point of view of the Home Team and Heritage Partners, this change will simplify the upload procedure. The team will be posting new upload directions to the Library Insider page. Melissa Young will be replacing the images over the summer.
Qualla baskets
Anna and Tonya have completed two photo shoots of baskets from the Qualla Arts and Crafts permanent collection and worked together to write the metadata. We are excited to be uploading the first selection of Qualla’s objects into the Craft Revival database. Ginny has created a template for entering metadata in Word, which will be used by Project Assistants. Given the difficulties we’ve encountered using Contentdm, the Home Team is opting for doing more of the work in-house rather than having work come in from Heritage Partners and then having to make so many corrections.
Remediation
Speaking of corrections….Ginny Daley has finished up remediation of the database. This has been a monumental job, an item level assessment and correction of individual problems. Ginny will continue to advise the project and serve as a resource for the Home Team and the new Metadata Librarian. A big thanks to Ginny.
New Pages
Take a look at three new web pages under The Story portal.
Two in the Craft Today section were written by Tonya Carroll.
Qualla Arts and Crafts Mutual http://craftrevival.wcu.edu/story/qualla_today.html and
Oconaluftee Indian Village http://craftrevival.wcu.edu/story/oconaluftee_today.html
Making History: Allanstand is a transcription of a Southern Highland Craft Guild brochure with Anna’s introduction. http://craftrevival.wcu.edu/story/allanstand.html
Canned Searches
Anna and Melissa met to work on a number of “canned searches” from various web pages. What we are aiming for here is a way to show the viewer a range of items that relate to the topic of the page. This has been something that’s been on our “to-do” list for a long time, but was not possible until there was a critical mass of objects in the database to make this feature function well. The Home Team is not yet satisfied with exactly how this new feature works. We’ll continue to refine the Controlled Vocabularies before adding more of these to each webpage. Come fall, we will be reviewing all of the LCSH terms globally. You can view our pilot effort at the bottom of each page in The Crafts section.
Project Assistants
Both Project Assistants Tonya Carroll and Anna Shearouse have been accepted into WCU’s Public History graduate program and will begin in August. They join Jason Woolf who will be taking his comprehensive exams in the fall to finish up his degree. Jason and Tonya will continue work on the project.
New staff
Please welcome Brian Briggs to the project team as a Preservation Assistant. Brian is relatively new to the area and wanted to get involved with a dynamic library project. Brian earned an MLS from North Carolina Central University where he concentrated on archives and records management. He has been entering the project’s master disks into the project’s current filing system. This involves taking an inventory of files on the disks and entering those into a spreadsheet before filing the disks themselves. The disks will eventually become part of the library’s holdings. Brian will also be looking at improving the system. We “test” it regularly when a particular image is needed. With over 6,000 digital files (2,000 master tiffs plus the corresponding Access images and Thumbnails), this is no simple task. Welcome Brian.
Equipment reminder
A reminder to Heritage Partners that the project now has a turn table and software that will allow you to create the 360-degree rotations we worked on at the Heritage Partner meeting in April. Anyone wishing to use these should contact Anna.
Grants update
We are still awaiting word from the State Library on the status of the Hunter Library grant submitted in March. In the meantime, Anna is working with Margaret Watson and Paul Henninger of the WCU grants office to spend out the budget from the current year’s grant and set up a new account for the Cherokee Preservation Foundation grant. We will send out an announcement when we hear something from them.
Anna
Hunter Library | Library Insider | Last updated: 6/3/08 Melissa Young