Hunter Library Insider - for Staff and Faculty of the library

Newsletter: November 2006

Year II Partner

By the time November rolled around, the Craft Revival project Home Team had put several procedures into place that have allowed the project to move forward in a more fluid manner. The database is growing weekly with very significant additions. After completing the annual training session (and a few false starts), the Southern Highland Craft Guild has joined the Heritage Partner team in full force.  Deb has sent in approx 70 images and has added a new dimension to the database. Penland is regularly sending in disks as well, so please check out newly added materials. Also note the new images acquired from outside our Partners, three portraits of John Campbell and a number of botanical prints. Brian Sealy entered the metadata for these items.

Database procedures

The procedures put into place by the Home Team have allowed the database to grow in a more fluid manner.  After Melissa uploads data, all incoming information is reviewed by Brian, Hunter’s Metadata Librarian with new terms added to the controlled vocabularies with each entry. Still, each Partner should periodically review the material online.

Style Sheet

The style sheet has given folks some direction (I hope) and has cut down on many of the minor corrections that Melissa had to make. Melissa continues to upload incoming images and, with Robin and Jill of the Systems Unit, assists with technical troubleshooting.  I wish I could say that troubleshooting is no longer needed.  New equipment demands consideration, but the project has also had its share of outright glitches.  The Systems Unit took in the Folks School’s computer in October and the Mountain Heritage Center’s computer in November.  We’ve got a green light on all fronts now.

Scan numbers

...and just in time.  In late November, the Site Review Team met with Partners individually and collectively. The main focus of their one-on-one discussion with me was the number of images we are posting.  This is something we will talk over during our upcoming meeting.  For Heritage Partners attending, please bring a sketch of what you are planning to scan this spring before the end of Year II.

Site Review

The team of reviewers from Raleigh spent three days on the road visiting each Heritage Partner site and then met on campus on November 27th.  Last year’s Site Review was more globally focused, addressing larger issues in terms of the project’s direction.  Except for numbers, this year’s review team brought up many smaller issues. We discussed watermarking, access images, additional partners, lesson plans, and video.  When the Year I Team left we had a clear picture of the nature of their report; but this year’s review was more of a discussion without a clear consensus, so we will have to wait to see what the report says.  The report is to help us hone in on the details of our Year III plan. We will schedule a meeting to discuss the report in January, with time to integrate their suggestions into the Year III application.

Year III Partner

I met with the archivist from the Museum of the Cherokee Indian and several times with the Qualla Arts director. Tonya, one of our undergrad student workers and I are reviewing the Qualla collection. Qualla, like the Mountain Heritage Center, has an object-based collection. Theirs is rich with baskets and carvings that will bring a nice addition to the database. While many of Qualla’s pieces fall out of the project’s timeframe, just as many are made by artists that were active during the revival period.

Lesson Plans

Working with our two Year II grad students and Teacher Liaison, we’ve added the first of our lesson plans. These are nicely concise and tie in well with the database and the storyboard.  I am actively working with students to draft two more of these this month. The plans are reviewed by the Teacher Liaison before being put up.

Promotion

We’ve been mentioned on a blog called Tech Talk.  Check it out at: http://html.wral.com/sh/blogger/2006_09_03_wraltechtalk_archive.html

I have been working with the students to develop a number of mailing lists and have gathered some from the university’s Public Relations department as well.  We worked with the university post office to determine the parameters for a bulk mailing and that has been worked out.  There was also a significant amount of formatting to get the lists into shape. A few budget snags held up our orders of envelopes and labels for several months; these are now here and we are assembling the mailing. The Hunter Library display has been on view all semester and will be taken down in mid December.  I received several positive comments on the display and Partners’ promotional material has disappeared almost as fast as I could replenish it. All of you should see a boost in inquiries from WCU students and their families.

Partnerships

Each Heritage Partner will be receiving an individually tailored press release that they can use in their own newsletter or on their website.  These are being drafted individually and will be mailed to you electronically so that you can drop them into your next mailing.  We also ask that each Heritage Partner alert your organization’s webster to add a link to the project from your site.  The Craft Revival site has several places that link to each Heritage Partner site. It will be advantageous for users to be able to toggle back and forth between the two.  I’ve added the email addresses for Partner Directors where I knew them.  Please let me know if there is anyone else that we should add to this monthly email list.

Advisory/Home Team meeting

We will be having our fall meeting in a slightly altered form.  At the last Advisory, Ginny Daley suggested we set aside time for brainstorming.  We’ll reserve the morning session to talk freely about the project’s direction.  Initially, we talked about skipping the afternoon session altogether, but after the Site Team review, there are a couple of items that need to be tackled by the working Partners group, namely the issue of watermarking and access images. I’ve polled the Advisors to come up with a list of topics for Monday’s meeting (Dec. 11th).  Advisors will meet from 10 through lunch.  We’ll have a short team meeting in Special Collections afterward, from 1 until 3.

Anna Fariello