Newsletter: November 2007
Advisory Meeting
The fall Advisory Meeting will be held on Friday, December 7th. After a brief hiatus, we are returning to our all-day meeting format: hosting Advisors in the a.m. and Partners in the p.m. We will be introducing Advisors to the progress made on the project since spring, including database remediation (reworked metadata and images), new database landing page, new storyboard landing pages, new content pages, and a whole new entry portal.
New Advisor
At the meeting, we will welcome Jenny Moore, Associate Director of HandMade in America as a new Advisor. Since the 1990s, HandMade has inspired a second craft revival in western NC. Anna and Mary Jean Herzog worked with HandMade in planning our spring Teacher workshop. And they were the conduit for creating a display in the I-26 Welcome Center north of Asheville. On view are four poster boards identifying the project and its partners, along with a selection of objects from the Mountain Heritage Center.
Displays
We will be taking down these poster boards soon and they are available to HP sites for display. We also have the poster boards from last year’s Hunter Library hallway display. These include screen shots of the database with the URL. If you are interested in borrowing these, please see Anna at the meeting or send an email note.
Interim Site Visit
The state evaluation team will be coming to Cullowhee on January 11th to spend the day with Heritage Partners and will be visiting Qualla on January 10th. The Library Systems Unit has received the new equipment and is installing and testing software; meanwhile, Qualla is installing networking connections. Our team plan is to have all equipment up and running for the site visit.
Database
Database remediation is ongoing and progressive. Ginny Daley has finished with Penland and Campbell, and is currently reviewing Mountain Heritage and Guild material. At the same time the Home Team working with students, has moved forward with correcting technical/digital problems with database images. These include crooked images, those without a consistent tonal quality, and images with dark lines around them. This is a complex process involving teamwork. Students are working with Ginny, Melissa, and Tim, all having a part in replacing images into various parts of the database.
Database Numbers
From the perspective of the university campus, one can’t help but measure time in terms of semesters. We are 5 out of 6 semesters through the initial grant period. Here are our scan numbers:
YEAR III UPLOADS JCCFS = 86 Hunter = 0 MHC = 1 Penland = 0 SHCG = 151 TOTAL = 238 |
TOTAL ON DATABASE JCCFS = 218 Hunter = 61 MHC = 211 Penland = 515 SHCG = 956 TOTAL = 1961 |
Home Team
The Home Team is meeting regularly to evaluate where we are at with an eye toward January. Tim Carstens is going through all of the terms used in the project’s controlled vocabulary and comparing them against the LC Authority File. The Home Team has also had several discussions regarding the elimination of duplicate headings, although this is tricky in that cataloging practice wants to maximize the number of headings to accommodate user searches.
Collection Portal
We will be showing off The Collection, a new collection portal to Advisors and Partners at the meeting. Anna and Melissa have been working on the structure; Ginny is working on the content. Ginny has drafted a project Collection Policy and sample Collection Guide (finding aid). She will be working with each Heritage Partner to complete individual Partner guides. You can see the new project home page at:
http://craftrevival.wcu.edu/indextest6.html
You can see the collection drafts at: http://craftrevival.wcu.edu/collection/index.html
Video Images
The Mountain Heritage Center has uploaded one video clip and has submitted a number of others. These allow visitors to view an object in the round. Melissa has had to work on these so that they function on different browsers. We also face the challenge of using a means of access that is free and simple to use while wanting to maximize the effect. Check it out our progress with video at:
Digitization Institute
Anna attended an NC ECHO Digitization Institute held in Charlotte in November. Even though the format for the institute was condensed, it was helpful to consider the Craft Revival project in light of the many issues covered in the institute. The Mint Museum of Craft + Design, also in Charlotte, had inquired about the project; Anna met with the Director and Curator to discuss the project and plans for future collaborations.
Web work
Anna has been working on The People section, attempting to restructure it to accommodate various craftsmen and Craft Revival promoters. She has added a landing page for Carvers. From here, the viewer can access short bios of carvers that were part of a JCCFS publication that were transcribed by Anna Shearouse. See this section at:
http://craftrevival.wcu.edu/people/carvers/carvers.html
Year IV Funding
Anna and Bil have been in conversation with the State Library with regard to Year IV funding. The project was conceived with a number of ambitious goals that will not be completed within the initial three years of implementation so the Hunter Library will be submitting a request for a fourth year of funding from LSTA/NC ECHO. Our new grant deadline is in March.
Cherokee Partnership
Anna and Tonya Carroll are working with the Qualla basket collection and plan to have finished that work in the spring. This includes identifying basket patterns and creating an on-line visual glossary of basket weaving patterns, something we think has not been done before. The Hunter Library has submitted a grant to the Cherokee Preservation Foundation to assist with the documentation of Cherokee crafts during Year IV. This grant is a three-way partnership with the Hunter, Qualla, and the Museum of the Cherokee Indian.
Craft Today Section
The first of a new section of The Story is up under the heading Craft Today. Through this section, the project demonstrates the impact of the Craft Revival on the region today. Since our historical storyboards focus on the early 20th century, there is not room to present a comprehensive picture of Heritage Partner sites. Today’s HP sites might have different names and different functions from their operations during the Craft Revival period. While the website has links to HP websites, the Craft Today section ties past activity to the present. To date, the John C. Campbell Folk School submitted text for this section. We are waiting for a page of text from other HP sites as we are sure everyone will want to have their contemporary work featured. The colorful section contrasts with the overall muted colors of the historical sections. See this at:
http://craftrevival.wcu.edu/story/campbell_today.html
Anna Fariello
Hunter Library | Library Insider | Last updated: 12/5/07 Melissa Young