Happy New Year...

From the NYPL vintage holiday postcard digital collection.

5 Things Thursday: The Future, Open Source and the Smell of the Library

5 things to round out a successful 2011 with almost 10K blog hits. Thanks, readers!

1. Want to read about supporting open source tools for digital preservation?
2. Would you like to add presets/templates using the Adobe Metadata panel?
3. Read about how UNAM (National Autonomous University of Mexico) is digitizing everything.
4. Do you like the smell of a real library? A perfumer has captured that special scent.
5. Does the NYT think the future of computing will include genetic data storage?

 

BONUS: 34 Photoshop tutorials...

Metadata Monday: Permanent Metadata Rejoice!

Although I have written about the Embedded Metadata Manifesto previously a few months ago, a recent CNET piece talks about permanent metadata here.

In it they restate that the International Press Telecommunications Council (IPTC) in London, the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4As) and the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) have banded together to take the issue of data persistence one step further by proposing that permanent metadata be applied to images, text, audio and video files.

The piece raises important questions such as when cameras, mobile phones and other devices evolve to include more and more specific information embedded into files that they create, what are the ramifications of having identifying information included in every single digital file?

The manifesto is at present just a document but raises an important discussion about the sort of information being stored within metadata, and that your content-creation devices are probably capturing more data than you think.

Happy Holidays from Mod Librarian!

IMDB listing for White Christmas.

5 Things Thursday: Self Archiving, Spaghetti Sauce and a Diet

Here are five things to ring in the holidays:

1. Why asking for self archiving shouldn't be scary.
2. What is the spaghetti sauce moment for your library?
3. Google + now preserves copyright metadata.
4. Do you need to go on an information diet?
5. Want to read librarian online poll results?

Metadata Monday: Virtualization and Orchestration

There is a post on ZDNet by Dana Gardner that is getting a lot of social media action. Here is the summary:

 Metadata-driven data virtualization and improved orchestration can help provide the inclusion and scale to accomplish far better data management. Such access then leads to improved integration of all information into an approachable resource for actionable business activities.

Indeed, this post is chock full of enterprise metadata catch phrases and terms ranging from those that are comprehensible like unstructured data and GIGO (garbage in, garbage out) to those that require some thinking like holistic data set and actionable data.

The panel of experts featured bring up some excellent points, however. One of my favorites is from Noel Yuhanna of Forrester Research "Obviously, you can’t boil the ocean, but I think you want to start with some data which becomes more valuable, and this comes back to the point that you talked about as the right data. Start with the right data and look at those data points that are being shared and consumed by many users, business users, and that’s going to be valuable for the business itself."

The over-arching theme is that data is being created and consumed at breakneck speeds. Organizations are dealing with many disparate systems, user groups, contributors, stakeholders and levels of data quality. Virtualization and orchestration is about distilling, integrating and using the best data efficiently.

 

More Book Gift Ideas

In case you are still doing holiday shopping, books are always a great gift. Here is a great guide from my favorite design blog Design Sponge.

The Design Sponge team has impeccable taste and the books featured in this guide are unique and lovely. From  Vogue: The Covers to Pantone: The 20th Century in Color, this list offers something for everyone.

Mushrooms, department stores, Laura Ingalls Wilder and the guy who built a toaster from scratch instead of buying one at Target, this list is as fun to read as the books featured. Happy holidays!

5 Things Thursday: Lightroom, UX, DAM, and Librarians

Here are more than five things to consider.

1. A plug in for complex file renaming in Lightroom.
2. Why aren't information schools integrating UX education into LIS programs?
3. Don't you just love citation generators for research?
4. Are librarians turning into digital asset managers?
5. Need an amazing job resource list for LIS listings?

 

BONUS: PACA Rogue Website List of Photo Copyright Infringments

Metadata Monday: Automated Controlled Vocabularies?

This blog has previously discussed automated metadata creation and while I do believe that we still need humans to evaluate the subjective, utilizing tools to streamline workflow is always a benefit in the resource deprived information industry.

SKOSsy is a SKOS (Simple Knowledge Organisation System) which generates thesauri dynamically in English and German using DBPedia , an independent project to extract structured data from Wikipedia.  SKOSsy produces ‘seed’ thesauri to provide a solid headstart in a thesaurus project, generating the data in mere minutes. Even with refinement, enrichment and a little editing, employing SKOSsy can save significant time.

For more about the possibilities, see this post from the Semantic Web Company.

 

Books to Read or Gift

Here is The New York Times list of 100 Notable Books of 2011. I personally think it was a good year for fiction with some of my favorites including The Barbarian Nurseries, The Buddha in the Attic, Ten Thousand Saints, and This Beautifiul Life.

Also listed are notable non fiction which are often great choices for holiday gift time. Blood, Bones and Butter or Moby Duck might make nice gifts as well as art history tomes on Caravaggio or Van Gogh.

 

5 Things Thursday: iPhone Apps, QR Codes, Search

Here are five things for this week:

1. What are the Library Scenester's favorite iPhone apps?
2. Do students even know how to use QR codes?
3. Want to learn more about Google's search algorithms?
4. What should you do if you mess up at work?
5. Try out this Image Operations Metadata Tool.

BONUS: Little Printer will produce a custom mini newspaper so you can stop reading on your phone.

Metadata Monday: Free Your Metadata

Want to know how to clean up and reconcile your metadata? Check out this site from the Free Your Metadata team. Free Your Metadata is a scientific collaboration between Multimedia Lab (ELIS — Ghent University / IBBT) and MasTIC (Université Libre de Bruxelles).

The clean up process employs Google Refine and there is a screencast demonstrating its use with example data from the Powerhouse Museum.

The goal of the reconciliation step is to connect collection-specific vocabulary to a controlled vocabulary like the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH).

Ultimately, the goal of squeaky clean metadata is interoperability, to prepare data for the Linked Data Cloud. Free your metadata!

 

UPDIG: Universal Photographic Digital Imaging Guidelines

I really dig the guidelines featured on the UPDIG site.

The UPDIG guidelines aim to clarify issues affecting accurate reproduction and management of digital images. These guidelines were created to establish photographic standards and practices for photographers, designers, printers, and image distributors. The guidelines cover Digital Asset Management, Color Profiling, Metadata, and Photography Workflow.

The most useful sections for me are on file naming, digital image workflow and a rich resource on metadata. Each set of guidelines is customized to a particular audience as well.

Thanks to David Riecks, a contributing editor to the UPDIG project, for pointing this site out.

5 Things Thursday: Is It Really December?

Here are five things to ponder as you wonder where 2011 went.

1. Why should publishers start acting like libraries are their friends?
2. Does digital asset management belong on a server or in the cloud?
3. Are you a librarian seeking inspirational words of wisdom?
4. Check out the DAM Learning Center.
5. Would you like to visualize digital collections using Viewshare?

Metadata Monday: Personal Music Metadata

Check out this comprehensive guide on lifehacker for whipping your music library metadata into shape. This information covers cleaning up both primary tags like artist and album and secondary tags like genre or year.

As your music library grows into the thousands, the ability to search and locate tunes is reliant on good metadata. Auto generated data is often inaccurate and employing the clean up tools mentioned in this article like Jaikoz and MP3tag can help you tackle issues in batches efficiently and quickly.

ASMP Digital Photography Best Practices and Workflow

Here is an amazing resource for digital photographers seeking workflow information and best practices for digital photography from the American Society of Media Photographers. dpBestflow.org is a site filled with information on color management, metadata, file storage and everything in between.

In the best practices section, there is a marvelous guide to keywording which discusses everything from hierarchical lists in Lightroom to purchasing keyword lists and controlled vocabulary.

There are instructions for creating metadata templates as well as information on copyright registration procedures.

I think I will be referring to this site a lot and I'm surprised I haven't discovered it sooner.

 

Online Gallery: Museo Nacional del Prado

If you can't travel to Spain right now, check out the spectacular online collection of the Museo Nacional del Prado which includes this work - The Garden of Earthly Delights by Bosch or El Bosco.

Happy Thanksgiving!

From the New York Public Library collection.

5 Things Thursday: Thanksgiving, Metadata and Digital Assets

Here are five things to talk about while eating turkey:

1. Why does Google+ delete copyright metadata?
2. Want to see more metadata in Adobe Bridge?
3. Would you like an ExifTool for editing metadata in the command line?
4. Learn more about keyword research.
5. Would you like to be an art librarian? Check out Hack Library School.

Metadata Monday: VRA Core Metadata Tool

This is one of the coolest things ever - an export/import tool for a custom VRA Core metadata XMP panel. This tool, designed to be used with Adobe Bridge, allows you to export VRA Core metadata from images with existing metadata and even better, to import VRA metadata to a group of files from a .txt file.

The VRA Core metadata scheme has a very rich, robust, and relational set of elements so any tool that automates its application is extremely valuable. This site even has great videos to explain installation and use.

Image Rights Explained Visually

Here is a video I found recently that was a real hit in my recent presentation on managing image rights for creative agencies. It is very succinct and a must for anyone working with photography.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OS1SXyZ0BnU?wmode=transparent]

Here is a link to the organization that created this fine video - StockPhotoRights.com.

 

5 Things Thursday: Digital Asset Management Edition

I just returned from a wonderfully informative time at the Henry Stewart Events DAM LA conference (#DAMLA). Here are more than five takeaways for those interested in managing digital assets:

1. Did you know you there is an app designed for accessing SharePoint on your iPad or iPhone? SharePlus is an app employed by companies like Skechers to remotely access their DAM content.
2. Check out this awesome digital collaboration and editing tool for photographers called GLOBALedit.
3. Do you need help selecting a DAM system? Materials from Theresa Regli and The Real Story Group can help your company pick the best tool.
4. Did you know you can customize the XMP info on Adobe files? The Marketing Store employs this in their creative workflow to effectively incorporate metadata for their DAM.
5. Are you craving more information on taxonomy and metadata? Check out this blog from Earley & Associates.

BONUS: The DAM Daily by DigitalAssetManagement.com features a lot of the topics from this conference.

DOUBLE BONUS: Here is an awesome article about a project featured at the conference - Tagasauris crowd-sourcing metadata for Magnum archive.

Metadata Monday: There's an App for That!

Turns out there are quite a few iPhone applications for reviewing photo metadata. I downloaded a handful of free apps listed below and most do precisely the same thing - display the EXIF data associated with the photos stored on your mobile device.

• Photo Metadata Viewer by Boxo - click on any photo in your library to see all the EXIF data
• Exif and IPTC Metadata Browser by C Godefroy - this application reveals EXIF and IPTC data on any photo in your library
• Pictures by James Devenish - this app allows you to organize, tag, color code, archive and share photos in one easy place.

Here is an example of the screen in the Photo Metadata Viewer.

 

BAPLA: British Association of Picture Libraries

The British Association of Picture Libraries has a lot of useful information on their website. From explaining copyright infringement to a comprehensive image supplier list or category search, BAPLA offers adjunct tools to help image researchers locate material.

The BAPLA site also features up to the minute industry news and a useful toolkit for photographers containing legal templates and information on specific topics of interest like photographing buildings and property releases.

 

The Seattle Public Library: 1962 World's Fair Events

5 Things Thursday: OTTO, Public Domain Audio Books and a Summarizer

Here are five more things:

1. Check out the newly launched OTTO, a photo agency devoted to iconic architecture and design.
2. Want to improve your photo skills and post photos online?
3. Why does photo licensing matter?
4. Too wordy? Use this summarizer to increase brevity.
5. Want to listen to or narrate public domain audio books?

Metadata Monday: Meta Tags for SEO

Switching gears from my usual metadata topics to Search Engine Optimization. I found a great series of courses related to using meta tags for SEO over on SEO Hacker.

Meta tags are the words that are hidden in your code, in the HTML <head> area. This is where you can put titles, descriptions and keywords that help crawlers locate your content.

There are three main things that a search engine crawler does with your meta tags. These are used for indexing, retrieval and ranking or precision.

Primarily, SEO experts use meta tags for things like accounting for misspellings, adding synonyms and also describing web pages with visual not text elements.

Read the whole thing to fully understand meta tags, proper use in SEO and the purpose of meta robots.

TV Networks Ignore Photo Copyrights

There was an interesting article in PDN (Photo District News) recently on several recent cases involving television networks ignoring photographers copyrights on images.

Increasingly, copyrighted images are showing up everywhere from Project Runway to the evening news without compensation being offered to the creators. One freelance journalist, Jason DeCesare of Philadelphia has sued CBS, NBC, Fox, Disney and Comcast for unauthorized used of his images.

“You have some low paid intern who does a Google search to find an image, and doesn’t care about the copyright,” he says. “I think they’re like the guy who jumps the subway turnstile. They’re hoping nobody’s watching them, and nobody’s going to catch them stealing.”

Indeed, copyright infringement is a serious matter and in the instant gratification world of the Internet, more and more people are appropriating images with the hope that the use flies under the radar.

5 Things Thursday: Storify, Photo Licensing, Throwable Camera

Here are five more things.

1. Want to curate conversations with Storify?
2. Are photo licenses obsolete in the age of the Internet?
3. Interested in some archival films of the Pacific NW? Try UW's Ruth and Louis Kirk collection.
4. Ever want to throw your camera in the air. Check this out for 360-degree panoramas.
5. Want to learn things? Look at all the courses on Grovo!

Metadata Monday: Keywords for DAM

While doing research for my two speaking engagements in November, I ran across a great article  by Donna Slawsky on building a keyword library. The article discusses one of my favorite topics - aboutness in terms of identifying images -  and also spells out clearly how and why to create a taxonomy for managing the keywords applied to digital assets.

The photo example supplied in the article and the findings displayed are accompanied by the astute observation that "people use different words to express similar ideas, concepts and even things."

This is the main reason to create a taxonomy. Consistency in tagging assets begets consistency in retrieval.

Finally, the topic is summarized with some tips on creating the taxonomy - whether to take on the work in house or outsource to a freelance thesaurus developer. "Work on a thesaurus is never complete."

 

Happy Halloween!

From the NYPL Digital Gallery

5 Things Thursday: eReaders, Dropbox, Widen and Creativity

Here are five things to amaze and delight you.

1. Go over to Hack Lib School to read about iPads, and Kindles, and nooks.
2. Will Dropbox simplify your life?
3. Interested in who uses Widen's DAM system?
4. Has creativity killed the library star?
5. What would Steve Jobs say about the library catalog?

Metadata Monday: The Sound of Taxonomy?

A couple weeks ago a post by Seth Maislin caught my attention. In it, Seth talks about data visualizations and the need for explanation or interpretation to really understand and use the information presented. In the same way, perusing a taxonomy to establish patterns or identify gaps is often a murky pursuit.

Seth brings up an interesting idea of adding audio to assist in recognizing relationships and interpreting search query logs.

Simple patterns can be represented visually, but multifaceted interpretations might be better served using sound harmonies or vibration frequencies.

While these ideas may at first glance seem a little wacky, think about your own challenges making sense of the glut of data gleaned daily. Although this post is a bit science fiction, isn't everything lately?

Museum Ludwig

Here is another great website design for what looks to be an amazing art museum. With collections ranging from Bauhaus to Pop Art to a prestigious photographic collection, Museum Ludwig in Cologne, Germany has a well organized and aesthetically appealing site.

Of interest to library types is the Art and Museum Library. The collection of books, rougly 350K volumes, at the Art and Museum Library of the City of Cologne covers the period from the Middle Ages to the present day with particular reference to publications relevant to museums.

 

5 Things Thursday: Tech Tools, MLIS Value, Apple's iCloud

1. Read about favorite tech tools like Zotero.
2. Wondering how to get started with iCloud?
3. Want to know the top ten reasons getting an MLIS is smart?
4. Can remixing content work in academic research?
5. Are word clouds harmful?

BONUS DESIGN SITE: Kern Type, the kerning game

Metadata Monday: SQL Server 2012 and Data Explorer

Microsoft's Data Explorer is a a touch-sensitive visualization tool that will orbit around the new SQL Server ecosystem. Admittedly, Microsoft Excel has long been the tool used to manipulate and visualize data, but even Quentin Clark, Microsoft's own corporate vice president for database systems, tells RWW in this article that using Excel for enterprise data is not really optimal.

Why? Because people tend to share Excel spreadsheet fragments, other people make changes, and the data eventually falls out of context with the database itself.Here is what Clark says specifically:

"It's not so much that we don't want Excel in the loop," says Clark about a product his team doesn't manage. "We want to give IT tools to make data sharable, so [people] can stop using Excel as the way data and information gets flowed, over e-mail... [and] ensure that SharePoint can be used as a sharing and collaboration mechanism, as opposed to e-mail."

And that's just the icing on the cake. Data Explorer allows sharing data through SharePoint too. 

Artquest

The Artquest site from the UK bills itself as containing "everything a visual artist needs to know." Indeed, this is a good resource containing information on grants for the visual arts, how to get an exhibition, as well as a marvelous section on Art and the Law.

Art and the Law features information on copyright, censorship, contracts and money.

The Art Directory has an art research section with a number of interesting image libraries including the Tate Research Services and the Bridgeman Art Library.

5 Things Thursday: ArtMatch, Analytics, Archivists Gone Wild

Check it out:

1. Want to use web analytics well?
2. Would you like to discover art that matches your tastes?
3. Read about an archivist who stole (and sold) archival sound recordings.
4. Consider structured content versus social media.
5. Visit the Digital Curation Exchange!

Metadata Monday: Social Metadata

Social metadata - content contributed by users - is evolving as a way to enhance and append metadata created by information professionals. The OCLC Research Library Partnership has spawned a 21-member Social Metadata Working Group that reviewed 76 sites for social metadata including tags, comments, ratings, reviews, images and video.

The first of the group's reports is available here and it is interesting to note how organizations are encouraging participation among users and utilizing the resulting content.

My favorite part of the report is the list of the sites reviewed which includes many I have not explored like:

• Brooklyn Revealed
• Kew Gardens
• Memory Maker
• Penn Tags

InfoCamp Seattle: Art of Presentation

Yesterday I attended day one of InfoCamp Seattle. There was a focus on user experience this year, a smattering of traditional librarian types, and not many people talking about my favorite topics - taxonomy and metadata.

What impressed me was the presentation style of the keynote address by Nishant Kothery, a designer from Microsoft, who spoke mainly about people, intuition, predictable irrationality and other things that can sometimes get in the way when collaboration is the key. He put together an amazing resource list here, but I was even more interested in his style of presenting - lots of photos, iconic images, soundbytes of ideas.

I attended another information session by Jen Matson, UX designer at Ascentium, on protoyping with HTML5, CSS3 and jQuery. I was impressed by her presentation because it was organized in such a way that both people with no experience in coding or a lot of experience in coding would benefit. Jen was able to find the middle ground between simplicity and complexity.

Why was I more interested in the presentation style than the content? I am presenting twice in November - once at the Henry Stewart DAM LA conference on rights for creative assets and again at the ASPP West Chapter on keywording for photographers.

I always learn something valuable at InfoCamp and this year it was all about the art of presenting.

5 Things Thursday: October Tech, Legal, Linked Data

1. Want to see The Granger Collection of prints?
2. Is there something contradictory about vintage style tech accessories?
3. Can being an independent information professional guarantee a job for life?
4. Need some legal help with digital media publishing?
5. Should academic libraries expose bibliographic data as linked data?

InfoCamp Seattle: October 8th and 9th

InfoCamp, an egalitarian, community-driven format in which the agenda is created during the event, returns to Seattle Saturday and Sunday October 8th and 9th. InfoCamps tend to attract students and professionals loosely focused on information related pursuits. Digital librarians mingle with user experience gurus and taxonomists stand in the corner and categorize everyone.

The agenda is user driven and always a delightful surprise. My favorite sessions last year were about content management, product design, and holistic user experience.

Find out more here. Hope to see you there if you are in Seattle!

Metadata Monday: Tweet Data

Even though a tweet is 140 characters or less, the metadata (see chart here) attached to a tweet tracks much more. From standard issue items like the date created, a unique ID, whether the user has geo tracking enabled, how many followers the user has and many other things.

Most notably, however, is the fact that all the metadata surrounding your succinct missive can be sifted and mined for marketing purposes. Companies like Gnip  standardize and analyze data from social media sites like Twitter and Facebook.

 

5 Things Thursday: Secret Servers, Spelling Errors, and MLIS Specializations

Here are five things to ponder as you rake up falling leaves:

1. Did they really spell school incorrectly right in front of a school?
2. How should you select an MLIS program specialization?
3. Is this the best, most Darling minimalist website design ever?
4. Ever wonder where all the servers live?
5. Is Amazon Kindle library lending beta testing in Seattle?

BONUS: Want to read about Clifford Lynch, Scholarly Works, Big Data and Libraries?

Metadata Monday: Museum of Design in Plastics: JISC Project Resources

JISC (originally, Joint Information Systems Committee) is the UK's expert on information and digital technologies for education and research. I find countless useful resources on their fine website, but recently stumbled upon a collection of digitization (digitisation) project plans that could serve as valuable road maps in many similar digital projects initiatives.

For example, the Museum of Design in Plastics, a leading resource for the study and interpretation of design in plastics, presented the final report and project plan details for the digital creation of a high quality "record of artefacts demonstrating design in plastics and the functional specification for an improved resource to support research into design in plastics and its cultural impact."

The project details include such things as workflow, staffing, budgets, standards, interoperability information, rights clearance procedures and data dictionaries. If you'd like to know whether a digital collection used VRA Core or Dublin Core, which controlled vocabularies and authorities were implemented or even how many staff members were dedicated to the project, this is the place to find out.

The unique plastic items on the MODIP site feature full catalog records like this one:

Full Record
Title	money box
Collection	Museum of Design in Plastics: Arts University College at Bournemouth
Date	circa 1975-1979
Description	This novelty pig-shaped radio and money box dates from the 1970s. It has a cream-coloured, rounded body with brown leatherette ears which cover the radio controls. The facial features of the pig are painted in black and there is a printed 'LOVE' logo on the rump.
Accession Number	AIBDC : 001917
Dimensions	height 110mm, length 135mm, width 90mm
Materials	plastic, PS, polystyrene, vinyl
Notes	Everyday objects, such as those in this collection, are sometimes difficult to research. If you have any information about this object please contact the museum on modip@aucb.ac.uk.
Rights	MoDiP has done its utmost to obtain clearance from all IPR holders before adding images to this catalogue, if you believe that any image has been used without permission please contact us on modip@aucb.ac.uk.
Method	injection moulded

 

There are over fifty such projects complete with detail on the JISC site currently.

 

Netflix and Qwikster: Licensing Revelation

I ran across an interesting article on Wired.com regarding the Netflix decision to split off the DVD mailing division into a separate entity called Qwikster. Despite the fact that the Twitter account Qwikster currently belongs to a 'pot smoking Elmo,' the move to split may indeed be due to licensing.

Before splitting, Netflix was only able to negotiate rights and release windows for content for both the online and mail business together. Studios were able to leverage one against the other and as a result, as users no doubt noticed, the online selection was limited and lagged behind the release of the physical media.

Now, with the ability to make deals independently, both businesses should be able to offer better more timely content. As long as the split does not add another level of digital inconvenience to my days (like the Facebook changes), I applaud the cleverness.

 

5 Things Thursday: SEO, Keywords, Artist Rights

Here are five things to discuss while sipping hot apple cider this fall:

1. Would you like to get scientific about search engine optimization?
2. Did you know you can search Google image with any image?
3. Want to hear an awesome podcast from ASPP on keywording photos?
4. Does a National Portrait Gallery contest trample artists' rights?
5. What is it about the smell of a book (versus the smell of a Kindle)?

Metadata Monday: Photo Keywording

There are many good resources devoted to photo keywording. This one on the site Photopreneur discusses the importance of keywording for photographers submitting images to stock photo companies. Since the keyword guidelines for different companies vary slightly, it is crucial that photographers understand the guidelines and develop a system that incorporates all the parameters.

Applying keywords just once will be less time consuming and finding ways to automate and streamline the process is key. Another great resource is on one of my favorite sites, Controlled Vocabulary.

The Caption and Keywording Guidelines list questions you should ask yourself regarding the "aboutness" of any image. This list should assist you in creating a process that will lend speed, consistency and accuracy to your photo keywording efforts.

International Center for Photography

Check out the Research Center at the site for the International Center for Photography.

eMuseum is a searchable database of ICP's Photography Collection. Each record includes information about the photographer, title, date, medium, as well as an image, when available.With over 20,000 records in the database and new content added daily, this resource provides a glimpse into a rich photographic history without leaving the couch.

Photomuse.org represents a collaboration between ICP and the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film, providing more online resources for the study of photography.

 

 

5 Things Thursday: Library Finder, Flashy Presentation Tools and FlickStackr

Here are five things to amaze and delight the LIS community:

1. Need to find a library in a strange city? Try the Library Finder app.
2. Want to add some pizazz to a presentation? Check out these tips from Musings about librarianship.
3. Interested in seeing some sample LibraryThing data files?
4. What does your library degree mean to you?
5. Organize your images on the go with FlickStackr. Here's some information.

Metadata Monday: Get Meta-Smart About Photos

The Stock Artists Alliance in conjunction with the LOC relays some invaluable information regarding photo metadata on the website PhotoMetadata.org. Embedding metadata on photos is vitally important to aid in identification of the creator, prevent copyright infringement and increase findability.

From informative tutorials, links to resources, explanations of metadata classes, types and structure to glossaries and a reference library, this site backs up the SAA's Metadata Manifesto with useful and practical information.

The bottom line is that anyone creating photos should understand and employ metadata. In this digital age, content is misappropriated more than ever before. Also, with so much content out there, ensuring that your creations can be easily located is key.

 

 

 

Copyright Alert

Here is an interesting story about the site Bruce-Juice.com posting photos of celebrities allegedly illegally downloaded from the sites of large news agencies and photo sites. Check out the copyright disclaimer on the site:

All images on bruce-juice.com featuring individuals of 'celebrity' and 'public figure' status are believed to be in the public domain. bruce-juice.com does not claim ownership of any images featuring individuals of 'celebrity' and 'public figure' status. bruce-juice.com DOES NOT accept responsibility for it's users downloading material that is later found to be an infringement of copyright laws.

Action is being taken as the agencies from which the photos were taken band together. More on this developing story here on Photo Archive News.

5 Things Thursday: More Than Five Things...

This was a big week for interesting tidbits, so here are a dozen things to discuss:

1. Can libraries learn from Target's marketing?
2. Will the Sony eReader really be library friendly?
3. Interested in some innovative enterprise DAM software from ADAM?
4. Want to read about the restoration of some 1920's Hitchcock films?
5. Enjoy this infographic on the growth of social media.
6. Check out this site devoted to copyright and art issues.
7. SXSW meets archival records.
8. Read about Stock Keeper for Mac - sounds like an easy and affordable DAM.
9. Hack Library School defends online LIS education. Heck, I got a great online education!
10. Update the Content Wrangler's logo in a contest.
11. Look at Jeffrey's cool EXIF viewer.
12. Read about Autonomy and IDOL OEM.

Metadata Monday: Crowdsourcing Metadata

The George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film is turning to crowdsourcing to create metadata tags for their archive. In a partnership with Clickworker, an innovator in crowdsourcing technology, the project will involve the photo-tagging of more than 400,000 images.

“Our partnership with Clickworker enables us to make our photographs searchable and ultimately make our collections more accessible to the world,” said Dr. Anthony Bannon, the Ron and Donna Fielding Director at George Eastman House. “Clickworker not only provides professional insight into the subject matter of our images, but also the option of crowdsourcing in several languages, which is ideal for our internationally focused collections.”

This is a creative solution to the issue of too much digital content to effectively archive without a temporary giant workforce, but I wonder what it means in terms of consistency. However, whether freelance microtaskers working for Clickworker or volunteers at a museum, the result is the same - increased findability for resources that would have otherwise remained inaccessible for much longer.

 

Labor Day Ad

Courtesy of Duke Digital Collections

5 Things Thursday: Labor Day Edition

Here are five things to ponder at your final BBQ of the season. Put away those white shoes!

1. Want to check out some future ready Northwest libraries?
2. Would you care to read Theresa Putkey's insights on personas in UE?
3. Longing for an awesome site on controlled vocabulary?
4. Where is Charles Guggenheim's archive?
5. Do you share Jason Griffey's opinion that the future is already here?

 

Metadata Monday: Taxonomy and SharePoint

Here is a fantastic post on Digital Landfill on Five Myths about Taxonomy and SharePoint. I began to miss SharePoint, so I found this piece not only informative, but realistic regarding what you can and can't expect to do with SharePoint in terms of taxonomy.

The highlights for you, enumerated as follows:

• The term store management tool is not a taxonomy management system.  It is called a term store and not the taxonomy manager for a reason. 
• It’s important to note the lack of workflow associated with term addition, modification and deletion. Changes to taxonomy in the term store can occur without review or approval, which can lead to repercussions like downstream processes becoming out of alignment.
• Content types should be refelctive of the content itself and therefore not relegated as the sole responsibility of IT because they are not generally the business stakeholders.
• Taking too narrow or too broad a perspective can lead to problems. Just because you are able to create a seven level hierarchy with thirty-thousand terms doesn’t mean that you should.
• In SharePoint, the taxonomy is used throughout the site but terms are managed in the term store for specific usage in content.

Finally, as with many projects that require the organization of information, LIS professionals can play a useful role in creating and managing SharePoint terms, however, it is vitally important to involve team members with a rich understanding of SharePoint's features and limitations and the actual enterprise end users.

 

The National Archives UK: All About Digital Preservation

I love a good resource on digital preservation. Here is another one from the UK, from the National Archives.

I particularly like the "Digital Preservations FAQ's" section which talks about funding, expertise, and some golden rules like always holding two copies of a record and documenting processes.

The Guidance section includes practical information about file formats and storage media. Finally, there is a page devoted to Policy Guidance because every good digital collection should be backed up not only in multiple locations, but backed up by a solid policy.

Thanks to Jill Hurst-Wahl at Digitization 101 for pointing out this amazing resource!

Another DAM Podcast: Interview With Me!

I am proud to be featured on Henrik de Gyor's interview series Another DAM Podcast. If you want to hear me talk about creative assets, here is the link:

http://anotherdampodcast.com/2011/08/25/tracy-guza/

 

 

5 Things Thursday: Late Summer Edition

Here are five things to tide you over as summer draws to a close:

1. HP acquires Autonomy - what does this mean for MediaBin DAM?
2. Starting library school? Here are some tips from Hack Lib School.
3. Want to be famous in your profession?
4. Learn more about databases from Stanford University.
5. Would you like to know more about SEO competitive analysis?

Metadata Monday: Data Friday

The Hedgehog Librarian, Abigail Goben, has collected a number of interesting metadata related tidbits on her blog. One of the most interesting observations is regarding the number of LIS jobs that are directly related to dealing with, modelling and even visualizing metadata. Here is the list of positions plus a few new ones. Take note of the skill sets and buzz words used in the descriptions. If you are a librarian excited about metadata, interesting opportunities abound.

• Data Modeler for the Railroad Retirement Board
• Data Visualization Coordinator Duke University Libraries
• Digital Archivist Librarian DePaul University
• National Digital Newspaper Project Manager Washington State Libraries
• Digital Branch Librarian Corvallis-Benton County Public Library

• Digital Collections Strategist and Architecture Librarian

  MIT

Make Your Own September Issue: Cond?? Nast Archive

If you are interested in fashion and in reading big, hefty, glossy magazines, you are familiar with the mythic September issues. Well, did you also know that stock giant Corbis Images offers rights for editorial use of the Condé Nast archive of images?   

The Condé Nast Archive, with a collection dating back to 1892, is one of the finest resources in the publishing world. The selection of photography features work by such giants as Edward Steichen, Horst P. Horst, Cecil Beaton, John Rawlings, George Hoyningen-Huene, Toni Frissell, Henry Clarke, and many others.

From a Pucci dress to a portrait of Joni Mitchell to a woman dining with a cheetah, this image collection will amaze and inspire.

5 Things Thursday: Melange

Here are 5 more things, just like every week:

1. Want a website that inspires and informs your book club? Try Book Club Buddy.
2. Thinking about how people search?
3. What is your value proposition?
4. Piccsy: do we need another photo site? If so, this one is pretty cool.
5. Want to read how Hack Library School hacked my program at SJSU?

 

BONUS: Marvelous post by Meredith Farkas "Be the change you want to see."

Metadata Monday: Standards

Did you know that the good old Library of Congress has an entire page devoted to resources especially for librarians and archivists? In my opinion, one of the best sections is called Best Practices & Standards. There you can find authorities, information on search and bibliographic control and lovely sections on MARC, METS and EAD .

The page on standards has some fantastic information and links. One of the links is to Metadata for Digital Content. Nice resources, LOC!

National Gallery of Art

The Collection site for the National Gallery of Art is well organized, clean and easy to search. Here is a James Rosenquist from the collection.

5 Things Thursday: DAM Edition

Here are your weekly 5 things:

1. Can DAM handle Rights Managed assets?
2. Interested in learning about digital asset management and imaging in one convenient certificate program?
3. Want to manage your personal photos?
4. Would you like to see me speak at DAM LA in November?
5. More interested in digital preservation?

BONUS: Win a DAM book - “The Information and Knowledge Professional’s Career Handbook“, co-authored by Jill Hurst-Wahl and Ulla de Stricker.

Metadata Monday: Stemming

Are you familiar with stemming? In linguistics, stemming is essentially reducing a word to its root. For example, the word 'fish' is the stem of fishing, fisher, fisherman and others. "Discuss" is the root of discussion and discussing.

Stemming algorithms have long been used in search and SEO to increase the results associated with any given term. Keyword stemming involves the strategic use of synonyms and alternative keywords. Here is a great list of tips for using this concept in SEO.

Until last week, it did not occur to me to employ this strategy to my advantage in planning the controlled vocabulary behind the DAM system I work with. Our keyword field specifically has been littered with all forms of nouns and verbs increasing the size of the list.

I did some research on the configuration of our DAM and it turns out that one simple line in the search file, Stemming = TRUE (or FALSE), was all that was needed to ensure that if we entered the term baby, the search results would also include babies. If we entered farm, we would also get farms and farmers and farming. It is like magic, our keyword list is more concise and precise as a result and consistency improves as well.

 

5 Things Thursday: Welcome to August

Here are 5 things to talk about with your information fanatic friends:

1. Did you know Duke University's images appeared on History Detectives?
2. Is digitization different than digital preservation?
3. Want to make your own book? Try Blurb.
4. What is the connection between a social graph, "liking" and library data?
5. Need some more on personal branding?

BONUS: Make your iPhone look like a vintage volume.

Metadata Monday: Art & Architecture Images

Check out this lovely metadata scheme for art and architecture images created by the University of Oregon Libraries Digital Images Initiative. Part crosswalk and part data dictionary, this simple scheme (UO-AAI) combines the best of VRA Core and Dublin Core. Authorities are clearly delineated with the usual suspects of ULAN, TGN and AAT at the forefront and it provides a solid framework for anyone seeking to manage a digital visual resource collection.

Ostensibly, this scheme was created to manage the rich resources available at UO's Art and Architecture Library. Collections range from those originating from Oregon libraries like Oregon Digital, a joint effort by OSU and UO to the standard issue Artstor or Oxford Art Online.

From historic sheet music to Oregon state baseball, the collections employ the UO-AAI scheme in a CONTENTdm environment which is easy to search and browse.

 

PLUS: Simplifying Image Rights

For years I have been talking about the standardization of stock image rights parameters. As an art buyer/producer and later working in the stock industry, I observed many different models for calculating rights-managed licenses. Add to that original photography and usage stipulations can be wide-ranging and often confusing to end users.

Finally a solution is underway. Meet the PLUS Coalition, a group with the mission "To simplify and facilitate the communication and management of image rights." Drawing on the vast expertise of stock industry veterans, visual resource associations, artist representatives, photographers and publishers, PLUS intends to stay away from pricing and focus on standardization of rights parameters.

Here are the main ways that PLUS will improve Rights Management:

• Standardize license data
• Provide machine readable, worldwide standards for communicating an image license
• Create license reference codes that can be embedded in image headers and invisible watermarks on printed images
• Allow for better monitoring and policing of image distribution and use
• Allow customers to easily track image licenses and avoid unintentional infringement
• Discourage claims of innocent infringement

5 Things Thursday: Photos, A Day in the Life and the Future

Yes, you've got it - 5 things to inspire discourse:

1. Whatever will Google do with facial recognition company PittPatt?
2. What will life be like in the year 2050?
3. Would you like to see some of the best photography from National Geographic?
4. Want to learn about fellow library professionals participating in the Library Day in the Life Project?
5. Have an idea for the AMIA conference on digital audivisual asset management?

Metadata Monday: Indexing Interdisciplinary Data

Imagine the challenge of indexing interdisciplinary research data on the internet, perhaps research pertaining to endangered Chilean flamencos as relating to the salt flats of Bolivia and the impact of environmental factors resulting from nearby uranium mines on the migration of the species.

Not only is that a lot of information, but to successfully index this material for optimal retrieval, a metadata specialist might have to explore a number of specialized vocabularies to select the correct terms. These challenges are being addressed via the Helping Interdisciplinary Vocabulary Engineering (HIVE) project, led by a research team at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s School of Information and Library Science (SILS) Metadata Research Center (MRC), in collaboration with the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent)  in Durham, N.C.

Essentially, one can search multiple specialized vocabularies simultaneously to choose the best term. In much the same way that PACASEARCH aggregates image search results from multiple stock photo sites, the HIVE project will enable mega search of multiple vocabularies and ultimately supports automatic metadata generation.

Try the HIVE demo here. There are only a few vocabularies in there so far, but it is impressive nonetheless!

 

 

 

 

Automator to the Rescue

How many of you fully explore the pre-installed programs on your computer? Well, thank goodness a recent post by Leala Abbott hipped me to the amazing tool on Mac OS - the Automator.

Like many people working with digital asset management, I often need to create lists of filenames, rename files, document folder contents and a variety of other tedious tasks. Looks like the Automator can help with that and much more. It reminds me of creating an Action in Photoshop - you select the steps you'd like in order and then run the workflow.

You can also use Automator to filter email messages, clean up your iTunes, combine PDF pages, scale images and manage your fonts. It seems the only thing the Automator does not do is make coffee.

 

5 Things Thursday: eJournals, Web Scale Discovery and DAM

Here are five topics to ponder:

1. Want to explore eJournal use by subject? Read this from the eclectic librarian.
2. Interested in ways to use web scale discovery tools without visiting library sites?
3. If you're a Digital Asset Manager, ever wonder how to describe your job without boring people?
4. Do you ever wonder what it would be like if actual physical books had lending restrictions as complex as ebooks?
5. Are you experiencing information overload? Wait, it will get worse...

 

BONUS: student research journal from the San Jose State SLIS program

Metadata Monday: Microdata and Schema.org

Don't we all need another standard or schema for web page markup? Fear not, the folks at Google, Bing and Yahoo! have collaborated on Schema.org - "to improve the web by creating a structured data markup schema supported by major search engines. On-page markup helps search engines understand the information on web pages and provide richer search results. A shared markup vocabulary makes easier for webmasters to decide on a markup schema and get the maximum benefit for their efforts.

Schema.org provides a collection of shared vocabularies webmasters can use to mark up their pages in ways that can be understood by the major search engines: Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo!

You use the schema.org vocabulary, along with the microdata format, to add information to your HTML content. While the long term goal is to support a wider range of formats,
the initial focus is on Microdata. This guide will help get you up to speed with microdata and schema.org, so that you can start adding markup to your web pages."

To me, this schema, based on RDF, is akin in simplicity to Dublin Core and a boon to those wishing to ensure their content is understood by those sometimes obtuse search engines.

SPL's Century 21 Collection Unveiled!

Last fall, I had the pleasure of working on an amazing digital project at The Seattle Public Library during my Student Librarianship. The Century 21 Exposition Digital Collection features ephemera and photos from the 1962 Seattle World's Fair. From the modern Googie inspired architecture to the pavilions highlighting futuristic innovations, the Century 21 Exposition was a milestone event.

The SPL collection contains many photos by a local photographer, Werner Lenggenhager who captured a rare, behind-the-scenes view of the fair from construction to demolition. I was lucky to be involved in the metadata planning, scanning, and uploading of quite a few of the images in the collection. The final landing page and the search and browse features offer multiple ways to view the collection. Take a look at the photo of a man holding a giant crab in the Alaska Pavilion or the Belgian Waffle House.

Special Collections at SPL has done a marvelous job of curating and displaying these materials. Go back to the future!

5 Things Thursday: TV Themes, Books and Anthropology

Here are five interesting topics for summer discussion:

1. Need to do some research on anthropology? Here is a good starting point.
2. Would you like to find a good book to read? Try Book Crossing.
3. Have fun with translation here.
4. Did you know there is a collection of TV intros?
5. What would Don Draper do?

Metadata Monday: Facial Recognition and Linked Data

There is a thought provoking post on the Go to Hellman blog about various metadata topics, library linked data and advances in facial recognition tools for identifying photo content.

Why is this important? The post raises some excellent points about how library data is created, how much data is optimal for optimization, and also why libraries need to think about promoting the findability of collections by employing search engine optimization techniques on existing library data.

As I have said before, any type of automated data - whether OCR text or Facebook photo tagging - requires an actual human to vet accuracy. Imagine the possibilities of image recognition software in an industry focused on visual resources.

Social Media: Flickr and Twitter Use

Here is a fascinating visual tracking the prevalence of Flickr and Twitter users by photographer Eric Fischer. He employed geotags to map social media use and a couple of things are immediately apparent. For one thing, people in the middle of the US seems largely uninterested in Flickr and Twitter compared to both coasts. Why?

5 Things Thursday: Fireworks and Sparklers

Here are some explosively exciting LIS topics and resources:

1. Want to craft a crafty Tweet?
2. Do you need to know almost everything about e-Books?
3. Would you like a recent update on RDA?
4. Learn about the 3M alternative to Overdrive.
5. Peruse the application guidelines for the Institute for Museum and Library Services Learning Labs in Libraries and Museums project.

Metadata Monday: Music and Pictures

The University of Washington recently became the first library in the United States to use RISM metadata for a music manuscript digital collection. RISM or Répertoire International des Sources Musicales is a "multinational, non-profit joint venture which aims for comprehensive documentation of extant musical sources worldwide" The efforts of the RISM community help to make worldwide musical resources more accessible to all.

On a related note, IPTC recently launched the Embedded Metadata Manifesto for digital media content. This manifesto contains many saliant points including the fact that copyright information must never be removed from a media asset and that people working with media need to be aware of the importance of metadata for retrieval.

Go media metadata!

 

NYPL Fourth of July

5 Things Thursday: Books Both Real and Virtual

This week's selections focus on books, libraries, collections and related topics:

1. Would you like The Seattle Public Library to help you find your next five books just in time for summer reading?
2. Did you know the Kansas City Library facade looks like a bookshelf?
3. Want to read more on libraries and e-book ownership?
4. What if the British Library teamed up with Google to digitize 250,000 books?
5. Ever wonder what makes a library school a degree mill?

 

Metadata Monday: MIT Metadata Reference Guide

Like many of you, I am a big fan of a concise, well organized and easy to understand reference guide. Did you know that MIT has one for all things metadata? The MIT Metadata Reference Guide is a wiki with lots of information on standards, mapping, terms and uses of metadata.

There are project examples and reading recommendations and even some nifty crosswalks. While many of the project examples and readings are a little older, the content is both valuable, relavent and remains current. This would be a great starting point for students trying to gain a basic understanding of metadata or for a librarian that needs a refresher.

Be an Information Ninja!

Here's a thought provoking idea. Instead of calling yourself a librarian, how about information ninja?

According to a recent presentation at CLA as well as a nice summary on the blog Cataloging Futures, space age librarians can transform into information ninjas by embracing the following skills:

- Information Retrieval - determining the best way to find, manage and access resources regardless of the system, format or location.

- Cataloging - moving away from traditional records and towards metadata and user tagging.

- Classification - establishing common, interoperable practices.

- Tech Savvy - learning about search, structured and unstructured content, digital preservation and retention.

5 Things Thursday: Summer Edition

Here are five topics to keep you on your toes this summer.

1. Want to know how to set up a brand page on FB without a personal profile?
2. Need a way to test some fonts?
3. Would you like to know more about digital storytelling?
4. Interested in the 100 best movies of the decade? 
5. Read more about qualities like flexibility and adaptability being keys to future success in LIS.

Metadata Monday: Open or Closed?

Here's another snippet related to Linked Open Data. As you may imagine, one wrinkle in sharing cultural heritage and other materials in digital collections is copyright. To ameliorate some of the concerns surrounding the intellectual property rights, LOD-LAM proposes a 4-star classification scheme for linked open cultural metadata.

While you can read more about this ranking system both here at the LOD-LAM blog and here at the Open Knowledge Foundation Blog, the summary of the rankings is as follows:

 

**** Public Domain (pre 1923 and other cases)

*** Attribution License (CC-BY / ODC-BY) where the licensor considers linkbacks to meet the attribution requirement

** Attribution License (CC-BY / ODC-BY) with another form of attribution defined by the licensor

* Attribution Share-Alike License (CC-BY-SA/ODC-ODbL)

Architecture Information

Instead of information architecture, sometimes digital archivists need information about architecture to classify assets and assign subject headings and keywords.

Here are two resources to help in building a solid vocabulary as a foundation for an architecture collection. First and foremost, the Getty Vocabularies are the place to start. The Art and Architecture Thesaurus (AAT) is a comprehensive controlled vocabulary or authority list that can be used to assign data values or aid users in retrieval. Truly amazing!

Need help learning how to identify architectural types and styles? Check out the Great Buildings Collection site for a list of architecural types linked to tangible examples.

You will feel like Frank Lloyd Wright in no time.

5 Things Thursday: Gone to the Dogs

Here are five more things to tantalize your gray matter:

1. Have you seen the Canine Research Collection in the OSU Special Collections?
2. What is the DAM Foundation?
3. Pondering librarian fashion? Check out this piece on the librarian wardrobe and librarian shoes on Flickr.
4. Want to communicate your value with an infographic resume?
5. Why was King County Library System named library of the year by Library Journal?

Metadata Monday: Embedded MetaData Explorer

Would you like to easily create and embed Dublin Core metadata in your digital images? Check out this truly awesome tool by Matt Milller and Chris Mullin at Pratt - Embedded MetaData Explorer. Upload a photo or enter a URL and you will see the metadata that already exists. There is also an option to embed or edit Dublin Core. When selected, a template pops up featuring all the DC elements as fillable fields. As a bonus - up to nine Subject fields.

When you are ready to go, embed the data and download. Boom! Instant metadata.

Impressive Image Tools

Visual image search has come a long way indeed. Check out these products by pixolution, including an iPhone app. From sorting images based on their visual similarity to suggesting semantically similar images, pixolution products are like magic. Try the demo for Pixolu image search, for instance. Type in a word like 'cat,' behold the massive amount of cute kitty cat faces and then select a couple of your favorites. Choose 'get similar images' and the visual search technology locates shots that resemble the original selects.

Another company with a long history in visual image search is Idée. The reverse search engine TinEye can locate an image on the web. Upload a photo or choose the URL for the image in question and uses PixMatch - an API-based, automated image matching solution. Given an image to look for, it locates identical or modified images within or between large scale image collections.

Finally, did you ever wish there was an easier way to tag images? Have trouble with keywording your images to maximize findability? Want more image search and similarity suggestions? Well, a company called imense® makes cutting-edge products which revolutionize the analysis, search and annotation of digital images and video.