5 Things Thursday: NYPL, DAM's Gone Wild, Digital Humanities

Many interesting things to peruse this week:

1. Check out this webinar presented by Picturepark and the talented DAM managers at Harley-Davidson. Turns out, they have similar issues to all DAM administrators and some awesome solutions.


2. Big news in a big library system - NYPL and Brooklyn merge technical services without attrition! Learn how here.


3. Want to learn what a Digital Humanities Librarian does? As always, Hack Library School gets the scoop.


4. How are UC Berkeley researchers going to revolutionize e-books? For one thing, by making them app-based and not web-based.


5. Am I the only aging hipster sad to miss Exene Cervenka of seminal 80's band X speaking at the Los Angeles Public Library Foundation?

Alaska's Digital Archives

"Alaska’s Digital Archives purpose is to provide a single easy to use location for institutions across this state to share their historical resources."

Take a look at this collaborative effort between Alaska's academic and historical institutions, libraries and museums. It is a truly remarkable unified source for historical photographs, albums, oral histories, moving images, maps, documents, physical objects, and other materials from libraries, museums and archives throughout Alaska.

Powered by OCLC's CONTENTdm, the digital archive includes everything from ethnographic material to newspapers, videos, and of course, lots of information on the Gold Rush.

More than the contents of the collection, the cooperation needed to create this resource, sometimes between organizations unused to information sharing, can serve as an example for any consortium attempting a similar feat.

Special Collections: The Next Generation

Are you familiar with the Polar Bear Expedition Digital Collections at the Bentley Historical Library at the University of Michigan? I wasn't until I started researching ways to integrate MARC records, EAD, finding aids, user tagging and interoperability.

The collections are amazing, but the behind the scenes peek offered by the articles on the About page will fascinate any librarian working on similar collections. Although a little outdated in the high-speed world of technology, the fact that this collection re-imagined traditional finding aids using metadata from EAD and MARC and a database of information about soldiers who served in the Polar Bear Expedition is innovative.

Special collections, especially online, should create connections for users enabling discovery through browsing and even happenstance. In addition, the social features, now commonplace in systems like CONTENTdm, were interesting choices for archival use.

5 Things Thursday: Just Show Up!, Digitization, DAM, Training

5 Things Thursday: Just Show Up!, Digitization, DAM, Training

Here are five things from the new Wordpress blog location. Enjoy!

1. From Hack Library School, a topic near and dear to my heart - 'Apply Yourself.' I have heard too many reticent library students lament that they don't have the experience to do X, Y or Z. Many people ask how I got my dreamy job. I simply applied. And I show up and work hard every day.
2. Duke University innovates yet again. Check out this new library service Digitize This Book! Digitization on demand for Duke users could be the wave of the future in helping libraries assess what requires digitization.
3. One of my favorite lines on Henrik de Gyor's Another DAM blog "Some vendors like to confuse clients." Read about the DAM Glossary here.
4. Check out this interesting and oddly accessible post on Improving Linked Data from Smithsonian Libraries. Even though the subject matter is botany, the situation applies to any type of unique collection of materials.
5. Did you know that OCLC offered so much training? Check out the Training Courses here.

BONUS DAM: What's in a filename? David Riecks can tell us all about naming and the vast importance for providing unique identifiers.

Happy Valentine's Day from the NYPL

Design Sponge got a sneak peek at The New York Public Library's valentine collection.

 

Happy Valentine's Day from the NYPL

Design Sponge got a sneak peek at The New York Public Library's valentine collection.

5 Things Thursday: Social Media, DAM, Get a Job

Here are five more tantalizing information related things for Valentine's Day:

1. Ten social media tips for libraries that are easy to implement and maintain.
2. How did the NYPL increase card sign ups by 35% using smart social media?
3. Want to know how to explain what you do for a living as a digital asset manager? Think iPod...
4. Another old but awesome post - can a DAM handle rights managed assets?
5. From the Hiring Librarians website, more stats on getting hired. Ranking high on this list is networking, presenting yourself well and luck. I agree with two out of three, but you make your own luck!

#alamw13: @LibraryCongress: AutoDewey

This is the final in the ALA Mid-Winter series about a great presentation from the Library of Congress on AutoDewey.

Caroline Saccucci, Head, Dewey Section, and Julianne Beall, Assistant Editor, DDC, presented on the automation of converting LCC to DDC. The entire slide deck can be found here as a PDF.

What is most intriguing is that LCC and DDC are similar enough in treatment of individual literary works and individual literary authors for inclusion in AutoDewey to be useful, especially for the same catalogers that use LCC.

In some cases, selections must be made to direct AutoDewey to the correct literary time period or form of literature. Nevertheless, it can take less than ten seconds and no longer than one to two minutes to assign the DDC information and even to automate its inclusion in a MARC record.

The most interesting part of the slide deck is from page 11 onwards showing the actual examples of AutoDewey in action and the thought process behind the alogirithms used in creating this useful tool. I love the catalogers examples beginning on slide number 18.

Thank you to Caroline Saccucci for providing this link and information.

5 Things Thursday: Shhhh, RDA, DAM User Error

Here are five things library and digital asset management related:

1. The Annoyed Librarian is annoyed again - by all those noisy libraries. Read about it here. I suppose she liked the Oreo's Whisper Fight commercial...
2. The Library of Congress really has every resource including this one for RDA Carrier Types.
3. Do your DAM users make mistakes? Here's how to manage user error.
4. Want to see the 11 most beautiful museum libraries in the world? My favorite is the library at the Shiba Ryotaro Memorial Museum, designed by Tadao Ando, Osaka, Japan.
5. Want to be a "famous" librarian? The Free Range Librarian offers some tips on sustainable fame.

BONUS: Speaking of famous librarians, did I mention that I met the lovely Nancy Pearl at ALA Mid-Winter? She was signing some of the reprinted works from the Amazon Book Lust Rediscoveries series.

Oreo Super Bowl Commercial Features Librarians!

This commercial proves that libraries are "in" right now.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kMWLYYcAYw?wmode=transparent]

#alamw13: Sustainable Collections, Backstage, Crowley

Here are brief reports on three vendors I visited during the ALA Mid-Winter conference that offer really great services for collection management and digitization.

1. Sustainable Collection Services : this innovative company takes an unglamorous yet vital collection issue, weeding, and turns it into a tangible and data-driven solution. Their deselection decision support tools can analyze library statistics and even cross reference collections of custom specified partner institutions to devise an actionable plan for weeding materials. I was impressed by the collective experience of the team behind this company, as well as the recognition that every library collection is unique.
2. Backstage Library Works : Backstage is a team of digitation experts that offers a one-stop shop for scanning, cataloging, conversion, duplication, storage, authority control and all other services related to preserving library materials. This company can work offsite or can assemble a team to work onsite in your library. The scope of the services offered as well as the flexibility makes this a great resource when a project lacks resources.
3. Crowley : Crowley specializes in imaging - from scanning precious materials to providing the best in imaging equipment. From a book to an oversized map or poster, Crowley can handle any type of digitization required by a library, special collection, museum or archive.