ArtSTOR Shared Shelf
October 13, 2010
Middlebury’s Story & Goals
Middlebury was under no illusion that they would ever have a single source for image information, but their goals were:
- Reduce number of systems to a more reasonable number
- Establish methods for exchange within campus & collaborative platform across campuses
- Provide multiple interfaces to same data store for specific uses: curricular use, museum collections, research
Governance is distributed, with different parts of campus managing their own collections.
About ArtSTOR
Founded by Mellon, now stand-alone. People feel comfortable using ArtSTOR because they have legal indemnity. ArtSTOR recognized early on that there was local content at institutions looking for a place to store their collections.
History
The request came in early after ArtSTOR’s launch to provide this functionality. Originally a very labor-intensive process to map to ArtSTOR’s database model. 150 participants.
A lesson learned: Manual hosting is hard & expensive.
Many institutions had multiple systems that were difficult to integrate.
Shared Shelf
Accommodates simple or complex data schemes. Fields are customizable by type and fields can be added. Standard schema facilitate cross-campus sharing.
Three vocabularies:
- ULAN
- TGN
- CONA (in development)
Creating new authorities such as teh Built Work Registry (awarded IMLS grant 2010)
Focusing for now on digital still images. They want to do this well first, and then move on.
Publishing & Exporting
Sharing content internally, among a small group of schools, etc.
“Shared Shelf” as a concept: moving outward as IP and legal issues are addressed.
Faceted search coming in 2 months.
What’s Next
Moving from 9 schools to add 25 more. These schools will work out many of the data integration questions that lie ahead.
Questions
Questions about whether you have to be an ArtSTOR customer to participate in Shared Shelf (yes), whether ArtSTOR will be more interoperable with others like Flickr (yes, if they would not only ingest data but send some back out — they don’t). A question about when there’s a system at home and ArtSTOR housing collections, which system is in control (Mike Roy says ArtSTOR becomes the system of record so you’re not constantly crosswalking batches of data). What’s the financial model (For Middlebury, they fronted the money to get in on the specifications. In time, this money will be helped to defray the cost of the subscription to the service.)
The New Library Web Site
August 3, 2009
Andy Morton, along with others in the Library, and Eric Palmer and the Web Services group have just this morning launched the new University of Richmond Library web site. As Andy mentioned in a message on Twitter this morning, it’s a project he’s been working on since October 2008. I know he’s been thinking about the new site for a lot longer than that.
Much research has been done on how students, faculty, and staff use the library site, and the new design reflects both an effort to help our community access the content they need as efficiently as possible as well as an effor to engage with our community however they want to connect.
One of my favorite features on the new site is the all-in-one search bar at the top of every web page. From one tabbed interface you can search our catalog, our journals, our databases, our research guides, or the library site itself. Just click on a tab and either enter your search terms. It’s a significant step toward the dream of an integrated search across all resources, and I know a lot of work went into the design and functions of this feature.
The new site is more visual than any of our prior library sites, highlighting the library’s services and some of the resources they’ve created. Search through the Richmond Daily Dispatch to read newspaper articles from 1860-1865. Check out our campus paper, The Collegian, with archives online from 1914-2003. Visit Amarica at War 1941-1945 and view documents from the Federal Depository Colelction at UR.
Our library is connected to the social network. Check out Boatwright Everywhere on the library home page to discover links to Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, and Twitter. Boatwright Library is at the center of our university’s academic life and you can keep up with what’s going on through these links.
Data from the MISO Survey indicate that the frequency of use and importance of library web sites is going down. I will be curious to see how the revisions we’ve made to our web site change the way our community interacts with library resources and services.
Updating the MISO Survey
March 29, 2009
This past Thursday and Friday the MISO Survey team met to work on revisions to the survey instrument. This is something the survey team does every two years to keep the survey up to date. Since we value the ability to provide longitudinal analysis, we’re conservative about adding or removing things from the survey.
The MISO Survey is “a Web-based quantitative survey designed to measure how students, faculty, and staff use and evaluate the services and resources of colleges and universities with merged library and computing units”. We’ve had some non-merged institutions participate along the way, since the survey is a useful measure of how these often complimentary services are received.
With so many services and resources to measure, the MISO Survey takes a while to answer. Some questions are optional, but the core questions on use, importance, and satisfaction. The average time to complete the survey is 18 minutes, and that’s been a problem for some institutions.
In response to concerns about time to complete the survey, we’re going to give institutions more options on which sections or even specific questions are included in the survey. For example, while the questions about frequency of use are interesting, we’ve found over the last few years that there’s more interest on how important faculty, staff, and students consider our resources and services, and how satisfied they are. So the section on use will be optional going forward: available to institutions who would like to know this information, but not required of all institutions. We’re confident that enough institutions will continue to ask these questions that the validity of the responses across institutions will persist.
We’ve also made some changes that correct duplication in the survey. There is a section in the survey that asks whether you use a particular technology, such as course management system, blogs, etc. Several of the items in this list duplicate questions in the frequency of use section of the survey. Since institutions can look at frequency of use to determine overall use, we can remove items from our “use of tools” section like the course management system, making fewer options for each respondent to use.
One challenge we haven’t yet figured out is how to ask questions about support for faculty research. At all of our institutions, faculty across the disciplines have a variety of computing needs at both the desktop and server levels. Few of our organizations have a research computing unit, and so we respond to each new research opportunity with an ad hoc group comprised of the people with the expertise to support the required technology. The challenge is to find a way to ask questions about this support that aren’t interpreted in as many ways as there are respondents. Do we focus on the word “research”? “Grants”? Something else?
The survey has one question that asks “How satisfied or dissatisfied are you with support for your specialized computing needs?”. But I’m not sure “specialized” is the right word either.
I’m going to take the next week or so to try and come up with wording for questions that get at support for research/grant/specialized computing. In the meantime, we will be preparing an updated version of the survey so it can be tested at each of the five sponsoring institutions. We’ll be testing the revised questions with faculty, students, and staff over the summer so that the new survey is ready to go when the next survey cycle begins in the fall.
U. of Michigan Press Reorganizes as a Unit of the Library
March 23, 2009
The Chronicle has an article this week on the University of Michigan Press becoming a part of the Library. Scholarly publishing continues to change quickly in this economy.
“It removes the bottom line on a book-by-book basis,” he said. “Basically we will be judged for staying within a budget,” just as academic departments are. “In a sense, it will allow us to do more things that are consistent with university objectives, as opposed to commercial objectives.”
It’s an interesting fiscal move, and I wonder how it will bode for UMP in the long run. I also wonder whether most Library’s commitment to open access will mean yet another shift down the road for this and other university presses. I am encouraged by the Durham Statement, which our own Law Library hopes to pursue. If enough presses move under the Library, and if Law schools are able to convert to open publication systems, we will have gone a long way towards opening up the academy.
Postscript: It’s interesting to come across an article just a couple of hours after my original post, but the University of Michigan Library is hosting events on open access. While there’s no connection between these events and UMP folding into the organization of the Library, I wonder if the two subjects will be discussed someday.
Rights Clash on YouTube, and Videos Disappear
March 23, 2009
This morning’s New York Times has an article on copyright and YouTube. Warner Music and YouTube have an agreement that has YouTube pulling down content from their servers even when it seems the posted videos are within Fair Use guidelines.
“The law provides a four-point test for the fair use of copyrighted works, taking into account things like the purpose, the size of an exerpt and the effect the use might have on the commerical value of the actual work.”
The deal between Warner and Google seems to be that any content merits a take-down if it has any identifiable copyrighted material in it, whether it’s a sign language teacher using a bit of Foreigner in the background or a family video that has some music playing in the background. The argument seems to be that while YouTube users are noncommercial, Google is profiting from site traffic, and the media companies arguing that all content is thus commercial.
At Richmond, we’re researching copyright and fair use with a goal to more liberally interpret fair use so that the video work our students do – which often includes snippets from commercial music – can see the light of day. I’m encouraged by the report from The Center for Social Media, which argues that transfomative uses, like the ones our students have for copyrighted material, are legal.
What today’s article in the Times tells me is that while transformative uses may be legal, we’ll need to host the content ourselves rather than host it on a for-profit service like YouTube. While it’s disappointing to lose the opportunities that YouTube offers in terms of letting more people see our student’s work, I still find hope that we will someday soon have a policy that allows student scholarship to be seen beyond the classroom.
Seminars on Academic Computing 2007
August 7, 2007
I’m in Snowmass Village for the 2007 Seminars on Academic Computing. It’s my first time at SAC, and, after 33 years, the last time SAC will be held in Snowmass Village.
I’m not the type that pays much attention to the venue of a conference. I’m not usually interested in exploring the towns that host these events. I am interested in making connections with colleagues, in learning, and in reflecting on what I have learned and on how I can apply what I’ve learned to my work back on campus.
But Snowmass is beautiful. The flight into Aspen was breathtaking. I haven’t seen mountains and valleys like this since Jean and I visited Salzburg in 1989. Even after I had landed, I found myself staring at the mountains that surround everything. There are few places I find myself wanting to revisit, but I would really like to come here again someday to explore.
My first morning here I took a walk on some bike trails on the mountain, and came across flowers in each of my girl’s favorite colors.
More on the seminars in my next posts.
Technorati Tags: EDUCAUSE, EDUCAUSE_SA07
Congratulations to Jim Rettig
May 1, 2007
Congratulations to Jim Rettig, University Librarian at the University of Richmond and now President Elect of the American Library Association!
It’s been a long, hard run for office, and I know Jim is going to do a great job over the next three years for the ALA.
EDUCAUSE 2006 – Information Fluency in the Digital Age
October 11, 2006
I attended the Gartner session earlier, but it was unremarkable.
For this session, Susan Curzon, Dean, University Library at California State University, Chuck Dziuban, Director, Research Initiative for Teaching Effectiveness, and Martha Marinara, Director, Information Fluency Quality Enhancement Program at the University of Center Florida presented.
Chuck started by introducing a photo from their web site promoting Information LIteracy, Technology, Critical Thinking mediated by effective communication.
Story number 1. At the beginning of their initiative, they had trouble getting students to go to their web site. The student president suggested they advertise in the campus newspaper and in Facebook. One week later they had 27.000 hits to their web site.
Chuck profiled the generations: Matures, Baby Boomers, Generation X and Millennials.
Matures (prior to 1946)
- Dedicated to a job they take on
- Respectful of authority
- Place duty before pleasure
Baby Boomers (1946-1964)
- Live to wrok
- Generally optimistic
- Inflience on poilcy & products
Generation X (1965-1980)
- Work to live
- Clear & consistent expectations
- Value contributing to the whole
Millennials (1981-1994)
- Live in the moment
- Expect immediacy of technology
- Earn money for immediate consumption
Millennials are least satisfied with online learning; they are least able to integrate and are not able to change their approach to learning.Â
Millennial learning styles are twitch speed, parallel processing, graphics first, connected, active learning, learn by play, learn by fantasy, technology friendly; Lifestyles are special, sheltered, confident, team oriented, achieving, pressured and conventional.
CHallenges include in learning styles: surface functioning, difficult to teach, research by “surf”, weak critical thinking skills, naive beliefs regarding intellectual property, technology preferences have little institutional context. Lifestyle is sefl focused, artificial self esteem, anything is possible orientation, cynical, life by lottery and a “yeah right” attitude.
Martha presented next. Millennials want control over their education. It should be quick and convenient. Information LIteracy, Technology Literacy and Critical Thinking are a continuum and communication is a mediating force that transforms all three into Information Fluency. While UCF has funding ($5 million) and time (5 years), it will take longer to complete the transformation. Resources from across the campus were included in the effort: Library, Faculty Center, Career Resources, Faculty, etc. were all involved).
They have four pilot projects at present, and larger projects are in discussion now. They’ve launched a web site to promote Information Fluency.
Susan began by providing an overview of the CSU system. The libraries launched a program years ago to promote information literacy. Eventually every campus in the system became involved in the program.
Questions we should all consider:
- Is the definition of information literacy known? People often confuse this with computer literacy.
- Why are we engaging with information literacy? Why is it important? IL gives students a strategic advantage as workers and citizens.
- Have clear goals been developed for the information literacy program?
- Is information literacy part of the educational strategy of the University? It can’t be a focus of the LIbrary alone. Everyone must contribute to the educational strategy.
- Is there a plan for collaboration across the university?
- Does one size fit all?
- Is there administrative support?Â
- Is there a collective will for a long-term sustained effort?
- Is there a willingness to market the program?
- What about an assessment program? How will we know when are students are information literate? This has been very challenging for CSU.
- What else is going on at the University at this time? Is this the right time for this initiative to be launched?
- What about accreditation?Â
These questions (along with several I missed) should all be considered in approaching an information literacy program.
Technorati Tags: EDUCAUSE2006, information literacy, information fluency
Info Island in Second Life
October 1, 2006
I spent some time this weekend going through Second Life. Most of the time I stay on the NMC Campus, but it’s quiet most of the time and after a while I’m looking for something to do. So this weekend I visited several other places in Second Life. The most interesting was Info Island. The librarians have run amok!
It’s an entire island of libraries. And they’ve got a second island on the way. I started outside the main library.Â
I was impressed that even in the cyber world librarians take pains to help us all fulfill our civic duties. They had signs you could click on to connect to each state’s voter registration web site.
Inside the main library they’ve got audio books. They call them Audio Navigators.Â
Everything is arranged by author. When you select the text you want to hear, your web browser loads an MP3 file of someone reading the text to you.
And the audio files are yours to keep. I listened to “Taming the Bicycle” by Mark Twain – it played in my web browser while I kept Second Life going up front.
They have a tower with information for many disciplines. Some of the floors aren’t finished yet, but they’re linking to useful web sites from each discipline’s floor.
This is the first floor of the tower. There’s a transporter you use to teleport to the other floors. I missed that the first time I visited – I was looking for stairs. But the transporter works well, complete with Star Trek sound effects. The top floor is a theatre you can use for presentations. There’s also a very nice classroom. NMC may want to look at that for their campus.
My favorite room in the tower was the Humanities room. The circular desk in the center links to some good web sites, and there’s even a cabinet containing maps you can have. But the look of the room is almost as important as the things you can access, and I think I’ll be spending some time on this floor of the tower.
NMC’s Teacher’s Buzz is going to be visiting the Thompson NETg campus tomorrow. I’ve been there and it’s an interesting place. They’ve got some casual spaces for you to relax while you’re listening to or watching their training materials. But the environment that’s been created on Info Island is what I’d like to to see NMC consider. Maybe the Teacher’s Buzz can arrange a field trip there too.
Technorati Tags: nmc2006, library, Second Life
NY Times on Wikipedia
December 4, 2005
The New York Times has an article in today's paper, “Rewriting History: Snared in the Web of a Wikipedia Liar” (free registration required), which tells the story of how an anonymous editor implicated John Seigenthaler, a former editor of the Tennessean in Nashville, with the murders of John F. Kennedy and his brother, Bobby.
The article does a good job explaining Wikipedia's weak point: anyone can maliciously create or update an entry in the online encyclopedia, and there are no checks-and-balances, no peer review before mis-information is accessible by anyone who happens to come across a bad entry.
The article does achieve some balance, however, by discussing some of the steps Wikipedia plans to take to make it harder for malicious editing. They also point out that once discovered, errors can be corrected quicker on Wikipedia than other encyclopedias.
As I've said before, the best practice is to have more than one source to back up your work. Don't just take Wikipedia as the gospel; find other sources to verify the information you find. That should be a practice not only for web-based information, but for all research.
