Last Blog Post

While I may not be hitting the magic number of posts (I was so close!), I will make this my last blog post of the semester. I do not want to fill up this blog with mumbo jumbo just to hit 39 posts. I don't think that is fair to my classmates or Dr. MacCall so 32 blog posts will have to suffice.

I have so enjoyed this course and was especially grateful to Dr. MacCall for urging me a few semesters back to sign up. I am an advocate for project-based learning and the assignments used for this course were just that. They allowed me to get my hands dirty and full grasp the idea and practice behind metadata and what a useful tool it is in the world, not just librarianship.

Props and a huge thank you to Dr. MacCall for always being open to discussions, questions and ideas during our journey into the world of metadata and PLN's. Also, thank you to my classmates for indulging in my wordy blog posts, crazy questions, feelings of inadequecy in the field. Y'all are seriously the best.

Now I can officially call myself a "Metadata Minion". :)

Thoughts on my PLN

I will admit, the task of creating and updating my PLN for this class was a little daunting at first. It wasn't until I got the hang of Twitter that I really found it useful for pointing my classmates and colleagues to particular bits of information, interesting articles or questions on this blog that I really felt the full effect of a PLN. Heck, I even made a connection on Twitter with someone who has my same interested in Museums, Archives and Special Collection exhibits! We started up a convo via Twitter, then moved to a private message chat where she shared some amazing resources with me!

While I may not keep this blog up after today, I plan on continuing my PLN through Twitter and other modes of social media. It is such a great way to connect and keep up with the goings on within a particular field of interest.

I hope to keep up with all my classmates and fellow cohortians via my PLN after graduation and look forward to seeing the awesome things everyone is doing!

Presentation Evaluations COMPLETE

I just finished up my presentation evaluations and grading! I thought everyone did a fantastic job presenting on their repositories and metadata schemas and my grading reflects that. :) There are so many interesting digital repositories I knew nothing about before this assignment. The metadata schemas were awesome and it was cool to see how and why they were created.

Great job everyone!

OMEKA

I thought I would throw in my two cents on Omeka. I know some of my fellow classmates have their issues with it, but I really enjoyed working in this platform. It was visually easy to use, if that makes sense? It had a clean, simple interface that made it easy to navigate - almost like building a WYSIWYG website.

I will say that I, like Tonya (or maybe Nikki?), was aggravated that there is no way of looking at an image that you are creating the metadata for WHILE you create the metadata. After clicking around a bunch, I eventually just opened Omeka in another window, moved both identical windows side by side on my screen and indexed one in one window while viewing it in another. This made the process clumsy and time consuming, but it worked.

I am glad that I had the chance to do some real metadata work within Omeka and was happy as a lark to be able to add Omeka to my resume under "Technology Proficiencies".

Image Indexing COMPLETE

This week, with the help of my football obsessed husband, I completed my football image indexing! I must say, even with the guidelines for the description element, it would have been very difficult to complete this assignment on my own.

Also, huge shout out to RACHEL for helping me out with the 1975 Washington player numbers. After hours of searching, I was just about ready to give up until I utilized my PLN and tweeted at Rachel for help. She came through with, I think, the only roster I had not found.

This assignment has been by far one of my favorites in all of graduate school. It was awesome collaborating with my classmates in a "real life" situation. Everyone had so much to bring to the table that it made it easy and enjoyable to stare at football pictures every night for the last few weeks.

:)

Image Properties on a Mac

For those of you on a Mac like me, I followed Stephanie's guidelines for the Creator Element and found myself stumped. I realized she was most likely using a PC and that was why I was unable to find the "properties" of the image under the File tab.

For those of you on a Mac, this is what I did to find the imbedded metadata for my images:

1. Double click on the image file from Adam's email.

2. Command-I will open up the embedded metadata.

3. From here, click on TIFF and you will see "Artist". I am assuming that this is the same as "Author" but I am waiting on confirmation from Stephanie.

I hope this helps!

CREATOR Element Question

My question is for Stephanie and her Creator Element:

I'm on a Mac so finding the properties of the image in order to determine the Creator was a bit challenging, but I did some investigating and figured it out with no problems (I will address this in another blog post for anyone else using a Mac).

My question is this: "Author" is not listed within the metadata of the image but "Artist" is. Should I be using this person for the Creator Element?

My Comments on Slistopher's comment...

Reading through some blog posts, Slistopher's comment on Latasha's post "Thoughts on becoming a librarian..." stuck out: "I don’t think I will work in a library either. I came to SLIS primarily for training in archival studies, which, while related to library studies, is really a separate field. I’ve always approached archives from a historical perspective (my background–I’m biased), but I think I’ve gotten a lot out of my more library-focused classes. I still don’t know with any certainty where I think archival studies as a discipline belongs (LIS programs? History programs? By itself?), but I think I will benefit a lot from the library skills I’ve gotten at SLIS."

I wish there was a specialized program that combined History/Museum Studies/Archives/LIS. I took the only museum studies course offered at UA (in 2004) and loved it! I had a tough time deciding between a Museum Studies program and SLIS, and we all know what I ending up choosing. 

I will also say this, as much as I have loved my time in SLIS, I think it is crazy that I have not had the chance to take an archival studies course until my last semester (June 2015). There just doesn't seem to be much of an offering for those interested. Or maybe my problem is I literally want to take ALL OF THE CLASSES and don't have the time in the semesters to do so...

The Need for Control

"The need for control" as Latasha put it so perfectly in tonight's chat box.

I never thought about metadata schema creation or even librarianship in general as "the need for control" for but that is exactly what it is! These various metadata schemas that my colleagues are presenting on tonight all derived from the need for control. Controlled vocabulary, controlled data entry, controlled description, etc...

I will re-load the dishwasher "in the right way" after my husband has loaded it - "We always put the plates THIS way. Oh, and the forks always go HERE". Some call it controlling, I call it organized.

Funny thing is, I have always thought I was laid back. 

Digital Repository Screencase is LIVE

I hope everyone is having a relaxing weekend! I have uploaded my screencast for Publishers' Bindings Online to YouTube. You can find it here.

I will also be emailing everyone my handout and a link to the video as well as posting it in the Blackboard discussion. Covering all my bases :)

I really enjoyed this project, not only learning more about my own repository but everyone else's. There are so many awesome digital repositories out there and seeing the wide variety of subject matter was fascinating! Now my wheels are turning and I have a running list of ideas I would LOVE to see come to fruition regarding digital repositories. Hopefully, I will be able to be a part of some of these opportunities. :)

Abstract Element is the new Opponent Element

I have got the email last night from Dr. MacCall that the Opponent Element, now labeled as the Abstract Element is now ready for indexing! The guidelines have been updated in the wiki and I have populated the Simple Vocabulary plugin in Omeka. You should be getting an email from Dr. MacCall shortly OR he will make note of this in the wiki. If you have any questions, please let me know!

Oh and Tonya, I pronounce it "Oh-meck-a". Not sure if it is correct though. :)

Controlled Vocabulary and Content Standards Resources!

Christy's post "When Three Worlds Collide" inspired me to write this post. I understand her excitement when you stumble on something that brings it all together!

While working on my digital repository presentation, I was addressing the topic of content standards for my particular repository. Dealing with decorative book bindings from the 19th century, it is a combination of many of interests: graphic design, history, archives and art.

I discovered Getty Vocabularies provided by the Getty Research Institution after Dr. MacCall pointed me in their direction. I thought I would share a couple of resources for those of you interested in art/museum, special collections, archives librarianship. Cool stuff!

Art and Architecture Thesaurus Online (AAT): 
From Getty: "Catherine wheel or rose window? ATT is a structured vocabulary, including terms, descriptions, and theory informations for generic architecture, conservation, archaeology and other cultural heritage."

The Union List of Artist Names (ULAN):
From Getty: "Titian or Tiziano Vecellio? ULAN is a structured vocabulary, including names, biographies, related people, and other information about artists, architects, firms, studios, museums, patrons, sitters and other people involved in the creation and study of art and architecture."

The Cultural Objects Name Authority (CONA):
From Getty: "Mona Lisa or La Gioconda? CONA includes titles, attributions, depicted subjects, and other information about the works of art and architecture as derived from scholarly literature, museum collections, special collections, archives, libraries and indexing projects."

Digital Repository Presentation

I have been working on my Digital Repository Presentation this weekend. I always begin these types of projects by creating a "script" type essay covering the points I need to hit on according to the assignment specs. So far, I have had a lot of fun investigation my repository and have had only one or two questions that I address directly to Dr. MacCall.

Now I have a couple more questions that I thought I would ask my classmates. For those of you working on a digital repository, how have you tackled #6 (Have the metadata records been harvested into federated search tools...) and #7 (What software is used to house the metadata records...)?

Lucky, I discovered a grant narrative and project manual that accompanied my repository which has provided a wealth of informative information but I am having trouble determining how/if the metadata has been harvested. A quick search on DPLA showed nothing in regards to my repository.

Also, I was able to find how my repository handled the storage of the digitized images but nothing about the actual metadata. It seems like it is being stored on the servers from both institutions responsible for the project. I have also found that they utilized program such as Microsoft Access and Excel for entering in metadata records...

So, how are y'all handling this in your prep for your presentation? Any advice is appreciated.

Opponent Element Final Draft

Here it is! My final draft of my Element Guidelines for the "Opponent" Element:

Label – Abstract

Element Description – The name of the opposing team playing opposite of The University of Alabama Crimson Tide depicted in the image.

Required – Yes

Repeatable – No

Guidelines for Creation of Content – Each opponent should be listed as follows: 

Official School Name--Official Team Name

Please choose one of the opponents from the 1975 and 2009 season from the dropdown list    provided by the Simple Vocabulary plugin. If you have any questions, contact Katie.

Examples:

Auburn University--Auburn Tigers
Pennsylvania State University--Penn State Nittany Lions

_________________________________________________________________________________

A list if the opponents will appear in the Simple Vocal plugin as follows:

1. Auburn University--Auburn Tigers
2. University of Texas--Texas Longhorns
3. Clemson University--Clemson Tigers
4. Mississippi - waiting on confirmation on Ole Miss vs Miss State Debate
5. University of Missouri--Missouri Tigers
6. Pennsylvania State University--Penn State Nittany Lions
7. University of Southern Mississippi--Southern Miss Golden Eagles
8. University of Tennessee--Tennessee Volunteers
9. Texas Christian University--TCU Horned Frogs
10. University of Washington--Washington Huskies

Mississippi State vs Ole Miss

Colleagues! I am working on finishing up my Element Guidelines and gathering all of the opponents into a nice pretty package for the Simple Vocab plugin on Omeka and I need some help!

Adam was kind enough to send me a list of who got what images. From this I can see the total amount opponents we are dealing with but I am struggling with a few of the images who's file name includes "Mississippi". Is this Mississippi State or Ole Miss? We played ALL THREE Mississippi schools in 1975 and I have already ruled out that it is not Southern Miss. I was not assigned any of the Mississippi images so for those of you who were-would you be so kind as to enlighten me?

Thank you!

Response to SLIStopher: Public Perception of the MLIS

I felt the same way Chris did after reading Deb Hunt's statements about not letting on that she has her MLIS in her blog post "The role of digital librarians in Digital Asset Management". I don't understand the stigma attached to the MLIS. Chris asked some really great questions to all of us and I decided to put in my two cents...

1. Do you find that you have to explain what it is that you do to people outside of the profession (or within the profession)? How do you explain what you do? 

Since I am not technically in the profession yet, I will just elaborate on what goes down when someone asks what I WANT to do in the profession. Nikki's commented that "its all in the context" and this is true. It really depends on who I am dealing with on how in depth I get with my explanation.  It usually comes out something like "Connecting people to information and resources of all kinds that are accessible, organized and relevant for their particular needs."

2. Do you think people have an understanding of the roles that librarians (and libraries) fill within society?

I find that the ones who WANT to understand, do. Others could care less and they are usually the first ones to complain about their taxes going to fund the public library or the first ones to ask "Wait, you need a Masters for that?!". It is up to us as newly minted (or soon to be minted MILS graduates) and everyone else in the profession to keep profession relevant!

3. What were your expectations of an MLIS degree program before you began graduate school? Has your experience matched your initial expectations (in terms of curriculum, areas of study, jobs open to you, etc.)?

I have mixed feelings. I hate admitting it so close to graduating but I feel like while UA's MLIS program is wonderful in so many ways, I think there is a bit of a disconnect with certain groups of students. I will put it this way:

You have the students who are fresh out of college and who jump right into graduate school full time. They have the time and energy to devote 100% to school, have opportunities to travel abroad, take internships and graduate assistantship and student jobs working in or with libraries, thus gaining experience. 

Then you have those who are working in libraries or already have library experience and want to advance their career. They are getting all the library experience that they need.

Then there are the School Media students who are working towards adding a MLIS to their already impressive teaching resume and possibly an additional Masters degree.

Then there are students like me. I have spent only a few years here and there working as a student or volunteering in libraries but now I hold a full time job OUTSIDE of libraries. I don't have enough time to fit in an internship and keep my full-time job while attending classes and going to part-time is really not an option. I kind of feel like I am doing all of this alone with not a ton of guidance...

On a positive note,  I came home from orientation in 2013 and told my husband that "I found my people".  I am constantly amazed that although we all have have different specialties and interests, we all have a genuine passion and excitement for the profession as a whole.  

I am just beginning the job search and am really thinking out of the box. Like I said before: "I possess a particular set of skills" (thank you Liam Neeson) and hopefully someone will see my newly developed skills and past experience in museums and art galleries and think I am the perfect fit for the job!

4. Have you ever been hesitant to tell anyone that you are pursuing an MLIS degree? Has anyone ever questioned your decision to do so? What was your response?

Hell no. Come August I will have earned this degree and will shout it from the roof tops. I don't question why someone earned their MBA, MFA or MSW... why should they question me?

5. To you, what is the value of an MLIS degree?

It shows that I took the time and put in the effort to learn everything I could about something I was passionate about. It is about continuously learning and developing my personal knowledge base so that I can do the best that I can at a job I will love. Damen commented that no, it doesn't take a MLIS to learn a process but it does take an MLIS to UNDERSTAND the process and I couldn't agree more.

Element Overview in Tonight's Class

The individual element overview was so helpful in tonight's class! While my element is relatively simple compared to some of the others it was nice to get feedback and be able to give input where other's are struggling.

I was personally struggling on how the opponent element should be defined and the vocabulary I should use.  Damen's use of the Simple Vocab plugin (along with Dr. MacCall's explanation) helped me out tremendously. I think I was overthinking it when it came to controlled vocabulary and was about to just simply make a PDF document attached to the wiki listing every single NCAA football team and their associated schools...whew.

I have been fighting the idea that that we are creating these guidelines for ONLY the images we are indexing. I keep wanting to think "big picture" - as in "well not every image in the Paul R. Bryant Museum digital repository will have players and opponents". For this, I blame LS560 - Digital Libraries where we were indexing all sorts or images from the Paul R. Bryant Museum, not a structured set like we are now.

Thankfully, we ARE just dealing with the images for this project and I can think small (for now). Adam was a gem and sent me a master list of all the images that everyone will be working with. I will now be able to load my controlled vocabulary for opponents into the Simple Vocal plug-in (a la Damen's style) so that you all will be able to choose! 

Clarity is such a wonderful thing!

Questions about Opponent Element

I have been searching with no avail to find a listing of all the NCAA registered (?) colleges and the name of their team to help with the opponent element. Does anyone know of such a resource that will give me both the name of the school AND the team name that is legit?

I ask because I have decided to have the Opponent Element repeatable where the indexer will list not only the name of the school but also the team name so that a user can search by both.

I thought about just using the LOC Subject Authority Headings? 

Examples:

The University of Alabama

Crimson Tide

Louisiana State University (OR would this simply just be LSU?)

LSU Tigers

University of Mississippi

Ole Miss Rebels-- (or would this now be Black Bears?!)

Help! What do y'all think?

When the metadata is basically wrapped up in a pretty pink silk package...

I have been thinking a lot about metadata and it's importance in today's digital world, especially for documenting and digitizing collections in cultural heritage institutions. It is no secret that archives, museums and special collections are my jam and I scour the internet for new and interesting collections that are being discovered in an old filing cabinets, someone's attic or an abandoned building.

Digitization of these collections allows open accessibly to these often fragile, one of a kind lots in a way that simply sticking them behind a display case or shoving them in the stacks doesn't. Once they are available on the web, these collections can be shared and used for a whole host of other purposes (think research, education, story-telling etc…). The problem is, often times these found, donated or purchased collections have no background information accompanying them. So what these cultural heritage repositories end up with is a bunch of stuff with no context. How is an indexer responsible for digitizing and creating the metadata supposed to successfully and efficiently complete their job without all of the information? Not everyone's grandmother wrote on the back of family photo's who was pictured, where the photo was taken or what event was taking place….

Enter the main point of my post today: I stumbled upon a metadata librarian's dream collection, complete with a fully documented account of the who, what, when, where, why of said collection:

Chronicles of an Affair with his Secretary, Found in an Abandoned Suitcase

If the name of the article alone didn't entice you enough to click on it, go ahead and check it out. I'll wait…

This collection is voyeuristic look into a steamy affair that took place in the 1960's and 70's between businessman, Günter K. and his secretary. It is completely preserved and includes over 100+ photos, hotel receipts, notes and letters all miticulously documented and dated, thanks to Günter and his strange obbsession. The metadata is basically wrapped up in a pretty pink silk package ready to be indexed!

While this collection is on display in an NYC art gallery, I don't think it will take long for someone to swipe this up and digitize it.

Impostor Syndrome

This is something I am currently dealing with.  And yes, it is a real thing: The Impostor Syndrome: Are You Fooling Everyone?

I debated writing this post but then read Becca's post "Reading those articles…" and decided to go for it. While her post doesn't have a ton in common with this one, it struck a nerve. I will admit, I have read a good majority of the articles, picking and choosing the ones that look interesting to me, but then I literally blank out when it comes to writing a blog post about them (as you can probably tell by the lack of posting I have done over the last couple of weeks).

I also read my classmates blogs on a pretty regular basis and respond in comments and in my own blog posts - when I think I can add something to the conversation. Most of the time it is fear that is stopping me.

Fear that:

What if it is obvious I don't know what I am talking about?
What if my classmates think I am an idiot?
What if I blow my cover as a  real graduate student?
What if I let my professors down?
What if I let myself down?
What if I do/have done all this for nothing?

In terms of this Metadata course, I am following along as best I can but there are still a lot of concepts that are over my head (um, microformats?). I think it will take a re-read of a lot of the articles and book chapters as well as some hands on experience (I'm looking at you football images!) before I am comfortable enough to say that "I know metadata" and to stop "pretending" like I do.

Relation Element Troubles

In an attempt the help Adam with the "Relation" element issues he posted about here, I will put in my two-cents. Even if it may not help.

I think I mentioned this in our small group meeting last class period but here goes... What if there was a an element that is already being used that would help identify the "IsPartOf, IsVersionOf etc) relationship WITHOUT infringing on anyone else element? Maybe using something like the Unique Identifier for instance. Like Adam pointed out in his post regarding the sample images in the wiki page: They are both taken within milliseconds of each other, therefore they are related. So could we set up the "Relation" element to represent the Unique Identifier of the other images (taken within mini seconds of each other) it is relating to?

Right Side: RELATION-----Left Side: UNIQUE IDENTIFIER OF RELATED IMAGES

I know we discussed the "IsPartOf" a certain play, such a a sequence of  photos depicting one certain play, but I am still having a hard time wrapping my head around it so I hope I have not made this any more confusing than it already is.

I would love to hear your thoughts!

DC Identifier Element Ideas...

I just thought I would put some ideas out there for my classmate and group member, Amy, as well as anyone else interested (or intimidated) by the identifier element.

Here are some examples that we use at work for the Paul R. Jones Collection of American Art at The University of Alabama:

PRJ2008.0135 - Here you can see the collection name represented (PRJ) as well as the year it was donated (2008). The last couple of numbers can relate to anything from the artist unique identifier or the order in which the piece was cataloged.

PRJ2008.135b - This would be the same as above but the "b" would stand for the second work in a series (first being PRJ2008.135a).

Also, take a look at what Publishers' Bindings Online did when deciding on a file naming structure for their digitization project. It may be helpful in breaking down the process: Publishers' Bindings Online: Project Manual - File Naming Structure

Do any of my other classmates have any input on file naming? I always like to see/hear how other people tackle this particular problem.

I hope this helps!

Is the Importance of the Source Element Dependent on the Type of Project?

Tonight, Adam, Amy, Nikki and I met in our breakout room to discuss our element sets. I am charged with the source element and find myself questioning the importance if it, in this particular project. The Guidelines for Descriptive Metadata for the UCLA Digital Library Program defines source as:

A related resource from which the described resource is derived, in whole or in part. This element may also include information about the ownership of custodial history of the object. 

I can totally see the need for the source element when developing guidelines for an institution such as a special collections library or a repository that holds multiple collections, especially when you would need to break it down to the collection, date, box, folder and item number level. If you are digitizing items from books, say UA's The Corolla, then of course you would need the source element to identify which Corolla the image came from.

I guess my question is this: Is the Paul Bryant Museum the type of institution that holds multiple collections in the way that a special collections library does? Or, is it its own stand alone collection where the source of the image will always be the Paul Bryant Museum?

Another question I would need to ask in order to argue the importance of my source element (and would need to be directed towards the client) would be this: Are all of this images we are working with digitized from a group of individual photographs or are some pulled from other sources, say football programs or scrapbooks?

 

The Changing Role of Special Collections...SIGN ME UP

I really enjoyed reading Waters' The Changing Role of Special Collections in Scholarly Communications for a couple of reasons:

1. My dream job would be in working in special collections.
2. My dream job would include reference, outreach and instruction in special collections.
3. My dream job would consist of making special collections relevant (AND ACCESSIBLE) for scholarly enrichment across all levels of education: K-12, higher ed and continuing/adult learning.
4. My dream job would allow creativity and partnership across campus, between institutions and with the community at large to create meaningful and relevant resources, or as Waters puts it, "finding efficient and productive ways to engage scholars and students in the development of special collections as scholarly resources."

So, who wants to hire me.......UA? Kidding. (No, not really.)

This article also reminded me that I was fortunate enough to be a part of just such a collection connecting project while working as a student exhibit coordinator at the Hoole Special Collections Library at The University of Alabama.

My supervisor was the project manager for Publishers’ Bindings Online, 1851-1930: The Art of Books, a 3-year IMLS-funded collaborative digital project in partnership with the University of Wisconsin-Madison. PBO combines about 5,000 decorative book bindings into one digital repository where students, scholars, teachers and more can explore a relatively "unexplored" field of study. Albeit, I was just the student assistant tasked with cataloging, scanning and data entry but, man was it fun knowing I was contributing to something that could open the doors to a a whole new appreciation of rare books. The fact that I was also a graphic design student made it even better. I was totally in my element.

Now 10 years later, I am back at Hoole, volunteering and assisting with outside reference. I have the opportunity to dig through the stacks/boxes (physically and digitally) and make sense of the "unwelcome white elephant". There are endless possibilities on how to incorporate scholarly and student engagement and communication into special collections and I agree with Damen:

"This means that special collections are especially rich in opportunity for those who want to make them more valuable in the same ways that common collections are growing in value."

I really want that opportunity.  

Full Library Discovery and the Loss of Individuality?

Having spent the afternoon with Libwebrarian and Lorcan Dempsey and a whole host of my classmates, I am entering my two cents into the discussion on "full library discovery" (FLD for the purpose of this post).

I started out with blog title "Is Full Library Discovery the LibGuide?" after reading Dempsey's introductory blog post on the topic, with a whole host of reasons of why I think FLD is a wonderful addition to the classic catalog/database collection search. Similar to LibGuides, FLD takes a specific subject and packages relevant resources into a nice little guide to assist you in your research. It cuts out the middle man so to speak. FLD takes your typical academic resources (journal articles, books) and groups them with unexpected, sometimes overlooked resources (open access materials, learning materials, subject specialist and yes, even LibGuides) opening up a whole new world of resource possibilities. Like LibGuides, the FLD system gives you "ALL THE THINGS" relevant to your subject search. 

In this aspect, I think FLD is a discovery service that academic libraries need to pay particular attention to. For unexperienced researchers and library users, this service enables them "get their feet wet" in resource discovery. As a freshman with a research paper assignment, nothing is more frustrating than logging into your libraries website and having no idea where to start. An academic library's catalog is a huge, intimidating beast and it is our job as librarians to make it not so scary. While I think that nothing can replace a reference interview, be it in person or virtual, I do think that a FLD system can be incorporated to ease the learning curve. However, like Libwebrarian, I am posing the question: How far should we go when it comes to a personalized search?

At some stage to use those resources a student will be logging in to that system and that opens up an important question for me.  Once you know who the user is, ‘how far should you go to provide a personalised search experience?’.  You know who they are, so you could provide recommendations based on what other students studying their course have looked at (or borrowed), you might even stray into ‘learning analytics’ territory and know what the resources were that the highest achieving students looked at.

You might know what resources are on the reading list for the course that student is studying – so do you search those resources first and offer those up as they might be most relevant?  You might even know what stage a student has got to in their studies and know what assignment they have to do, and what resources they need to be looking at.  Do you ‘push’ those to a student?

Something to think about: If you crank out personalized search experiences based on what other students search or what the highest achieving students are looking at, what happens individual learning experience? Are you left with a bunch of students presenting the same ideas from the same resources? Where is the individuality? How can new ideas be presented or argued if FLD is relying on resources that other students used? Are you "pushing" your students into conformity?

If students see "here are the top three search results based on what you classmates are looking at" then you end up with 15+ papers all referencing the same three articles.  Tonya's reference to The Principle of Least Effort is so spot on and Libwebrarian even backs up this theory. 

Search for psychology on NCSU’s Search All search box gives you the top three articles out of 2,543,911 articles in Summon, and likely behaviour is not to look much beyond the first page of results.

I think this is where things can get sticky with FLD. While I am all for an FLD option on library websites, there needs to be more discussion on how much is too much when it comes to full library discovery.

Thought on web platforms for professional resume websites...

While this doesn't have anything to do with the current readings for LS566, I thought it was relevant AND related to a tweet I sent out regarding personal/professional websites...

Fellow classmates: Do you have a professional website that you use for the job hunt that includes your resume/cv, past projects, research interests? If so, what platform do you use? Springhare? Blogger? Wordpress?

A Response to Metadata for Breakfast | File Naming Video Series

Funny that I should watch the File Naming Video Series after my last post. Then, I came across Metadata for Breakfast's post, Metadata Hide and Seek. So what else to do but blog about it!

I too, am guilty of some of the things NOT to do when naming files. Namely using spaces and capitalization. In my defense, I am a trained graphic designer so the visual aspect of the filename is just as important to me as the file I am naming.  Spaces look pretty but certainly don't play well with naming files. Capitalization makes things look professional, in my opinion. But alas, I must learn to play by the rules of file naming.

I will admit this, and I am not sure if this is a product of my O.C.D or A.D.D. (or a combination of both) but, I often find myself looking for a file on my computer, discovering said file in a folder filled with similar files, then going back and renaming ALL THE FILES so that they all have the same file name format to appease my constant need for the visual affect of organization.

Applying the K.I.S.S. System to Filenaming

After reading over  "Filenames as a Strategy to Managing Your Assets", my head was spinning. The authors system seemed a little.....overcomplicated? What the author ends up with is a UID for his images and that is whole point, I get it.

I am not knocking what works for him, because clearly he put a lot of thought and possibly, some trial and error into this system. I just think he made it a little harder than it had to be.

I have been raised (by my minimalist father) on the K.I.S.S. system. Keep it simple, stupid. I think this system can be applied to file naming, no matter what type of file it is. In the case of image collections, sure, we have to think about what type of systems we are working with, who is using this information, if the UID is in fact unique to each "asset", but this seems a little excessive...

What do you think? Can you still achieve UID's for image collections by following the K.I.S.S. system?

OR, if I am completely missing the point (which may be the case the more I read over the original blog post), I would love someone to break this down to me.

Where It All Went Wrong

Nathan has a point. A damn good point.

While reading his speech, Where It All Went Wrong I found myself nodding my head in agreement, and may or may-not have thrown out "You GO Glen Coco!" a time or two...Mean Girls, anyone?

I have come across so many bad examples of libraries trying to move into the future with a bunch of digitization projects and online resources/services --- just to say they are hip and cool and "with it". It makes me sad. Pumping out all of these digital things does not make you good at digital.  In Nathan's words, it makes you bad a digital. Ain't nobody got time for that.

Now is the time for libraries to step into the forefront of the digital information revolution and make themselves relevant in the digital world. Work together with other institutions - share knowledge, resources and ideas. Sharing is caring people.

Think ahead to future generations and how they may go about searching for digital information. What are they looking for?  How/where are they finding it? How are they using it?

And please, no more shitty digitization project websites. It hurts my eyes to look at them.

Dummy Proof Data

One of my first jobs out of college was working as an executive assistant in an oil and gas investing firm. I got the job through a friend of a friend's mom who played tennis with one of the managing partner's wife.  Along with the normal assistant duties of scheduling meetings, booking travel arrangments and making sure the break room was never out of coffee, I was charged with the task of managing the filing system that included over 90 different well sites across the US spanning three, soon to be four, different equity funds. I was terrified.

For anyone who knows anything about oil and gas well sites, you know that each well comes with a gargantuan amount of data. Seismic readings, well files, fracking data, blah, blah, blah. Not to mention contracts, maps, dig reports, pay-out information for well site personnel - you get the picture. The filing system in place, if you could even call it that, was laughable. I blame two over-caffeinated managing partners who were better at managing the investors' money and picking the next best investing opportunity than keeping their paperwork organized.

Spending a good part of a year with the contents of the filing cabinets strewn about the floor, chairs, and any open table space I could find, I made stacks and stacks of papers, labeled over 300 file folders, divided up the contents of four floor-to-ceiling filing cabinets into a folder by folder masterpiece.

I made it dummy proof.

I created a system so dummy proof that one of the managing partner's 10 year old daughter could find the well report for "X" well at "Y" site from "Z" fund.  I made it so dummy proof that someone who knows nothing about the subject of oil and gas investing could find the exact contract for "XYZ" well they were looking for.

I like to consider metadata the key to making finding digital information dummy proof. As mundane (or exciting - depends on who you ask) as it is to break things down to the tiniest level of organization through physical file folders or digital metadata, it is essential for information management and retrieval.

And I dig it.

WELCOME!

Logging into Blogger this morning to create my course blog for LS 566, I was haunted by the ghosts of past blogs I have created, but then never finished. Some just have clever titles, some have one or two posts and one i had going for a good while but then it lost steam... All good intentions, right?

Well, here's to a new blog! One that I might actually be able to keep up over the weeks/months/years as I start out on my path to a career in libraries.