Building the Broadsides Collection: Conservation March 16, 2009
Posted by maa13 in : Broadsides, Trident , add a commentWhat happens when an entire collection goes through the Conservation Department to be processed so that it can be digitized? What do these collections look like through the eyes of a conservator? What level of conservation work should a collection get? How long does it take to process a collection? These are some of the common questions asked of the Conservation Staff. In our second installment of Digital Collections “Behind the Scenes” we will explore these questions and more. Below is an overview of the process which is explained in detail in the embedded video.
Overview:
1. Sort
2. Remove Mylar
3. Assess collection for repair
4. Repair
5. Flag problem items for the Digital Production Center
6. Re-house
7. Repeat
The next stage of the process is digitization — coming soon!
LAUNC-CH presentation on Metadata Librarianship March 12, 2009
Posted by Rich in : Gamble, Presentations, metadata , add a commentNoah Huffman and I (that would be Rich Murray), the two Metadata Librarians working on the Digital Collections team at Duke, spoke about our jobs at the LAUNC-CH conference in Chapel Hill on March 9 as part of a panel called “New Titles, Changing Workforce.” Thanks to everyone who attended, and to the conference organizers who invited us! As promised, here are the slides from our presentation.
LAUNC-CH Presentation March 9, 2009
Posted by wsexton in : Uncategorized , add a comment
Digital Collections… on Paper! March 6, 2009
Posted by Sean Aery in : Interface Features , add a comment
Have you ever tried to print out anything from our Digital Collections site, like a cool historic advertisement, an old documentary photograph, or a list of search results? If so, you probably got a printout with some less-than-ideal formatting and some extraneous near-blank pages.
Today, we implemented a print-specific stylesheet, so give it another try and let us know what you think!
One of our core aims for our system is to be able to deliver items from our collections in the formats that are most ideal for the various ways people will use them. Lots of people print web pages, and what works on-screen isn’t always best on paper.
Here were our goals for the print styles:
- maintain branding for Duke LIbraries, Digital Collections Program, and individual collection
- remove interface elements like search boxes and facets that do not provide value on paper
- write out the URL of copyright & reproduction information for items
- eliminate unnecessary page breaking
- support landscape & portrait orientation
- support all major browsers/platforms
- make table headers repeat on subsequent pages
There’s another feature we’re working on implementing (in the not-too-distant future) that should also make things easier to print: PDF generation. It should be especially useful for multi-paged items. We’ll keep you posted on this blog about all coming interface updates…
Happy printing!
Presentation to Duke Libraries (2008 Usage Stats) March 4, 2009
Posted by Sean Aery in : Assessment, Presentations , 1 comment so farI presented this morning (March 4, 2009) at our monthly First Wednesday library IT presentation series about Digital Collections stats from 2008 server logs (slides below):
The slides are very basic. Included are some figures extracted from previous blog posts (http://library.duke.edu/blogs/digital-collections/category/assessment/) as well as ‘greatest hits’–the most-accessed item from each collection.
