Saving Social Media

One of the Friday morning, April 1 sessions at the Society of NC Archivists/SC Archives Association conference was "Collaboration and (in) Records Management." My riding partner/roommate and I agreed to attend different sessions to compare notes on the way home.

This session doesn't directly apply to me but it still deserves a post because of the cool stuff the State of NC Archives is doing. Kelly Eubank, head of electronic records at the Archives, talked about social media use and archiving those records - can you even imagine?

What might be obvious to some people already, she stated that when an institution creates a Facebook page, Twitter account, etc., it is the institution's page meaning no privacy and follow the rules if you use the accounts.

But what got me to log out of my personal social media page :) was the next part. Kelly said that the State Archives is collecting and archiving posts from Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, etc. It is called geospatial data archiving.

There are many issues with archiving electronic data but the main one is that printing it out does not preserve all the data. For example, in Microsoft Word, there is a properties tab which shows when it was created, changed and who created it. That is lost or not available if it is printed. The same goes with e-mail messages - you can't see which servers it went through which could be helpful, especially in state government.

Before information services was less enthusiastic about working with the Archives, she said to at least create a PDF of the information - don't leave it in Word or as an e-mail message. After years of building (and it is a daily struggle) a relationship with information services and other departments, Archives does get most electronic information in a good format to archive. Like this institution there are many privacy issues and that could potentially be another post entirely.

Lastly and I have saved the best for the last. When Governor Hunt was serving as the head of the state, the Archives received 6 GB of electronic material. After Governor Easley left office, Archives received 290 GB of electronic files.

So this archiving of electronic data is only going to get bigger and archivists continue to learn and persevere.

Statewide Digitization

One of the obvious themes of the Society of NC Archivists and SC Archives Association joint conference March 31 is digitization while the not so obvious is flexibility! Representatives from SC and NC shared statewide digital projects.

So far, there are 80,000 items scanned in the South Carolina Digital Library and those materials encompass 90 collections. The Library is funded by the SC Department of Archives and History, a partnership among academic institutions and the SC State Library. Four institutions have a scan center and a CONTENT dM server - University of SC, College of Charleston, Coastal Carolina University and Clemson University.

Some of the site is interactive, such as an old map against a current map to compare. The site also has lesson plans and topics for K-12 teachers. Institutions who want to contribute have to provide the material and the only requirement is a title of the collection, making it easy for institutions who not have the expertise, staff or equipment to digitize materials - flexibility!

North Carolina is flexible too!

The NC Digital Heritage Center was born in 2009 - after the laborious but fruitful NC Exploring Cultural Heritages Online project. NC ECHO was a grant funded project in which representatives surveyed all cultural and historical institutions in the state of North Carolina (they came in early 2001 to DCMA). NC ECHO also manages digitization grants for all types of institutions (such as Digital Forsyth). The part that really helped birth the NC Digital Heritage Center was the final "directory" of the institutions. The digital library uses CONTENT dM, like SC, but unlike SC, there is one server housed at UNC Chapel Hill in the Wilson Special Collections Library.

Again like SC, NC has many small and "hidden" institutions which need help to scan and digitize materials; hence, flexibility. The only metadata required is a title. Institutions may add additional information if they want to in both statewide libraries.

Both states hope these Libraries last a long time - they are prepared to promote, maintain and continue building relationships with their respective cultural institutions.

Digitize times three

Society of NC Archivists/South Carolina Archives Association conference continued on Thursday afternoon, March 31 with three institutions sharing their experiences with "Digital Initiatives."

Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture of the College of Charleston, SC basically turned a physical museum into an virtual museum when they digitized 500 linear feet of manuscripts (paper-based), 80 linear feet of artifacts and 80 oral histories. One of the staff members taught herself by actually reading the manual of how to shoot photographs of paintings, slave badges and other artifacts. She also sought the advice from a faculty member specializing in photography. The lesson is here is that a digital exhibit can be created with limited funds; some creativity and tons of time!

UNC Charlotte has transitioned from just online digital exhibits to a full-blown digital program by hiring a digital projects coordinator. Like many institutions, the new coordinator is trying to collaborate and train technical and circulation services staffs as well as being creative and dynamic to interest the entire Library staff. For example, the circulation staff is fully describing, i.e. creating metadata, of 10,000 images previously scanned and just waiting for access. Most of the circulation staff has been in the Charlotte area for a long time so they know the photos!

Moving way east, East Carolina University is advocating EAC-CPF (love those library acronyms) or Encoded Archival Context - Corporate Bodies Families. And some background, there is no "one" way to describe archival collections, like the MARC record. And since all archival collections are unique, the archives community has come up with Encoded Archival Context, which basically can be an extended/detailed/descriptive inventory of each collection or something as basic as a title and location. East Carolina's approach (EAC-CPF), which they have just started doing in the last couple of weeks, will help better locate collections AND give them context, i.e. pull them all into one location.

Now, all that makes sense but here is where I became confused (or really tired since it was late afternoon).
ECU is somehow using the social networking site of SNAP to describe and organize the collections. The pre-cursor to this idea was developed in the Google Refine open source software as the North Carolina Biographical Historical Information Online, funded by a grant in the early 2000s. (I think the website was taken down).

So basically lots of neat digital initiatives news in both Carolinas.

SNCA Plenary

I attended the Society of NC Archivists conference in Morehead City, NC on Thursday, March 31 through Friday, April 1, 2011. It was very nice to pick up company and fellow archivist, Gwen Gosney Erickson from Guilford College, for the long drive there. Excellent mileage though, about 38.1 miles per gallon!

The opening plenary was "Recovering History in the Atlantic: Queen Anne's Revenge and the H.L. Hunley." Nautical Archaeology Curator of the North Carolina Maritime Museum David Moore gave a brief history of pirates, specifically Blackbeard. The most reliable source for pirate historians is the General History of Pyrates 1724 by Captain Charles Johnson. While the book has been reprinted several times, experts still turn to that source for the daily life and activities of pirates from Blackbeard's generation.

Moore explained the many challenges of recovering items from the sunken Queen Anne's Revenge, found not too far from where we were sitting at the Crystal Coast Civic Center in Morehead City, NC. One of the challenges is lack of visibility - the waters are too murky - so it is a lot of touch and feel or "blind archaeology" as he called it.

Although difficult, approximately 50 percent of the site has been recovered including a uterine syringe made of pewter, nested weights, and part of the toilet that Blackbeard probably used. A lot of these items will go on display at the NC Maritime Museum this June, which we learned about at the Thursday evening private reception at the museum.

Meanwhile, not too far south, and since this was the first joint meeting with archivists from South Carolina, Ralph Wilbanks shared the history of the Civil War Submarine H.L. Hunley.

Wilbanks is an underwater advisor for the National Underwater and Marine Agency. The Hunley was built in Mobile, Alabama and shipped to Charleston, SC. It was the first submarine to sink a warship, the Housatonic in February 1864.

Self-made millionaire and adventurer Clive Cussler was convinced the Hunley was beneath the waters off the coast of South Carolina. After looking in the 1980s, he found nothing but he didn't give up and found the tip of it on May 3, 1995. Five years later after many political battles and the construction of a custom conservation facility, recovery of the submarine began in May 2000. Recovery of the entire submarine and its contents was completed on August 5, 2000. A celebration off the coast of Charleston took place with 300 boats in the water and media everywhere.

The Hunley, still pretty intact, was taken back to the facility where the hard work began. Everything that went in the Hunley was still there, including a shoe with 26 bones in it. In fact, all 18 shoes (for the nine men in the boat) each had 26 bones in them. Other items found were a canteen, wallet and Union dog tag (Civil War was the first time they were used and this one was probably a souvenir).

Wilbanks estimates that approximately $20 million was spent on the recovery of the Hunley, a lot donated by wealthy individuals, including mystery writer Patricia Cornwell.

And since this is all about ships, here I am at the Sanitary Fish Market in Morehead City (too full of seafood to actually steer a ship):

Computers in Libraries, Day Three

Keynote: Lee Rainie, Pew Internet Project

Not a Think Tank, a Fact Tank

Attention Zones:

Most of us now have continuous partial attention, in the shallow end of most information

But there are some really deep divers, especially those recently diagnosed or their loved ones, and they want to be an instant expert on the condition.

Vs info snacking

Media Zones:

·         social streams

·         Immersive space ... as in gaming

·         Creative/participatory

·         study/work

Can be nodes in social networks

People turn to their networks for three things

1  reporters/sentries, word of mouth matters more than mass media

2 As information evaluators, they vouch for or discredit a business's credibility and authenticity...can be scale tippers

3 as forums for action, everybody' a broadcaster or publisher

Cosmic big value-add by libraries

1 teachers of new literacies

2 navigation literacy

3 connections and content literacy

Skepticism

Instruct in ethical behavior in a new world

Thinking Critically and Strategically: Seeing Possibilities / Rebecca Jones, Dysart & Jones

Critical Optimism (thinking critically is NOT criticism)

Peripheral vision

Don’t focus on the twenty percent that are whining

Leadership is about pissing somebody off. (Colin Powell)

Effective Workflows for Multi Generational and Tech Change: Colleen Harris, Univ of TN at Chattanooga

4 major factors of workflow change

·         Technology

·         Skill sets

·         Infrastructure

·         Planning

Examples: ereserves, illiad workflows, oclc web svcs

Morale issues may actually be skills issues

Peer to peer training v effective

Ability and interest are two very different factors

Stagnant ILL

The z39.50 and amazon connections are great

Custom holdings info essential, top five lender string

Porting old practices into new systems

Oclc webscale management systems

Dump old ils?!?

Worldcat local much different than old catalog

QR Codes – the ZSR folks phoned it in  http://laurenpressley.com/library/2011/03/qr-codes-for-cil/

Mobile Usability with Jeff Wiesniewski

Mobile website emulator, firefox has a user agent switcher

Transliteracies: Libraries as the Critical "Classroom" /Gretchen Casserotti and Brian Hulsey

To be an active participant in today's society, you have to be literate across all media.

Concept of story has evolved in sooo many formats

Now that we experience the world through so many forms and formats, kids aren’t beholden to the container...they care about the content, so flexibility is key

Types of literacy: print, information, spacial, digital, scientific, visual, cultural, media

We cannot rely on standard forms of instruction for today’s generations

Don’t contribute to the growing disconnect between learning and life

Not just a digital divide, but a multilevel caste system (argh)

http://librariesandtransliteracy.wordpress.com/

Computers in Libraries, Day two

Keynote:

Three Keys to Engaging Digital Natives: Michelle Manafy, Free Pint Limited

In my day . . .

·         Digital Natives are those who grew up with nearly ubiquitious internet access and speak the language, vs us digital immigrants

·         By 2018, they will have tranformed the workplace and changed expectation

·         They have hidden advantages that allow them to learn and work in ways that we cannot, so we should leverage their worldview and engage them

·         Communal generation, readily share all aspects of their lives

·         TakingITGlobal social network for civic engagement

·         Users can and will become your greatest advocates through their usual channels

·         This generation is interested in knowledge sharing, not knowledge hoarding

·         Quirky.com: submit your killer idea...social product hub. The influencers also earn money from products brought to market. Realtime market feedback..buzz created long before comes to market

·         Localmotors new american car company, crowdsourced open community process. Actually produces cars via open plans

·         ProPublica reporting network, collaborative journalism Systemetizes crowdsourcing

·         Digitalkoot from Finland...access to cultural heritage, play games to improve searchability and usability of the site; post scores to facebook and autopublicize the content and recruit new users

·         Kids have a totally different view of currency, would easily take their allowance n paypal or online music credits

·         Pbs digital nation project, user stories and feedback incorporated into the documentary as it is being made. Six word story about how living digitally has changed their lives

·         State Library of Victoria has lots of examples of interaction

·         Library of Birmingham reenvisioning the library, building a new one, and engaging with their users along the way

1.       public opinion not private lives

2.       knowledge sharing not knowledge hoarding

3.       interactions not transactions

Forthcoming book:  Dancing With Digital Natives

Learning from Inspirational Libraries: Marshall Breeding

All photos of libraries, mostly in other countries, he has a database of 26,000 library photos but I can’t find any evidence that he displays on the web publicly, alas.

Organizational Intelligence: Scott Brown and Sabrina Pacifici

·         Proactively stalking people in your organization, searching for clues: where are the champions, who owns what web properties.

·         Email forwarding gives you clues, who forwarded and what they said.

·         If you use URL shorteners, it will track hits by it

·         Finding the pulse... Where and what are the conversations? Finding the pain as well.

·         Who is passionate about the topic. Who's contributing content.

·         If you are nonthreatening and aligned neutrally you'll get more questions and can act as a bridge in the organization.

·         Beyond the org chart... Who needs content? Easy allies.

·         Linkedin sharing can reveal a lot

·         Visibility and openness....who else should know about us?

Adapting Best Practices for Strategic Alignment in the New Hybrid Library: Janel White & Hannah Somers, NPR Manage the image of your projects... Be aware of other projects going on and embed yourselves. Adopt the same accountability models.

Center for Homeland Defense and Security Naval Postgraduate School Jodi Stiles and Greta Marlette

Mobile Programs for the Enterprise

NASA Goddard space flight center library

Moving beyond the walls of the library, a huge campus

Mobile librarian service...three month pilot program

Met w building managers to find candidates for the program, with high foot traffic and wifi...visibility is key

Danielle Pollock, Sandia National Laboratories

·         Got every ereader available, primarily for PDfs

·         Ipad ranked highest overall, kindle dx did well

·         Security review of all devices

·         Defined process for evaluation and approval

·         Support users reading on smartphones

·         Recommendstion numbet five, do not implement a device lending program, the staff time is significant No one device works for all users They're really single user devices

Getting to the Eureka! Moment

Julian Aiken Yale Law Library

More of a comedy routine than a learning session, but he is the guy who lends out his dog at Yale.

Tuesday Evening Program was hilarious, as usual. Two points from Stephen Abrams:

·         More library cards than drivers licenses in the United States

·         More library branches than Starbucks and McDonald’s combined

Apparently I’m going to have to fact-check that one for Dave K.

Computers in Libraries, Day 1

Keynote. Google guy's plane was three hours late, so a panel filled in and talked about him behind his back, and they ended up being more interesting than the speaker himself, who spoke during the lunch hour. Panel discussion partly here http://www.libconf.com/2011/03/21/cil-opening-keynote-panel/

Secrets of Super Searchers: Mary Ellen Bates

She was also at the Entrepreneurial Conference at ZSR recently, but there she was talking about her business and here she shared tricks from the ever-evolving search engine market.

·         Google now has AROUND proximity search (use caps) Not earth shattering, but makes a difference if you try comparing phrase searching with AROUND

·         Ngrams.googlelabs.com – see the use of a word (in books) over time. For example, I searched consumption, tuberculosis to see where the rise and fall of each term was used.

·         Block content farms from your search results “Personal blocklist” block {domain} chrome works best, of course you have to sign in to Google

·         Yahoo correlator: limited to wikipedia related concepts Clues.yahoo.com. Aggregated queries, zeitgeist

·         Bing now has a NEAR operator. Autism near:5 vaccination

·         Duckduckgo.com...good for disambiguation

·         Blekko... Blocks spam and content farms automatically Specialized slash tags.  / sort by relevance or rank or date

·         Waybackmachine.org now has a timeline Less clicking, more browsing

Search Engine Update: Greg Notess

·         A battle against content farms; beware of permanently blocking something, changes in an instant...ehow may be useful again someday

·         Google recipes only use content that is marked up according to the google markup language

·         Notice the Google left side options constantly changing, even some features from the advanced search screen have moved left

·         Phonebook features are gone from google

·         Look at your google ad preferences, pretty interesting www.google.com/ads/preferences (wow, it thinks I’m in the 25-34 age range!!)

·         Blekko /liberal or /conservative Qwiki, different approach

Google books keynote rescheduled from the morning
James Crawford, engineering director

·         Why, how, and what can be done with fifteen million scanned books

·         Part of larger mission to organize the worlds information

·         Six years later, the project is over fifteen million books

·         Thirty thousand plus publishing partners

·         Back to 1473

·         Ranking books is harder than web pages, not as many references, esp in fiction

·         478 languages

·         Hard to do OCR in Klingon

In Pursuit of Library Elegance: Erica Reynolds and John Blyberg

·         See the book by Matthew May

·         Rules are outta control

·         Signs are bandaids

·         Limited resources help spark creativity and innovation

SharePoint Tips and Tricks: Jeff Wiesniewski, pitt.edu

We need sharepoint 2010!!!

·         Content Organizer features bulk file imports

·         Rules-based file migration

·         Automatic routing to the appropriate library

·         Tags and managed metadata, tag clouds

·         Enable user ratings will float useful content up

·         2010 will automatically import some picture metadata

·         Federated search in win 7, you can connect w desktop search

·         Search engine filters out broken links

·         Managed term sets

·         Semantically link items

·         Dropbox with global rules if it has metadata

·         “Document sets” group related docs together as a set, for example ppt and handouts and spreadsheet, packaged together as a set Semantics trump security

·         Mobile! Add ?mobile=1 to end of the url to see how it will render for mobile

·         Drive adoption by making sharepoint-only content, don’t continue to email the documents, that enables the resistors