As vested as we in the DigIn program are in digital collection management, I, for one, really don't want to see this become a trend: Cushing Academy's Library Without Books
Are we really heading that way??
“Books are not a waste of space, and they won’t be until a digital book can tolerate as much sand, survive a coffee spill, and have unlimited power. When that happens, there will be next to no difference between that and a book.’’ ~~ Keith Michael Fiels, ALA Exec. Dir.
For over 20 years I have belonged to a non-profit organization, The Embroiderer's Guild of America, Inc. “The mission of EGA is to stimulate appreciation for and celebrate the heritage of embroidery by advancing the highest standards of excellence in its practice through education, exhibition, preservation, collection and research.” For at least the last 40 years, the EGA has published a quarterly journal for its membership,
Last year I approached the executive director with the idea to digitize and index an archive of the publication. She and the organization president were very receptive. They suggested I prepare an application for a grant from the organization for the project. When DigIn came along, I felt that waiting until after or during the program would provide the best information and opportunity to plan and execute the project.
It is unlikely that the collection would be accessed by any one except the membership of the organization, but that would be up to the Executive Board to decide. Although subscription to the journal is a benefit of membership, the archive might be determined to be of value to researchers and other similar organizations. The archived collection might be made freely available, or available at an per issue or per article rate.
In each issue of the journal there is a variety of content, including official reports, historical articles, designer/artist profiles, embroidery project instructions, exhibit photo layouts, advertising. Access terms would include these broad article types; the types of embroidery involved; designer/author names; issue date, number, and volume. Learning how to properly index something like this project is perhaps the greatest challenge facing me, as well as determining the best system to use as a repository.
The Shirky essay most certainly prompts a different way of thinking about classification and cataloguing, or tagging. A large portion of my job lately has involved updating our ILS database of authorized Library of Congress subject headings. I found the background illustrations about Yahoo and Google particularly interesting and helpful in understanding how more is less (?).
A fellow student mentioned the complexity of technology planning in her blog post for the "Planning for Technology" unit. I certainly agree. As a worker-bee, my only involvement in planning, be it technological, budget, or strategic is rather after-the-fact. Or in that management effort to include the staff as 'stakeholders.'
Be all that as it may, planning of this complexity is not my nature. I hope to be eased into planning responsibilities of librarianship, and that the theory I've learned isn't lost in the politics or special interests of those at the helm. I'm encouraged that there is a wealth of information and assistance for technology planning.
Now nearly four weeks after I read the articles, I recall being amused, amazed, and overwhelmed at various readings. I randomly reopened a couple tonight to refresh my memory. In these latest days with talks of deep budget cut scenarios, Stephens' words, "Meet the Mission" echo loudly in my head. If there was ever a time and place for technolust it is long past, far away, or never to be seen again. Even though his quote from Sandra Nelson's book is now a decade old, her advice to review monthly is almost too close to semi-annual budget reductions for comfort.
Perhaps the reading I liked best was Gerding & MacKellar's very practical Applying for Technology Grants (Computers in Libraries, Jul/Aug 2006, pp. 7-8, 545-60). The advice seems sound, echos similar comments from other readings, crosses types of libraries, and provides additional resource recommendations that I thought would be quited helpful in actually producing technology plans and pursuing grant or other funding.
When I began this course, I was familiar with Linux only as an alternative to Windows as an operating system. Having become comfortable with the Microsoft product line over many years, and not having suffered too many problems with it, I have always been content to stay put, as it were, and not bother learning something (else) new… on my own (which is pretty much how I learned what I know about computers, operating systems and software).
In beginning this program in digital information management, I’m not sure I realized I would be ‘elbow-deep’ in the command-line interfaces again, but it was a comfortable feeling based on my past success with MS-DOS. I have also been motivated by the hope that learning to function in the SQL and PHP environment will help me finally know how to better utilize the platforms associated with the hosting service for my own website(s). All I need now is that elusive factor, time, to experiment with SQL & PHP on my own.
My perspective of digital information has been expanded through the past 11 weeks of this course. I have always been, and continue to be, amazed at the information that is available via the Internet and the World Wide Web. So much of this content is collaborative and donated and circulated… truly mind-boggling. And yet, the average user is completely unaware of the vastness, and the usefulness of it all.
I love books. I love the idea of being a librarian and all that entails, from reader’s advisory to technical researcher to data quality management – however, I do like the term “information specialist” for its connotation that my knowledge and expertise will be beyond the shelf list, beyond the building, and beyond Google.
