Things are heating up as the time for the big move gets closer and closer, but I had a chance this week and last week to learn more about the archival management tools used by the Millersville University Archives and Special Collections, and to get some hands-on experience using Archon, a freely available, open source archival management tool developed by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
The Millersville Archives and Special Collections librarians use a number of different archival management systems, including Archon, CONTENTdm and Fedora (a recent addition). I talked with Janet Dotterer, the archives and special collections technician who works daily with these programs, about how she uses the different tools, and their respective advantages and challenges. Archon was developed for use by smaller institutions, particularly archives that have only one or two librarians on staff (like Millersville), to easily make their unique collections available online where they can be discovered by anyone around the world, and to do so at a low-cost. Archon's pared-down, intuitive administrative interface makes it easy to use pretty much right away, even if you haven't had prior experience using archival software. It also has point-of-need help on what kind of information you need to enter in each field, which is taken from the DACS guidelines, so even if you don't have a lot of experience creating finding aids or you aren't well versed in archival description standards, you can still create an online finding aid that conforms to current, established standards. It would be a stretch to call Archon fool-proof, but it certainly goes a long way toward helping "lone-wolf" archivists get their work done correctly and efficiently.
Janet and the student workers create and post all the online finding aids with Archon. The program also functions as an online archival repository, however, because there is a limited amount of storage space on the back end of Millersville's local system, not all digitized content can be stored in Archon. Janet frequently has to make choices about what content to put in Archon and what to put in CONTENTdm, which has more storage. Basically, if a digital object is relatively small, it can be stored in Archon. For example, small image or text files are stored in Archon, but large, high-resolution images need to be stored in CONTENTdm. Although CONTENTdm has more robust capabilities for creating finding aids and building digital archival repositories, this means the program is often time-consuming and cumbersome to use, and therefore not always the best choice for smaller institutions. CONTENTdm allows librarians to create detailed records that can then be added to the local catalog where they are discoverable by patrons, but many librarians have found that adding special collections records to the local catalog doesn't significantly increase the collections' use, therefore it doesn't always make sense to spend a great deal of time creating and loading records into the local catalog. Fedora will primarily be used for Millersville's forthcoming institutional repository, where digital copies of scholarship produced by the University community (for example, graduate dissertations and theses) will be stored, and discoverable and freely available to anyone with an internet connection. However, there is a possibility that Fedora could also be used as another place to store digital objects created by the archives and special collections.
It was great to chat with Janet to get a better understanding of how all these tools come into play to make Millersville's archives and special collections accessible on the web and to the University community, and to learn the kinds of challenges and decisions archivists need to make on a daily basis. I also had the opportunity to get some more hands-on experience using Archon by working on a finding aid for Millersville University student handbooks going back to 1907. It was very easy to create boxes within the series, and folders within the boxes, to indicate the arrangement of the collection, and to enter the title, year and any description necessary for each folder. One of the best features of Archon is that when you notice a typo in the finding aid (as I did while writing this blog post!), you can correct the error regardless of where you are, so I was able to fix my mistake right from home. I'm glad I had the chance to test drive Archon with an actual collection (as opposed to the sandbox available through the workshop with Scott Schwartz), and the student handbooks were really interesting to look at. So much has changed in the last 100 years with respect to college life and culture, and it's amazing how many culture shifts these seemingly mundane documents reveal!
Friday, April 19, 2013
Saturday, April 13, 2013
Week 11
This week I wanted to give a more detailed explanation of what I've done so far to map how the collection will be moved back into the renovated library.
I began by looking at the reference, DVD, juvenile and curriculum collections. The reference and DVD collections will be housed on the first floor of the library where they will be easily accessible to patrons since these items are used frequently. The juvenile and curriculum collections will be housed on the third and fourth floors on a variety of types of shelving designed to make it easier for education students to browse the unique items in those collections. Children's picture books will be shelved in browser bins similar to the types of bins that CDs are shelved on in retail stores. The browser bins make it easy for students to flip through the picture books and skim the titles, front covers and subject of the book. Children's chapter books (books for more advanced readers) will be placed on normal shelves. Teaching kits as well as dye cuts will be shelved on extra-deep shelves and wire bins, which are wider to accommodate these oversized materials and to allow for easier browsing. K-12 textbooks and the remainder of the education collection will be shelved on normal shelving. The third and fourth floors will provide a great place where future teachers can discover new teaching materials, find a quiet place to study, or meet with classmates to study or work on group projects. The general collection will be housed on compact shelving on lower level 1 and on regular shelving on the sixth and seventh floors.
Krista Higham, the Access Services Librarian, provided me with data her staff gathered on how many linear feet of space each section of the collection will take up on the shelves. Krista and I also spent some time in Hobbs measuring the amount of space needed for teaching kits. After gathering all the data I needed on how many linear feet each section will need, I looked at the plans for the new and existing shelving that will be installed in the library. I calculated the number of linear feet of shelving that will be available in the browser bins, extra-deep shelving, the area designated for the dye cuts, and the compact and regular shelving so I knew how much space is available for each section, but also to double check the figures provided by the company installing the shelving. Once I knew how much space was needed for each section of the collection and how much space was available for each section, I could determine how full the shelves should be filled by dividing the number of linear feet in the section by the number of linear feet available.
For the general collection I needed to combine data on how many books we have coming in from two different streams, one coming from the books that were already assigned Library of Congress call numbers prior to the move, and one for the books that were reclassified during the move, which are boxed separately from each other at our offsite storage facility. The data breaks down how many linear feet of books we have for each class and subclass of books. Mapping how the general collection will fall on the shelves is much more difficult than mapping the other sections, because the other sections are smaller and the items will basically fall on the shelves in the order they are unboxed, plus we don't need to allow for two different streams of material. Because the general collection is so large and there is a tremendous amount of shelving available for it, we need to make sure that we carefully plan how the books will fall on the shelves. A seemingly minor error of even a few inches repeated over a span of thousands of feet can become a costly, time consuming mistake. For example, there is a bookend on each shelf, which is an inch wide. This seems like a minor detail, but over 10,000 shelves, that's over 833 feet, or more than two football fields in length!
Right now, I am looking at the amount of space needed for each main class of call numbers. I have calculated not only how many linear feet each class will use, but also the number of shelves each class will need. I am trying to determine how many bookcases will be needed for each class, allowing for an extra shelf on each bookcase to make it easier for our shelvers to interweave the two streams of books. Allowing enough space for two streams of books is complicated by the fact that the size of the subclasses within each class vary greatly. However, we have enough information about the size of each class and subclass that we could determine how the books fall on the shelves at a fairly granular level, predicting where they will fall down not only to the bookshelf but also which shelf on the bookshelf. The project is really like solving a giant puzzle, figuring how how and where the pieces best fit. In the end, having an accurate idea of where the books should fall in the shelf should increase the speed of the movers putting books back on the shelves, which in turn will give us more time to work on interweaving the two streams and getting the stacks in order before the grand opening.
I began by looking at the reference, DVD, juvenile and curriculum collections. The reference and DVD collections will be housed on the first floor of the library where they will be easily accessible to patrons since these items are used frequently. The juvenile and curriculum collections will be housed on the third and fourth floors on a variety of types of shelving designed to make it easier for education students to browse the unique items in those collections. Children's picture books will be shelved in browser bins similar to the types of bins that CDs are shelved on in retail stores. The browser bins make it easy for students to flip through the picture books and skim the titles, front covers and subject of the book. Children's chapter books (books for more advanced readers) will be placed on normal shelves. Teaching kits as well as dye cuts will be shelved on extra-deep shelves and wire bins, which are wider to accommodate these oversized materials and to allow for easier browsing. K-12 textbooks and the remainder of the education collection will be shelved on normal shelving. The third and fourth floors will provide a great place where future teachers can discover new teaching materials, find a quiet place to study, or meet with classmates to study or work on group projects. The general collection will be housed on compact shelving on lower level 1 and on regular shelving on the sixth and seventh floors.
Krista Higham, the Access Services Librarian, provided me with data her staff gathered on how many linear feet of space each section of the collection will take up on the shelves. Krista and I also spent some time in Hobbs measuring the amount of space needed for teaching kits. After gathering all the data I needed on how many linear feet each section will need, I looked at the plans for the new and existing shelving that will be installed in the library. I calculated the number of linear feet of shelving that will be available in the browser bins, extra-deep shelving, the area designated for the dye cuts, and the compact and regular shelving so I knew how much space is available for each section, but also to double check the figures provided by the company installing the shelving. Once I knew how much space was needed for each section of the collection and how much space was available for each section, I could determine how full the shelves should be filled by dividing the number of linear feet in the section by the number of linear feet available.
For the general collection I needed to combine data on how many books we have coming in from two different streams, one coming from the books that were already assigned Library of Congress call numbers prior to the move, and one for the books that were reclassified during the move, which are boxed separately from each other at our offsite storage facility. The data breaks down how many linear feet of books we have for each class and subclass of books. Mapping how the general collection will fall on the shelves is much more difficult than mapping the other sections, because the other sections are smaller and the items will basically fall on the shelves in the order they are unboxed, plus we don't need to allow for two different streams of material. Because the general collection is so large and there is a tremendous amount of shelving available for it, we need to make sure that we carefully plan how the books will fall on the shelves. A seemingly minor error of even a few inches repeated over a span of thousands of feet can become a costly, time consuming mistake. For example, there is a bookend on each shelf, which is an inch wide. This seems like a minor detail, but over 10,000 shelves, that's over 833 feet, or more than two football fields in length!
Right now, I am looking at the amount of space needed for each main class of call numbers. I have calculated not only how many linear feet each class will use, but also the number of shelves each class will need. I am trying to determine how many bookcases will be needed for each class, allowing for an extra shelf on each bookcase to make it easier for our shelvers to interweave the two streams of books. Allowing enough space for two streams of books is complicated by the fact that the size of the subclasses within each class vary greatly. However, we have enough information about the size of each class and subclass that we could determine how the books fall on the shelves at a fairly granular level, predicting where they will fall down not only to the bookshelf but also which shelf on the bookshelf. The project is really like solving a giant puzzle, figuring how how and where the pieces best fit. In the end, having an accurate idea of where the books should fall in the shelf should increase the speed of the movers putting books back on the shelves, which in turn will give us more time to work on interweaving the two streams and getting the stacks in order before the grand opening.
Saturday, April 6, 2013
Week 10
Continuing the discussion about the challenges of information literacy instruction, this week I talked to Professor Jessica George, the education librarian. With a background in public education policy, Jessica has a firm understanding of how important it is to incorporate IL instruction into the curriculum and how to address curriculum issues with university administrators. We discussed how important it is to develop strong relationships with faculty and administration to better communicate the library's mission with respect to IL instruction, and to work toward incorporating IL instruction into university curriculum. We also discussed the challenges in assessing students' IL skills, and how important it is to integrate IL into the curriculum as much as possible so that assessment can be done properly.
Since Jessica is currently serving as the department chair, we also talked about the role of the chairperson. One of the chairperson's responsibilities is defining the over-arching goals of the library and identifying any programs or policies the library wants to implement, and then providing leadership throughout the implementation process. The chair also communicates the library's mission to the administration and to other faculty, and facilitates dialogue with these partners and among the library faculty.
Jessica and I talked about the unique nature of some of the items in the education collection, including children's books, textbooks and teaching kits. Her goal is to provide education students with high quality teaching materials, but to balance that with providing materials that are likely to be available in the schools where they will eventually teach. Our discussion about the education collection led us to talk about the trend toward open access materials, which hopefully will be more widely available in the future, and the benefits of open access materials to students, teachers, public schools and universities, and taxpayers. One of the roles that librarians can play in this debate is to educate people about the benefits of open access materials, point patrons to these kinds of resources when possible, include them in journal lists or catalogs, and continue to lobby publishers and authors for more favorable terms of use.
I also talked to Professor Melissa Gold, the science librarian, who discussed how her background in biological anthropology helps her as subject specialist for the sciences. One of the unique challenges in serving the science departments is the high cost of science-related materials, which makes it difficult to provide all the materials students and faculty would like to have access to while staying within the budget. With the cost of these resources increasing sharply each year, it's a challenge that all research libraries face. We also discussed the trend toward electronic resources in the sciences, and the fact that print collections for the sciences will continue to dwindle. Finally, Melissa talked about the challenges of IL instruction in the sciences, particularly the very specialized skills and resources needed for upper-level undergraduate and graduate level courses.
Since Jessica is currently serving as the department chair, we also talked about the role of the chairperson. One of the chairperson's responsibilities is defining the over-arching goals of the library and identifying any programs or policies the library wants to implement, and then providing leadership throughout the implementation process. The chair also communicates the library's mission to the administration and to other faculty, and facilitates dialogue with these partners and among the library faculty.
Jessica and I talked about the unique nature of some of the items in the education collection, including children's books, textbooks and teaching kits. Her goal is to provide education students with high quality teaching materials, but to balance that with providing materials that are likely to be available in the schools where they will eventually teach. Our discussion about the education collection led us to talk about the trend toward open access materials, which hopefully will be more widely available in the future, and the benefits of open access materials to students, teachers, public schools and universities, and taxpayers. One of the roles that librarians can play in this debate is to educate people about the benefits of open access materials, point patrons to these kinds of resources when possible, include them in journal lists or catalogs, and continue to lobby publishers and authors for more favorable terms of use.
I also talked to Professor Melissa Gold, the science librarian, who discussed how her background in biological anthropology helps her as subject specialist for the sciences. One of the unique challenges in serving the science departments is the high cost of science-related materials, which makes it difficult to provide all the materials students and faculty would like to have access to while staying within the budget. With the cost of these resources increasing sharply each year, it's a challenge that all research libraries face. We also discussed the trend toward electronic resources in the sciences, and the fact that print collections for the sciences will continue to dwindle. Finally, Melissa talked about the challenges of IL instruction in the sciences, particularly the very specialized skills and resources needed for upper-level undergraduate and graduate level courses.
Week 9
I started out this week by talking to Professor Rachel Gammons, the learning design librarian and the newest faculty librarian at Millersville University. In the coming years, Rachel will look at ways to improve information literacy instruction, make IL instruction more consistent, ensure that all students receive IL instruction during their undergraduate education, and develop better methods of assessing students' IL skills. For anyone familiar with the difficulties that librarians face in delivering and assessing IL instruction, this is quite a tall order that Rachel must fulfill. Talking to Rachel gave me a better understanding of the challenges academic librarians face with IL instruction, not only in their individual practices in the classroom, but also when integrating IL instruction and assessment into campus curriculum. Getting a broader view of IL instruction from Rachel nicely complimented the instruction I observed in the classroom.
This week I also had the opportunity to attend the 2013 State System of Higher Education Library Cooperative Organization (SSHELCO) conference, where librarians from PASSHE institutions come together to discuss the issues facing their libraries today. I attended a diverse array of sessions at SSHELCO.
First up was an Archon workshop led by Scott Schwartz, one of the Archon project team members. I've used PastPerfect, a fairly simple program for cataloging museum and archives collections, so it was a great experience to use a more robust program for creating digital finding aids and repositories. Scott talked about the similarities and differences between Archon and Archivists' Toolkit, and how the ArchivesSpace project has grown out of these two projects. Getting hands-on experience with Archon was a great experience, and I hope to put my new skills to use in the special collections at Millersville by working on a collection or two.
Because I'm currently taking a technical services seminar and I wanted to see what issues are currently being discussed by tech services librarians in the PASSHE system, I decided to attend the cataloging special interest group. The group primarily discussed what they would like to see in the new ILS the consortium will purchase later this year. One of the hardest decisions the consortium faces is finding an ILS that meets their current needs, but that's flexible enough to meet any projected future needs, which is difficult to do with any product libraries are looking to purchase.
I also attended Greg Szczyrbak and Jessica George's presentation on flipping the classroom, a concept they have incorporated into their information literacy instruction. The idea behind flipping the classroom is that rather than the instructor acting as the “sage on the stage”, he or she serves as the “guide on the side”. Before coming to class, students are provided with online tutorials explaining how to use a particular resources. Assessment of students' comprehension is built into the tutorial. At the end of the tutorial, or even at the end of a section of the tutorial, a question appears on the screen. The students' comprehension of the material is assessed by whether they answer these questions correctly. If many students in the class have trouble with a particular question, that topic can be discussed more in-depth in class. In most cases, however, students have no trouble absorbing the material presented in the tutorial and when they come to class they are ready to get guidance from the instructor in working through specific research questions. Flipping the traditional instruction method in this way allows librarians to more effectively use students’ time in the classroom. The new smart classroom planned for the renovated library will facilitate flipping the classroom by allowing students to easily share their work with the class and collaborate on problem solving.
I ended my time at SSHELCO by attending a discussion session on a report prepared by Global Library Consulting for the Keystone Library Network (KLN), a consortium that includes both PASSHE and non-PASSHE institutions. KLN solicited the report for suggestions on how to improve library service in the 21st century. Many of the issues raised in the report were clearly controversial to the librarians in attendance, but they highlight the need for libraries to think critically about how they will stay relevant in our information-rich, internet-driven world, and how to provide high quality services and resources to their communities in ways that are economically sustainable.
Overall, attending the SSHELCO conference helped me to understand how Millersville University, and the Millersville library, fit into the state system of higher education, SSHELCO and KLN, and how these collaborations create opportunities and challenges for the library.
This week I also had the opportunity to attend the 2013 State System of Higher Education Library Cooperative Organization (SSHELCO) conference, where librarians from PASSHE institutions come together to discuss the issues facing their libraries today. I attended a diverse array of sessions at SSHELCO.
First up was an Archon workshop led by Scott Schwartz, one of the Archon project team members. I've used PastPerfect, a fairly simple program for cataloging museum and archives collections, so it was a great experience to use a more robust program for creating digital finding aids and repositories. Scott talked about the similarities and differences between Archon and Archivists' Toolkit, and how the ArchivesSpace project has grown out of these two projects. Getting hands-on experience with Archon was a great experience, and I hope to put my new skills to use in the special collections at Millersville by working on a collection or two.
Because I'm currently taking a technical services seminar and I wanted to see what issues are currently being discussed by tech services librarians in the PASSHE system, I decided to attend the cataloging special interest group. The group primarily discussed what they would like to see in the new ILS the consortium will purchase later this year. One of the hardest decisions the consortium faces is finding an ILS that meets their current needs, but that's flexible enough to meet any projected future needs, which is difficult to do with any product libraries are looking to purchase.
I also attended Greg Szczyrbak and Jessica George's presentation on flipping the classroom, a concept they have incorporated into their information literacy instruction. The idea behind flipping the classroom is that rather than the instructor acting as the “sage on the stage”, he or she serves as the “guide on the side”. Before coming to class, students are provided with online tutorials explaining how to use a particular resources. Assessment of students' comprehension is built into the tutorial. At the end of the tutorial, or even at the end of a section of the tutorial, a question appears on the screen. The students' comprehension of the material is assessed by whether they answer these questions correctly. If many students in the class have trouble with a particular question, that topic can be discussed more in-depth in class. In most cases, however, students have no trouble absorbing the material presented in the tutorial and when they come to class they are ready to get guidance from the instructor in working through specific research questions. Flipping the traditional instruction method in this way allows librarians to more effectively use students’ time in the classroom. The new smart classroom planned for the renovated library will facilitate flipping the classroom by allowing students to easily share their work with the class and collaborate on problem solving.
I ended my time at SSHELCO by attending a discussion session on a report prepared by Global Library Consulting for the Keystone Library Network (KLN), a consortium that includes both PASSHE and non-PASSHE institutions. KLN solicited the report for suggestions on how to improve library service in the 21st century. Many of the issues raised in the report were clearly controversial to the librarians in attendance, but they highlight the need for libraries to think critically about how they will stay relevant in our information-rich, internet-driven world, and how to provide high quality services and resources to their communities in ways that are economically sustainable.
Overall, attending the SSHELCO conference helped me to understand how Millersville University, and the Millersville library, fit into the state system of higher education, SSHELCO and KLN, and how these collaborations create opportunities and challenges for the library.
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