Digital Collections Users' Group Meeting: August 15, 2012

CARLI Office

Members present: Ellen Corrigan (Eastern Illinois University), Chris Day (Chair, School of the Art Institute of Chicago), Peter Hepburn (University of Illinois at Chicago), Benn Joseph (Northwestern University), David Levinson (Lake Forest College), Mary Rose (Southern Illinois University Edwardsville), Laurie Sauer (Knox College), Adam Strohm (Newberry Library),

Members absent: Julia Thompson (Western Illinois University)

CARLI Staff Liaisons present: Jessican Gibson and Amy Maroso

Welcome and Introductions

Day welcomed DCUG members. Each member and staff liaison introduced him or herself briefly.

Minutes & Meeting Schedule

  1. Hepburn will take minutes at today's meeting. Minutes at future meetings will proceed alphabetically from his name with Joseph next to take minutes.

  2. There were no revisions to the minutes from the July 2012 meeting. Rose moved to accept the minutes. The motion carried.

  3. Meeting schedule for 2012-2013: The current schedule has meeting set for the third Wednesday of every month at 10:00. The next meeting will take place September 19, 2012.

    DCUG meetings will take place by conference call.

CARLI Organizational Structure

Day briefly summarized the documents detailing the responsibilities of all CARLI committees and the DCUG's charge and invited questions and discussion.

Committee Communication review

(DCUG Wiki, Minutes Archive, CARLI Wiki, listserves, twitter)

  1. The DCUG wiki is distinct from the CARLI wiki and requires a separate log-in. Maroso gave a demonstration of the DCUG wiki. New DCUG members have been given log-ins and passwords.

  2. Maroso noted that minutes from DCUG meetings are not only available on the wiki, but are also available to the public through the CARLI web site.

  3. Day directed DCUG members to the usage and analytics data, the CARLI blog, and the DCUG Twitter account (@CARLI_DCUG).

  4. Maroso discussed the range of listserves available that may be of interest to DCUG members.

2012 in Review 

(Final Committee Reports: Projects Completed, Projects To Be Completed, and Ongoing Projects)

  1. Featured Image
    1. The image was updated approximately every two weeks but has not been updated since May.

    2. Institutions whose images were used were enthusiastic.

    3. The Subcommittee tried to select images from newer collections or from institutions whose images had not been featured.

    4. There was discussion about how much notification and permission-seeking was needed for drawing on various collections for the featured image. In the year ahead, the Subcommittee will streamline this effort but continue to work with institutions.

  2. DCUG Twitter identity
    1. The Subcommittee has not yet established how to fully tap the potential of having a Twitter account. There was discussion of how to use the account more actively. There was some question of DCUG members representing CARLI in an official capacity and what impact that would have on the content of the feed.

    2. The Twitter feed has not yet been publicized to CARLI members widely.

  3. Promoting digital collections best practices
    1. The Subcommittee developed something similar to a glossary. The project is a work-in-progress.

  4. Digital Preservation Group
    1. The group has not yet fully reconstituted itself, awaiting word from the CARLI Preservation Working Group on who their representatives will be.

    2. Sauer and Levinson reported on ongoing efforts at developing an educational program through Digital Preservation Outreach & Education at the Library of Congress. The program would train members from CARLI libraries to be able to train colleagues in turn. These trainers would be known as CARLI Digital Preservation Fellows and would continue in CARLI outreach activities for at least a year. There was discussion of the Fellows program and interest expressed by some DCUG members in participating.

    3. Rose asked whether there was still conversation within CARLI regarding a statewide digital preservation system. Sauer provided some background on that situation and shared the link to the existing joint working group. There was further discussion of the potential for CARLI's iteration of CONTENTdm to be a preservation solution and why that will not fit with CARLI policies.

  5. Documentation & Standards Subcommittee

    1. The subcommittee completed a project from the previous year involving separating a document regarding guidelines for digitizing images and text into two documents.

    2. The subcommittee ended the year working on a draft of a document for guidelines on digitization of 3-D objects. A final draft will await the return of Thompson in order to draw on her knowledge of photography.

  6. Usability Subcommittee
    1. The subcommittee examined the list of topics for digital collections, using keyword data and traffic sources to refine the list. DCUG looked at some of the data in closer detail and discussed the work required to generate it. The subcommittee has been working on documentation relating to generating the data.

CARLI Report 

from CARLI Executive Director Susan Singleton

  1. CARLI is getting a new web site. One of the two biggest things driving traffic to the CARLI site is using the site to access CARLI Digital Collections. Because of that, the new site will feature a link to the digital collections on every page.

  2. Singleton discussed a concept diagram that she shared with DCUG members. The diagram maps out how CARLI committees will be reorganized to reflect how libraries work cross-departmentally.

    1. In summer 2013, committee names and charges will be changed. Volunteers in existing groups will be given opportunity to express preference for where they would like to work. There will be greater consistency of how working groups are named as well as how they operate within the organization. The new structure will enable committees to form project teams in the areas that fall between groups.

    2. DCUG would become Created Content (Digitized & Digital Collections). Singleton noted, however, that in another circle is the CONTENTdm system. It was pointed out that not all CARLI members use CONTENTdm, or CARLI's installation of it. The question for DCUG, though, is whether the CONTENTdm systems committee should be a separate entity. One possibility, given that there is little CONTENTdm systems work, is to have a subset of Created Content consider CONTENTdm systems issues on an as-needed basis. Singleton indicated that she could accommodate this in re-written charge.

    3. Another area of overlap would be with the Collection Management group in relation to the Open Content Alliance book digitization project. Decision-making on this would transfer to the Created Content group.

    4. Singleton would like to hear conversation about where digital preservation should go but suggested that it may ultimately belong where it currently is, in the intersection between Created Content and Preservation.

  3. Singleton thanked DCUG members for their service, and their libraries for allowing DCUG member service.

  4. After Singleton left, DCUG members continued discussion of the concept diagram and its implications for DCUG work in the year ahead and beyond.

2013 Planning

  1. A proposed theme for the year arose: reaching out to more users and in new ways.

  2. Subcommittee structure vs. project-based assignments

    1. DCUG reviewed ongoing projects from 2011-2012 in order to decide whether to approach them on a project basis or on a subcommittee basis. Six projects will carry over into 2012-2013.

    2. DCUG discussed points listed under the “Potential Future Plans” section of the 2011-2012 annual report. For example, DCUG could perform a review of the CARLI Digital Collections Collection Development Policy.

    3. DCUG members discussed advantages to a project-based approach, including the flexibility it allows, and how focus on specific projects would be sharpened.

  3. Brainstorm New Projects

    1. In addition to checking and updating existing documentation, DCUG could develop a schedule for future maintenance of the documentation. There was talk of “wiki-fying” the documents as much as possible as well, though the public access to the editing function may make this problematic. The best application of the wiki, it was decided, may be for resource guides, not best practices.

    2. DCUG would like more involvement from across CARLI. There was discussion of building an interactive, participatory community.

      1. One idea is to ask each member library what digital collection it is most proud of and why, and build that into promotional or other materials. DCUG could find ways to leverage this information, including sharing it back out with member libraries as a resource. Information could also be used to present webinars. Featured collections could be pushed out to non-digitization librarians, such as directors or instruction librarians, so that there can be links built between digital collections and other parts of librarianship. Related ideas included a video series of interviews.

    3. DCUG could more actively ask institutions for their featured image selections.

    4. DCUG could develop a spreadsheet or other inventory of which libraries are staging which collections and how.

    5. DCUG brainstormed how to better promote collections, especially by working through public service colleagues.

    6. There was discussion of getting users more involved in generating metadata. An idea came forward of having a CARLI Flickr iteration that allows users to tag images with more information.

    7. There is interest in better standardizing metadata across collections.

  4. Brainstorming summary:

    1. Theme for the year of reaching out to new people: the digitization community, other CARLI librarians, users

    2. Featured collections: Strohm volunteered

    3. Getting tags/more information through Flickr or other means: Hepburn volunteered

    4. Scheduling updating documentation and new format for documents: Day and Levinson volunteered

  5. Ongoing projects

    1. Image of the week: Rose volunteered

    2. Promoting digital collections glossary: Levinson volunteered

    3. Twitter account: Joseph volunteered

    4. 3-D objects: Corrigan volunteered and will wait the return of Thompson to the group, so she can review the camera setting recommendations

    5. Google Analytics: Day, Rose, Corrigan, and Strohm volunteered

    6. Further updating the "Search by Topic" list of topics for the CARLI Digital Collections: on hold unless someone volunteers at a later time