Outreach Assessment

The Yellow Brick Road to Collection Access :

Outreach Assessment of SCUA and UMarmot

Introduction

For this assignment I examined the web site of Special Collections and University Archives at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. I attempted to see how this website would work for me as a user from a number of view points: main audience, novice users, core users, and outreach to non-users. For SCUA in particular the UMarmot blog interface adds another dimension to collection presentation. In conclusion I will discuss how this site is successful in the presentation of their online collections and what might be possible in future revisions. A number of features on the main page for SCUA have changed since I began this project offering more options for research topics, ways to access the collections and ways to get help with how to find materials.

Let’s make a product

Today is the second day of my second semester at Keene State College doing internship work for the Simmons program in library science. Meeting with the library dean, Irene Herold, went well this morning. We explored the options for creating an actual product for the library web page as a contribution for the college’s centennial celebration.  In reality, this goes back to the original vision Irene had for the student intern. The idea of a digital exhibit, rather than a digital finding aid, resonates with me and how I see people, particularly undergraduate college students, interact with information on the web.

Photograph from plate between pages 64 and 65 of the State Normal School Keene New Hampshire Catalog and Circular for the Twenty-first year, 1929 - 1930.

Storytelling is a way to bring parties in that may not have been interested in the first place. Using a digital exhibit we can do storytelling with images and text; with the web we can add interactivity and exploration.  My vision for the time-line will take more web design then what I know at this point, so I am excited to learn some new skills and experiment with unfamiliar code.

The good news is that we have annual catalogs for the first two academic years, 1909-1910 and 1910-1911 as well as the later years from 1922-1939.  I am hoping we will find the missing ten years, 1911-1922; my plan is to use excerpts and photos from the KNS catalogs to mark every year on the timeline. A menu will give visitors the option to look further into a given year by document type, or narrative by the special collections librarian.  I am especially looking forward to telling my undergrad view of the story with the photos in the catalogs.

I was able to meet with Charles, library tech guy, to get the large scanner (evil Book Eye) all set up for scanning bound documents, so I have all the tools I need to scan the catalogs.  I will contact Kara, the systems librarian, as soon as I have something a little more concrete to see what advice she has for making sure this exhibit fits within the library web page format.

Transcribe or digitize?

Kickoff for my second GSLIS internship today – I’m fulfilling my hours for the LIS 440 internship at the same repository I worked for during LIS 438 this past Fall .   I met with Irene Herold, the library dean at Keene State College when I came in this morning to review where we left off last semester and some things to expect this semester. The KSC Mason Library is going through some major transitions this year, among other staff movement, the college will be hiring their first full time archivist.

Today I re-familiarized myself with the KNS items and metadata created last semester.  I would like to add more subject headings and refine the item level description.  I referred to EAD content standards for the abstract or scope/content note at the item level, finding that what we have right now for an abstract will be most appropriate for the timeline of our project, rather then for the item level description.

Tuesday will be the next site visit.  I will finish scanning the 1910 Annual Catalog.  Irene, Bob and I will be meeting at 11am to go over a game plan and project goal for this semester.

Books/journals referenced from KSC Main collection stacks:

• Organizing archival records : a practical method of arrangement and description for small archives / David W. Carmichael. – Walnut Creek, CA : Alta Mira Press, c2004. – 2nd ed.
• Developing and maintaining practical archives : a how-to-do-it manual / Gregory S. Hunter. – New York : Neal-Schuman Publishers, c1997.
• Encoded archival description tag library : version 1.0 / prepared and maintained by the Encoded Archival Description Working Group of the Society of American Archivists and the Network Development and MARC Standards Office of the Library of Congress. – Chicago, Ill. : Society of American Archivists, 1998.
  • This book was helpful but out of date.  Standards updated in 2002 are available online from the Library of Congress.
• Encoded Archival Description / [Jackie M. Dooley, issue editor]. – Chicago : Society of American Archivists, 1998, c1997.
  • Special issue on Encoded Archival Description.  Summer 1997 : Part 1 – Context and Theory, Fall 1997 : Part 2 – Case Studies.

Learning to fall

Healing bruise from practice

 

This is not where I should be landing. Ow.

I have four perfectly good contact points with padding that I could be using. And will! With practice!

Finding Aid Comparison : Two Hopeful Prospects and Three Pigeons

The following be ye pigeons:

• Marie Corelli Papers
• Benjamin Franklin Dowling Papers
• Matilda Gage Papers
• Louise Shattuck Papers
• Don Meadows Papers
• Epes Sargent Papers

The archival finding aid has evolved from a printed supplement within a repository to a primary entrance to archival resources and marketing tool for record-keeping institutions. As a retrieval tool, finding aids are most useful to me when they are simple and inviting. Multiple windows, having to immediately scroll, and too much gadgetry in the interface are an intellectual turn-off for the researcher and other potential users. While too bland an interaction will encourage readers to glaze over what could be important data for research, a flashy interface can detract from those same juicy morsels of archived information. In reviewing the following finding aids, I found myself left with two versions that with some editing meet requirements of an effective collection gateway and three pigeons remaining.

Bang!

Another semester of graduate school in library science snuck in between January and February and here I am again, running before I even realize my feet have hit the ground.  Classes this semester include:

1. LIS 415 – Information Organization
2. LIS 440 – Archival Access and Use
3. LIS 456 – Management of Electronic Records (our RM requirement)
4. LIS 458 – Database Management

One class on the Simmons main campus in Boston this semester; the other three are being held at Mount Holyoke, only twenty minutes from home.  So far we have great readings for critique and really useful assignments.  All of my professors work in the field they teach in some respect, and have a lot of practicall skills to share.

My main challenge of the semester remains the same as last semester: time mangement!