VuStuff IV Schedule

Two By Two is Not Enough: Preparing for the Digital Deluge   

Presenter:  Alexis Antracoli and Christopher Clement, Drexel University

As an increasing number of University records are created and maintained in digital form, the Drexel University Archives is preparing to acquire these records in their native formats. While the Archives has previously acquired a small number of digital materials, our current all manual workflow will not be adequate for the large volume of digital records we will receive as the University begins to transition to paperless processes. In order to ingest, preserve, and provide access to these materials the Archives collaborated with the Libraries’ Systems Department to develop a workflow to automate ingest, processing, and preservation of digital records. This workflow will ensure the Archives is able to maintain an audit trail ensuring record authenticity, meet security and legal requirements for University records, ensure the establishment of a full-range of preservation services, and improve service to records depositors.

The presentation will describe the proposed workflow and key technical requirements for implementing it as envisioned. We will also discuss the opportunities this project presented to work with key University stakeholders outside the Libraries to build support for a robust digital archives infrastructure.

Alexis Antracoli leads the Drexel Libraries records management initiative and creates solutions for acquiring, processing, and preserving digital records. She works closely with University records creators to help them design and implement solutions for managing records and complying with Drexel’s Records Management Policy. Before arriving at Drexel, Alexis worked at the University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library in both the University Archives and Michigan Historical Collections divisions. She gained experience collaborating with University records keepers and curating and providing access to both paper and digital records. Her research and professional interests include records management in higher education settings, practical solutions for electronic records, and the arrangement and description of hybrid manuscript collections.

Christopher Clement is Drexel’s Library Applications Developer. Chris works closely with a wide range of Libraries staff in developing applications to support the Libraries’ digital collections and discovery interfaces. He also assists in supporting the Libraries’ technical infrastructure. Before arriving at Drexel, Chris worked at Lockheed Martin, where he developed applications for use by a number of internal teams. He has a B. S. in Computer Science and a B. A. in Mathematics from Rowan University and an M. S. in Computer Science from Drexel University. Currently, he is working on an advanced certificate in Bioinformatics, and has a professional interest in technical solutions for data management.

Reaching China: The Use of Social Media for an International Collaboration   

Presenter:  Mark Puterbaugh, Eastern University

This presentation discusses the use the use of social media for a collaborative project with international colleagues. Relates how social media tools can be used to communicate and work together.

Mark Puterbaugh is Information Services Librarian at Eastern University Libraries for the past 15 years. Recently, he published The Possibilities of Social Media to Promote International Collaboration with Hua Sun, a librarian with the Shandong University of Arts Library.

Building DimeNovels.org: A Tale of Strategy and Bibliography   

Presenter:  Demian Katz, Villanova University

In 2012, a small collection of dime novels was rediscovered in the basement of Villanova’s Falvey Memorial Library. These books provided the initial momentum which has led to the creation of dimenovels.org, The Edward T. LeBlanc Memorial Dime Novel Bibliography. This presentation will examine the development of the site, discussing the underlying software and some of the challenges involved in bringing a huge and complex work of scholarship to a new online format.

Demian Katz has been the lead developer on Villanova’s VuFind project since 2009. When not working on open source discovery software, he manages bibliographies at dimenovels.org and gamebooks.org and prepares eTexts for Project Gutenberg.

Going Beyond Blogs and Discussion Boards: Classroom Salon   

Presenter: Markus Kreuzer, Villanova University

Blogs and discussion boards organize group conversation chronologically, creating only weak links between individual contributors, and being untethered from any clear context. They are in short anarchic and thus limited in their ability to generate deep, sustained and deliberative discussions. Classroom Salon is a new teaching software developed by Carnegie Mellon that permits anchoring group conversations in either video or textual media. It has broad applications ranging from flipping classrooms to harnessing the wisdom of the crowds. Come and see the magic.

Dr. Markus Kreuzer was educated at the University of British Columbia, the London School of Economics and Columbia University. He teaches courses on European politics, electoral politics, social movements and democratization. His research focuses on democratic consolidation of interwar Europe and present-day Eastern Europe.

Saving the Web, One Site at a Time:  Technical Considerations for Developing an Institutional Web Archiving Solution

Presenter:  Katherine Lynch & Doreva Belfiore, Temple University Libraries

How many times have you been frustrated by the infamous “HTTP 404 Not Found” error when browsing the web? As the internet is in a state of constant change, websites can never be assumed to be permanently available. Often, website content changes dramatically over time, and hosting services may disappear, taking valuable resources with them. Over the past ten years, various institutions have begun to address the critical need to preserve websites and online resources for future access. Multiple web harvesting tools, proprietary and open-source, have been developed for this purpose. Some third-party hosted web archiving services, such as Archive-It and WAS, have also launched supported platforms with storage for preserving websites in an archive.

Temple University has experimented with these leading platforms in order to develop optimal workflows for website archiving. We have learned various lessons from researching and refining a sustainable, flexible web archiving program at the Libraries. By relating our experiences, we will address: - Pros and cons of current web archiving software solutions - Common roadblocks to creating comprehensive and functional website captures, including the capture of streaming media and dynamic script-driven displays - Copyright and privacy concerns in bypassing robots.txt when harvesting websites - Considerations for developing a supportable technology solution, including budget models, limiting capture scope, and QA testing

Katherine Lynch and Doreva Belfiore work together at Temple University Libraries in the Digital Library Initiatives Department. Katherine works as the Senior Digital Library Applications Developer, developing and maintaining software solutions that aid in the creation, storage, and preservation of digitally-archived materials. Doreva Belfiore works as the Digital Projects Librarian, overseeing digitization and preservation efforts from a technological standpoint, working with her own staff in the Digital Library Initiatives Department and providing support for digital collection development at the Libraries.

A Step Beyond: Digital Humanities in the Classroom

Presenter:  Laura Bang, Villanova University

This talk will give an overview of the Aurelius Digital Humanities Initiative and the two digital humanities courses we are helping with this semester, one in History and one in Spanish.

Laura Bang is the Digital & Special Collections Curatorial Assistant for Falvey Memorial Library and she also coordinates the library's digital humanities program, the Aurelius Digital Humanities Initiative.