2012 Annual Meeting Presentations

Nancy McGovern, MIT Libraries for Jefferson Bailey, Library of Congress
“Trends & Challenges in Digital Object Storage Infrastructure: Notes from the NDSA Infrastructure Working Group”

Abstract: (slides as PDF)
The National Digital Stewardship Alliance (NDSA) is a network of partners dedicated to ensuring enduring access to digital information. The Alliance’s mission is to establish, maintain, and advance the capacity to preserve our nation’s digital resources for the benefit of present and future generations.  The NDSA Infrastructure Survey, conducted between August 2011 and November 2011, solicited information on digital object storage practices within the NDSA community. The survey results, along with continuing research and discussion, reveal a number of insights into current infrastructure practices and emerging challenges. This presentation will summarize and explicate these findings across a variety of infrastructure topics.

Chatham Ewing, Assistant Professor and Curator of Special Collections, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Katherine Wisser, Assistant Professor and Co-Director, Archives/History Dual Degree Program, Simmons College
“Archives & Social Networks”

Abstract:
How might social network analysis and digital tools for network diagramming motivate archivists to begin rethinking how they construe relationships between collections, collecting, and metadata? This session will tease out implications of using network analyses as they apply to practical use and reuse of network data in varied archival contexts. Kathy Wisser will present on the first round of results of her IMLS-funded project which uses network analysis to examine the impact of relationships on archival description. Chatham Ewing will present his recent research on network analysis under the broad rubric of manuscripts and special collections, with particular interest in collection development.

Corey A. Harper, New York University Libraries
“Context and Prosopography: Putting the 'Archives' Into LOD-LAM”

Abstract: (slides as PDF)
Rich descriptions of history and context, and of people, places, and events, are scattered throughout the prose of archival descriptive metadata. Initiatives like EAC-CPF and SNAC are first steps at turning those descriptions into reusable, recombinant *data*. Learn about how the Linked Open Data - Libraries Archives and Museums movement, as well as emerging Linked Open Data efforts in other scholarly domains, wish to make use of archival description. This presentation will discuss standards and best practices for Linked Data and the Semantic Web coming from Dublin Core, the World Wide Web Consortium, and the library and museum communities, and how these standards could be applied to archival metadata.

Laura Williams, Stanford University
“In a Flash: Streamlining Digital Image Description Through Batch Metadata Application”

Abstract: (slides as PDF)
Like many repositories, the Stanford University Department of Special Collections and University Archives is faced with large and growing collections of both digitized and born-digital images. With limited staffing and resources available to assign descriptive metadata to the item level, the Manuscripts Division has started utilizing Photo Mechanic - software originally created for use by news and stock photographers - for the application of descriptive metadata in bulk. This presentation will outline our workflow and discuss the significance of IPTC metadata within an archival context.