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adding Reuse of Archival Description for Digital Objects
The University of Illinois Libraries launched a mobile interface in Spring 2010 that includes a custom mobile catalog layer built on top of VuFind ([http://m.library.illinois.edu]). It allows patrons to request books for delivery, to browse the local and CARLI consortium catalogs, and access account information for renewal & checking hold status. This presentation will focus on new features designed to add value for the mobile user, such as adding Google map links to catalog records, offering current information for campus bus stops, and automatic device detection for users accessing the full-sized library gateway from their mobile device. I’ll discuss how developing for the mobile context, and talking to mobile users, has informed the further development & improvement of library web services overall.
== Reuse of Archival Description for Digital Objects ==
* Jason Ronallo, NCSU Libraries, jason_ronallo at ncsu dot edu
In order to deal with the modern records explosion, archives have devised methods of processing and describing materials at a broad level, rather than at the item-level. This has culminated in what’s becoming a widely adopted approach to "More Product, Less Process," where less fine-grained descriptive metadata is created. Except for highly valued materials which may still receive detailed archival description--think Thomas Jefferson's letters--this approach usually does not enable item-level discovery through an archival finding aid. However, it does make collections more readily available and helps repositories move through backlogs of unprocessed collections. Some in the profession have begun to advocate for a similar approach to the digitization of archival and manuscript materials. A growing trend in digitization is the large scale digitization of collections, where the creation of discovery-enabling detailed descriptive metadata for every object is traded for the rapid access to large swaths of collections.
Reuse of archival description for digital objects can help streamline that workflow as well as improve access. What is meant by reusing archival description for digital objects? What does it look like in practice? What new tools can be developed to support this approach to descriptive metadata?
This talk will be an exploration of the interplay of archival description and descriptive metadata for digital objects. The focus will be on the tools and challenges in automating this workflow. Examples will draw from the work at NCSU Libraries with the Special Collections Research Center and include coverage of currently used tools, including locally-developed open-source, as well as future directions for development. Topics covered will include:
* Necessary preconditions and conventions for this to work
* Reuse of archival description from EAD XML for digital objects with simple tools
* Generation of stub descriptive metadata records for digital objects
* The continual refresh of metadata in the access layer throughout its lifecycle
* Later enhancement of (select?) stub records
* Reuse of enhanced digital object description in finding aids
* Future directions?
These emerging practices present challenges for potential change to:
* Archival description and practice
* Encoded Archival Description
* Tools for archival description (e.g. Archon and Archivists’ Toolkit)
* Identifier schemes and resolvers
* Search and discovery interfaces for public access to collections
* Search engine optimization
