MDC/2019

Logistics and planning info for the 2019 C4L DC/MD/VA Meetup.
Join the planning discussion on the Code4Lib Slack #c4l-dmv channel

Thursday August 15, 2019
University of Baltimore
Details: We will meet on the 5th floor of UB's Student Center, in the Bogomolny Room. There is a security desk on the main floor of the Student Center where you'll need to sign in and get a visitor's badge. Take the elevator to the 5th floor, turn right when you get off the elevator, and the Bogomolny Room will be on your right. It is difficult to miss as it is the only sizeable room on this floor besides a theater.

• General registration: [1]
• Proposals for presentations and other contributions: [2]

Code of Conduct

The Code4Lib Code of Conduct is in force at every Code4Lib gathering. Please read it, abide by it, and help to enforce it.

(Please add your name if you are planning to attend and are able to help!)

• Kyle Breneman, University of Baltimore (Primary Contact)
• Drew Heles, Johns Hopkins University Libraries
• Lora Woodford, ArchivesSpace
• Jeff Gerhard, Georgetown Law Library
• Joseph Koivisto, University of Maryland Libraries
• David Durden, University of Maryland Libraries

Venue

University of Baltimore - We will meet on the 5th floor of UB's Student Center, in the Bogomolny Room. There is a security desk on the main floor of the Student Center where you'll need to sign in and get a visitor's badge. Take the elevator to the 5th floor, turn right when you get off the elevator, and the Bogomolny Room will be on your right. It is difficult to miss as it is the only sizeable room on this floor besides a theater.

Travel

UB's campus is an easy walk from Penn Station (Amtrak and MARC train) or from the Mount Royal light rail stop. Learn about more transportation options here.

Parking

Garage: The Maryland Avenue parking garage is located just 2 blocks south of the Student Center. The Maryland Avenue garage has a daily maximum of $12, but discount tickets for $7 parking will be available on the day of the event, from Kyle. (Maryland Avenue garage does not accept cash.)

Street: Metered street parking is also available around the university. Your best bet may be Maryland Avenue north of Oliver Street or Oliver Street itself.

Lodging

TBD

• 9:00 AM: Registration & Coffee
• 9:30 - 10:15 AM: Opening Conversation
• 10:15 - 10:30 AM: Break
• 10:30 - 11:30 AM: Presentations
  • Platforms for Using Modern Web Dev Tools - Brian Zelip (University of Maryland, Baltimore)
  • Teaching Python Camp in the Library - Laura Wrubel & Megan Potterbusch (George Washington University)
• 11:30 - 12:00 PM: Check-in Survey
• 12:00 - 1:30 PM: Lunch on your own (see Google Map with some suggestions)
• 1:30 - 1:45 PM: Response to feedback
• 1:45 - 2:45 PM: Presentations
  • The Digital is Critical: Creating and Maintaining Equitable Library Systems - Kate Dohe (University of Maryland)
  • USMAI data warehouse initiative: Overview of application design and ETL process development - Tiffany Schoneboom & Joseph Koivisto (University of Maryland)
• 2:45 - 3:30 PM: Lightning talks & spontaneity!
  • Successes and Setbacks in the University of Maryland - College Park Dataverse Pilot - Margaret Rose Hunt (University of Maryland)
  • Getting Started with Google Analytics Segments - Jay Brite & Cindy Zhao (University of Maryland)
  • Solr Databases and Docker - Ben Wallberg (University of Maryland)
• 3:30 - 4:00 PM: Wrap-up discussion & closing remarks
• 4:00 - ? PM: Happy Hour (Red Emma's)

Platforms for Using Modern Web Dev Tools

Brian Zelip (University of Maryland, Baltimore)

• This presentation tours online applications for writing and deploying code. These resources are great for experimentation and learning, and are particularly useful for folks interested in modern JavaScript, CSS, Git, WordPress, etc. We'll wield code in each application to get a sense of what it can do and how it works, identifying concepts and trends along the way.

Teaching Python Camp in the Library

Laura Wrubel & Megan Potterbusch (George Washington University)

• Observing a strong desire for Python skills across disciplines, GW Libraries recently developed Python Camp for students and faculty. Presenters will share how they leveraged a GW faculty member’s openly licensed curriculum on computational foundations and taught introductory Python skills using live-coding instruction via JupyterHub and the Open edX platform. Learners who completed course requirements received a certificate of completion. The Camp has been delivered twice so far, as a 5-day Spring Break Camp and a 3-day Summer Camp. Presenters will share details about the structured camp format, what they've learned so far, and plans for the future.

The Digital is Critical: Creating and Maintaining Equitable Library Systems

Kate Dohe (University of Maryland)

• Digital libraries should be one of the most powerful tools available to libraries to reduce economic, geographic, ableist, and political barriers to global open access for scholarly and cultural materials. But how well are digital library systems delivering on these social justice aspirations? The application landscape has dwindled to a handful of commercial applications owned by businesses with long histories in commodifying content, and an array of open source products with high technological barriers to entry. Inequalities between institutions, communities, and valuation of labor are increasingly apparent within the open source digital library space. This discussion will explore the impacts of stratification on library technologies, and consider critical approaches to create and maintain digital projects that serve equitable goals.

USMAI data warehouse initiative: Overview of application design and ETL process development

Tiffany Schoneboom & Joseph Koivisto (University of Maryland)

• Starting in 2018, the Consortial Library Applications Support (CLAS) group at the University of Maryland began a data warehouse design and implementation initiative to better serve the reporting and analytics needs of University System of Maryland and Affiliated Institutions (USMAI) consortium member institutions. Working in conjunction with a data warehouse architect, members of the CLAS team and applications developers from the Software Systems Development and Research (SSDR) developed an applications architecture to support the storage, dissemination, and use of integrated library system data in a web-accessible portal. Instrumental in this endeavour was the development of an extract-transform-load (ETL) framework to facilitate the exchange of data between library systems and data warehouse data layers. In this presentation, we will provide a brief overview of the project background and the activities undertaken to ensure the usability of our platform by consortial members. Furthermore, this presentation will provide an in-depth look at the development of ETL methodologies, the design framework that informed development activities, and a status report on current design and testing.

Successes and Setbacks in the University of Maryland - College Park Dataverse Pilot

Margaret Rose Hunt (University of Maryland)

• How many things can go wrong when implementing a new system? Apparently quite a few. This session will give an overview of the Dataverse pilot that is being conducted at the University of Maryland - College Park and a Library Science graduate student's perspective on working inside a data repository for the first time.

Getting Started with Google Analytics Segments

Jay Brite & Cindy Zhao (University of Maryland

• How and why to create a custom GA segment, looking at use cases from current projects with data cleanup, campus traffic, and UX personas.