The digitization of historic archival collections can present a daunting array of challenges. Often archives were collected with poor documentation and little information about the creators or contributors to the collection. The processing of these archival collections sometimes requires special subject area expertise due to the content or special staffing considerations due to the sheer size of the project. This session focuses on three cases in which archival collections are being processed. Each presenter will discuss the special challenges within their own institutions’ collection and the solutions they have developed in such areas as copyright, workflow, cataloging, and assembling expert teams.
MODERATOR: Heather Lowe, California State University San Bernardino
PRESENTERS:
“Delivering oral histories”
“A 35mm collection assessment & digitization initiative at The Metropolitan Museum of Art”
“The Artamonoff Business: Using Collections Research for Outreach and Strategic Communication"
With the advent of digital technology, image repositories are no longer limited to a single physical presence on campus or in a museum. This provides motivation for creative thinking and prompts the establishment of new working relationships within our own institutions as well as on a national level. As curators, librarians, and faculty become well versed in the use of digital technology, many have been able to optimize the development of their resources through successful collaborative ventures. This session will highlight some of these recent projects at academic institutions, museums, and cultural archives.
ORGANIZER & MODERATOR: Karin S. Whalen, Reed College
PRESENTERS:
The term “visual literacy” was first coined in 1969 by Jack Debes of Kodak, co-founder of the International Visual Literacy Association. According to the Association of College and Research Libraries “Visual Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education,” visual literacy “is a set of abilities that enables an individual to effectively find, interpret, evaluate, use, and create images and visual media. Visual literacy skills equip a learner to understand and analyze the contextual, cultural, ethical, aesthetic, intellectual, and technical components involved in the production and use of visual materials. A visually literate individual is both a critical consumer of visual media and a competent contributor to a body of shared knowledge and culture.”
The three case studies in this session will explore (1) implementing visual literacy standards and guidelines at Lewis & Clark College, (2) visual literacy among library and information science students at Wayne State University, and (3) curating and building a collection of image-based art history exam questions at Michigan State University.
MODERATOR: John Taormina, Duke University
PRESENTERS:
“A Case Study of Visual Literacy Among Library and Information Science Students.”
“Implementing Visual Literacy Standards and Guidelines at Lewis & Clark.”
“Curating Questions: Building a Collection of Image-Based Art History Exam Questions.”
The Cataloguing Case Studies session will explore metadata migration, workflows, cloud computing, and tagging and how they can be applied to digital collections. Mary Alexander of the University of Alabama will present on the second of two migrations that have taken place at the University of Alabama Libraries and the importance of metadata schema and workflows in that process. Joshua Polansky of the University of Washington will describe his automated workflow using optical character recognition (OCR), Apple Automator, and Microsoft Excel to speed the process of collecting metadata for 75,000 digital assets. Elizabeth Berenz of ARTstor will look at the advantages of cloud based software for image management using Shared Shelf as a working example. And finally Ian McDermott will demonstrate the advantages of expert tagging and annotation in improving metadata. His presentation will focus on two ARTstor collections that could benefit from the knowledge of the larger ARTstor community: the Gernsheim Photographic Corpus of Drawings and the Larry Qualls Archive of contemporary art exhibitions.
MODERATOR:
Jeannine Keefer, University of Richmond, VA
PRESENTERS:
Mary Alexander, University of Alabama
Elizabeth Berenz, ARTstor
Ian McDermott, ARTstor
Joshua Polansky, University of Washington
