October 2nd - Speaking with IT about NOMA's digital asset management capabilities

Today there were a few little hiccups to iron out. I went back and cropped all of SB3 after looking at old spreadsheet entries and realizing the "Extent" field varied greatly in dimensions in the past; when I and Maureen arrived here, however, the most recent entries had been un-cropped, with the default Extent being 5120xXXXX. I reviewed the guiding document set up by previous interns and realized that we and someone preceding us had not been cropping the files at all, but it had been outlined to do so in the document. Sometime words are hard ;)!

I talked to Seth today about the NOMA collection asset management and Web display, as Sheila was concerned that implementing Subject headings in the spreadsheet might interfere with the museum's art collection's digital access goals in the future. Seth explained to me that NOMA is working on implementing Piction for internal asset management and public Website collections, and the library was welcome to hop on in NOMA's second wave of implementation in a year or so to add a collection for the scrapbooks. The nice thing about Piction is that specific file groups, such as, say, the scrapbooks, can customize their own metadata spreadsheets however they like! So if LDL and CONTENTdm do not prove to be the content management system where the scrapbooks are ultimately made accessible, Piction can easily be adapted to the spreadsheet we are creating, and vice-versa. It proved a wonderful back-up plan if LDL can't start offering free hosting in the future, which is one of the necessities for the NOMA scrapbook project.

I then tackled the creation of a mini style guide for our collection. I added it into the existing Scrapbook project guide, which now looks something like this under the fields/elements explanation:

Field Explanations:

1.      Relation [formerly Related Item type=host; required field for LDL] : What is this file from? Scrapbook #, page #

2.      Extent : Pixel size of file. Can be accessed by viewing properties on image file.

3.      Object File Name : File name must match the image file name, with .jpg added on in the spreadsheet field.

4.      Title [required by LDL] : Title and subtitles of articles. Space on either side of “:” if used. If no title is given, create title that summarizes article.

5.      Creator (Author) : The author of the article; leave blank if unknown.

6.      Description : A 1-3 sentence summary of the article.

7.      Publisher : Newspaper publisher (New Orleans States, The Times-Picayune, New Orleans Item-Tribune…) If unknown, leave blank.

8.      Date Issued : year-month-day (1930-01-12). You should be able to gauge the year if nothing else, so just that is fine.

9.      Subjects : This field can be left blank if you do not have experience with subject cataloging. Any proper noun—a unique person, place, or thing—or other LCSH/Authority Files, TGM, TGN or AAT subject mentioned in the article. Regina is currently pulling terms of interest and placing them in the Word document Finding Aids, so you can always check those for potential subject terms to search these sources for, or to add to our unique controlled vocabulary spreadsheet (more on that below). If you have experience with subject cataloging, here are further directions:

a.       The four main standardized subject sources you should consult and choose from are as follows:

                                                              i.      LCSH (Library of Congress Subject Headings) and Name Authority Files  http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects.html

                                                           ii.      AAT (Getty’s Art & Architecture Thesaurus) http://www.getty.edu/research/tools/vocabularies/aat/

                                                         iii.      TGN (Getty’s Thesaurus of Geographic Names) http://www.getty.edu/research/tools/vocabularies/tgn/

                                                         iv.      TGM (Thesaurus for Graphic Materials) http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/tgm/

b.      If a subject heading is not available in any of the four standardized sources (LCSH/Authority Files, TGM, TGN or AAT), good catalogs to search for the person/place/thing include Tulane Howard-Tilton Memorial Library’s website (http://library.tulane.edu/); LSU Hill Memorial Library’s website (https://lsu.louislibraries.org/uhtbin/cgisirsi/?ps=HEAreU91ud/MIDL-MAIN/143570099/60/70/X); or New Orleans Public Library’s website (http://catalog.neworleanspubliclibrary.org/polaris/). You may copy and paste from their subject lists directly into the field.

c.      Some people, artworks, associations, and other proper nouns will not be findable in any of the sources mentioned, but should still be made into subjects for our purposes. If this is the case, please create a new subject according to AACR2 formatting and add it to the Excel spreadsheet “NOMA Scrapbook Controlled Vocabulary”, located in the NOMA SCRAPBOOKS -> Images folder.

d.      Separate each subject you enter into this field with a semicolon and a space, e.g.:            Degas, Edgar, 1834-1917; oil paint (paint); Impressionism (Art)

e.       Make sure the format for each subject is EXACTLY THE SAME for every item you add it to, or they will not link to one another when the project is finally uploaded to LDL or Piction.

f.         ALWAYS check the “NOMA Scrapbook Controlled Vocabulary” spreadsheet AFTER the other sources, but BEFORE you attempt to create your own subjects, and always save new subjects to the spreadsheet.

10.  conditionNotes : Make any notes about deteriorations in the article that have made text unreadable, such as “page torn” or “ink rubbed off”

11.  Internet Media Type : What is this item? Probably “Text”, “Still Image” or “Text, Still Image”

12.  Format : JPEG

13.  Identifier (required by LDL) : Always type: See "reference url" on the navigation bar.

14.  Source (required by LDL) : Always type: Felix J. Dreyfous Library (https://noma.org/learn/felix-j-dreyfous-library/) (unless the URL for the library’s page on the NOMA website has changed; if so, please update).

15.  Language : This is probably “en” for English. Sometimes “fr” for French. Optional.

16.  physicalLocation: Isaac Delgado Museum of Art, New Orleans Museum of Art

17.  Coverage-Spatial : New Orleans (La.)

18.  Rights : Always type: Physical rights are retained by The Felix J. Dreyfous Library. Copyright is retained in accordance with U.S. Copyright laws

19.  Contact Info (required by LDL) : SCork@NOMA.org

20.  Image Resolution : “600 dpi”

21.  Color Mode : Color

22.  Hardware : What did you use to scan the articles? Most likely the VuPoint Magic Wand.

23.  Digitized by : Who scanned the item? If unknown, leave blank.

24.  Digitized date : Fill in date of scan, if known. Some of this information may be available in Regina’s finding aids.

It's huge, eh? At least it'll be more up to snuff, if it can be completed!

I realize now that my favored subject for my capstone paper for the Certificate in Archives and Special Collections will most likely concern digital archives, with focuses on images, metadata, and management and display systems. It could possibly have much to do with what I've learned at both practicums, in terms of management, workflow, and choices.

September 27th & 28th - On the necessity of finding aids versus spreadsheets

This week I took a look at the Word finding aid that Sheila and Regina have been maintaining. So far, it covers 27 pages of the first scrapbook. However, if the ultimate intention is to upload a metadata spreadsheet and the digital images to LOUIS (LDL) , I personally feel that a finding aid is redundant and labor intensive in a non-traditional archives setting such as the NOMA art library; if nothing else, I am not sure it is the best use of metadata-experienced interns' time working on the project if CONTENTdm and Internet accessibility is the ultimate goal. I asked Sheila about the motivations behind doing both the spreadsheet and the scrapbook. The finding aids were to facilitate finding ability in the scrapbook contents within the library for researchers, the librarian, and non-LIS oriented volunteers. But now the ultimate goal was to digitize the books and get them on LOUIS/LDL, and then archivally seal the books.

I made the case that with the addition of a few more fields (Description, Author, Subject and Subject Names (should the two be combined?); perhaps others) to our metadata spreadsheets, we would eliminate the need to maintain a finding aid in Word, saving a great deal of time, and really implementing the wonderful facet browsing  capabilities of CONTENTdm through the 'Subjects' field--I personally believe this is one of the strongest aspects of CONTENTdm itself, and it would be integral to finding, say, every article by local critic Ethel Hutson, or every article that mentions the Southern Art League. Sheila gave me the okay to go ahead and add such fields to the sheet, but reminded me that not every intern will have the experience necessary to maintain and understand metadata and fields such as Subject, which will required advanced knowledge of controlled vocabularies (additionally, I plan to create a local controlled vocabulary spreadsheet for very local Subjects that don't exist in major sources like LCSH or AAT). They also may just not be able to comprehend the presentation of information on a metadata spreadsheet as easily as they could the traditionally organized finding aids.

This discussion led us to some related tangents. Searchability of the LOUIS collection through the NOMA website is also important per Sheila. I may need to talk to Seth, NOMA's IT go-to man, about how access to the eventual digital collection will be granted through the NOMA website. I do know that APIs can be formulated to crawl both websites and CONTENTdm collections linked to them, but am not that familiar with how. He might know, so I will try to talk to him about it one day while I am here.

A lagniappe e-mail to Maureen sums up my general ideas about fields to add to the spreadsheet:

"I'm adding a few fields to the SB3 spreadsheet that should minimize the need to develop full finding aids for the scrapbooks. I think collecting all the relevant information in one place for future upload into LOUIS is ideal.

I'm adding the fields "Author", "Subjects", and "Description". I'll develop a document describing what we should do for each field (particularly "Subjects") this Friday and e-mail you, as well as save it in my folder on the desktop. Off the cuff, though, I am thinking "Author" will be the author of the article if known; "Description" will be a short summary of the article, 1-3 sentences; and "Subjects" tentatively will include named persons and art movements mentioned in the articles, if available. I think for the moment all you would want to do on Thursday are the "Author" and "Description" fields. "Subjects" will require us to develop something local for a lot of the persons mentioned, and also to pick a proper vocabulary for other possible subjects such as art movements, mediums, etc.

It will add time to the data entry, but should make it a more interesting task, and will serve our goals for the project well while eliminating a duplication of work within the confines of the project."

September 21st, 22nd - Scanning refinement and ILLs

Over the course of this project, another intern named Maureen from Loyola University libraries will also be working on the project, albeit on different days from me. I'm keeping in touch with her via e-mail about progress, stopping points for scanning and metadata, and also any tweaks or changes we might want to make to the project overall. On Monday I primarily worked on filling in metadata. It can be slow going--on a good day, I feel like I can complete about 20-25 entries during my 3 hours.

I made Tuesday a scanning day to work on technique. A good day of scanning will allow me to complete 2 pages of a scrapbook, from scanning to editing and renaming.With the time I am allotted off work for this practicum, I've found it ideal to work on either scanning OR data entry on a given day, not both. This session, I began to develop a bit of a 'zen' sense for moving the scanner. I count the seconds as I move the scanner down an article and try to match the distance covered to the rhythm of my counting--a very intuitive system of measurement. But the resulting scans are proving to be some of my best. I still have the occasional phenomenon in the scans that I call "scrunching"--it looks like every two-five inches, I get a line of text that is distorted by a severe reduction in height--I don't know if this means I sped up for a nanosecond, or maybe slowed down, or maybe just took too deep a breath. Next time I come in, I'd like to do a few tests on my speeds, maybe doing two scans moving faster and a final moving more slowly, to see if different paces help me avoid the miniscule speed changes I suspect cause the occasional scrunch of text. As long as the text is legible and the scrunching is minimal, I feel the files are satisfactory for LDL (or just the library's) requirements, but getting it close to perfect just feels really, really good.

"Scrunching" and distortion in scans--this example I find egregious, so I would definitely re-scan the article.
 

Another general library task I learned about was ILLs. Especially within the art world, books often are out of print. In this event, Sheila turns to ILLs, which the Louisiana State Library facilitates for NOMA. They reach out to universities and other holding institutions to obtain materials the curators need, but otherwise can't be obtained. Sheila has a few rules of thumb to keep the process smooth, because screwing up ILLs can lead to a bad reputation and no future ILLs! One--Always use the envelope you received the item in to send it back. That way you return the item with exactly the amount of shipping protection its owner felt appropriate. Two--Always make sure the lending institutions identifying forms stay attached to the item, and a copy stays in the library's files--not being able to figure out where to return an item to would be bad! Three--make everything clear to the curators--while loans are similar in every field, they might take for grated that lending libraries find books as important as works of art to their trade!

On a side note, Sheila has invited me to attend the Mississippi Library Association conference with her on Oct. 22nd, where I can meet some of my USM professors and also see Amanda Myers' (the intern that preceded Maureen and I) poster session talk on the NOMA Scrapbook digitization project! And also if I can help Sheila with this year's annual Readings 'Round the Big Easy, a literary event organized by her every year at NOMA featuring local authors and critics. I'll be asking my boss if I can be spared for both.

September 14th & 15 - NO POST / EMERGENCY TRIP

Unfortunately, my husband's grandmother passed away last week. We will be out of town on Monday, and I will be keeping the work to scanning and naming when we return Tuesday.

September 11th - A big data-entry day

The second major aspect of NOMA's Scrapbook digitization project is, of course, the metadata spreadsheets. The information recorded therein will be used to hopefully one day upload the collection to the Louisiana Digital Library CONTENTdm-based collections, making the articles available and searchable to the public, and allowing the originals to be sealed and stored for preservation. The Excel spreadsheet we are currently using was developed by the previous intern, and reflects the requirements set forth by the LDL as well as complements the Word document Finding Aids that Sheila and Regina have been working on. I personally hope at some point to add some elements to our Dublin Core-based scheme that could make the spreadsheet a mirror of the finding aids, thus reducing a huge and time-gobbling duplication of data entry, but I will need to think on it more.

Today I spent more time working with the files and spreadsheet. The file-naming convention dictated by the spreadsheet metadata guidelines differed from the original conventions set forth when the project was developed in 2014. To that end, there are about 2.5 scrapbook's worth of scans that need their file names changed to the more CONTENTdm friendly convention, which is arranged as sb[x]_0[XXX]_[x].jpg, where sb3_0237_a would denote the file is a scan of article 'a' from page 237 of scrapbook 3. I worked pretty steadily today on getting the files from scrapbook 3 renamed, which I will be continuing scanning from for the duration of the practicum. At this point, because I know Windows can be wonky with extensions (i.e. the .xxx after a file denoting what kind of file it is), I'm not sure if I should actually be adding the '.jpg' when I rename the items, but I will look into it later.

The spreadsheet itself currently has the following metadata fields, developed by the previous intern (also a USM student!):

1.      Related Item type=host : What is this file from? Scrapbook #, page #

2.      Extent : Pixel size of file. Can be accessed by viewing properties on image file.

3.      Object File Name : File name must match the image file name, with .jpg added on in the spreadsheet field.

4.      Title [required by LDL] : Title and subtitles of articles. Space on either side of “:” if used. If no title is given, create title that summarizes article.

 5.      Publisher : Newspaper publisher (New Orleans States, The Times-Picayune, New Orleans Item-Tribune…) If unknown, leave blank.

6.      Date Issued : year-month-day (1930-01-12). You should be able to gauge the year if nothing else, so just that is fine.

7.  Internet Media Type : What is this item? Probably “Text”, “Still Image” or “Text, Still Image”

8.  Format : JPEG

9.  Identifier (required by LDL) : Always type: See "reference url" on the navigation bar.

10.  Source (required by LDL) : Always type: Felix J. Dreyfous Library (https://noma.org/learn/felix-j-dreyfous-library/) (unless the URL for the library’s page on the NOMA website has changed; if so, please update).

11.  Language : This is probably “en” for English. Sometimes “fr” for French. Optional.

12.  physicalLocation: Isaac Delgado Museum of Art, New Orleans Museum of Art

13.  Coverage-Spatial : New Orleans (La.)

14.  Rights : Always type: Physical rights are retained by The Felix J. Dreyfous Library. Copyright is retained in accordance with U.S. Copyright laws

15.  Contact Info (required by LDL) : SCork@NOMA.org

16.  Image Resolution : “600 dpi”

17.  Color Mode : Color

18.  Hardware : What did you use to scan the articles? Most likely the VuPoint Magic Wand.

19.  Digitized by : Who scanned the item? If unknown, leave blank.

20.  Digitized date : Fill in date of scan, if known.

Luckily, a great deal of the data repeats itself and has thus been pre-filled; really the only fields we need to fill are Extent, Object File Name, Title, Published, Date, and occasional modifications to Internet Media Type, which is at least always "text". I would like to add fields that would more accurately represent the archival description elements being entered into the Word finding aids, but we shall see!

The many fields of the spreadsheet

September 7th & 8th - Sources of income for the Dreyfous Library & scanning NOMA scrapbooks!

This week I learned a bit more about what keeps the library afloat and finally began the scanning project.

The library is on a small-ish budget, so other sources of income are helpful. To that end, there are independent sources of income Sheila must implement and manage. The largest of these is selling donated materials on Abebooks.com. Like most libraries, the NOMA library receives heaps of donations that may not be of use to the collection. The collection occupies almost the entire basement space, even when condensed into movable compact shelving. However, deaccessioning is not a common practice, as the collection is heavily based on artworks and artists that the museum's collection possesses, and thus have value perpetually. Owing to the premium on space, collection development must be done critically by the librarian in conjunction with the curators, so donations, while well-intentioned, can often be of little use except as merchandise. Sheila manages the book selling operation out of the storage room and via an Abebooks account. She compares pricing and creates detailed and honest listings as to avoid disputes with buyers. Volunteers help her to package and mail the books that are sold. Other sources of income include in-house book sales and book club refreshment donations, as well as occasional direct donations.

I finally began scanning as well. Regina Shuja, a museum docent and library volunteer, also a former school librarian herself, showed me how to work the VuPoint Magic Wand scanner! It is a handheld bar scanner that a person moves freely with their hands, and it is incredibly flexible for working with materials like aging books. At only $79, the scanner can scan up to 900 dpi, although we will be scanning at 600. These specifications lead to scans that appear archivally adequate for the needs of the library--they are completely legible and have little distortion, plus they are much faster to make than using a flatbed scanner, which the scrapbooks are far too large for to begin with. In fact, on a budget, the Magic Wand may have been the only option on the market today for a project with the resource restrictions of this one--no funding, volunteer labor, and non-traditional digitization facilities (i.e. a table in a library!).

It took several tries before I got a feel for the scanner and could make a passable scan file. Regina assured me it would take a few sessions, but I would get the hang of it. No matter what, she said, the trick is to scan each article 2-3 times so you can increase your chances of getting something usable. I'll be back on Friday to offload the files and take a look at the metadata spreadsheet that will accompany them, and is really the second major aspect of this project.

Regina blocking off an article with copy paper in preparation for showing me how to scan:

The VuPoint Magic Wand handheld scanner:

August 31st & September 1st - A New Practicum: New Orleans Museum of Art - Introductions and background

Today I began my second practicum at New Orleans Museum of Art's Felix J. Dreyfous Library. Per its wonderful introduction package, the library is "a non-circulating art research library...located in the basement of NOMA and is an excellent resource for research about art, artists, and art-related topics. The collection contains approximately 20,000 art-related books, and 70 periodical subscriptions." It is also the repository for WPA-organized archival materials and--most importantly to the work I will be engaging in here--home to deteriorating archival scrapbooks that are the focus for an ongoing digitization project.

Sheila Cork is my new supervisor and she is a USM alumni. She manages the library by herself, with docents, volunteers, and interns lending occasional help with tasks like copy-cataloging, mail orders, ILL processing, shelving, and scanning. She plans and directs library outreach including book clubs and author talks, and handles obtaining and providing materials requested by all the museum's curators. She also supervises library sciences interns from various programs, including myself. The effort to conserve the scrapbooks at NOMA is a long-term process, with the amount of scanning work being quite large. Each intern passing through is expected to refine and develop the system; hopefully I can do that.

The first two days of work involved meeting NOMA staff and learning about the day-to-day business of the library. On Monday I attended the Art Department staff meeting, which the library both hosts and falls under the structural umbrella of. Sheila took me around the offices in the basement and introduced me to all the staff, from curators to accountants to administration. I also attended a talk with supporters of the museum that outlined the museum's achievements over the year and their future plans. On Tuesday I did a bit of tidying in Sheila's office and she gave me an overview of the various library services she performs for the curators, primarily checking the collection for requested books and exhibition catalogs, and then making purchases if the requested titles are not held. There is a small budget for the library, however, so yearly purchases must fit within it, and art-related books can get quite pricey, and are also often out of print! In the interest of planning for future budgets and requesting increases,  yearly purchase requests by curator are tracked and totaled--curator requests for purchase can help advocate for more funding in the next fiscal year if needed.

We finished the first week with a look at the existing guide for the NOMA Scrapbook digitization guide, originally authored and developed by previous interns and USM students Janine Whitecotten and Amanda Myers (at different times). Next week I will learn the process of scanning and processing with their fascinating VuPoint Magic Wand scanner!

A few pictures of the library: