Metadata For Image Collections

Casso, Gillian

Metadata For Image Collections

Woodward, E. e. (2014). Metadata for image collections.  American Libraries, 45(6), 42-44.

Summary:  This article talks about digitizing materials and making them accessible on the Internet. While making these resources available to the public makes patrons happy and makes the library even more visible to the community it can also be a burden to library staff. Many of these resources haven’t been properly prepared and the quantity of these images becomes more important than the quality of the descriptive metadata. If the item is minimally described or the if it is tagged inappropriately then that makes the item difficult to find in search results. Minimally described images are easier and faster to upload, but when each item is unique then an item level description is more desirable.  Before any launch of a large collection low-level descriptive standards should be in place before the collection is launched online.

Evaluation: I believe that in an online environment materials should be tagged and described in the most comprehensive way possible. This makes each item fast to find. If an item is tagged in a way that I wouldn’t logically think of it being tagged then I won’t be able to find it, unless I just happen to chance upon it. Items that have little or no descriptive metadata aren’t useful to anyone because they won’t be found. Items must be described adequately if they are to be useful to those looking for them. The library that I work at recently digitized a photography collection and unfortunately the only easy way to find the collection is if a patron knows the exact name of the collection. This makes it difficult to find for our patrons. It is unlikely that a patron will just happen to come across the collection.

U. of I. Library System Has Unique Collection of Indian Comic Books

Casso, Gillian

U. of I. Library System Has Unique Collection of Indian Comic Books

Heckel, J. (2015). U. of I. library system has unique collection of Indian comic books. Retrieved from http://news.illinois.edu/news/15/0128comic_books_MaraThacker.html

Summary: This article interviews Mara Thacker who is a librarian at the University of Illinois. She talks about collecting Indian comic books that are in Hindi. She goes on to say that she believes that the library has the largest Indian comic book collection in North American. In collaboration with the International and Area Studies Library and the Undergraduate Library Ms. Tucker was able to start the collection. A goal of this organization is for each member library to create its own area of specialization that benefits a national collection of materials without duplicating another member library collection. Ms. Thacker’s interest in Indian art and culture led to this collection being born. 

Evaluation: I think that it is amazing that Ms. Thacker was able to create a collection based on her personal interest in a particular culture. It explains in the article that the library already had a great Indian film collection and that this collection could enhance the Indian materials collection. Being able to share a unique collection that not every library has is great. This collection can also give students a unique perspective into Indian art and how the world of comics is viewed in India. I think that it would be interesting to compare English written comic books with Hindi written comic books and see what similarities and differences each has.

Multimedia Seeds: A free AV collections class

Perkins, Rebecca

Lamb, A., & Johnson, L. (2006, January 1). Welcome to S621: Audio and Video Sources. Retrieved March 20, 2015, from http://eduscapes.com/seeds/index.html

Summary: This website offers a free course on audio and video collections for schools and libraries and was “designed primarily as a SLIS graduate course offered at Indiana University-Indianapolis.” This course includes a basic overview of audio and video collections as well as a separate module for management of such collections including collection development, issues, management and promotions. Within this module there are many tips to managing  audio and video collections including selection criteria, issues of censorship, copyright, and licensing for public showings, as wells as descriptions and links for ratings systems.

Evaluation: Though the material the course is based on is dated (late 1990’s and early 2000’s) and some of the links are dead, overall this is a good introduction to audio and video collections. It was interesting to read that some libraries use rating systems to determine if a child could check out a video or not, as that is clearly censorship, but hopefully this mention is only due to the date of this course and this practice is not still in effect anywhere. Most of the links to “family friendly” groups that focus on providing descriptions of films to assist parents in making informed decisions are viable and would be a good resource to share with “concerned” parents …especially for librarians working in places with policies against providing opinions about the appropriateness of movies even when parents insist on trying to get a librarians’ opinion. The most useful parts are the elements and links to collection development policies dealing with audio and video collections.

The Inimitable Ruth Baldwin

Bailey, Rachel

Marshall, M. (2014). The inimitable Ruth Baldwin. The Journal of the Association for Library Service to Children, 12(1), 21-26.

Summary: This article studies the children’s book collecting habits of Ruth Baldwin, a librarian by trade. The collection began on her thirty fifth birthday when her parents bought her several rare children’s books. From here, Ruth was hooked spending her Saturdays scouring yard sales and bookstores looking for books to add to her collection. In 1977, she sold her 32,500 collection to the University of Florida and was appointed as curator of that collection.  Ten years later, there were over 100,000 volumes in the collection. Although Ruth has since passed, the Baldwin Library of Historical Children’s Literature is still going strong.

Evaluation: I found this article intriguing. It was interesting to see how and why the collection began. The acquisition of more and more books pretty much became an obsession for Ruth. Probably the most peculiar thing was that although Ruth loved to collect children’s books, she really read them.

Towards Library 2.0: The Adoption of Web 2.0 Technologies in Public Libraries

Bacarro, Filipina

Citation: Anttiroiko, A.-V., & Savolainen, R. (2011). Towards Library 2.0: The adoption of Web 2.0 technologies in public libraries. Libri: International Journal of Libraries & Information Services, 61, 87-99. doi: 10.1515/libr.2011.008

Summary: The authors discussed the Web 2.0 technologies, applications, and services being used in public libraries and for what purpose. They also addressed the potential of Web 2.0 technologies in developing public library services. They conducted a literature review using two databases, Library and Information Science Abstract (LISA) and EBSCO, using key search terms such as Public Library 2.0 and Web 2.0. The authors noted that Western countries have made notable progress in using Web 2.0 technology and chose to focus on them due to the lack of research on global developments of Web 2.0. Public library websites of “pioneering libraries” were also studied, primarily located in the US, Canada, the UK, the Netherlands, Australia, and the Nordic countries. The authors utilized a qualitative content analysis framework and organized research material into four main purposes of Web 2.0 technologies: communication (e.g., instant messaging, libraryh31p—an integrated IM/Web-chat help system, RSS feeds, Twitter), content sharing (e.g., YouTube, blogs, wikis, Flickr), social networking (e.g., Facebook, local/community Social Networking Sites [SNSs], special Interest Networks [SINs], SecondLife), and crowdsourcing (e.g., Tagging, library wikis, social bookmarking/collaborative tagging [e.g., Delicious]). 

Evaluation/Opinion: The article illustrated the potential for integrating Web 2.0 tools into library services. Having somewhat limited knowledge of Web 2.0 tools, I found the summaries in this article helpful in describing the tools under the Web 2.0 umbrella. It was also useful to read about the ways  public libraries have used them, such as in a reference (e.g., instant messaging) or knowledge sharing (e.g., wikis) capacity. This article is more of a survey and review and so no particular case study was illustrated that would have been a good complement. It did, however, motivate me to think about the processes involved in shifting from the library’s role of being a “mediator” of knowledge to being a “[contributor] to the increase of human capital “(p. 87). It is in the discussion section where the authors brought to the reader’s attention considerations regarding the implementation of Web 2.0, such as resources needed, marketing, and impact on staff. A statement I found valuable when thinking about using these tools in the library setting is the following: “…public libraries should base their adoption of social media on their own natural context and learn the best way of applying its methods in their processes” (p. 96). Though this statement specifically pertains to social media, it seems useful to think about when considering use of Web 2.0 in general because it can help to ensure that the tools are being used strategically, in a way that will hopefully enhance a service and patrons’ experience.