Digital Initiatives Subcommittee (DISC) Meeting Notes
May 14, 2008 1:00 pm
Present:
Lu Ai (FCLA)
Anjana Bhatt (FGCU)
Eileen Brady (UNF)
Priscilla Caplan (FCLA)
Gail Clement (FIU)
Dean DeBolt (UWF)
Lee Dotson (UCF) notetaker
Salwa Ismail Patel (FAU)
Plato Smith (FSU)
Laurie Taylor (UF)
George Gonzalez (UF)
Mark Froelich (FSU)
1. Introduction of new members
Welcomed two new members to the DISC call. Mark Froelich (FSU) is a collection development
librarian for the music library. They are considering digitization projects in the future, possibly
for some of their 2300 reel to reel tapes that are up to 50 years old and 1800 digital audio tapes.
No LP conversion is being considered at this time. George Gonzalez is a science and social
sciences cataloger at UF. He is acting as a liaison between digital and cataloging.
2. Review of Action item from last call to review print collections for candidates for
digitization for Children’s Lit collection and determine level of interest.
UF expressed willingness to open Children’s Literature digital collection to all SULs. UF wanted
to know whether other institutions were amenable to opening/expanding the current PALMM
collection, if other institutions had an interest in digitizing children’s books for inclusion, and if
members were interested in investigating methods for digitizing beyond flat pages (i.e. book arts,
pop-up books). DISC members contacted Special Collections/Collection Development folks at
individual institutions. UCF is interested but has limited content, some copyright concerns. FAU
is interested and has some prospective titles from their Jaffe collection of limited run/special
artists’ books. This is a book arts type collection and may move beyond flat images to involve
video or other file types. Laurie (UF) mentioned that the Baldwin collection is currently working
on digitizing pop-up books and methods for presenting more multi-dimensionally. Dean brought
up checking Google and other sources to determine if an item is already scanned and available
online before digitizing. UWF has a large collection of English and American books with
publication dates from the 1820s onward that have yet to be cataloged. Gail (FIU) has children’s
lit in Everglades collection. Would be willing to contribute to a children’s lit collection but
would not want to remove them from Everglades collection to do so. Could we double-dip by
tagging materials with more than one project code? Expressed the need to make our practices
align to meet the needs of multiple projects. Priscilla suggested that it would be good for those
with pop-up and 3 dimensional books to work together to come up with a methodology for
digitization and verified that if an item is in DigiTool, then it is possible to tag for multiple
collections. If digitizing children’s literature for another collection, you may contribute to
Literature for Children as well by tagging with the JUV code. The page will need to be updated
to reflect that not all of the contents will be from Baldwin. Anjana (FGCU) reported that they
have some very good children’s books and questioned who would do the work and where the
money would come from. FSU has the Goldstein Library at the College of Information with a
strong children’s literature collection.
UF currently contributes Baldwin to the International Children’s Digital Library to increase
access to collections worldwide. Possible future contributions by other SULs discussed.
Action item: Digital folks are willing to investigate technologies to support 3D children’s lit
materials such as book arts and pop-ups. Send information to Special Collections
Subcommittee for review and discussion.
3. Discuss digital project collaboration as stated in our charge.
Salwa attached DISC’s charge as a reference. Concern raised regarding overlapping charge with
the Special Collections Subcommittee (answers to CPC). Creates an opportunity for
collaboration. Dean reported that Spec Col Sub is working to get an idea of what exists and what
collaborative projects could/should be undertaken. They have been looking at thematic digital
collections based on holdings and discussing issues of “hidden” collections. Priscilla suggested
that if, during the course of our discussions, we hit upon something that sounds good as a
collections idea that we should forward the information to the Spec Col Sub. However, we
should bear in mind that not everything we seek to digitize will fall under Special Collections.
Discussion regarding the need to examine how we approach decisions regarding common
collections and the creation of formal and informal communication structures with other
subcommittees. DISC minutes will be forwarded to chairs of other overlapping charge groups.
Liaison roles will be communicated to subcommittees – Gail for Metadata Sub and Eileen and
Dean for Spec Col Sub.
With regards to the charge itself, Gail iterated that digital project development does not always
equate with digitization but can include digital reformatting, interface design/display, social
software integration, METS maker for FDA, etc. One item from DISC for TAG action plan
should be most urgent, most productive as decided on by the group.
Action item: Forward DISC minutes to chairs of other subcommittees Establish formal (chair
to chair) and informal (liaison to subcommittee) communication structures with Special
Collections and Metadata Subcommittees.
4. Quarterly Report for TAG due May 19.
Salwa and Lee will work on the Quarterly Report to outline our activities thus far. Agreed upon
priorities include METS maker for FDA, DigiTool issues, and creating communication channels
with other subcommittees.
Action item: Write Quarterly Report and distribute to DISC members for review and editing
prior to submitting to TAG.
5. FCLA and options with regards to branding.
Priscilla, Lu, and Astrid have been investigating branding in DigiTool. FCLA recently received
documentation from ExLibris. Priscilla explained an entity group control field that can be used to
determine the type of branding that the full image view receives. This can be combined with
other fields using logic to determine type of branding displayed. Questions raised regarding type
of banner/branding to be displayed at item level such as single institution or composite institution
and collection branding (i.e. UWF and PALMM or just UWF).
Action item: FCLA will create examples and distribute so we can start playing with ideas for
the next call. Put branding discussion on agenda for next call.
6. Categories on PALMM DigiTool (from Priscilla's email on 5/13)
Discussion regarding whether/how digital objects should be organized/categorized on PALMM.
Goal is to make it easy to navigate and assist users in finding what they are looking for – whether
it is a map or a report on the environment. Should we look at organizing by subject, format, etc.?
DigiTool will allow items to be found in multiple categories. Need more input so as not to make
a unilateral decision.
Action item: Topic was tabled until next call so that DISCers can talk to public services and
other staff for usage input. Put on agenda for June call.
7. Guest blogging on Open Students
From Laurie’s email: (slightly abridged): Gavin Baker (SPARC-ACRL Student Liaison) emailed
me (Laurie-UF) asking about guest blogging for Open Students (http://www.openstudents.org/)
and I thought it could be really interesting to have each of the members of DISC answer a few
questions for a guest blog. Basically, it would be interesting to see what we're all doing and how
it all supports Open Access, what our major hurdles are, how working together has helped, and
what we see as the next challenges (funding, digital preservation, greater infrastructure.). I do
think this could help find new student interns for each school, and it could help promote the
projects we'd like to do.
Some interest was expressed. Suggestion was made to share this information with all who might
be interested and to post it on the SUS-DIGIT listserv as an invitation to all.
Action item: If you would like to be a guest blogger, go to openstudents.org and click on Write
for Open Students link in the left hand navigation section.
Next call. Wednesday, June 11, 2008 at 1:00 pm.
Call adjourned at 2:05 pm