Digital Library Center Blog | UF

The report won’t be out until after the meeting this May, but Computer Forensics and Born-Digital Content in Cultural Heritage Collections should be exciting and timely reading for everyone involved in supporting cultural heritage collections.

As usage of the self-submittal and online metadata editing systems for the UF Digital Collections have continued to increase, new supports were needed to support the additional users. To provide those supports, the former UFDC_CM application has been integrated into UFDC/SobekCM and additional functionality has been added.

These improvements are releasing next week, but most users won’t notice any changes. For internal users these are immensely helpful, and worthy of announcing and celebrating.

With this upgrade, UFDC will now include administrator options so that:

• Admin users can adjust permissions on existing UFDC users (help page)
• Admin users can add new aggregation aliases for forwarding purposes
• Admin users can add new item aggregations (collections, subcollections, institutions) and edit basic information on existing aggregations.  (help page)
• Admin users can add new HTML interfaces and edit existing interfaces (help page)
• Admin users can add new projects and edit the complete metadata for project METS files online (help page)
• Admin users can add/edit wordmarks and delete wordmarks not linked to any digital resources (help page)

Thanks once again to Mark Sullivan for designing and programming these enhancements, and for writing the supporting help pages as well!

The next MLA convention will take place in Los Angeles on January 6-9, 2011. The Division of Colonial Latin American Literatures calls for papers for the following two sessions:

Visual Textualizations: Latin American Colonial Lives : This panel seeks to explore how written and visual/iconic narratives from the colonial period interact with their verbal counterparts to convey views and perceptions of the colonial experience in Latin America. Please send one-page abstract and 2-page c.v. by March 05 to R. Quispe-Agnoli
(quispeag@msu.edu)

Colonial Masculinities/Masculinidades colonials: Papers exploring masculinities (i.e. ecclesiastical, military, subaltern) and their representations in colonial Latin American literature and culture; theoretical approaches to hegemonic paradigms and contestatory models welcome. One-page abstracts and 2-page c.v. by March 05 to Stephanie Kirk (skirk@wustl.edu)

The following is a session in collaboration (non guaranteed) with the Division of Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Spanish Poetry and Prose

Life Writing in the Early Modern Hispanic World. Representations of self or others in any genre–picaresque, travel writing, letters, vidas–from colonial Spanish America, early modern Iberia, or both. 1-page abstracts and 2-page vitae by 1 March 2010; Nieves Romero-Di­az (rdiaz@mtholyoke.edu) and Cynthia Stone (cstone@holycross.edu)

Excerpt from UF’s Latin American Collection News, 2/16/10:

DIGITIZATION UPDATE
While much of the digitization work at UF has concentrated on the Federally-funded Digital Library of the Caribbean, this is by no means the only effort here to make documents related to Latin American Studies available online.

The UF Digital Center is developing other projects, such as:

Women in Development:
An interdisciplinary collection enjoying the generous support of individuals who pioneered this field in the Caribbean, Latin America and Africa

Panama and the Canal:
Initial site for a developing partnership between the UF Libraries and the Panama Canal Museum

UF Institutional Repository:
See instructions here for including your thesis, dissertation or other UF research reports

World Studies Collections:
Miscellaneous digitized items, including many related to non-Caribbean South America (Andes, Brazil, etc.)

One of the advantages of digital collection-building is that items are easily “shared” between collections, making them available to interested users no matter where they begin their search.  This means that many items can be found in more than one collection.  Begin at: http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/ufdc/ to search across collections.

News Release

The University of Florida Center for Latin American Studies will sponsor Library Travel Research Grants for summer 2010. Their purpose is to enable faculty researchers from other U.S. colleges and universities to use the extensive resources of the Latin American Collection in the University of Florida Libraries, thereby enhancing its value as a national resource.  The grants are funded by a Title VI National Resource Center grant from the U.S. Department of Education.

Six or more travel grants of up to $1250 each will be made to cover travel and lodging expenses. Grantees are expected to remain in Gainesville for at least one week and, following their stay, submit a brief (2-3 pp.) report on how their work at UF Libraries enriched their research project and offer suggestions for possible improvements of the Latin American Collection. Researchers’ work at the Latin American Collection may be undertaken at any time during the summer, starting May 15, 2010.  All travel must be completed by August 14, 2010. At least one grant will be made to a scholar from a Florida college or university.  Applicants must be US citizens or permanent residents.

The UF Libraries Latin American Collection

The UF Libraries’ Latin American Collection contains one of the finest collections of Latin American materials in the U.S. It consists of over 500,000 volumes, some 50,000 reels of microfilm (many unique and very scarce), renowned newspaper and government-document holdings, and a growing access to computer-based electronic information resources.

Areas of collection focus include all disciplines, although literature, the humanities and the social sciences are best represented. All regions of Latin America are also well represented, with the Caribbean, Circum-Caribbean and Brazil having the deepest holdings, while the Andean and Southern Cone regions are developing strengths. Particularly noteworthy are the Collection’s holdings on religion in the Americas, including Santeria, Rastafarianism and the Ralph Della Cava Collection on Padre Cícero and Brazilian popular religion. Other units of the UF Libraries also contain important resources and researchers are encouraged to utilize them as well. The UF Map Library houses approximately 500,000 maps and atlases, some 50,000 of which deal with Latin American topics. The Science Library has important book and journal holdings on agriculture, tropical conservation, and development. The Special Collections Department has manuscript holdings such as the Rochambeau, Jeremie and the Braga Brothers Sugar Company papers, and the newly acquired Ramón Figueroa Collection of Mexican and Cuban film posters.

Information on the UF Latin American Collection is available here. You can also e-mail Richard Phillips, Director of the Latin American Collection, for further information.

Application Procedure

All applications must be filed electronically. To apply for a Library Travel Grant, send a letter of intent, brief library research proposal, travel budget, and CV to:

Hannah Covert, Executive Director
Center for Latin American Studies
319 Grinter Hall
telephone: 352-392-0375, Ext. 825
e-mail: hcovert@latam.ufl.edu

Application Deadline: March 2, 2010

News from the Florida Archivist Newsletter:

FREE ARCHIVAL WORKSHOPS FOR ARCHIVISTS, LIBRARIANS AND MUSEUM STAFF WORKING IN FLORIDA’S CULTURAL HERITAGE REPOSITORIES

Florida will host four FREE Society of American Archivists workshops (SAA) this year thanks to a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Over the past nine years, several Florida repositories and institutions have partnered in an initiative called Opening Archives in Florida, which provides education and training to archivists and others who care for historical records. In December, the Opening Archives team was awarded an NEH Preservation and Access Education and Training Grant to support our statewide education and training program, Advancing Access and Preservation Best Practices in Florida.

The primary goal of this education project is to provide training to archivists and others who care for historical records through a series of workshops covering preservation and access standards and practices including: basic arrangement and description, minimal level processing, archival information systems, and descriptive standards. SAA will conduct four workshops in Miami, Tampa and either Orlando or Gainesville on the topics listed below. Seating will be limited, but it will be at no cost to attendees.

*****

Thanks to the financial support of the National Endowment for the Humanities, the following archival education workshops are available free of charge to staff working in Florida’s libraries, museums, archives, and other cultural heritage repositories. Students and interns in Florida also are eligible for free workshop registration. These workshops are organized by the Opening Archives team, which included members from the Florida Center for Library Automation, the University of Florida, the University of Miami, the University of Central Florida, Florida State University, the University of South Florida, and others. The workshops are co-sponsored by SFA, and the second workshop, DACS, will be held in conjunction with the SFA Annual Meeting in Tampa in May.

The first three workshops, which are described in greater detail below, are:

• Arrangement and Description of Manuscript Collections
• Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS)
• Introduction to Archon Archives Management Software

Information on the fourth workshop, MPLP, is forthcoming.

WORKSHOPS INFORMATION:

Arrangement and Description of Manuscript Collections #0148

Details:
Thu, Mar 18, 2010,through Fri, Mar 19, 2010 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Instructors: Pam Hackbart-Dean and Susan Potts McDonald
University of Miami
Coral Gables, FL
DESCRIPTION:
This workshop focuses on the day-to-day decisions you’re making in arranging and describing manuscript collections! That includes developing processing work plans, identifying common arrangement schemes for particular types of collections, as well as physically organizing materials during processing. Pinpointing the essential elements of a finding aid, applying descriptive standards, and creatively constructing container lists will also be highlighted.
REGISTRATION:

If you work for an archive, library, museum, or other cultural heritage organization in Florida, you are eligible for free registration for this workshop, sponsored by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities Division of Preservation and Access. If so, please contact John Nemmers (jnemmers@ufl.edu, 352-273-2766) for more information on free registration. Registrations will be accepted and confirmed on a first-come, first-served basis. You will be notified by email about registration confirmation.

Attendance is limited to a maximum of 20 participants. Registration will be limited to a maximum of 2 participants from any Florida repository.
More information on the SAA website here.

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Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS) #0149

DETAILS:
Tue, May 04, 2010 8:30 AM - 5:00 PM
Instructors: Roslyn Holdzkom
Tampa, FL
Note: This will be held as a pre-conference workshop for the SFA Annual Meeting in Tampa in May.

DESCRIPTION:
Want practical strategies for implementing DACS? This is the introductory workshop for you! Get an in-depth, practical consideration of the key concepts and descriptive elements in Describing Archives: A Content Standard , the U.S. standard. Explore strategies for incorporating this standard into workflows for accessioning, arrangement, and description through discussions and hands-on work with a variety of exercises, culminating in a DACS-based analysis of existing finding aids. This workshop, a basic introduction to the standard, focuses on application of DACS rules and concepts, which participants can apply to repository processes and descriptive outputs.

REGISTRATION:
If you work for an archive, library, museum, or other cultural heritage organization in Florida, you are eligible for free registration for this workshop, sponsored by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities Division of Preservation and Access. If so, please contact John Nemmers (jnemmers@ufl.edu, 352-273-2766) for more information on free registration. Registrations will be accepted and confirmed on a first-come, first-served basis. You will be notified by email about registration confirmation.
Attendance is limited to a maximum of 20 participants. Registration will be limited to a maximum of 2 participants from any organization.

More information on the SAA website here.

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Implement DACS in Integrated CMS: Using Archon

DETAILS:
Thu, Aug 19, 2010,through Fri, Aug 20, 2010 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Instructors: Kyle Rimkus and Scott Schwartz
University of Miami
Coral Gables, FL

DESCRIPTION:
In this 2-day hands-on workshop, you’ll learn how to describe your collections according to the rules of DACS, the national content standard for preparing such descriptions, within the context of an integrated content management system using Archon™ *, an open-source application available for managing descriptive information about archival records and manuscript collections. The archival data elements and rules supplied by DACS are an integral component of Archon, providing you with an easy way to integrate standards-based description into your repository’s processing workflow. Practical exercises, lecture, class discussions, and demonstrations will assist you in learning Archon’s basic functions and relationships to DACS.

REGISTRATION:
If you work for an archive, library, museum, or other cultural heritage organization in Florida, you are eligible for free registration for this workshop, sponsored by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities Division of Preservation and Access. If so, please contact John Nemmers (jnemmers@ufl.edu, 352-273-2766) for more information on free registration. Registrations will be accepted and confirmed on a first-come, first-served basis. You will be notified by email about registration confirmation.

Attendance is limited to a maximum of 25 participants. Registration will be limited to a maximum of 2 participants from any organization.

More information on the SAA website here.

Press Release from FIU: Digital Library of the Caribbean seeks donations to support damaged libraries and archives in Haiti

February 8th, 2010

MIAMI – The Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC), an international collaboration of educational, research, governmental and non-governmental institutions that provides access to electronic collections about the Caribbean, is seeking donations and technical assistance for the recovery and protection of Haiti’s libraries and their valuable historical, governmental and cultural resources.

The Digital Library of the Caribbean has initiated the Protecting Haitian Patrimony Initiative, the goal of which is to help the country’s three largest heritage libraries and the National Archives, all of which were damaged in the Jan. 12 earthquake. While the main structures remain standing, one library must be evacuated and most likely demolished and the others suffered significant damage, leaving their collections extremely vulnerable. As a result, significant resources will be needed to protect the already brittle, rare, books and documents, now left in piles and covered with debris.

Bibliothèque haïtienne des Pères du Saint-Esprit (also known as San Martial).
Courtesy of Dominique Franck Simon, director of the Alumni Association for San Martial College.

The damaged institutions have indicated they need gloves, masks, archival boxes and temporary staff to assist in the clean-up. Later, they will need to replace broken shelving, repair or replace damaged electronic equipment and provide more advanced restoration for many of the rarest books and documents.

Laura Probst, dean of FIU Libraries and a dLOC executive committee member, said protecting the historical documents is crucial in the earthquake’s aftermath.

“The collections in these archives represent the collective memory of the Haitian people, their culture, and Haiti’s role in the history of the western hemisphere and the world,” Probst said. “With this initiative we seek to preserve these invaluable resources for Haiti’s future, and for our own.”

FIU has a longstanding partnership with Haiti’s libraries and the National Archives through the Digital Library of the Caribbean and is one of the founding partners and administrators of dLOC, along with the University of Florida and the University of the Virgin Islands.

The Digital Library of the Caribbean’s operations are run out of FIU. Brooke Wooldridge, coordinator of dLOC at FIU, will be traveling to Haiti this week to assist the libraries and archives in documenting their needs and planning for the next phases of their recovery.

The Protecting Haitian Patrimony Initiative at first will channel resources to four institutions in Port-au-Prince:

• Archives Nationales d’Haïti houses both civil and state records, including births, marriage and death certificates, documentation of social works, civil governance and records of the Office of the President and most government ministries.
• Bibliothèque haïtienne des Pères du Saint-Esprit was founded in 1873 by the Fathers of the Holy Spirit. The library holds resources documenting the history of Haiti, French colonization, slavery and emancipation, and 20^th Century records, as well as newspapers and periodicals.
• Bibliothèque haïtienne des Frères de l’Instruction Chrétienne was founded in 1912 by the Christian Brothers.  It served as depository-library for Haitian imprints and holds titles not even available in the National Library.  It also holds one of the most significant collections of Haitian newspapers.
• Bibliothèque National d’Haïti was established in 1940 and also serves as a public library providing resources, study space and research support.  It has a small but significant collection of rare books, manuscripts and newspapers.

For more information or to contribute to the Protecting Haitian Patrimony Initiative, please visit http://www.dloc.com or call dLOC at 305-348-3008.

Media Contact: Madeline Baró at 305-348-2234.

-FIU-

About the Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC):
The Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC) is an international collaboration of educational, research, governmental and non-governmental institutions that provides access to electronic collections about the Caribbean. It includes the Archives Nationales d’Haïti, Biblioteca Nacional Aruba, Bibliothèque haïtienne des Pères du Saint-Esprit, Bibliothèque Nationale d’Haïti, Belize National Library Service and Information System, Caribbean Community, Caribbean Studies Association, The College of The Bahamas, the Fundaciòn Global Desarollo y Democracia, the National Library of Jamaica, Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra, the Universidad de Oriente in Venezuela, the Wider Caribbean Sea Turtle Conservation Network, Florida International University, the University of the Virgin Islands, the University of Central Florida, the University of South Florida and the University of Florida.

About FIU:
Florida International University was founded in 1965 and is Miami’s only public research university. With a student body of more than 38,000, its 17 colleges and schools offer more than 200 bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral programs in fields such as engineering, international relations and law. More than 100,000 FIU alumni live and work in South Florida. FIU has been classified by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching as a “High Research Activity University”. In August 2009, FIU welcomed the inaugural class of the Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine. For more information about FIU, visit http://www.fiu.edu

The usage statistics for January 2010 for the UF Digital Collections are now online here: http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/ufdc/?m=htu

The top collections continue to be the Digital Library of the Caribbean, the Florida Digital Newspaper Library, and the Baldwin Library of Historical Children’s Literature, with nearly 100.000 hits each in January alone.

The most used collections, and the total numbers with over 10 million hits to the UF Digital Collections since March of 2006, are always impressive. However, my favorite statistics are the most popular items by collection (available for all collections here). For instance, the Digital Library of the Caribbean’s most popular item is Sus mejores poemas by Rubén Darío. It’s been online since April 2008. In that time, it’s had over 30,000 hits.  Similarly, An A B C, for baby patriots has been online only since September of 2008 and it’s already had over 47,000 hits.

The usage statistics for January 2010 are posted alongside all of the prior usage statistics, back to when the UF Digital Collections began in March 2006. The statistics provide a nice quantification of the extensive known usage from the increasingly more frequent patron emails, requests, and compliments. It’s great to see exactly how many more people the UF Digital Collections are reaching, and how much more the UF Digital Collections are assisting with research and creative inquiry.