Sunday, January 31, 2016

The Gypsy Crown From Hyperion: An Expurgated Version of An Australian Series

 This is a post that originally appeared on my current book bog Shomeret: Masked Reviewer which uses an internet pseudonym.   Although I had stopped using a pseudonym as a result of experiences on the Hyperlinked Library MOOC, I went back to using the pseudonym due to having become the victim of hacking in early 2014. That situation is now resolved.

I am re-posting this review to my professional blog, Information Metamorphosis because I have decided to use this as evidence in my e-portfolio.   The e-portfolio is my culminating experience in the MLIS program at San Jose State University.  It involves providing evidence that I understand fourteen professional competencies and can implement them in my library career.  I didn't want there to be any doubt about who had written this post.

The original post is below:

Australian writer Kate Forsyth is a new discovery for me.  I found out about her latest book, Bitter Greens, which is a retelling of Rapunzel that will be released in the U.S. in October 2014.  I requested it on Net Galley and will be blogging about it on Book Babe in October.

So I then took a look at other works by Forsyth to see if anything interested me.  I discovered that she had written a series for children called The Chain of Charms that intrigued me because I'm interested in cultural content about the Roma who are commonly known as gypsies.
                                                                                                                                        
 The version of this series that was available to me through inter-library loan was The Gypsy Crown published by Hyperion. I was initially happy to obtain what I thought was an omnibus edition of the entire series which had originally been released in six volumes in Australia.

                                               

               
 The Chain of Charms is a quest series in which two gypsy children seek six charms that had been scattered among six gypsy clans.  Each Australian volume is devoted to one of the six charms.  I knew something was wrong when the tale of how the charms were scattered was told in the edition that I had, and there were only five charms!  How did this happen?  Which one was missing?  I still haven't gotten the first question answered, but a comparison to a list of the Australian volumes to the list of charms in the tale told in this version of The Gypsy Crown showed that the fourth charm, the Cat's Eye Shell, was the one that had been redacted.

I view this from the perspective of a future librarian. One of my favorite classes in library school was the Intellectual Freedom Seminar.  I wrote a paper on expurgation for that course, so I am especially sensitive to this issue.  Publisher expurgation is not unusual.  It's especially common in children's books.  Sometimes it's a preemptive attempt to prevent the book's banning in schools.  I don't know that this is the reason why The Gypsy Crown was expurgated by Hyperion.  Since I haven't read the expurgated material, I don't even have grounds to speculate about Hyperion's motivations.  Yet I am opposed to expurgation regardless of the reasons behind it.

The Hyperion edition also causes bibliographic confusion.  In Australia The Gypsy Crown is the first volume in the series, but the Hyperion edition is a good deal more than that.  It's also less than readers might reasonably expect.  As a "librarian" on Goodreads, which means that I am a cataloging volunteer who helps to maintain the database,  I felt it was necessary to add a note to this edition's description that only five of the six books in the series were included.  To make an edition specific note, I first needed to separate it from the other editions of The Gypsy Crown on the Goodreads database.  Even though it's the most popular edition on Goodreads, it remains separated from the others because the content is different.  

Some readers will be wondering why I don't simply review what's there rather than discussing what's missing.  I'll be getting to that, but I feel that it's important for readers to know what they're getting when they pick up a book.

In addition to the cultural aspect, I was interested in the book's historical context which is well-portrayed. It takes place in 17th century England during the rule of Oliver Cromwell.  This is known as the Commonwealth period.  Puritanism was the state religion.  Those who didn't conform to Puritan doctrines and practices were persecuted.  Music, dancing and theater were banned.

Since many of the Roma made their living as performers, they were likely to become targets of Puritan intolerance.  Luka, one of the thirteen year old protagonists, is portrayed as a gifted violinist.  He and the female protagonist, Emilia, are the only members of their clan who remain unimprisoned after a performance that was the opening event of the narrative.  The main motivation behind the quest for the charms is to free their family members.  Emilia's grandmother, a seer, had told her that the charms must be reclaimed in order to accomplish this goal.

Emilia and Luka encounter a number of royalist agents who sought to re-establish the monarchy.  One such royalist was a highwayman who only robbed Puritan "Roundheads".  This character claimed that many highwaymen were royalists.  This turned out to have some factual basis. I did a search that revealed a page about Royalist Highwaymen. There was also a reference in this book to a secret royalist organization called The Sealed Knot who have a page that shows that they were considered too cautious by more warlike royalists. 

The fantasy aspect of this book involves spells done by Roma characters.  Emilia discovers that although the charms can help with her magic, she can do magic without them.  If magic comes from within the practitioner, then objects like the charms are only needed as symbolic focuses.  I was pleased that Forsyth takes this approach. I prefer it over the competing theory that all the power resides within the magical artifacts.

Although I enjoyed reading about these characters on their quest, I am  aware of a hole in the narrative.  The Cat's Eye Shell is still calling to me. American readers who also feel this lack may need to venture on a quest themselves.

                                           


                                          


Sunday, December 8, 2013

Hyperlinked MOOC Takeaway

I think that my main benefit from the Hyperlinked Library MOOC was clarity. The post that best illustrates this for me is "My Empty Reference Desk". I came to a realization that a librarian's professional blog is like a reference desk as a result of Sarah Ludwig's guest lecture.

 Another big realization came in my first post about multi-tasking. When I re-framed multi-tasking as inter-leafed practice, I felt better about it. It also helped me to choose tasks that were more compatible to combine. This has helped me in both my studies and my job. I may never feel as comfortable with multi-tasking as I am with single tasking, but I know now that I can do either one.

 I had the most fun writing "I Love Goodreads" because Goodreads has been such an important part of my life. Soon after I posted it, this social networking website began a process of change that was probably inevitable due to its major growth spurt. It will never be the same as it had been, but I will still look back on the old Goodreads fondly. As soon as I wrote this post, I knew that I wanted to form a Goodreads tribe. I'm glad that other members had the initiative to act as the leaders as I would have if I had the time to do so. I'm glad that the tribe accomplished something for the MOOC by establishing the group on Goodreads and providing a reading list for Context Book.

 My most emblematic quote from these posts would be: "I've been riding the connecting paths between books all my life." This is also a prime example of a realization because I never really wrote or thought about it that way. It just occurred to me that my life had been about discovering connections between books when I heard David Weinberger say that there weren't any.

 I also actually discovered phenomena that I knew little or nothing about during this course. I had only heard the word "Makerspace". Now that I know what it is, I've fallen in love with the concept. If I work for a library that has a Makerspace, I will want to establish the Makerspace fandom that I discussed in my Context Book assignment.

 Another phenomenon that I discovered as a result of this class, which is already causing controversy in the library profession, even before its release is Google Glass. As I said in my Director's Brief, it has great potential and equally great danger. A tool is never inherently dangerous. It's all in how it's used. I would like to be optimistic and assume that everyone will want to use the power of Google Glass for good. Yet humanity is a complex and unpredictable species. We never really know the consequences of any new technology in advance. Some librarians believe that there is reason to be concerned about Google Glass, and I can definitely see their perspective. Threats to intellectual freedom and privacy have been a major concern to me this semester as I have been making my way through the topics in the Intellectual Freedom Seminar. With that perspective, I can't look at Google Glass without a great deal of ambivalence.

 I feel that MOOCs in general are a good learning format for me. My first MOOC was on Google search, and it was also very helpful to me. I use the tools that I discovered through that MOOC every day. I am sure I will partipate in other MOOCs. I am very self-motivated and love to explore a curriculum on topics that interest me without the pressure of grades. I think I will always want to continue my education as long as I live. I hope to encounter some of the librarians I've seen in this course in other MOOC adventures.

Making Connections

This post originally appeared on the Hyperlinked Library MOOC.

The content in this module that had me scribbling an outpouring of notes was the video on which David Weinberger gave his talk on Too Big To Know. I wasn't responding because I agreed with his remarks, but because I didn't. I enjoy disagreeing. I feel like I'm in a dialogue with this presentation. We have common ground. I understand that Weinberger's work is about making connections which is the theme of Module 2. We do have some radically different assumptions which I first noticed when he said "Books are no good at connecting you to other books." What did he mean? I've been riding the connecting paths between books all my life. How did he not see them?

For one thing, non-fiction books of the scholarly sort have bibliographies. If there are topics raised in the book that you want to pursue, you can find the author's sources and continue reading on those topics. (I have to admit that I eventually became dis-satisfied with bibliographies because they always led me backward to books that had been written before the ones that I had already read. If I wanted to travel forward in my reading, I would have to go online to search for the recent work in the field. That's why I use Google and Goodreads.) Non-fiction books also often mention influential books in the text itself. In fiction, there are connections to be found by reading the blurbs. The authors who have written those comments usually have some similarity to the author of the novel that you've been reading. It can be a similarity of theme, approach, characters or style. If I liked the original novel, I sometimes find that an author who wrote a blurb on the back cover is just as wonderful. There are also Author's Notes and Acknowledgements that help you find connections between books or their authors. It would be difficult for me to come up with a statement that is more untrue than the idea that books don't connect with each other.

 The most popular post on my review blog, The Unmasked Persona's Reviews, is "Living With Wolves in Fact and Fiction". This is a post that combines a review of Jodi Picoult's Lone Wolf with the book that inspired it, The Man Who Lives With Wolves by Shaun Ellis. I found out about this connection by reading the Author's Note. Jodi Picoult is a bestselling writer. There must be thousands of people who blog that read this author. Why was I the only one who noticed the connection between these books and acted on it? Maybe it's because I have never shared another Weinberger assumption that a book is "a stopping point". For me, it's a starting point. Once I become interested in a topic, I want to find different perspectives from the one that I encountered in the first book I read on the subject.

 I suppose it's that need to pursue those connections that makes a librarian. When I started the SJSU SLIS program with LIBR 200, my instructor told us that librarians are generalists. His name is Mark Stover and I am very grateful to him. For the first time, I knew what to call myself. I was not a specialist, but a generalist. I was interested in everything. Maybe others in my class didn't identify with the term "generalist" as I did. The power of a label is that some people will wear it proudly. The most appalling thing about a label is that it doesn't fit everyone. Perhaps some of those in my LIBR 200 class wondered whether they were meant to be librarians. I never did. I feel that the world needs generalists. As I listened to David Weinberger, my conviction was confirmed. Generalists make connections.

If someone can't find connections between books, it would be difficult to perceive connections on the internet. This is a teachable skill, not an inborn gift. It's a skill that is the foundation of research. Students who don't see connections will be unable to form a hypothesis or assemble the resources necessary for a literature review. Even linked data won't be a panacea for people who don't see why data connect. In our colleges and universities, librarians are the ones who teach this skill to new students. The internet should produce more generalists because the number of connections increase exponentially on the internet. It isn't called a "web" for nothing. Those who can't see that it really is a web shouldn't panic. A librarian will show them the way.

Unique Items and Digitization

I really heard Michael Stephens in the Hyperlinked MOOC's Module 7 lecture when he complained about the fact that an item that was unique should have been digitized. I understand his perspective, but it's important to know why very few unique items are digitized.

There is a great deal of unique material out there in archives. Some of these archives share facilities and technical services staff with a library. I recently toured one such institution, and the archivist said that it would take him another year to complete the creation of finding aids for this archive's collections. Since I took a course on Archives and Manuscripts at SLIS, this didn't astonish me. I know about the challenges involved in the processing of archival materials.

 Let me tell you about finding aids. In addition to a couple of paragraphs about the nature of an archival collection, finding aids provide some descriptive details. The collection may contain hundreds of items. A library cataloger is usually describing one item at a time. When a cataloger creates MARC records of archival materials for the library's catalog, they are described at the collection level. A patron will then know about the existence of a collection, but will only have a general idea about its contents. A finding aid is more specific. The items are ordinarily organized in folders that are contained within boxes. The finding aid of a collection will most often describe it at the box level. If there are fifty boxes in the collection, the archivist will record the box labels on the finding aid. Please note that this is two levels of description above the individual item level. If an archivist had to describe every single item in a collection, the cataloging backlog would probably take decades to resolve. Finding aids are digitized using the metadata standard Encoded Archival Description (EAD) which I also studied at SLIS.

The creation and digitization of the finding aid is a prerequisite for digitizing items in the collection. Digitized objects need metadata. The finding aid gives patrons important background about the collection even if it doesn't include specific metadata about the item itself. So the next step in the digitization process would be to locate the object. This isn't necessarily a simple matter. There might be a number of boxes that contain similar materials. The archivist will need to examine the labels on every folder within those boxes in order to find the one item to be digitized. Then the archivist will scan the object, and provide item metadata that will usually appear on the same web page as the digitized object. This entire process is time consuming and labor intensive. It's also costly. Could mobile technology assist with the process? Well, a mobile phone could photograph the object, but that isn't really a problem that needs to be solved. I think that the barriers to digitization of unique materials from archival collections illustrate that technology isn't always a panacea. Unique materials are too complex to be described by a computer. This process still requires skilled human beings.      

3D Printers and Intellectual Freedom

Hugh Rundle presented a number of arguments against libraries owning 3D printers in his blog post “Mission Creep” at http://hughrundle.net/2013/01/02/mission-creep-a-3d-printer-will-not-save-your-library/. There was one argument that I found myself wrestling with. What if a user wanted to print a gun? Wouldn’t the library be morally responsible for any crime committed with that gun? Could libraries become unsafe as a result of users printing weapons? How could libraries stop them from doing such a thing if the library owned a 3D printer? This assumes that 3D printer technology is advanced enough for the printing of guns that would work and cause actual harm.

 For guidance on this issue I consulted PC Magazine’s August 2012 article “Can A ‘Printable Gun’ Change The World?” by Damon Poeter which can be found at http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2408899,00.asp . This article states that a printed gun would be likely to explode in the hand of its creator which implies that the technology isn’t that advanced. Yet this situation could change. Programming a 3D printer not to accept weapon files will only prevent them from being printed until some hacker finds his or her way around the programming. This brings us back to the question of a library’s moral responsibility for whatever emerges from a library 3D printer. Yet couldn’t someone argue the same about books? After all, who knows what dangerous or morally repugnant ideas might appear in books? Someone might borrow a crime novel then go out and re-enact a homicide described in its pages. Is the library responsible for that? Shall we empty the library’s shelves because the reaction of readers to books can be unpredictable?

 There was a time when librarians thought that libraries should only carry the most “wholesome” and “morally elevated” books, and should restrict access to everything else. There are those that believe that libraries should still censor. According to an article by Judith Krug called The Aftermath of the Children's Internet Protection Act , Supreme Court Justice Rehnquist wrote in the plurality opinion in United States v. American Library Association that libraries should “deny access to resources that aren’t of requisite and appropriate quality.” This opinion dealt with a case brought by the ALA to remedy the inadequacies of internet filters which screen out legal websites. As I recently pointed out in a discussion post in SJSU's LIBR 234, the Intellectual Freedom Seminar, the decision to place the burden of ameliorating the deficiencies of filters on libraries isn’t the only one that could have been made. Will we one day be saying that although 3D printers prevent anything illegal from being printed, they also prevent the printing of perfectly legal objects? Will an ALA intellectual freedom activist like Judith Krug need to tell us again that it isn’t the mission of libraries to restrict access? Will librarians need to enter a code to enable the use of the 3D printer when we are satisfied that a user doesn’t want to use it to print any object that might be harmful? How will “harm” be defined? Will library staff need to monitor 3D printer users at every moment to make certain that they aren't contravening regulations about harmful objects?

 This is a technology with troubling implications. I don’t presume to present solutions to the complex hypothetical situations that could arise once 3D printers become more sophisticated. We can’t truly know all the consequences. Yet someone should stand up for the ALA’s position on restriction of access if we don’t want libraries to be the type of institutions that imprison minds rather than setting them free.

Sunday, November 24, 2013

Director's Brief: Google Glass



 The following was written as an assignment for The Hyperlinked Library MOOC in the form of a report to the director of a library on Google Glass.  It is appearing here for the first time.

           This is a preliminary report on a technology that has not yet been released to the public.  It is based on internet reports and opinions.  I don’t expect any final decisions to be made at this point, but we should be thinking about the issues raised by this new form of computer technology.

Google Glass is a wearable computer in the form of eyeglasses.  It can be integrated with prescription lenses.  It contains a computer chip, a camera, a battery, a motion sensor and WIFI.  It can be voice activated, but it also has a touchpad that is worn on an arm for silent activation.  It will allow Glass wearers to take photos or record videos hands free, and upload them automatically to Google’s cloud applications. (Houghton, 2013).

The miniature screen is  a cube located in the upper right hand corner of the device, and there is a microphone behind the user’s ear. (Arapaho Libraries, 2013).  Perceptually it will seem like the screen is eight feet away. Severely nearsighted people won’t be able to see it clearly without integration with their prescription  lenses.   There is a red light that is visible when something is being recorded.   Glass shuts off every 30 seconds and needs to be re-activated.  If users record frequently, the battery will need to be re-charged within 90 minutes. Google states that with normal use the charge should last an entire day (Liedtke, 2013).  It currently doesn’t include GPS.  Wearers will need to tether it to an Android smart phone  for access to the advertised Google Maps functionality that will allow them to get directions (Houghton ,2013).

There are 8,000 beta users currently testing Glass. (Stephens, 2013) They or their employers are paying $1500 to test this device.  After it’s scheduled for release in April of 2014, it will probably cost approximately $500.(Epstein, 2013) There are a number of librarians and library systems who are  demonstrating  the beta version of Google Glass to their users. 

  There are numerous potential uses.  Most prominently mentioned is the ability of physicians to receive information (e.g. the patient’s vital signs) while continuing to perform surgery (Doyle, 2013). Although I have seen no one point this out, if a surgeon were distracted during surgery by the Glass information feed, his surgical instrument could slip and harm the patient.  So this may not be a good use for Glass.

Of particular interest to libraries are educational uses  involving interactivity and virtual field trips as well as information feed  to students  (Kwikboost, 2013)and the likely ability that Glass may have in the future to simultaneously translate to and from any language.  Google Glass  beta tester, librarian Arian Kruppa  reports that Glass currently can’t understand any language other than English(Tween Tribune, 2013).  The widely reported  speculation that Glass will be able to translate is based on the existence of Google Translate.   This means that a translation application for Glass could be developed by Google.(Titlow, 2013)
  
              An important negative attribute of Glass is its radioactivity.  Google has reported the radiation of Glass to the FCC.  The FCC has ruled it safe.  Yet since it’s worn constantly on the head, Glass may increase the incidence of brain tumors (Wang, 2013).
   
             Another serious issue is the danger of a data breach.  If Google’s cloud is hacked, which has happened in the past, users’ identity information will be completely compromised.  In response to criticism, Google has prohibited facial recognition applications from the Glass equivalent of Google Play. (Houghton, 2013).  This would prevent Glass from identifying persons in Glass videos, accessing their identity records and imperiling their data in the event a breach.

               Reference librarians may be impacted by Glass wearers intruding on reference interviews conducted at the public reference desk ,and violating their confidentiality by videotaping them and uploading them to You Tube.  One solution could be to conduct all reference interviews in a private space by default. 

                Violation of privacy is a widely expressed concern about Glass.  Although Google removed an application that would allow photos to be taken silently by blinking, Denver Post reporter Michael Liedtke  states that while he was wearing Glass, he was able to record a video of a Google  representative discussing privacy as it applies to Glass without his knowledge by pressing a small button on the right frame without speaking a command aloud.(Liedtke, 2013) The arm touchpad would also allow silent commands.  So it will be possible to photograph or record individuals without their knowledge or consent.   
   
             A relevant study involving the possible impact of the prevalent presence of Glass wearers on society is a 2008 study  called “The eye of the camera: Effects of security cameras on prosocial behavior”  by Rompay, Vonk and Fransen  which showed that there is tendency to act in people pleasing ways in the presence of security cameras (Rompay et al, 2009).  Glass could have a chilling effect on speech which would be contrary to democratic values. 
   
             A study dealing with the concern that Glass will make users more distracted deals with the surprising finding  that only 2% of the population can multi-task successfully.  Scientist David Strayer called them “supertaskers”  and discovered that their brains are organized differently from the other 98% of us. (Sundem, 2012)   A Harvard Business Review blog article by Peter Bregman  states that multi-tasking reduces productivity by 40% because switching between tasks causes a loss of time.  Bregman cites a study by Ophir, Nass and Wagner in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that heavy multi-taskers are more distractable than light multi-taskers because those who multi-task more lose their ability to focus on any task. (Ophir et al, 2009).   So it would seem that Glass may aggravate trends that were initiated due to the common use of smart phones.  If Glass becomes as popular as portable technologies it is likely that the average attention span of technology users will continue to decline. 
  

              The privacy issue can possibly be dealt with by having Glass wearers sign agreements that they will not photograph or videotape library users or staff without consent which will be kept on file.  If they violate this agreement, they can be suspended or banned permanently from the library depending on the severity of their offense.  A simpler solution might be to tell Glass users to remove their devices, and ban Glass from the library as we have done with cell phones.   The Technology Committee will need to discuss how best to deal with Glass wearers in our population.

 As the Director, you will have the final decision about the role that Google Glass should play at our institution.  This is a powerful technology that may have great benefits, but will also have great risks.  Since Glass is still in beta phase, the best recommendation may be to wait and see what the impact of Glass will actually be instead of relying on internet speculation.  The Technology Committee will consult with other libraries that have Glass wearers on staff to find out what their experience has been with this device.   The version of Glass that is finally released may have significant differences from the device that is currently being tested.  Let us weigh the benefits and drawbacks of Glass,    
                                                             

                                                                        References

Arapaho Libraries (2013) Arapaho libraries website.  Retrieved from:http://arapahoelibraries.org/googleglass on November 23, 2013.

Bregman, P.(2010). How and why to stop multi-tasking. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from: http://blogs.hbr.org/2010/05/how-and-why-to-stop-multitaski/  on November 23, 2013. 

Doyle, M. (2013). How Google Glass is now being used in surgery. Forbes. Retrieved from:  http://www.forbes.com/sites/ptc/2013/11/05/how-google-glass-is-now-being-used-during-surgery/ on November 24, 2013.

Epstein, Su (2013). A Google Glass future. Public Libraries Online. Retrieved from: http://publiclibrariesonline.org/2013/11/a-google-glass-future/ on November 23, 2014.

Houghton, S. (2013). Google Glass: Release date, news and features. Tech radar.AV. Retrieved from:  http://www.techradar.com/us/news/video/google-glass-what-you-need-to-know-1078114  on November 23, 2013.

Kwikboost (2013). Google Glass in the classroom: A transformational trend?  Retrieved from:http://www.kwikboost.com/google-glass-in-the-classroom/  on November 24, 2013.

Liedtke,M. (2013) Google Glass: Spectacle-like, but impresses. Denver Post.  Retrieved from: http://www.denverpost.com/entertainment/ci_23825644/google-glass-spectacle-like-but-impresses-review  on November 23, 2013

Ophir,E. et al (2009). Cognitive control in media multi-taskers. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.  doi: 10.1073/pnas.09036206.

Rompay, T. et al (2009). The eye of the camera: effects of security cameras on pro-social behavior. Environment and Behavior, 41(1), 60-74.  doi:  10.1177/0013916507309996.

Stephens, M. (2013) News: Jen Waller, Miami Ohio librarian and Google Glass. Tame the web. Retrieved from: http://tametheweb.com/2013/10/06/news-jen-waller-miami-ohio-librarian-and-google-glass/ on November 23, 2013.

Sundem,  G. (2012). This is your brain on multi-tasking. Psychology Today. Retrieved from:  http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/brain-trust/201202/is-your-brain-multitasking  on November 23, 2013.

Titlow, J. (2013).  10 compelling ways people plan to use Google Glass.  Read Write.com.  Retrieved from: http://readwrite.com/2013/03/07/10-compelling-ways-people-plan-to-use-google-glass#awesm=~oo9AUTXa3yPp1e on November 23, 2013.

Tween Tribune (2013). Are Google glasses worth $1500? Retrieved from: http://tweentribune.com/tween78/are-google-glasses-worth-1500  on November 23, 2013.

Wang, R. (2013) Wireless radiation from Google Glass: Is there a risk? Pong. Retrieved from:  https://www.pongcase.com/blog/wireless-radiation-google-glass-risk  on November 23, 2013.

Online Professional Learning Network: Digitization

This is an assignment for the Hyperlinked Library MOOC that I am posting here, and then re-posting to my MOOC  blog.

GOALS:  Although I have numerous professional goals, the one that is my current focus is digitization.  I will be taking a course on digitization at SJSU  next semester.  I feel that this could the most crucial professional set of skills that I have yet to learn.  I don't just mean the act of digitizing objects.  There is also curation of digital objects and digital preservation. 

SCOPE:  I'm currently a student about to embark on a LIS career.  I'm discovering through this assignment that digitization is crucial to all professional paths of LIS.  I have thought of becoming an archivist where I would need to digitize finding aids and carefully selected items from collections. I have thought of becoming an academic librarian where I might need to digitize theses or dissertations for a institutional repository.  I have thought of becoming a law librarian who would help to preserve legal documents through digitization.  It's also possible that a public library might want to digitize oral histories from local individuals.  I was looking for people who would be experience resources, resources involving best practices, opportunities and approaches to digitization that I hadn't considered.

NETWORK:

 Individual Contacts

Lori Lindberg at Linked In  http://www.linkedin.com/in/msarchive

Professor Lindberg was the instructor who taught me Encoded Archival Description which is used to digitize finding aids.  This is the connection that was my starting point in digitization.

Emily Odza at Linked In http://www.linkedin.com/in/emilyodza

Emily Odza is a local librarian who is a relatively recent SLIS graduate.  Her internship involved digitization of a special collection.  I am interested in finding out more about what she learned.

Digitization Best Practices

Federal Agencies Digitization Guidelines Initiative http://www.digitizationguidelines.gov
 
There are links to guidelines for various formats and links to working groups for the still images and audio-visual formats.

 Oral History in the Digital Age Wiki  http://wiki.ohda.matrix.msu.edu/index.php/Main_Page

This is a wiki dealing with best practices for digitization of oral histories.  

Technical Guidelines for Digitizing Cultural Heritage Materials Wikihttp://wiki.lib.utc.edu/index.php/Technical_Guidelines_for_Digitizing_Cultural_Heritage_Materials

This is a best practices wiki maintained by the UTC Library Special Collections and Archives.

Digitization Blogs

Page to Pixel http://page2pixel.org/about/

This is the blog of Isaiah Beard, a digital curator at Rutgers University.  He establishes standards and workflows for Rutgers University Community Repository

Info Overdrive http://infooverdrive.com/author/tonybarbeau/

Tony Barbeau is a corporate blogger who is interested in digitization.  This is Kodak's document imaging blog.  He recently wrote about preserving digital images in the cloud.

Collaborative Manuscript Transcription  http://manuscripttranscription.blogspot.com/

Ben Brumfield is an archivist blogger who is interested in collaboration between professionals and amateurs on digitization projects.

Free Government Information  http://freegovinfo.info/node/3961

I was attracted to this blog by a white paper presented at the ALA Convention in Chicago in June 2013 called Wait! Don't Digitize and Discard! which deals with the need for non-destructive digitization in order to maintain copies of paper originals for long-term preservation purposes.

You Tube

Inside Smithsonian's 3D Digitization Lab http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-2tLyTPs7Y

Smithsonian is digitizing objects in their collection in order to make replicas of them with a 3D printer.  National Geographic made this video.

Prezi

Oral History Projects From Interview To You Tube http://prezi.com/ozzqpnfhrpdt/oral-history-projects-from-interview-to-youtube/

This is a creative multimedia Prezi made by archivist Laura Ann Heller of the National Cowboy Museum detailing the entire process of doing oral history interviews, digitizing them and then making video clips for You Tube.  There's lots to learn here.  

NETWORK  MAINTENANCE PLAN

This network will be maintained on my professional blog, Information Metamorphosis. There will be new technologies, new best practices to deal with them, innovative projects, contacts and blogs to add to this network.  I hope to update it whenever I discover a new resource.  I may also need to update the links for the current resources.  This is a very exciting area of LIS.