Last Day of Week 1
Two of Friday's sessions included discussion of the digitization of special collections. In the morning, Professor Xiao introduced us to the CALIS (China Academic Library Information System) rare book digital library (choose the guest login option to see beautiful images of ancient texts) and talked with us about the many complex issues surrounding digital preservation. Later, Ann Lally, Head of Digital Initiatives at UW, and Theo Gerontakos, Metadata Librarian, generously shared with us the real nitty-gritty of the best practices that underlie their institution's many digitized special collections. Happily, they are generous not only in terms of their exhibition of the online objects themselves, but also of the data dictionaries and other materials painstakingly created by their Metadata Implementation Group for every project they do. Hearing about the way the group is organized and does its work, which Ann and Theo explained step-by-step, was inspiring--I'm looking forward to sharing their materials and methods, as well as their accumulated wisdom, with my colleagues at NYU. In her second session, UW Information School Professor Allison Carlyle knowledgeably guided us through some online examples of experimentation with FRBR, including OCLC's FictionFinder and excerpts of a presentation by VTLS containing mock-ups of hypothetical FRBR MARC records.
The planners of this two-week program saved an energizing activity to wrap up our first week: a tour of the Suzzallo/Allen Library, in which our classes are held. Neither words nor photographs are adequate to describe the feeling of awe that strikes even as you stand in the high-ceilinged area just outside the third-floor reading room. I'll post a photo of part of the room itself, but the crowning delight of the vast space is a small enclosed area at one end containing the vast desk (and chair, complete with its weary leather cushion) of one of the state's illustrious former senators, Warren G. Magnuson. He donated it to the library on the condition that it be accessible to any student who wanted to sit at it and study. Our tour guide said that there is always someone fulfilling the senator's desire. Part of the Suzzallo Library is called the Allen Library. Our tour ended there, but not before we had a chance to learn about, and thus appreciate all the more, its permanent art installation, beautifully titled Raven Brings Light to This House of Stories.
The planners of this two-week program saved an energizing activity to wrap up our first week: a tour of the Suzzallo/Allen Library, in which our classes are held. Neither words nor photographs are adequate to describe the feeling of awe that strikes even as you stand in the high-ceilinged area just outside the third-floor reading room. I'll post a photo of part of the room itself, but the crowning delight of the vast space is a small enclosed area at one end containing the vast desk (and chair, complete with its weary leather cushion) of one of the state's illustrious former senators, Warren G. Magnuson. He donated it to the library on the condition that it be accessible to any student who wanted to sit at it and study. Our tour guide said that there is always someone fulfilling the senator's desire. Part of the Suzzallo Library is called the Allen Library. Our tour ended there, but not before we had a chance to learn about, and thus appreciate all the more, its permanent art installation, beautifully titled Raven Brings Light to This House of Stories.
