Digital Collections at a Distance: Telework during the COVID-19 Pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 65 (2) ◽  
pp. 65
Author(s):  
Laura M. Gentry

This case study explores how one team tasked with the creation of digital collections at The University of Alabama Libraries succeeded at telework to carry on its essential functions despite not being able to digitize new content from March through July 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. Managers of similar units will gain strategies to create similar telework projects at their institution and lessons learned while working and supervising employees remotely.

2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 64-75
Author(s):  
Laura Uglean Jackson ◽  
Matthew McKinley

In October 2014, the University of California Irvine (UCI) Special Collections and Archives acquired a born digital collection of 2.5 terabytes – the largest born digital collection acquired by the department to date. This case study describes the challenges we encountered when applying existing archival procedures to appraise, store, and provide access to a large born digital collection. It discusses solutions when they could be found and ideas for solutions when they could not, lessons learned from the experience, and the impact on born-digital policy and procedure at UCI Libraries. Working with a team of archivists, librarians, IT, and California Digital Library (CDL) staff, we discovered issues and determined solutions that will guide our procedures for future acquisitions of large and unwieldy born digital collections. 


2021 ◽  
Vol 84 (1) ◽  
pp. 62-90
Author(s):  
Laura M. Gentry ◽  
Erin Ryan ◽  
Jessica Rayman ◽  
Martha Bace

ABSTRACT The authors examined the Wade Hall Consolidation Project at the University of Alabama Libraries Special Collections. The project involved the physical consolidation of more than 1,400 small, discrete collections donated by Wade Hall into larger, subject-based collections along with the merger of 287 existing digital collections to mirror the physical arrangement. This project's goal was to improve access to and discovery of these collections by researchers. During physical consolidation, the archivists created subject-based collections with new finding aids and addressed issues including unclear provenance, legacy descriptions, inaccurate metadata, varying levels of processing, and lack of alignment with current archival best practices and standards. Digital consolidation of existing digital collections coincided with the migration to a new digital asset management system and presented its own challenges, including legacy descriptions, metadata transformation, digital preservation, and dealing with existing metadata shared on the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) and other multi-institutional digital content aggregators. The authors sought to fill the gap in the literature concerning the consolidation of physical and digital collections and to provide guidance to others considering a consolidation project.


2021 ◽  
Vol 84 (2) ◽  
pp. 355-373
Author(s):  
Tammi Kim ◽  
Karla Irwin

ABSTRACT Architecture collections have been a mainstay for Special Collections and Archives at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV SCA), since the late 1970s. Until 2017, most architecture collections in Special Collections and Archives have consisted of physical records. In recent years, curators began acquiring architecture collections with significant born-digital content, which present unique challenges different from other types of born-digital materials. This case study discusses how staff adapted existing workflows for born-digital materials to process and describe two collections comprised of born-digital architecture and design records. The authors also describe how UNLV SCA provides access to proprietary design files through the creation of access surrogates. Lessons learned from adapting workflows and processing these collections are detailed, as well as future steps for continuing the development of workflows and policies for managing born-digital architecture and design records.


2020 ◽  
Vol 64 (3) ◽  
pp. 120
Author(s):  
Michael A Arthur ◽  
Millie L Jackson

The University of Alabama Libraries began the process of workflow analysis over a decade ago.  Primarily focused on the traditional technical services areas, this process has been iterative and has evolved from looking for efficiencies to a broader change in the culture and an acceptance of an ongoing process of improvement.  This article distills lessons learned from workflow analysis in the areas of acquisitions, electronic resources, and cataloging/metadata but also examines how these changes impacted the broader library and philosophies of collection development and management.


Author(s):  
Wayne Pease ◽  
Lauretta Wright ◽  
Malcolm Cooper

In regional Australia there is a growing interest and investment in community capacity building and this is beginning to be formalised in a desire to integrate information communications technology opportunities with other forms of community development. This paper explores the opportunity for greater social integration based on the formation of community-based information communication technology (ICT) driven organizations, using a case study approach.  It is suggested that whether disseminating information, collaborating with other communities, assisting the development of new industries, or simply by sharing the lessons learned along the way, community-based IT can assist and support a community’s economic and social development.  Further, the paper supports the view that, where understanding and developing new forms of information technology through community informatics is accepted as an integral part of such development, communities will not just ‘improve the old’ but will more radically restructure themselves towards a knowledge-based future. The case study that underpins these observations is that of the development of Bay Connect, a community-based Internet development and training project, begun in Hervey Bay with Networking the Nation support, and which is now expanding into the adjacent Maryborough and surrounding Shires. It is also supported by the University of Southern Queensland’s Wide Bay and has an emergent role in supporting new and existing IT businesses, Bay Connect and the Hervey Bay City Council, in the creation and nurturing of an IT skills base within the region.


2021 ◽  
pp. 240-250
Author(s):  
David Kraybill ◽  
Moses Osiru

Abstract This chapter presents selected analytical narratives of successful institutional transformation of tertiary agricultural education (TAE) from four African universities. The four universities analysed are Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Kenya (JKUAT); Gulu University, Uganda (GU); University of Abomey Calavi, Benin (UAC); and the University of Venda, South Africa (UNIVEN). The study examines what each of the universities changed, and how they went about effecting and supporting those changes. The discussion focuses on both 'soft changes' in organizational culture and strategies, and 'hard changes' in enrolments, staffing, programmes, departments, faculties/colleges and campuses. Outcomes of the transformation process are described, along with lessons learned.


Author(s):  
Jéssica Parente ◽  
Tiago Martins ◽  
João Bicker ◽  
Penousal Machado

This work explores how data can influence the design of logotypes and how they can convey information. The authors use the University of Coimbra, in Portugal, as a case study to develop data-driven logotypes for its faculties and, subsequently, for its students. The proposed logotypes are influenced by the current number of students in each faculty, the number of male and female students, and the nationality of the students. The resulting logotypes are able to portray the diversity of students in each faculty. The authors also test this design approach in the creation of logotypes for the students according to their academic information, namely the course and number of credits done. The resulting logotypes are able to adapt to the current students, evolving over time with the departure of students and admission of new ones.


Author(s):  
Kirk Johnson ◽  
Jonathan K. Lee ◽  
Rebecca A. Stephenson ◽  
Julius C.S. Cena

This chapter provides an overview of particular issues of diversity and technology within an island university. The chapter’s central focus rests on the complexity of both concepts within the context of higher education in the Pacific. In particular, the chapter highlights both the challenges and opportunities that the university faces as it attempts to address the unique multicultural landscape of the Western Pacific region and its technological realities. It focuses on a capstone senior-level course as a case study, and explores the possibilities inherent in directly addressing issues of diversity and technology while at the same time accomplishing the course’s prescribed academic goals. The chapter concludes by outlining 10 important lessons learned from the experience that others can benefit from, and establishes the importance of such a capstone experience for both students and faculty alike.


2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Vincent ◽  
Jason W. Lee ◽  
Kevin Hull ◽  
John Hill

This case study of the University of Alabama’s Where Legends Are Made illustrates how a 30-s television advertisement with a catchy tagline was transformed into a strategic branding campaign that communicated the essence of the university in a compelling story. Employing a qualitative methodology, the case study drew on personality archetypes to develop an institutional brand communication management conceptual framework that illustrated the guiding principles and creative contexts used to break through the communication clutter. It did so by emphasizing the University of Alabama’s leadership, competitive spirit, and transformative innovation by making its fabled athletic tradition an extension of its everyday excellence in academic disciplines. It also demonstrated how empirically tested archetype personas can be effectively employed in persuasive storylines to emotionally resonate with key stakeholders and prospective consumers alike, with each interpreting it in a way that is compatible with their own values, lifestyles, and culture.


2015 ◽  
Vol 54 (7) ◽  
pp. 1637-1662 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason M. Apke ◽  
Daniel Nietfeld ◽  
Mark R. Anderson

AbstractEnhanced temporal and spatial resolution of the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite–R Series (GOES-R) will allow for the use of cloud-top-cooling-based convection-initiation (CI) forecasting algorithms. Two such algorithms have been created on the current generation of GOES: the University of Wisconsin cloud-top-cooling algorithm (UWCTC) and the University of Alabama in Huntsville’s satellite convection analysis and tracking algorithm (SATCAST). Preliminary analyses of algorithm products have led to speculation over preconvective environmental influences on algorithm performance. An objective validation approach is developed to separate algorithm products into positive and false indications. Seventeen preconvective environmental variables are examined for the positive and false indications to improve algorithm output. The total dataset consists of two time periods in the late convective season of 2012 and the early convective season of 2013. Data are examined for environmental relationships using principal component analysis (PCA) and quadratic discriminant analysis (QDA). Data fusion by QDA is tested for SATCAST and UWCTC on five separate case-study days to determine whether application of environmental variables improves satellite-based CI forecasting. PCA and significance testing revealed that positive indications favored environments with greater vertically integrated instability (CAPE), less stability (CIN), and more low-level convergence. QDA improved both algorithms on all five case studies using significantly different variables. This study provides an examination of environmental influences on the performance of GOES-R Proving Ground CI forecasting algorithms and shows that integration of QDA in the cloud-top-cooling-based algorithms using environmental variables will ultimately generate a more skillful product.


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