LIS 5590 Project Assignment 1

What I did...

This project promised to be a big learning opportunity for me, from both the technology and metadata aspects.  I feel I was fairly successful with my results and I definitely learned a lot along the way.

I decided to work with a selection of similar items, ladies' handkerchiefs.  I believed that working with a group of similar items would force me to be more specific in my metadata efforts.  I first read through much of the information on the Cataloging Cultural Objects (CC), 2008) website, particularly Parts 1 and 2 under the "CCO Selections" tab to gain a better understanding of what my goals might be.

I first started working in EmbARK and made the decision not to enter my own Accession Numbers, believing the program-generated numbers would provide some sort of chronological history of when each item was entered.  Some of the fields were helpful in providing prompts for how the data should be entered, but because I knew so little about my items, it was difficult to make many entries.  I did not want to make up information about my items, to more closely resemble what I might encounter in cataloging a real collection.  My four entries can be found here (note that just as in your posted example, only page 1 appears even though information is entered on pages 2 and 3):

Handkerchief 1

Handkerchief 2

Handkerchief 3

Handkerchief 4

Open Collection certainly feels more user friendly right from the start, much more intuitive than EmbARK, with tabs which seem to make more sense and fields which allow for text entry.  My four entries can be found by searching for "sarg" or, at the time of this writing, by 

"handkerchief".

Problems I encountered...

My biggest problem with EmbARK is that many of the fields only accept pre-defined terms.  While this is advantageous to ensure standardization, the limitations sometimes did not meet my needs.  For instance, the "Medium" for my items is the pre-defined "fabric" which I find acceptable, yet I am unable to add "cotton" as a support word.  I chose to include this information on the "Notes & Histories" tab under the "Object Description" field as follows:  "Ladies cotton handkerchief...".  I do not feel this information should be buried so far into the records yet, similarly, I have objections to including it in the title description where it would be immediately visible merely because I think that would become cumbersome.

Interestingly, my biggest problem in OpenCollection is the lack of standardization.  While the free-text mode allows for easy entries and perhaps more thorough descriptions, this ability allows that metadata considered standard in one record might be forgotten in the next or similar record.

What I learned...

First I learned, after EmbARK did not number my records consecutively, that deciding upon a numbering system for Accession Numbers is critical.  I learned how important it is to have a good idea of the breadth of a current collection to adequately divide and describe it, and to allow for future growth.  I remain concerned that metadata is far too dependent on the person making the entries, with their accuracy, their selection of vocabulary for description, and their knowledge of the scope of the collection.  Finally, I learned that when so much information is unknown about an item, it makes it of questionable value to make this information available online to the public.  As you noted, if we cannot make this information "engaging to the public" (Marty, 2008), and my "collection" is certainly not engaging, it seems of little value that it should be digitized other than for inventory purposes.

References:

Cataloging Cultural Objects (2008).  COO selections.  Retrieved September 18, 2008, from:  http://vraweb.org/ccoweb/cco/selections.html

Marty, P. (2008, September 16).  Elluminate class session.

Thing 30 - Summary

Well, all done, here we are at the last “thing”, and what a relief!

I think what surprised me most about this program was how excited some people got over learning some of the tasks. They had never previously had exposure to some of the things we covered and were pretty into doing the exercises. It was good to see that.

I think the biggest change that I would suggest would be to distribute the more “fun” exercises a little more evenly throughout the program, and not have them clumped together at the end. Many of the exercises at the beginning were, quite frankly, boring and it would have helped to have something fun to do along the way.

My other main suggestion would be to not have so many “things.” We have so much to do in the course of a day or week, that this added work was difficult to manage. Yes, it got done but it was at the expense of other things.

Oh, I thought of one other thing! Please, please, please do not set up the spreadsheet system again. That was extremely painful. If you absolutely feel you have to set things up that way, at least divide it into maybe 5 different spreadsheet...one for numbers 1 - 50, 51-100, 101-150, etc. It was terribly time consuming trying to even get into it!

I suppose my participation in future discovery programs might depend on what the topic was. Of course my supervisor might require my participation, so it might not even be my decision! Online learning, while it might be the wave of the future, is not my preferred method. I know my learning style and preferences, and online just doesn’t adequately meet my needs.

Thing 29 - My Learning 2.0 Experience

Let’s see…I really liked Library Thing although I was already familiar with it. The image generators were lots of fun. Podcasts and youtube, not so much for me – maybe if I was creating them, I’d like them better? And the social networking sites are definitely not for me at this point, but it was nice to check them out a little bit.

This program did not affect or assist my lifelong learning goals to a great extent. I’m an avid learner on my own and I’m currently in school, so lots of learning going on in addition to, or in spite of, this program.

Thing 28 - Rollyo

This was pretty interesting. I didn’t choose to create my own since I’d like to learn a bit more about the tool and decide if it is of value to me before I set anything up. I do think there could be some really good uses for Rollyo – it could be a good tool to group together various sites that have good reading lists or certain databases that you use frequently. For some reason I see it of being more value to a school media specialist than I do for a public library, but maybe I haven’t given it enough thought!

Thing 27 - Library Thing

This was an easy assignment! I already had a Library Thing account and a number of books added. Actually I had to create the account for one of my classes at school.

I hope to continue using it as a way to track the books I’ve read, adding tags that are meaningful for me. This will be so helpful from a reader’s advisory standpoint. So many times I know just the perfect book to suggest to a customer, but for the life of me, can’t remember the title or author. I think using Library Thing in this manner will be so helpful.

I’ve changed my account over to private rather than public, so am not listing my link. But if you look at my blog, I added a widget to pull random books from my Library Thing library!

Thing 26 - Online image generators

These were so much fun! I really liked the one you supplied us, bighugelabs. I especially liked the Warholizer, the Framer, and even the Palette Generator (I can see this one as a real aid in decorating!).

Above is a picture of some flowers that I sent through the Warholizer!

There is one other one not listed on our thing page that I like. It is dumpr. Sounds kind of gross but one of their options takes your photo and turns it into a sketch! Very cool!

Thing 25 – Summary of podcasts and video

I really liked Denver Public Library’s use of podcasts to read some stories to children. What a fun option! Yet, given the choice I think it’s more important to read aloud and in person to a child and not stick them in front of a computer. Maybe these would be good for long trips – load them on to an MP3 player and you’re off!

I also looked at The Library Channel by Arizona State University. There was a good teaching opportunity with a podcast on how to do research online. As an occasional-use type of thing, this could be fun and useful. I don’t believe I’d enjoy the delivery on a regular basis, like in a weekly class.