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Using LoC’s Viewshare to create a digital collection
We've mentioned the Library of Congress's Viewshare, a free and open tool for creating interfaces for digital cultural heritage collections, here before. Here is an interview with Jennifer Brancato digital archivist at East Texas Research Center, Stephen F. Austin State University, about her use of Viewshare to create a fascinating view of a set of digitized funeral records.
- Better Know a Viewshare: Exploring Texas Funeral Records, by Trevor Owens, The Signal Library of Congress Digital Preservation blog, (April 18th, 2012).
I love Viewshare! It is free and easy to use. No programming skills are required and there is no need to involve your IT staff. I think this tool is something any institution -- small, large, museum, library, archive -- could easily and quickly put into action. Viewshare made it possible to accomplish our goal of presenting our digital collections in a more dynamic and visual way.Continue reading
Indexing is political
One of my favorite publications is Lapham's Quarterly, "a magazine of history and ideas," created by Lewis H. Lapham, formerly editor of Harper's Magazine. The magazine's blog, Lapham's Quarterly: Roundtable has a fun article on back-of-book indexing.
- Back Matter, by Moira Donovan, Lapham's Quarterly: Roundtable (April 13, 2012).
The power of the index was twofold. Not only was it a microcosm of a more protracted body of knowledge, but it could also be intensely political. With the formalization of the profession in the eighteenth century, an author's choice of indexer required a discerning judge of human nature. One nineteenth century writer warned of books "whose indexes, compiled by unscrupulous enemies, have been their ruin." Although an index considered 'good' by the standards of the profession could never express any overtly political bent, a shadow of authorship is inevitably cast. In the same way that modern search engines filter content, the index shows that the organization of information, no matter how straightforward, is never neutral. Information retrieval may not change the content of the information sought, but it certainly affects how that information is viewed, shifting physical and psychological perceptions.Continue reading
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Goes Open Source
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced this week that when it creates software or contracts with others to create software, it will share the code with the public at no charge. "We use open-source software, and we do so because it helps us fulfill our mission."
- The CFPB’s source code policy: open and shared, By Matthew Burton, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau blog (Apr 6 2012). We're sharing our code for a few reasons: First, it is the right thing to do: the Bureau will use public dollars to create the source code, so the public should have access to that creation. Second, it gives the public a window into how a government agency conducts its business. Our job is to protect consumers and to regulate financial institutions, and every citizen deserves to know exactly how we perform those missions. Third, code sharing makes our products better. By letting the development community propose modifications , our software will become more stable, more secure, and more powerful with less time and expense from our team. Sharing our code positions us to maintain a technological pace that would otherwise be impossible for a government agency.
U.S. Navy’s History Program At Risk
U.S. Navy’s History Program "At Risk", by William Burr, Unredacted: The National Security Archive blog (April 13, 2012).
According to the report, released through a FOIA request by the National Security Archive, historical records and artifacts are housed in a precarious environment, and invaluable archival material is in danger. The History and Heritage Command's leadership has not been using due diligence to ensure that naval commands and fleets are creating historical records of their ongoing activities. Moreover, according to the IG report, the Navy's professional historians, archivists, curators, and librarians who work for the history command feel "disenfranchised" because of "their marginalization in decision processes and lack of advancement opportunity."Continue reading
LOCKSS and CLOCKSS: Interview
April 20, 2012 / Leave a comment
Here's a short, informative interview with Vicky Reich, director of the LOCKSS programme at Stanford University Libraries, and Randy Kiefer, executive director of the CLOCKSS archive:
- Digital preservation matters, Research Information (April/May 2012).
Excerpts: Continue reading →Continue Reading →