Recently in collaboration Category

It is a commonly held notion that digitization work is done to support learning and to increase access to materials. Cited in the report mentioned below, nearly 80% of large academic libraries either already have or plan to have digital repositories. Sounds great, right?

Well hold on. Ithaka's 2006 Studies of Key Stakeholders in the Digital Transformation in Higher Education, presents research highlighting faculty views on the academic library. The report also tracks changes in their views over time (the years 2000, 2003, and most recently: 2006). This very interesting report reveals lots of thought-provoking topics for discussion; but the section on digital repositories was what drew my immediate attention and may be cause for some alarm. Especially this:

"Still, the vast majority - almost two-thirds - of faculty members are not even sure if their institution has a digital repository and less than a third of those aware of a campus digital repository report having ever contributed content to it. It is clear that these repositories have not become embedded in faculty workflows; in fact, many faculty are not even aware of their existence. Faculty of all different disciplines and across different size institutions were relatively equally unaware if their institution has a repository."

Clearly, this is a problem. Considering all the work that goes into repository creation, not to mention the implications for scholarly publishing and the important educational impact; this research certainly calls for a more targeted effort to not only make digital materials accessible -- but to encourage and support their use. Marketing of repositories, education about participation in repositories, and evaluation of repositories are all key areas that need future attention to change the course of the current statistics.

At UNLV, we are just beginning to tap into faculty participation through our subject liaisons and outreach. What techniques have others found to be most effective in this area?

This afternoon, I joined our Subject Liaison librarians at a meeting where I was asked to talk about potential roles they might play in working with faculty on digitization projects.
Here are some notes from my handout:

Roles
1. Main Contact with faculty- Role identifying collections, opportunities, proposing projects

2. Information Source- Role communicating campus/school issues, priorities, interests of faculty

3. Subject Specialist- Collection Development role: selection, identification, organization and description to help create useful metadata

4. Research Expert- Usability/Instruction Role: understanding of faculty and students research needs should be part of designing collection web pages, custom searches, and database design.

5. Cheerleader- Role promoting digital collections and the original primary resources, help provide context and relate digital collections to other resources.

6. Eye on the Marketplace- Role interacting with vendors, database providers, publishers of other online resources (including other digital collections).

Tips:
So you’ve heard tidbits about a potential project…what next?

Tip 1: Call your friendly Digitization Projects Librarian; for support, to brainstorm ideas, or for therapy!

Tip 2: Remember, exuberance shown by faculty at the onset, is a sign that you are going to need a thoughtful plan. There are many steps in planning and I can help get you on the right track.

Tip 3: Collaboration means that you will probably have to work with a variety of personalities along the way- it is important to talk to key people early on in the process. Most digital projects at our institution will involve at minimum 8-10 people. These people all have unique communications styles, work styles, and “agendas”.

Tip 4: Selection is a key part of being a librarian. Just as Liaisons work within a budget when selecting materials, we also need to be selective about what to digitize. Your help is requested in the process of determining what is really important; for instance, in that generously donated collection from the faculty member’s attic.

Tip 5: So what if you didn’t sign on as a cataloger? Metadata is not a four-letter word. Yes, it is important, and yes, you might just find yourself getting more intimately acquainted with it! Don’t be afraid, catalogers are standing by to help.

Tip 6: There is no perfect system. If you keep hearing your faculty member rave about a particular software program, rant about ours, or propose that the Libraries design a brand new open source solution, beware! No tool will be perfect but it is important for you to understand and advocate for what we’ve already got, if possible.

Tip 7: The project needs to end in your lifetime. Back to the planning thing…we need to be realistic and persuade faculty to see things our way. There is always time for Phase 2.

Digitization projects can only benefit from the involvement of subject liaisons and engaged faculty members, I hope these notes help those of you on the "front lines" get involved in the process!