Check out this great video posted on YouTube publicizing the Portal to Texas History . I found it via the Facebook Apps for Libraries group and when I went to grab the code to embed it, there had already been 819 views... and counting!
Results tagged “digital collections” from Digitization Projects at UNLV Libraries
Recently, I helped out with a presentation for our Hot Topics discussion group that involved coming up with some web use statistics. There were some very interesting ones that indicated that in addition to research help, which we expect the site is used for, unique materials are another key feature that consistently brings in users from the web. For instance, Howard Hughes has been and continues to be a popular search term that delivers users to our site!
Interestingly, the meeting coincided with the publishing of a timely article titled, Using Wikipedia to Extend Digital Collections, which details the efforts the University of Washington has made to include links to their digital collections in relevant Wikipedia articles. I think this is a great idea and I have added a general link to UNLV Digital Collections on Lied Library's Wikipedia page and also added specific collection links on pages like the Hoover Dam and Showgirl pages. Since many people now turn to Wikipedia as a first source for general information I will be monitoring web statistics to track whether these links show a new trend of users linking in from Wikipedia.
This interesting article from the New York Times discusses digitization issues and contemplates how online users may not be getting the whole picture if they only see history as it is represented by digitized materials.
NEW! The UNLV Libraries Showgirls Collection is now available at www.library.unlv.edu/showgirls/
The Showgirls collection documents the unique history of the Las Vegas entertainment industry. Many artists and entrepreneurs were influential in the birth of a Las Vegas icon: the showgirl. Showgirls features unique materials relating to costume design and theatrical productions associated with the history of Las Vegas entertainment.
The collection features costume design sketches, photographic prints, and illustrations featuring various productions and the theatrical artists who created them: including producers, dancers, and choreographers. There are 211 items selected from seven collections: the Donn Arden Collection, the Las Vegas Show Costumes Design Collection, the Las Vegas News Bureau Collection, the Jean Devlyn Design Scrapbook, the Harold Minsky Collection, the Sands Hotel Collection, and the José Luis Viñas Collection. All collections are housed at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in the Special Collections at the University Libraries.
Acknowledgements
Collection Development: Peter Michel, Director of Special Collections
Metadata Consultant: Kathy Rankin, Special Collections Cataloger
Project Team:
Cory Lampert, Digitization Projects Librarian
Annie Sattler, Digitization Technician/Indexer
Linda Ittenbach, Graphics/Multimedia Designer
John Fox, Information Systems Specialist
Kee Choi, Web Technical Support Manager
Michael Yunkin, Web Content/Metadata Manager
Hong Zhang, Application Developer
5 Weeks to a Social Library is an online course that seeks to explain and demystify social networking software and highlight the practical applications of these new technologies in libraries.
While I am not enrolled in the course, I have been watching to see how others are able to effectively incorporate blogs, wikis, Flickr, etc into a variety of useful library services. I have also joined the Social Library Lurkers wiki and will report on any interesting developments there.
One question I am considering is at what point a social networking site is appropriate and when a digital library is necessary. The two have different characteristics and functions, but both require planning and organization to be useful. This also raises the issue of defining the different strengths of each medium and distingushing between a formal curated digital collection, an institutional repository (where items may be uploaded, reused, and/or stored), and a spontaneous collaborative online project via a wiki? (And distinguishing where a librarian's skills might best be used.)
I have recently had conversations with faculty who are using social networking software to develop their own "archives" for collaborative work. These quick and dirty archives lack librarian-type organization and may not be built with standards in mind--but should we care? As users become more and more self-sufficient and networked, do libraries lose their voice in the conversation? If innovative models of scholarship using these tools take off, how can libraries adapt their role in the research process?
Five weeks may be long enough to become a social library, but much more time is needed to fully explore all the interesting issues that arise along with the trends.
