Kentuckiana Work Group Minutes

Sept 25, 2002
CPE Office, Meeting Room A

Present: Bob Glass, Judith Partington, Margaret Roberst, Rae Shepard-Schlecter, Debbie Whalen, Amy Purcell, Mary Winter, Clara Keyes, Margie Plan, Eric Weig, Miko Pattie (briefly), Susan Brown

What have we done?
Eric reported on what we have accomplished. We have created extensible, standards based, subject focused digital libraary of Kentuckiana archival resources. We have 15 institutions, 4550 finding aids, 20,000 photographs, 300 volumes of electronic texts, and 46 audio files.

Future Directions
Improving the Web Interface
Eric reported that we will be migrating from Dynaweb to University of Michigan DLXS XML/SGML publishing and dataretrielval system. This system can handle it's own database of metadata so we will nolonger need to use SiteSearch for the database. The U Michgan software is more ADA and printer friendly, allows more indepth and faster searching, and is Open Archives Inintiative (OAI) compliant. The new system will be in full production in the Fall of 2003. As the changes are made we can look for more listserv traffic involving interface changes, especiall to the finding aids section. Basic site design and graphics will remain the same. Eric gave us a preview of the new software. One of the biggest changes will be to the look and feel of the electronic texts and finding aids. The multiple frames will be simplified and much easier to use.

KYVL/UK IMLS Grant
We have been awarded the grant! This will allow us to convert to digital format 150,000 pages of pre-1925 Kentucky history including some literature by Ky. authors. It will be a 2 year project with a start date of Oct. 1, 2002. There will be approximately 50 volumes per month released to the public starting in November 2002.

IMLS grant project with TN
In this two-year project, "Digital Access for WPA Photographs," the University of Tennessee, in partnership with the University of Kentucky's William S. Webb Museum of Anthropology and the University of Alabama's Alabama Museum of Natural History, will digitize and create an on-line database of information describing photographs taken by Works Progress Administration workers of archaeological projects conducted in preparation for Tennessee Valley Authority dam construction in the 1930s. The project will contribute ~2,500 additional KY photographs to the Kentuckiana Digital Library.

Current Projects to be Completed by Fall 2003
Frank Dunn Photograph Collection (Kentucky Historical Society) ~3,000 photos
Elmer Foote Lantern Slide Collection (Lexington Public Library) ~300 slides (already completed)
Edward Nollau Nitrate Collection (University of Kentucky) ~4,000 photos (already completed)
In Black and White Artificial Collection (University of Kentucky African-American Studies Dept.) ~150 photos (already completed)
Univ. Board of Trustees Minutes (University of Kentucky) ~30,000 pages

Refine Collection Survey
The collection survey was done two years ago and is what we are working off of for future projects. We need to take a look at it again to update the information and also to reconsider what is possible to do. We know more now than we did two years ago. Some questions are --

Eric will send an updated Collection Survey to the listserv for folks to comment on and add info to. We will continue to discuss this list.

Promote Use to K-12 Community
Consider establishing lesson plan materials or general guide for using the Kentuckiana Digital Library in the classroom. There was some discussion with the KYVL Kids and Teachers Workgroup about how this might happen. They suggested that the best way to accomplish this would be to pay a history teacher(s) to create lesson plans. We discussed how we might get lesson plans that are already out there. Kentucky Historical Society is conversing with teachers about this same topic in relation to their collections. There may be lots of space for collaboration with the K12 community, KHS, KATH and more. This will need to be an ongoing discussion and project that the new KYVL director will need to take on. Kentuckiana is linked form the new KYVL for Kids site

Establish Persistent URLs
As we go through this migration to the new software it would be easier if we had PURLs for the resources. Should we manage this centrally or should each institution manage their own? The group felt that it would be best to manage them centrally. The discussion then turned to whether or not the PURL should have a KYVL domain or the domains of each individual institution. The group felt that for ease a KYVL domain would be fine nut that we would like to look at how difficult it would be to have an institution's OCLC code as a subdomain. Eric will look into what can be done relatively easily from a technical stand point.

Improve Best Practice Guidelines
Eric asked for input on how the Best Practices Guidelines could be improved. The group felt that they were in pretty good shape and have been useful. Eric asks for any input and ideas on how to improve them especially regarding assistance with local digitization efforts. He will be working on them to include current standards. He will also add info. on migration plans for resources. Some work will be done concerning this issue as a part of the KYVL/UK IMLS grant.

Add More Locally Produced Projects
The group discussed how local projects might be supported. The feeling was that many were not doing local digitization because of a lack of personel and equipment. If things are digitized locally we would like to include the items in the Kentuckiana database so that endusers will have one place to start. We also discussed how we might link to loca projects.

Filson Club shared their First American West project that was done with the University of Chicago and is a part of American Memory.

Meetings
The group discussed meetings and decided that there should always be a Fall meeting once a year. A Spring meeting would also be good to have. We will not attempt to have this meeting in conjunction with any other meetings. If needed and depending on projects the group might meet more often.



Last updated: 9/26/02