2015 TCDL Abstracts

Sunday, April 26

Pre-Conference Workshop: Karma: An Open Source Tool for Linked Data | 1:00 – 5:00 PM | Perry-Castaneda Library Room 4.102 (UT Austin)

Monday, April 27

Keynote Address (Amphitheater 204):

Libraries and the Long Now
Bess Sadler, Stanford University Libraries

Abstract
How do we build digital libraries that will last for centuries? How do we rise to the challenge of long term preservation of digital knowledge? The answers are more cultural than technical. Drawing on lessons learned from the Stanford Digital Repository and the Hydra digital library software project (http://projecthydra.org), as well as the philosophy of the Long Now Foundation (http://longnow.org), this talk will ask the audience to consider long-term thinking as it applies to digital libraries.

Keywords
digital libraries; Long Now Foundation; Hydra; open source; FOSS

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Session 1A (Amphitheater 204):

Held Captive by Copyright: Two Case Studies for Open Access
Elizabeth Gushee, Amy Rushing

Abstract
The Harry Ransom Center is among the nation’s finest research libraries; its extensive holdings of manuscript, text, and visual materials provide a unique record of the creative processes of thousands of writers and artists. In 2014, with the goal of promoting the use of its collections, the Center’s Digital Initiatives Working Group (DIAG) was tasked with developing an open access policy for its corpus of materials believed to be in the public domain. As part of their work, DIWG surveyed open access strategies across peer institutions, struggled to determine where to place the Center on the open access continuum, debated the effects of open access on the Center’s human and financial resources, and, ultimately, found the process of identifying archival materials as “public domain” far more slippery than originally expected.

In the fall of 2014, UTSA Libraries Special Collections held a department retreat to define strategic priorities for the year, and to discuss one of the thorniest issues facing repositories today: the permission to publish. Following a lawsuit against the University of Arkansas Special Collections and the subsequent urging of intellectual property guru Peter Hirtle that “it is time for repositories to get out of the “permission to publish” game and leave permissions to the copyright owner,” UTSA Special Collections decided to do just that. What we thought would remove barriers to our collections, however, has caused unanticipated issues regarding privacy, copyright, orphan works, and maintaining good donor relations.

Learn how two libraries within The University of Texas system has grappled with issues of open access, copyright, and restrictions related to the use of their materials.

Keywords
archives; open access; copyright; special collections

Beyond the Early Modern OCR Project
Matthew J. Christy, Elizabeth Grumbach, Laura Mandell

Abstract
The Early Modern OCR Project (eMOP) is a Mellon Foundation grant funded project, nearing completion at the Initiative for Digital Humanities, Media, and Culture (IDHMC) at Texas A&M University. eMOP’s goal is to improve optical character recognition (OCR) output for early modern printed English-language texts by utilizing and creating open-source tools and workflows. In addition to establishing an impressive OCR workflow infrastructure, eMOP has produced several open-source post-processing tools to evaluate and improve the text output of Google’s Tesseract OCR engine. Work on eMOP is nearing completion this summer, and the team is now looking beyond eMOP towards sharing its accrued knowledge and tools.

As a Mellon Foundation grant funded project, eMOP is tasked with sharing the results of its work whenever possible. This is in line with the IDHMC’s stated goals of aiding Humanities scholars with conducting digital research and/or creating digital outcomes of their research. As such, we are pursuing a variety of methods to disseminate the various products of our work.

• We are creating open-source code repositories for all software created by, and for, eMOP.
• We are creating an open-source repository of all eMOP typeface training created for the Tesseract OCR engine.
• We are creating a publicly available database of early modern printers, publishers and booksellers based on the imprint metadata of the entire Eighteenth-Century Collection Online (ECCO) and Early English Books Online (EEBO) proprietary collections.
• We are making the recently released Phase I hand-transcriptions of EEBO by the Text Creation Partnership (TCP), available for full-text searching via the Advanced Research Consortium’s (ARC’s) 18thConnect website.
• We are making the first-ever-produced OCR transcriptions of the entire EEBO catalog available via 18thConnect’s online crowd-sourced transcript correction tool, TypeWright. TypeWright will provide free access to the EEBO transcriptions, and a text or XML version of that corrected transcription for anyone who corrects an entire document.

In addition, the eMOP team is committed to continuously improving the accuracy and robustness of our workflow. We are currently in discussion with, or actively engaged in, partnerships with teams at Notre Dame, Penn State, and the University of Texas to apply eMOP’s workflow to different collections. These partnerships will provide us with the ability to improve eMOP by:

• adding more OCR engines to our workflow in addition to Tesseract, currently being used;
• expanding our collected dictionaries beyond the current early modern English used with eMOP;
  expanding our database of google-3grams beyond the early modern period to aid in post-processing OCR correction of documents outside of the early modern period; expanding our printers & publishers database to include data from outside of the ECCO and EEBO collections.

We are proud of the work we have done with eMOP and are eager to continue to find ways to build upon what we have accomplished. We feel that much of our work would be of interest to libraries and librarians. We look forward to sharing the outcomes of eMOP and our vision for future work with the participants at TCDL this April.

Keywords
ocr; digitization; early modern; eebo; ecco; tcp; emop

Session 1B (Classroom 103):

DuraCloud and Flexible Digital Preservation at the Texas Digital Library
Ryan J. Steans, Gad Krumholz, Debra Hanken Kurtz

Abstract
The Texas Digital Library is now offering preservation service via DuraCloud™, an open source technology developed by DuraSpace. In 2014, the membership of the TDL formed a Working Group to explore the software and define best practices, given the diverse approaches to the issue of preservation. In January 2015 we first announced the service and made the service available in Spring of 2015.

In this presentation, the Texas Digital Library will describe how our implementation of the DuraCloud™ software provides multiple upload options for preservationists through a selection of interfaces and tools intended to serve a variety of audiences, from librarians at their desktop to server administrators working at the command line. We will describe how DuraCloud™@TDL fits in to varying environments as a primary or third party preservation solution, and we will also define the array of options for durable, reliable storage infrastructure for preservationists in the care of the unique collections of their institutions.

Looking forward, TDL will discuss the issues regarding preservation management and challenges we are addressing with users such as format management and metadata management within DuraCloud™@TDL. TDL will present planned next steps for additional services such as integration of DuraCloud™@TDL with DSpace, using DuraCloud™ as a platform for utilization of the Digital Preservation Network, and the potential for using DuraCloud™ to serve content to the public.

We will be joined by representatives of DuraSpace who will present information about the ongoing development of DuraCloud™as well as future plans for DuraCloud features/functionality and integrations. In addition, TDL and DuraSpace will discuss how TDL community activities tie to the broader trends of DuraCloud customer use and the joint efforts between the two organizations to create resources and best practices around preserving content in a cloud environment. Lastly, ways in which TDL and others can assist development as part of the DuraCloud user-base and the overall DuraSpace community will be highlighted.

Keywords
digital preservation; preservation; duraspace; cloud archiving

Using the DuraCloud REST interface
Michael W. Bolton

Abstract
DuraSpace has developed a robust REST interface for managing data in a DuraCloud instance and TDL has implemented that interface in the TDL instances. Developing scripts and programs that use this interface, customers can develop comprehensive reporting and data management applications. This presentation will introduce the audience to the the REST interface and provide several examples of how it can be used to manage data in the TDL cloud.

Keywords
REST; DuraCloud

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Session 2A (Amphitheater 204):

This “24×7” session consists of 7-minute presentations, each comprising no more than 24 slides.

Accessing the Making Cancer History Voices Oral History Collection
Jose Javier Garza

Abstract
The Historical Resources Center of the UT MD Anderson Cancer Center has been collecting oral history interviews since 2000. With over sixty participants and several hundred hours of interview footage, the archives is using the Oral History Metadata Synchronizer (OHMS) and CONTENTdm (CDM) to facilitate access to the interview collection. Since 2009, the archives began experimenting with various platforms to ensure access to both audio and text version of the oral history interviews while protecting the privacy of MD Anderson faculty, staff, and patients. The entire oral history collection is described using an internal coding scheme to allow cross-referencing among key topics in the interviews. After consideration, the archives believes that combination of OHMS as the delivery platform and CDM as the searching tool will create a searchable ecosystem that provides access to the interviews will preserving internal metadata structure of the interviews.

Keywords
oral history; metadata; digital archives

Collaboration in Education: Creating a Searchable Database for Dissertations
Sarah Engledow Brown

Abstract
Texas A&M University Corpus Christi is a member of the Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate. This is a consortium of colleges who offer the Ed.D. degree. As part of the CPED, the College of Education asked me to help create a database of dissertations for this project using our Institutional Repository. In this presentation, I describe the process of putting this project together, including challenges and victories, from the beginning of the project to its publication.

Abstract
In the spring of 2013, Newton Gresham Library at Sam Houston State University sought ways to highlight its large collection of modern and traditional Mexican masks. Representations of each mask had been uploaded to the OCLC hosted instance of ContentDM. While the display was satisfactory, the staff at Newton Gresham Library were looking for something extra. Recommended by a colleague, Newton Gresham Library used the Library of Congress based product Viewshare to highlight its Mexican mask collection.

In this presentation we will discuss our use of Viewshare. We will highlight how we used some of the Viewshare features to exploit our metadata. We will discuss the workflow that we used and helpful resources that we found along the way. We will conclude the presentation by discussing some of the issues that we faced during the process.

Keywords
viewshare; digital collections; mapping

Austin Music Documentation Initiative Portal
Hannah Rainey, Grace Atkins, Jeremy Selvidge

Abstract
Austin, Texas is famous for a thriving music scene. The contemporary scene is apparent to all who travel and move to Austin, yet the rich history and development of the music scene is hidden in various private and public collections. The Austin Music Documentation Initiative (AMDI) intends to increase access and awareness of the music history of Austin by providing a portal through which organizations and individuals can contribute metadata and thumbnails of Austin music history related materials. Under the guidance of the digital archivist at the Perry-Castaneda Library, students from the Spring 2015 section of Digital Libraries at the UT iSchool will create a proof of concept cataloging app for the AMDI. The proof of concept app will be used in support of grant applications. The end goal for this project will include a metadata schema, as well as a form and workflow for uploading metadata to a central directory.

Keywords
metadata; UT iSchool; Digital Libraries; Austin Music Documentation Initiative; students

Archivematica: More human than robot
Courtney Mumma

Abstract
This talk will discuss workflows and preservation planning in Archivematica. Its focus will be on ways that Artefactual develops the system to allow for automation of as much as possible without overlooking tasks and decisions which require essential professional human intervention.

Keywords
digital preservation; archives; workflows

The Digital Dilemma: Examining the Practicality of Digital Forensics in Cultural Institutions
Angelique K. Kelley

Abstract
In today’s world, technology has become a vital component of our day-to-day lives; impacting everything from the pictures we take to the ways we communicate to the methods we use to safeguard important pieces of data. It should therefore come as no surprise that many cultural institutions, including galleries, libraries, archives, and museums, have been forced to adapt not only their collection policies but also their preservation methods to accommodate the ever-changing technologies and formats making their way into permanent collections. One technique that has been gaining popularity in recent years is digital forensics, a criminal science approach with a surprising correlation to the needs of cultural institutions with digital content. While digital forensics and cultural institutions share a common need for legal document authentication and controlled archival storage, the question remains: how practical are these techniques for collecting institutions outside of government archives? Is digital forensics to become accepted archival management practice, or are cultural institutions likely to continue their current practices for handling digital materials while still searching for a better solution?

These questions will be explored through an analysis and comparison of BitCurator and Archivematica, common digital forensics software packages currently in use within many cultural institutions. This presentation will review personal experiences with these programs gained through a Fall 2014 internship with the University of Texas at San Antonio Libraries, Special Collections. This internship was undertaken as part of the internship and research writing requirements of the Certificate in Digital Curation program offered at the Johns Hopkins University. Additionally, assessments of current literature on the topic will be evaluated in order to give a big picture image of how digital forensics might be utilized, so that cultural institution personnel can better assess the practicality of digital forensics within any given collection.

Keywords
digital forensics

“The sight of your letter pricks my heart through”: Digitizing the Brownings Correspondence at the Harry Ransom Center
Susan Floyd

Abstract
This presentation will hit upon several of the conference’s broad areas of concern, highlighting unexpected finds within these important collection materials, institutional partnerships, and “showing off a digital project.” It will include slides describing our digitization process, including identifying relevant collection items, developing a project workflow with Baylor, metadata and scanning trouble-shooting, and a consideration of intellectual and archival issues encountered during the project.

Keywords
digital humanities; archives; ContentDM; collaboration; English literature

Session 2B (Classroom 103):

Using Omeka and Neatline to Build an Interactive Campus Map
Max King, Adam Strohm

Abstract
The Illinois Institute of Technology campus was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2005, and contains a building, Mies van der Rohe’s S.R. Crown Hall, that was named a National Historic Landmark in 2001. Our goal was to showcase the campus, its architecture, and the university’s history via a dynamic digital resource. This talk covers the conception, development, and design of the campus map site that was built using Omeka, along with the Neatline, Waypoints and Simile Timeline plugins, to allow users to explore the campus and see how it has changed over the institution’s 125 year history.

We’ll discuss the entire arc of the project, including selecting software, identifying hardware needs,  setting project goals, determining our audience, and working with university stakeholders. We’ll delve into our decision-making process regarding content selection and presentation,  including the juggling act of designing for mobile mapping functionality without sacrificing desktop design. We’ll also discuss the challenge of building a site that can be developed iteratively, with an eye towards future enhancement and sustainability.

Creating a digital resource of this nature is challenge enough in and of itself, but doing so as a two-person team of relative newcomers, at a university library without dedicated programmers on staff, ups the ante considerably. Attendees will leave this presentation not just with an understanding of our project, but with suggestions on how to approach challenging digital projects at their own institution.

Keywords
Digital; collections; archives; mapping; Omeka; neatline

Enhancing Access to UT Libraries Digital Oral History Collections as a Mode of Undergraduate Education: A Partnership Among Southwestern University, the Texas After Violence Project, and the Human Rights Documentation Initiative
Charlotte Nunes

Abstract
In this presentation I will report on a unique collaboration among an undergraduate English class at Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, the Texas After Violence Project (TAVP), and the UT Libraries Human Rights Documentation Initiative (HRDI).  As the instructor of “English 10-714: Freedom and Imprisonment in the American Literary Tradition: A Multidisciplinary Approach,” I coordinate with representatives of the TAVP and the HRDI to provide students in the class with opportunities to learn about digital archives by building them.  The TAVP is an Austin-based non-profit that collects oral histories from people across Texas who have been affected by the death penalty; these audiovisual oral histories are archived at the HRDI, which provides server space for large collections of audiovisual primary source material pertaining to issues of human rights internationally.  In the process of transcribing and auditing oral history interviews, creating abstracts and tables of contents for them, and digitally archiving the interviews at the HRDI using GLIFOS software, students in the class practice skills that are widely valued across the liberal arts: identifying and summarizing main ideas, researching context, recognizing the contingency of knowledge, and processing multiple divergent perspectives.  At the same time, students substantively contribute to the programming objectives of the TAVP by enhancing public access to oral history interviews at the HRDI.  My presentation will thus contribute to ongoing conversations about the transformative potential of digital libraries and archives for undergraduate education, while also pointing out the generative potential of undergraduate classes to enhance access to significant digital collections.

Keywords
digital archives; digital libraries; American literature; digital humanities; community engagement; oral history

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Session 3A (Amphitheater 204):

Emerging Trends and Evolving Issues in Open Access and Scholarly Communications
Daniel Gelaw Alemneh, Kris Helge, Ahmet (Meti) Tmava, Ida Fajar Priyanto

Abstract
The manner in which scholarly research is conducted is changing rapidly. As researchers continue to produce and share a wide variety of research outputs and scholarly contributions, in new ways, understanding of the factors influencing adoption, how they are being used, their implications for research practices and policy remains limited.

This presentation will provide an overview of emerging trends in scholarly communication and the roles of diverse stakeholders ranging from individual researchers, scholars, and library and information professionals to institutions, publishers and professional societies. In light of the increasingly global Open Access movement and the evolving landscape of Scholarly Communication, the panelist will share their preliminary findings of their doctoral researches and further speculate the implication of open educational resources on copyrights, access, and preservation at global level.

Keywords
Open Access; Scholarly Communications; open educational resources; institutional repositories; digital libraries; copyrights

Introducing the Expanding Dataverse
Elizabeth Quigley

Abstract
The Dataverse Project started in 2006 at Harvard’s Institute for Quantitative Social Science as an open­ source software application to share, cite and archive data. From its beginnings, Dataverse (then referred as the ‘Dataverse Network’) has provided a robust infrastructure for data stewards to host and archive data, while offering researchers an easy way to share and get credit for their data. Since then, there are now ten Dataverse repositories that share metadata with each other hosted in institutions around the world, which together serve more than 55,000 datasets with 750,000 data files (dataverse.org). These Dataverse repositories are using the Dataverse software in a variety of ways, from supporting existing large data archives to building institutional or public repositories. One of these Dataverse repositories is the Harvard Dataverse, that alone hosts more than 800 dataverses (containers of datasets) owned and managed by either researchers, research groups, organizations, departments or journals. The Harvard Dataverse has so far served more than a million downloads of its datasets, allowing researchers around the world to reuse the data, discover new findings, and extend or verify previous work. While the Dataverse project started from the social sciences for the social sciences, it has now expanded to benefit a wide range of disciplines and scientific domains (astronomy, life sciences, etc) leveraging our progress in the social science domain to define and enhance data publishing across all research communities. In particular, as part of the new Dataverse release (v4.0), we have evaluated the features needed in data publishing so data can be properly shared, found, accessed and reused. This presentation will provide some background information on the Dataverse’s history and showcase the new features we have developed in version 4.0 for researchers.

Keywords
Dataverse

Session 3B (Classroom 103):

Hitting the Road Towards a Greater Digital Destination: Evaluating and Testing DAMS at the University of Houston Libraries
Santi Thompson, Valerie Prilop, Rachel Vacek, Sean Watkins, Andrew Weidner, Annie Wu

Abstract
Since 2009, the University of Houston (UH) Libraries has digitized tens of thousands of rare and unique items and made them available for research through its UH Digital Library (UHDL) based on CONTENTdm.  Six years later, the need for a digital asset management system (DAMS) that can facilitate large scale digitization, provide innovative features for users, and offer more efficient workflows  for librarians and staff has emerged. To address these needs, UH Libraries formed the DAMS Task Force in the summer of 2014. The group’s goal was to identify a system that can support the growing expectations of the UHDL.

This presentation will focus on the two core activities, needs assessment and DAMS evaluation, that the task force completed. The key portions of the needs assessment include: the process of literature review on DAMS evaluation and migration; research on tools utilized by peer institutions; and library stakeholder interviews. The presentation will then cover how task force members compiled the results of the assessment to establish DAMS evaluation criteria. The evaluation process consisted of an environmental scan of possible DAMS to test, the creation of criteria to narrow the list of DAMS down for in-depth testing, and the comprehensive testing of the DSpace and Fedora systems.

The presentation will conclude with a discussion of the task force’s results as well as the lessons learned from the research and evaluation process. It will also reflect on the important role that collaboration, project management, and strategic planning played in this team-based approach to DAMS selection.

Automation, Virtualization, and Integration of a Digital Repository Server Architecture or How to Deploy Three Production DSpaces in One Night and Be Home for Dinner
James Creel, John Micah Cooper, Jeremy Huff

Abstract
Texas A&M University Libraries have operated a DSpace repository since the year 2004.  For most of this period, the public-facing production server ran on dedicated hardware and was installed by hand by a system administrator using numerous tweaks for the local architecture. DSpace requires several inter-dependent sub-applications including a user interface (XMLUI or JSPUI), a Solr indexer, an OAI service, and a handle server.  Even after careful pre-production releases and testing, redeployments can take all night and lead to days or weeks of bug fixing.

Yet migrations and upgrades are inevitable and desirable.  The open-source community is constantly implementing new features.  In addition, with usage and content submission, a production DSpace instance will eventually outgrow its server hardware and need to be redeployed.

With a diversity of special requirements from repository stakeholders, TAMU Libraries has a history of heavy customization of DSpace.   An abridged list of customizations includes a search interface for ETDs, additional options for item licensing, request a copy for restricted items, an expanding/collapsing browser for the community/collection hierarchy, and improvements to administrative views, all presented with a branded theme.  These customizations touch on every level of the code, from the java backend to the XML front-ends.

Although DSpace-related software development at TAMU produced important contributions early on, most notably the XMLUI front-end (aka Manakin), over the years local demands for it new features fast outweighed the imperative to package features for submission back to the core DSpace code.  Such demands proved shortsighted, as DSpace upgrades became increasingly difficult and fraught as customization increased.  Lead times for redeployments grew intolerable, as developers were forced with each upgrade to rewrite customizations and examine thousands of lines of configuration.

Recently, three factors have brought about a profound improvement in developers’ efficiency at TAMU Libraries – but not without cost.  The Libraries’ system administration leadership saw a need to automate server deployment tasks, and in a related initiative, to move to a virtualized server infrastructure whereby server machines are deployed to commodified and generic virtual machines using resources from a transparently allocated hardware pool.  Finally, since DSpace 3.x, the official DSpace code has been refactored in such a way as to facilitate customization with independent sub-modules that need not disturb the build structure.  The repayment of this technical debt has required about a year, during which time customers made do with very little new feature development.  However, having returned to a standard build with modular customizations, we are now better equipped to submit our customizations back to the community.

Our software for build automation is the Chef tool, a Ruby based framework that encapsulates a multitude of common deployment functions like writing and templating files, managing users and permissions, and enabling services.  For our virtualization infrastructure, we started on OpenStack, and have recently migrated to vmware.

In this talk, we will recount experiences with systems and customers during our lengthy transition to automation and virtualization and conclude with some recent success stories about production DSpace deployments.

Keywords
DSpace; automation; virtualization; Chef; continuous integration; vmware; virtual machines

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Closing Plenary 24×7 (Amphitheater 204)

This “24×7” session consists of 7-minute presentations, each comprising no more than 24 slides.

Chronicling Space Shuttle Columbia through Digital Archives
Corrie Marsh

Abstract
Twelve years ago, on February 1, 2003, the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated over East Texas and Louisiana.  This presentation will highlight how the Stephen F. Austin State University community was a key member of the search and recovery operations following the disaster.

The Center for Digital Scholarship created digital documentation for the remembrances of University participants. Research, geospatial mapping, first responder accounts, artwork, images, and personal commentaries have been captured digitally to provide lasting resources for the study of the NASA Space Shuttle Program that ended in 2011.

Keywords
digital archives; space shuttle columbia; oral histories; nasa

The Sweet Smell (and Taste) of Success: Incentivizing ORCID ID Sign-Ups Among Faculty and Graduate Students
Christina Chan-Park, Billie Peterson-Lugo

Abstract
ORCID identifiers (ORCID iDs) are a persistent unique identifier for researchers and scholars and enable the automation of links to research objects such as publications, grants, presentations, data, patents and more — a DOI for researchers and scholars.  ORCID iDs also help research offices oversee the research activities of campus scholars.  However, in order to reap the benefits of having a unique identifier, most scholars must sign up individually for a free ORCID iD.  As ORCID iDs become the de rigueur id, institutions have an increased need for a record of their researchers’ ORCID iDs, and many who have the resources have joined as institutional members which allows them both to assign ORCID iDs and to mine information from the ORCID registry.

For example, in 2014 personnel at the Texas A&M libraries implemented a system, using the Vireo electronic theses and dissertations software, to mint ORCID iDs for more than 10,000 graduate students. They also assign ORCID iDs to any faculty who request one. (http://tinyurl.com/mdbr8x5)

*Raise awareness of ORCID iDs and their benefits with Baylor faculty and graduate students; and

*Have at least 300 Baylor faculty or graduate students (10% of the research population) establish their ORCID iDs.

We believe that the concepts and processes we used for our ORCID campaign can be transferred to other institutions that face comparable resource challenges.  This 24×7 presentation will cover the processes (and incentives) we used during our Spring 2015 campaign to entice faculty and graduate students to obtain ORCID iDs and to help them add content to their ORCID accounts.  In addition, we will analyze the perceived success of the campaign and discuss our plans and ideas to keep the momentum going.

Keywords
ORCID; identifiers; marketing; outreach

Elements of Successful Online Journal Publishing
Dillon Wackerman, Phil Reynolds

Abstract
At the Center for Digital Scholarship (CDS) at Stephen F. Austin State University (SFASU), we have discovered that there are many complex details to launching a successful online journal-publishing program. In our lead role at SFASU, we have streamlined implementation to make this a relatively straightforward process for the journal managers and editors.

Most of the journal editors with whom we currently work are experienced authors and reviewers, but they rely upon us to assist them with the design, implementation and editorial processes. Following this, we have found it beneficial to provide comprehensive and personalized customer support and training. Some of these complex details that need our active support include layout and design, management, training and the creation of policies and procedures. Through practical experience, the CDS has learned how to guide the process and decisions and take an active role in the success of the online journal-publishing program.

Keywords
open access; journals; online publishing

Archiving in the Cloud: Tackling Security, Scale and Savings
Alex Corley

Abstract
With an ever-increasing volume of digital records and compliance requirements, digital archiving is shifting from a more routine approach to delivering strategic value across public sector organizations. Mission critical programs across government, education and nonprofits are looking for ways to keep data content (scientific, video, photography, historic, courts, libraries) intact and provide evidence of events that transpired for mission critical evidentiary based objectives or for research programs that must be accessed to drive scientific breakthroughs. This session will provide a technical overview of digital archiving on the cloud and highlight how organizations like the State of Michigan, University of AZ, UT Austin Library and others are using the cloud for long term digital preservation and some specific examples of how and why this has optimized their environments.

Keywords
digital archiving; digital preservation; cloud storage

Digitization Project Rubric
Marcia McIntosh, Derek Rankins

Abstract
The ability to accurately estimate the completion of a digitization project is highly valuable when working with multiple collections, stakeholders, and deadlines.  Unfortunately, when encountering a wide variety of objects in differing quantities, any estimate generated can tend more towards intuition than be based on an accurate knowledge of digitization speeds or workflow capacity. The Project Completion Rubric developed at the University of North Texas Digital Projects Unit attempts to provide these more realistic pieces for estimating project completion.  This presentation will discuss the first phase of the rubric’s creation: estimating digitization.

Keywords
digitization; project management

Teaching Digital Curation: Access and Preservation
Danielle Cunniff Plumer

Abstract
Digital curation is a broad concept. Many institutions focus on the preservation aspect of the curation lifecycle; others lean toward access and use. This presentation will describe graduate courses addressing both aspects of curation, including the development of a sequence of courses at the University of North Texas College of Information as part of the iCAMP project (http://icamp.unt.edu) and a course on “Digital Public History” offered at Texas State University in Fall 2014. It will argue that a closer relationship between access and preservation must be explored in education as in practice to support the complete spectrum of digital curation.

Keywords
digital curation; digital preservation; Omeka; instruction

REVEAL: Read and View English and American Literature
Kristin Law

Abstract
While the Harry Ransom Center holds a vast collection of manuscripts, rare books, photographs, and works of art, our digital collections website displays only a fraction of these treasures. This past year we launched a one-year initiative designed to expand access to our archival collections by dramatically increasing the number of items available for online viewing. The REVEAL project (REad and View English and American Literature) entails digitizing entire manuscript collections, reusing descriptive metadata from finding aids, and delivering this content online through CONTENTdm.

When the project is completed in the spring of 2015, we expect to have created over 20,000 images from 25 literary manuscript collections, which will nearly double the number of images available to our online researchers. The collections were drawn from our extensive British and American literature holdings, and include work from authors such as Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Joseph Conrad, Zane Grey, Violet Hunt, Washington Irving, Christina Rossetti, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and Oscar Wilde. Materials range from loose manuscripts to correspondence, bound volumes, photographs, scrapbooks, galley proofs, and even a few unusual items.

In the past, our digital collections were often created by carefully selecting items and manually producing descriptive metadata. The REVEAL project instead developed a workflow for large-scale digitization of complete collections, building upon previous cataloging work. In this presentation we will discuss our process for re-formatting finding aids into metadata and we will describe our workflows for mass digitization and processing of image files. By sharing the outcomes of challenges we encountered and lessons learned along the way, we hope to provide ideas for other institutions who may be considering undertaking similar initiatives.

Keywords
archives; digitization; CONTENTdm

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Workshops and Special Events

Archivematica Birds-of-a-Feather Session
Courtney Mumma

Abstract
This birds-of-a-feather will give attendees an opportunity to talk with other users and potential users of the Archivematica digital preservation system. Several Texas university libraries and archives have been testing and implementing Archivematica, including the first hosted user, UTSA. Archivematica analyst and community manager, Courtney Mumma, will be in attendance to answer questions, demonstrate parts of the system by request, and discuss upcoming development plans.

Hands on Metadata Workshop
Hannah Tarver

Abstract
This workshop will provide an opportunity to create live metadata records in The Portal to Texas History. During the workshop, participants will open editing accounts and complete records for patents in our Texas Patents Collection (http://texashistory.unt.edu/explore/collections/TXPT/) using extensive web-based documentation and instructions. Participants will gain experience creating metadata records according to UNT Libraries’ standards and using a metadata editing interface. No prior experience is necessary. Participants will be able to use classroom computers with an Internet connection.

Sharing Your Data with Dataverse (v.4.0) Tutorial
Elizabeth Quigley

Abstract
The Dataverse Project started in 2006 at Harvard’s Institute for Quantitative Social Science as an open source software application to share, cite and archive data. From its beginnings, Dataverse has provided a robust infrastructure for data stewards to host and archive data, while offering researchers an easy way to share and get credit for their data. The Dataverse project, started as a repository for social sciences data, has now expanded to benefit a wide range of disciplines and scientific domains (astronomy, life sciences, etc.) leveraging our progress in the social science domain to define and enhance data publishing across all research communities. In particular, as part of the new Dataverse release (v4.0), we have evaluated the features needed in data publishing so data can be properly shared, found, accessed and reused.

This tutorial will primarily focus on demonstrating how users can deposit, organize, share and curate their research data in version 4.0 of Dataverse.

Attendees should bring a laptop to be able to try out Dataverse 4.0 during the tutorial. Wireless internet access will be available.

Fedora 4 Workshop
David Wilcox, Andrew Woods

Abstract
Fedora is a flexible, extensible repository platform for the preservation, management, and dissemination of digital content. Fedora 4, the newly released, revitalized version of Fedora, introduces a host of new features and functionality that both new and existing Fedora users will be interested in learning about and experiencing first-hand. This workshop will provide an introduction to and overview of Fedora 4, with a focus on the latest features. Fedora 4 is a Linked Data Platform server, so we will also discuss the benefits and opportunities of linked data. Finally, attendees will participate in a hands-on session that will give them a chance to install, configure, and explore Fedora 4 by following step-by-step instructions. Attendees should bring laptops; wireless Internet access will be available.

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Wednesday, April 29

Islandora for Repository Administrators

Abstract
Islandora is a digital asset management system that provides out-of-the-box repository solutions (Solution Packs) for a wide range of digital collections and research domains. Islandora combines the Drupal CMS and Fedora Commons repository software, together with additional open source applications (including Solr), to deliver a wide range of functionality. The proposed workshop will provide users with information about the Islandora software framework, and allow users to test drive a full Islandora installation using local virtual machines or the online Islandora sandbox.

After the system overview the instructor will lead participants through the basic functions of an Islandora installation, including new features introduced over the past year. The instructors will make themselves available for the 2nd half of the session and throughout the conference for additional advice/information on running Islandora.

This session is intended for all audiences and levels. No prior knowledge of Islandora or repositories is required. If users wish, they can come with digital objects they would like to add (PDF or image collections preferred) and describe in a repository, although sample collections will be provided.

The session will end with a brief description of how the community can participate in the development of the Islandora ecosystem, including code contributions, content models, documentation and more.

Learning Outcomes

• Users can create a collection in Islandora, upload objects to the collection, and manage the collection using a suite of collection management tools.
• Users understand basic Islandora technologies, and sources for support and additional documentation.
• Users understand and have the opportunity to utilize collaborative research features in a repository.

Islandora for Repository Developers

Abstract
Islandora is a digital asset management system that provides out-of-the-box repository solutions (Solution Packs) for a wide range of digital collections and research domains. Islandora combines the Drupal CMS and Fedora Commons repository software, together with additional open source applications (including Solr), to deliver a wide range of functionality. The proposed workshop will give participants a chance to explore some of the advanced features of Islandora, including the Solr client and the XML Form Builder.

After a brief system overview, the instructors will lead participants through the basic steps of configuring the Solr module and conducting repository searches. This will be followed by more advanced Solr configuration and usage. The instructors will make themselves available during the session and throughout the conference for additional advice/information on configuring and using Solr.

The second half of the workshop will focus on creating and editing metadata forms using XML Form Builder. Participants will clone an existing metadata form, and the instructors will guide them through the process of customizing that form to suit various needs.

This session is intended for users who are already familiar with the basic functionality of Islandora, though no prior experience with the Solr client or XML Form Builder is required.

The session will end with a brief description of the resources available to those looking for more information on Solr, XML Form Builder, and other advanced Islandora technologies. Options for community participation in Islandora development, including customizations, code contributions, and documentation, will also be discussed.

Learning Outcomes

• Users understand the basic Solr and XML Form Builder technologies as they relate to Islandora, and sources for support and additional documentation.
• Users can configure a basic Solr installation (using Islandora) and conduct searches of repository content.
• Users are introduced to some of the ways Solr can be customized to suit the needs of their own collections.
• Users can clone and edit a metadata form using XML Form Builder.

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Poster Presentation Abstracts

In Memoriam: Challenges on Researching Deceased Veterans
Jeff Downing

Abstract
As part of the UTA Library Special Collections oral history project, Maverick Veterans’ Voices, project leaders created an “In Memoriam” section to honor UTA-affiliated solders who died in service. This poster describes the process for and challenges of finding information on those student soldiers, from World War II through the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq.

• When and where were they born?
• When were they at UTA, did they graduate?
• Could we find photos from old yearbooks or other sources?
• How and where did they die and where are they buried?
• What was their military rank?
• What honors and medals were awarded to them?

Also included are ideas on expanding the site to become a digital humanities project.

Keywords
oral histories; archives; research; military

Putting the Humanity in Digital Humanities Social Media
Eric S. Ames

Abstract
Everyone knows it’s a good idea to create social media outlets to showcase digital humanities materials, but does the sheer weight of available options competing for users’ attention make it seem impossible to craft an informative account with a unique identity? How can we use computer-driven outreach tools to convey the essential humanness behind the materials we’re promoting? And is it a bad idea to let your Tumblr account have its own sense of humor?

This poster will explore the ways Baylor University’s Digital Projects Group has created several popular and effective social media accounts, including two specialized Twitter accounts (@GWTruettSermons and @BUDailyHistory), a well-trafficked, in-depth blog (http://blogs.baylor.edu/digitalcollections) and a slightly irreverent, increasingly popular (currently at 4,000 followers) Tumblr microblog (http://baylordigitalcollections.tumblr.com/). Eric S. Ames, Curator of Digital Collections, will discuss crafting unique personalities for social media outlets, tailoring digital humanities resources to specific outreach tools and navigating the perilous waters of presenting accurate information in an engaging manner.

Keywords
digital humanities; social media; curation

Search as Research: Big Data Infrastructure Visualization Application
Timothy Duguid

Abstract
Despite its age, sites such as Yahoo, Google, and Bing continue to use lists of links to display their search results. Doubtless these companies have conducted usability studies that show the utility of paginated lists, as they have focused their attention on optimizing their search algorithms to ensure that the most relevant search results appear at the top or within the first couple of pages of search results. After all, few people will view more than 3-5 pages of Google search returns, let alone the millions of other results from any particular enquiry. This has given rise to Search Engine Optimization companies who work to ensure that their clients are listed at the top of those search results. Therefore, the most well-funded – not necessarily the most relevant – sites appear at the top of many internet searches. Paginated lists are even less helpful in conducting original research or for dealing with questions that may have multiple answers. For original research, it is often the statistically unremarkable result that is most noteworthy. And, it is impossible to know if all the correct answers have been found unless a user is willing to sift through those millions of returns.

Though its dataset is not as substantial as that of Google, Yahoo, or Bing, the Advanced Research Consortium (ARC) has compiled a catalog of humanities-related digital artifacts that presently consists of 1.6 items dating from the medieval period to the twentieth century. Some of these include full text transcriptions and optical character recognition from books and pamphlets. Thanks to the efforts of the Early Modern OCR Project, or eMOP at Texas A&M University, that number will expand to include full-text transcriptions of the EEBO and ECCO corpuses. This dataset has been compiled to facilitate research, and particularly to encourage scholars to develop and evaluate new kinds of research questions.  Given that paginated lists are not particularly helpful for this kind of research, ARC has developed a visual interface of its faceted catalog. This poster examines ARC’s visual search interface, called Big Data Infrastructure Visualization Application (BigDIVA), as one method of conducting research on humanities datasets. It shows how BigDIVA optimizes the search process by presenting users with a faceted visualization of all of their results. The poster argues that this is preferable to proprietary searches that rely on site rankings and search algorithms because the BigDIVA’s mechanisms are eminently transparent and reproducible. Furthermore, BigDIVA allows users to simultaneously view the big picture and individual results, something that traditional search engines cannot do because that are focused on finding the one answer or webpage. This poster shows how researchers can use BigDIVA to formulate theories on large-scale trends, while finding specific case studies that support these theories. By displaying all the results for a particular query, this poster finally argues that BigDIVA facilitates discovering unexpected results that would have been filtered out by a detailed, complex search query.

Keywords
data visualization; big data; search; visual research

Expanding and Improving Access to Early English Books Online (EEBO)
Matthew J. Christy, Elizabeth Grumbach, Laura Mandell

Abstract
The Early-Modern OCR Project (eMOP), currently in its final phase at the Initiative for Digital Humanities, Media, and Culture (IDHMC) at Texas A&M University, is a Mellon-funded project tasked with developing open-source tools and techniques to improve Optical Character Recognition (OCR) outcomes for early modern printed documents. The basic premise of eMOP is to 1) use book history to identify the typefaces represented in the collections and the printers that used them; 2) train open source OCR engines on those typefaces; and 3) OCR early modern document page images using an engine trained on the typefaces specific to those documents. As our dataset, eMOP is using the 45 million page images that comprise the Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO) and Early English Books Online (EEBO) proprietary collections. To test the accuracy of our OCR results we are using the approximately 48,000 documents hand-transcribed by the Text Creation Partnership (TCP).

Over the last two years the eMOP team has become intimately familiar with the documents and metadata that make up the ECCO, EEBO and TCP collections. As members of the IDHMC we also have access to the tools and websites of the Advanced Research Consortium (ARC), housed at the IDHMC. Specifically, ARC’s 18th Century resource aggregator for scholarship, 18thConnect, and 18thConnect’s crowd-sourced transcription correction tool, TypeWright. As such we are in a unique position to provide access to these scholarly resources in new and exciting ways. We are proposing to develop a poster to share these advancements with the members of the TCDL at this April’s conference. The poster will cover:

• The addition to 18thConnect of EEBO collection metadata. This will allow for searching of EEBO metadata outside of Proquest’s EEBO paywall.
• The addition to 18thConnect of Phase I of the TCP’s hand-transcriptions of EEBO. This will make 18thConnect the only place that scholars can do a full-text search on all of the almost 33,000 transcriptions released with Phase I.
• The addition to TypeWright of the OCR transcriptions of EEBO created by eMOP. This will constitute the first time this collection has been OCR’d, and TypeWright will be the only place these transcriptions will be available outside of the Proquest EEBO paywall.
• The addition to TypeWright of the Phase I TCP transcriptions, allowing scholars to further correct these transcriptions in a public and collaborative way.
• The ability of scholars to get their correct transcriptions of EEBO documents in text or XML format for use in their scholarship. This is another unique feature of 18thConnect, made available via our contracts with Proquest (and with Gale for the ECCO collection as well).

We think all of these developments will be of interest to digital librarians, and are eager to share them in April.

Keywords
ocr; transcriptions; early modern; eebo; tcp

Update and Initial Findings from the Texas Digital Library ETD Metadata Working Group
Sarah Potvin, Kara Long, Colleen Lyon, Kristi Park, Monica Rivero, Santi Thompson

Abstract
Early proponents of electronic theses and dissertations argued that moving from print to electronic format would make “these works more readily accessible to other scholars,” raising the specter that “…theses and dissertations lie moldering in library basements, with no efficient way for researchers to locate the information that may be contained in them” [1]. Accessibility and discovery remain integral to continued work that frames the possibilities and promises of the ETD movement. The widening embrace of ETDs by universities has heightened the need for shared standards of description, to help identify and manage a growing number of documents.

In recognition of this need, and in an attempt to improve discovery of these materials, members of the Texas Digital Library (TDL) developed and published descriptive metadata standards in 2008.

In the intervening years, new use cases around ETDs have arisen, discrepancies in the standard had been identified, and the Vireo ETD Submission Management System has continued to change. To address these issues, TDL formed a metadata working group in 2014. The group is charged with updating standards and communicating the revised guidelines to other members of TDL.

This poster will report on the progress of the working group towards updating the standard. We will provide an overview of the “problem areas” in ETD metadata that we’ve encountered and documented, with examples of potential areas of improvement around these use cases. We will also report on any findings that have solidified by April 2015; we anticipate having a draft of the standard by TCDL 2015.

Reference:

1. Christian R. Weisser and Janice R. Walker, “Excerpted: Electronic Theses and Dissertations: Digitizing Scholarship for Its Own Sake,” The Journal of Electronic Publishing 3, no. 2 (1997). http://dx.doi.org/10.3998/3336451.0003.209

Keywords
electronic theses and dissertations; metadata; Vireo; Texas Digital Library; standards

Using Library Special Collections in a Digital Humanities Practicum
Cindy Boeke

Abstract
With their rich special collections, academic libraries are in an ideal position to partner with faculty and graduate students to host, sponsor, and/or support Digital Humanities projects. The Norwick Center for Digital Services (nCDS), a unit of Southern Methodist University’s (SMU) Central University Libraries (CUL), has become a Digital Humanities partner in two ways: helping foster projects that utilize items from the library’s special collections, and introducing a Digital Humanities Practicum to train students to design, implement, and complete Digital Humanities projects. The practicum focuses on digitization, historical research, metadata creation, digital collections development, and outreach. Feedback from initial participants has been extremely positive.

Here are two examples. One post-doctoral student utilized the nCDS Digital Humanities Practicum to receive specialized training and advice for a project to create a multi-archival digital exhibit on the 1910 lynching of Allen Brooks in Dallas, entitled “The Lynching of Allen Brooks and the Disappearance of the Elks Arch.”  Another nCDS Digital Humanities Practicum project brought to light new information on the development of tourism in the U.S. Southwest. At the turn of the 20^th century, the Fred Harvey Company was instrumental in bringing tourism to the Grand Canyon and throughout New Mexico. The final project was presented on the Fred Harvey Co. Materials from the DeGolyer Library web page. This Digital Humanities project has attracted interest from unexpected venues and been beneficial in the student’s job search.

This poster will provide details about nCDS’ role as a Digital Humanities partner using library special collections and discuss opportunities that hold promise for future growth.

Keynotes
digital humanities; digital collections; practicum

Metadata Maintenance Strategies 
Albert Duran, Andrew Weidner

Abstract
Since 2013 the University of Houston (UH) Libraries Metadata and Digitization Services (MDS) department has been working towards the goal of improving the quality of legacy metadata in the UH Digital Library.  This effort, known as the Metadata Upgrade Project, required the adoption and development of tools to coordinate staff and improve efficiency. This poster describes the tools that support MDS’s metadata upgrade work in three strategic areas: Documentation, Communication and Automation.

First, we use a departmental wiki, powered by PmWiki, to document our workflow processes. Second, for communication we use Basecamp and Google Forms. Basecamp is useful for project management and communication with MDS members and important stakeholders. Tasks are assigned, discussed, monitored and marked as complete with this tool. We also implemented a Google Form that collection curators can use to easily report metadata problems. Third, AutoHotkey is used to automate complicated and repetitive tasks, thereby increasing productivity and decreasing errors during metadata creation and editing.

Overall, these tools have improved the cohesion and effectiveness of the MDS Metadata Unit in the areas of accuracy, quality and production. This poster will be useful for libraries and information centers that have similar metadata maintenance goals for their digital collections.

Keywords
metadata; project management; AutoHotkey

The mechanics of DVD to index.html – Publicly Available DVD Content
Timothy Everett Bogue

Abstract
Detailing the nuts and bolts from dvd content extraction to the creation of content files that will eventually become viewable on the internet. Described is DVD contents, it’s internal structure, and identifying parts. Walking through the basics of mp4, ogv and jpg creation. Describing other ways to get the data off successfully and a couple of extreme methods that might be successful. Detailed are the folders and files that will be needed for the web server html and accessing media storage.

Keywords
dvd; content; mp4; ogg; media; server; video

Are You Close Enough? Libraries and Embedded Digital Humanities
Sara Outhier

Abstract
Are You Close Enough?: SMU Libraries as Learning Spaces is a case study of embedded digital humanists in a university classroom. The resulting meta-exhibition captured the ways in which academic libraries are being utilized as interactive learning spaces. This meta-exhibition is a template for partnering with other departments in unique and collaborative ways. It also demonstrates methods for incorporating digital exhibitions into more traditional library uses and how libraries can facilitate the integration of digital humanities in classrooms across campuses.

Through a collaboration between the Hamon Arts Library, special collections, and a member of the art history faculty, project curators juxtaposed a digitally enhanced physical exhibition with a virtual meta-exhibition that explored ways in which library collections and spaces are being leveraged to deepen and broaden the educational experience at Southern Methodist University. Interested in shedding light on lesser known uses of the library, the project curators focused on the broad angle of how exhibitions are developed, using the exhibition Post Chiaroscuro: Prints in Color after the Renaissance as a living example.

Are You Close Enough? exploited a variety of technologies to enhance the visitor experience. A monitor displayed a sequence of images and video that captured the installation of the exhibition and the work of the students in preparing their contributions to the exhibition content. A mobile-optimized website hosted digital versions of the artifacts in the physical exhibition, augmented by original textual and multimedia content, allowing visitors to share in the classroom experience as students learned about printing techniques and created label texts for the art objects.

One artifact of the project is a recreation of a student assignment in a digital environment. By accessing the project website, visitors can gain sufficient knowledge about the artworks to determine the answers to the same questions, embedding the users in the learning environment. Project curators developed a series of audio and video clips that capture the students discussing what they learned about printing techniques. In addition, visitors to the gallery and to the website have access to digitized versions of many of the matrices and impressions in the physical exhibition.

The potential impact of this project at academic institutions is multifaceted. By showcasing a more singular use of libraries–as interactive classrooms–the meta-exhibition is a template for partnering with other departments in unique and collaborative ways. It also demonstrates methods for incorporating digital exhibitions into more traditional library uses, and how libraries can facilitate the integration of digital humanities in classrooms across campuses. These methods enhance our ability to show what a library is all about: bringing people together to learn from the available resources, to help each other grow in their understanding and to create new information. Libraries become more inviting as active collaborators, and therefore more sustainable, by finding more engaging ways to work with faculty and students.

Keywords
digital humanities; collaboration; teaching and learning