A Funny Thing Happened on the Way

to Digital Commons

http://web.colby.edu/specialcollections

Some Background

• The Wesley McNair Papers

• Teaching the making of poetry

• “Poem cluster” concept

• “New & Selected”

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Challenge

• Capturing audio – Wes read the poems– Digital Marantz recorded them– Pat edited the wav files and converted them to

mp3

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Challenge

• Choosing poem notebook pages– Evolution of poem creation– Three pages for each cluster – Transcription of content

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Challenge

• Making the notebook pages legible– Wes deciphered notebook pages– Jack (student assistant) deciphered the

transcription– Outcome: “scripts” in Word

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Challenge• Scanning Notebook Pages– NARA guidelines– Legibility– File naming • McNair_ShortyTowers_D12-4_001_m– Collection Name– Abbreviated poem title– Notebook identifier– Sequence of notebook page (001, 002, 003)–m (for master file; c for cropped file)

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Challenge

• Describing and Finding– Dublin Core– Complex objects

• Digital Commons– Simple objects only– Relationship links too far down on the page

• What to do?

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Existing Search Outcomes

• Keyword 1 objectYou might really want…

But would you give up before youfound it?

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• Keyword 1 object• Keyword 1 object• Keyword 1 object• Keyword 1 object• Keyword 1 object• Keyword 1 object• Keyword 1 object• Keyword 1 object• Keyword 1 object• Keyword 1 object• Keyword 1 object• Keyword 1 object• Keyword 1 object• Keyword 1 object• Keyword 1 object• Keyword 1 object• Keyword 1 object• Keyword 1 object• Keyword 1 object• Keyword 1 object• Keyword 1 object• Keyword 1 object• Keyword 1 object• Keyword 1 object• Keyword 1 object• Keyword 1 object• Keyword 1 object

Change the Paradigm

But – How?

Solution Logic…IF

• IF HOLDINGS are GENERIC– Not changeable (…a rose is a rose is a rose…)

• AND IF COLLECTIONS are UNIQUE – Changeable (audio, video, McNair, poetry)

• THEN– HOLDINGS are OBJECTS– COLLECTIONS are UNIQUE CODE– And can be interpreted as an OO situation

Solution Logic…THEN

• GIVEN that– Special Collections are

OBJECT-ORIENTED • We should then be able

to USE OO logic in describing, identifying and displaying them

• YES!

Digital Commons Presentation

Digital Commons

Presentation to Digital Commons• Requesting– Change in their application– Virtual display before object

displayOutcome• Agreement!

But…it would beat least 2 years beforewe would see it.

Sooooo….

The Interim Tool Search

• Web-based• Able to mimic:– Complex object display• Collection identity

– Dublin Core metadata storage– Digital Commons keyword search– Google content search

• Easy to use and maintain

http://web.colby.edu/specialcollectionsColby College Special Collections

Why WordPress

• Free on Web• WPMU being installed• Complex object display– HTML capability– Categories

• Dublin Core metadata– Content Management

• Google and keyword search– Tags

• WYSIWYG intuitive

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Target Digital Commons Architecture

Search “The Mute”

by Wes McNair

Build real-timeRelationship Display

~~~Select Object

Single Object

MD

Display simple object or complex relations?

C S

Object

Finds “The Mute” and related objects

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Target WordPress Architecture

Audio

Published Poem

NBP1 TRN1 SBS1

NBP2 TRN2 SBS2

NPB3 TRN3 SBS3

Poem Title

To object…to metadata

Too Much of a Good Thing

A “virtual” plague of

Tags and Categories

1st “OMG” Moment• Proliferation of posts…– 12 thumbnail objects per virtual Poem cluster

PLUS– 3 objects per virtual Side-by-Side

(opacity vs. duplication)PLUS

– 12 matching metadata objects PLUS

– 12 enlarged simple objects

PER POEM!

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2nd “OMG” Moment

• Plague of tags and categories– 5 system admin tags

WITH– Up to 5 categories

WITH– Up to 10 search tags

PER POEM!

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Rethinking the Mimicry Thing

• Do ONLY 5 poems for Digital Commons(-192 objects)(-3,840 tags and categories)

• Use WP search for Google capabilities(-8240 tags and categories)

• Ditch the displays that we didn’t need(-6 objects)(-120 tags and categories)

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Follow the Rules

• Strict file naming convention • Strict image sizing and resolution guidelines• Extensive use of templates• 50% opacity for overlays• Font size and color• Source image size

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After-the-Fact Epiphany

• Original author requirement:– Ability of users to read while listening – Ooops!

• Realization that the almost-final site design did not include this

• Mel was…dismayed…to hear this news

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Design by Iteration

• Prototype 1– We love it!

• Prototype 2– We hate it!

• Prototype 3– Ditch it – go back

• Prototype 4– Let’s start over…

Is inherently stressful…

But it can lead to really insightful solutions…

2 Different but Equal Clusters

• 5 Digital Commons Cluster– Virtual display

LEADING TO…• Image objects

leading to…– metadata

• Audio objectsleading to…– metadata

• 42 Teaching Clusters– Virtual Display

LEADING TO…• Reading/Listening

pages• Commentary from

Poet• Teaching aids

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Digital Commons Cluster

Private1. Mimics virtual display2. Links to objects

a) Audiob) Published Poemc) Notebook Pagesd) Transcript Overlays

3. Links to metadata

1.

2a.

2b.

2c.

2c.

2c.

2d.

2d.

2d.

Teaching Cluster

Public1. Click to enlarge

(any image)2. Links to audio

a) “Reading while Listening”

b) Embedded audio on page

3. Notebook Pages4. Transcript Overlays5. Audio

1.

2a.

3.

3.

3.

4.

4.

4.

1.

1.

2b.

Status

• Design phase concluded (or else!)• Clusters still being added• Non-cluster audio being added

• Teaching Clusters ready for promotion• Digital Commons demo ready for presentation

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Observations

• “It’s a good thing we didn’t know what we were in for.”

• “Stay organized.”

• “Keep your sense of humor!”

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You’ve experienced THE ADVENTURE,Now view THE DEMO!

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(continue)

Home Page

Commentary

Lovers of the Lost

Notebooks

10 Teaching Questions

Teaching Tools

Reading Poetry Aloud

Scored Poem

Content Search

Content Search Result

Teaching Cluster Components

Audio

PublishedPoem Overlays

NotebookPages

Notebook Pages

Overlays

Reading and Listening

Listening

Metadata Object

Metadata Editing View

Dashboard - Posts

Dashboard - Pages

Dashboard - Templates

Tags and Categories

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way

to Digital Commons

Pat BurdickErin RhodesMel Regnell

Celtic music from Riverdance and other soundtracksLightning sound by Ionizing freesound.org

monster sound Syna-Max freesound.orgghost sound by Oscillator freesound.org

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way

to Digital Commons

Q & A

http://web.colby.edu/specialcollections