A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Digital Commons
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Transcript of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Digital Commons
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way
to Digital Commons
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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
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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
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