Memorial Library Staff Information

The meeting was held in the Archives reading room from 9:05-9:39 am. The meeting was attended by Jordan Brannen, Sherre Harrington, Cheryl Hawkins, Michael O’Malley, Meg Ratliff and Chelsea Risley.

The meeting was held to plan for project transition.

• The website needs to be updated
• Need to review Cheryl’s limited access credentials and e-mail Dr. Schlitz; check permissions and FTP server address with Information Technology
• Project scanning will not continue through the summer
• Meg and Chelsea will search MBDA tags to select correspondence for editing for an Alumni Work Week project
• Sherre will discuss new scanning priorities with Dr. Snider during the summer
• Continue to recruit freshmen for the project – consider other student library workers
• Meg will continue to live in Rome for the immediate future and will be able to assist as a project consultant
• Fall 2015 semester projects will include quality control and file joining
• Fall orientation will be during the first week of classes (Aug. 24)
• Training – journal writing and training guide revision
• A computer will be installed in the office after May 8

The team met in the conference room from 12:30-1:30 pm. The meeting was attended by Sherre Harrington, Cheryl Hawkins, Michael O'Malley, Meg Ratliff, and Chelsea Risley.

• Promotional events – Chelsea and Meg represented MBDA at the ACRL poster session in Portland, Oregon on March 27th, and Chelsea attended the Student Work job fair for MBDA on March 31^st in Krannert. MBDA Movie Night was held in Krannert on April 7 @ 7:30 pm. Approximately 20 people attended; Meg served popcorn and Chelsea introduced the features: silent film footage from the 1930’s; the Berry promotional video, “What Does the Deer Say?” and the Hallmark Hall of Fame TV movie, The Forgotten Children.  Sherre spoke about the project and led a quiz on Martha Berry and history of the Berry Schools.  Adriana took photographs of the event.  MBDA also plans to have a poster in the upcoming Student Symposium at Memorial Library next week.

• Project transition update – Chelsea and Meg created a list of the current student supervisor roles/tasks to help us determine future areas of improvement in student team coordination and staff input.  Suggestions include: developing a protocol for cleaning up the tag list; deciding on new document scanning priority list; revamping the quality control procedures for scanned documents; improving student workflow management with a shared file system (like Google Docs) for team members, the student supervisor, and the staff supervisor; documenting specific work expectations for all student team members and staff; exploring cooperative web and plug-in development projects with other departments; assigning a dedicated staff member and/or a faculty sponsor to the project; and adding Omeka training for staff working with the project.  Chelsea will show Cheryl the current supervisor tasks and also train with next year’s student supervisor, Jordan Brannen, as time permits before the semester end.  The need for additional staff to be trained as backup was recognized.  Chelsea and/or Meg may be available to come back in the fall as consultants for a few weeks. 

• Student work plans – Cheryl will request to hire Jordan part-time this summer for supervisor training and new school year preparation; Allison Moore to assist Jordan as a co-leader in the fall; Adrianna will be studying abroad and not here to scan during fall semester.

• Alumni Work Week – MBDA will be the Alumni Work Week project for Archives in late May.  Ideas for editing include: auto mechanic letters and Emily Vanderbilt Hammond’s handwritten letters.

• Ideas for the future – Chelsea suggested that we add a computer in the MBDA project office that will connect with the server for access to MBDA files.  The group discussed ways to increase MBDA’s profile on campus through increased participation in campus events, such as Discover Berry and the Student Work job fair.

• Next meeting – New student supervisor, Jordan Brannen, to attend and be introduced to staff.

The team met in the conference room from 8:30-9:30 am. The meeting was attended by Cheryl Hawkins, Michael O'Malley, and Chelsea Risley.

• Project Director, Stephanie Schlitz has made Cheryl an on-site project super-user/ administrator to help with the technical transitioning of the project
• Project stakeholders from the Berry College administration and other faculty/staff members will need to be involved with reviewing future imaging priorities
• Current imaging priorities will be completed by the end of the spring or early next fall 2015
• The tag list needs to be reviewed using developed standards/protocols
• Brochure – need to review text edits and photo resolution; a tri-fold brochure will be created for the conference
• Promotional event – to be held in Krannert, need to reserve a room and popcorn machine, check into CE credit status for the event to be held on April 2 @ 7pm, flyers and e-mail announcements will be created to advertise the event, some invitees include Museum students/staff and History department students/staff/honor society members, features shown will include: a Berry school promo video, Martha! The Musical, and a Hallmark Hall of Fame TV movie – The Forgotten Children
• Training – Olivia has transitioned from scanning to editing, Daniel will continue to scan in addition to on-site editing; need to think about future training of student team leaders
• Explore the possibility of increasing DAR funding for an internship
• The computer workstation is on the replacement cycle and need to be thinking about future scanner replacement

The team met in the conference room from 1:03-2:35 pm. The meeting was attended by Sherre Harrington, Cheryl Hawkins, Jessica Hornbuckle, Michael O’Malley, and Chelsea Risley.

Agenda

• Hiring update
• Project tasks
• Operational transition to local management
• Post graduate MBDA work  

Hiring update

• Interviews are being conducted for a level III position; an additional scanner position can be filled for work up to 8 hrs./wk.; additional help with hiring can be explored through the History Dept., Career Center, and the job fair.

Project tasks

• Project transition – at the end of the spring semester/early summer
• File-joining and un-joining
• Local control of administrative authority, website password (admin. access/permissions)
• Reviewing flagged documents
• Creating a user list
• Ability to upload additional files to the MBDA website, creating/adding to collections
• Cleaning up the tag list and establishing tagging parameters
• Omeka platform/version maintenance – Identify software or plugin upgrades needed and update accordingly; Is it possible or necessary to combine the photo archive (version 2.2.2) with MBDA (version 2.1.4)?
• Story mapping – pug-in installation (Garrick?)
• Updating team photos
• Updating the scanning priority list
• Conference attendance: THAT Camp (Georgia Highlands), Univ. of Alabama (Digitorium), Univ. of Penn. (Keystone Digital Humanities), Michigan State Univ. (HASTAC)?
• Soliciting faculty projects and Council of Independent Colleges new Consortium on Digital Resources for Teaching and Research
• Continuation of the Digital Humanities Colloquium?

Operational transition to local management

• Advisory Committee needs to re-convene to discuss operational transition issues and future project tasks; the Technology, Systems & Discovery Team will select a person designated to take the lead on communicating with Stephanie during the operational transition to local management of the project which involves local administration of the Omeka platform

Post-graduate MBDA work

• Check into DAR funding – future internship possibilities?

Martha Berry Digital Archive Project Meeting

December 11, 2014, Library Conference Room, 10:30-11:30am

Attendees - Sherre Harrington, Cheryl Hawkins, Michael O’Malley, Chelsea Risley

Agenda items: Allison’s work in Scotland, project status updates, hiring and funding for the project, and future plans for the project

 

Allison’s work in Scotland

Allison is studying abroad in Scotland during the spring 2015 semester, and she is planning to work in the MBDA project while she is there.  Besides editing documents, Allison wanted to know if there were other things she could be doing as MBDA project work.  In addition to setting some overall goals for editing, Sherre suggested that Allison visit an archives in Scotland, if possible, and write or speak about her experience when she returns.  Sherre offered to provide an introduction for Allison if she needs it for archive access in Scotland.

 

Project Status Updates

DAR Project: Chelsea stated that this project hasn’t been started yet, but it will begin when we have someone hired to be in charge of it.

CCC Project: This project is not an MBDA project.  Meg Ratliff is working on a research project on the CCC, and it extends beyond Berry.

Emily Vanderbilt Hammond/Kate Macy Ladd Project: Sherre has an idea for a project about the 90^th anniversary of the construction of the library (2016), and this project may move to MBDA.

Course Materials Project: Middle school teachers, Lori Frederick and Julie Trejo, will be meeting with Chelsea, Meg, and Jordan in January to start talking about developing a course materials for a middle school class.

Chelsea has been talking to Dr. Christy Snider about common core requirements for course planning.

Story Mapping Project (DAR): Chelsea has asked Dr. Schlitz if Garrick can install the plug-in for this application over the Christmas break.

Future Archives related projects:  All projects have been on hold since Dr. Schlitz has been on sabbatical this semester.  Michael requests that he be notified when MBDA has new projects needing materials from the Archives.

 

Hiring and Funding

Lindsey Purvis is leaving the project after this semester to work in the theatre.  Austin Amandolia left the project earlier this semester to work in a job related to his major.

Chelsea has identified Jordan and Allison as the likely supervisory team for the project next fall.  With both team members being new this year and Allison studying abroad in the spring, a joint supervisory team seems like the best way to combine their strengths and minimize any weaknesses.

Adriana is our Level 3 Technical Advisor, and that seems to be the best fit for her going forward.  The project is in need of another Level 3 student to assume Lindsey’s responsibilities.  Meeting attendees discussed a couple of student possibilities for the Level 3 position and decided that a job advertisement will be needed for the spring semester.  Cheryl will post the ad with Student Work.  With the amount of scanning being so far ahead of editing, the project can wait to hire another entry level scanner until a subsequent semester.

Sherre and Cheryl noted that Chelsea should be promoted to a Level 5 position for the spring semester since she has been assuming the duties of a Level 5 as described by Student Work.  Cheryl will write a Level 5 job description for submission to Student Work.

The project funding is adequate at this time.  Sherre will ask the DAR if they are willing to provide continued funded for the MBDA project.

 

Future Plans for the Project (staff technical support, advertising)

 

With Dr. Schlitz’s absence this fall, we discovered that it would be a good idea to have a permanent staff member with knowledge of the Omeka technical environment as a support to the MBDA project.  Sherre suggested that librarian, Jessica Hornbuckle, who has a background in Archives and digital projects, may be the ideal candidate.  Sherre will contact Jessica about her possibly assuming this role.

Meeting attendees discussed what the student leadership needs as far as the technical environment, and decided that, at minimum, student leaders need to have the ability to reset passwords and answer emails.  An onsite technical person could manage the Omeka items and be a facilitator for the student leaders who want to learn about Omeka and the overall digital infrastructure.

Looking ahead, meeting attendees discussed the library resources that may be needed for MBDA in the future.  Chelsea stated that student self-sufficiency in the project is very important, and we need to perpetuate this.  It was noted that the BITS program has specific certification experiences for their members as they progress in the program.  Questions to consider: Should we have a Student Work developmental path position for MBDA?  How do we advertise MBDA so it is a more competitive program like BITS?  Should we have tee shirts?  Should we publicize success stories from MBDA to spotlight why a student should work in the project?

Chelsea noted that MBDA will have a poster in the student symposium.  Sherre offered to contact Public Relations to talk about the possible avenues to further publicize the MBDA project.  Some ideas being considered are representation in the Life Ready campaign, Rome News-Tribune coverage, Viking Fusion coverage, and Campus Carrier coverage.  Sherre will ask Stephanie about composing a physical flyer to describe the project.