Watch poster presentations on YouTube! Poster videos will also be screened in a break out room during our morning coffees if you would like to watch and discuss them with other TCDL attendees.
"What is Digital Librarianship?": A Texas Digital Library Interview SeriesBy: Ali Gunnells, MA/MSIS Candidate in English and Information Studies; Assistant Instructor, Department of Rhetoric and Writing, University of Texas at Austin
Many academic libraries across Texas now maintain significant digital collections of resources. These collections may consist of digitized and/or born digital materials and are considered a part of the academic library’s holdings. However, despite the ever-increasing prevalence of digital collections, the tasks of librarians working with these collections remain elusive. Digital librarianship, particularly in the context of an academic institution, encompasses a vast array of roles and responsibilities. Ultimately, the question of what digital librarians do remains unclear for both the general public and for MLIS/MSIS students. This uncertainty creates a disconnect between the libraries themselves and the communities that these libraries serve.
The goal of this project is to provide an understanding of digital library work to both the general public and LIS/MSIS students through an interview series format. We focus on exploring what tasks make up the day-to-day job of a digital librarian, as well as the larger challenges of working with digital collections. Furthermore, this project aims to highlight members of the BIPOC community and other marginalized communities who are currently working in the field of digital librarianship. As of February 2022, we have conducted a series of seven interviews with Texas Digital Library-affiliated professionals working in the field of digital librarianship, with the possibility to conduct additional interviews in the future.
Out of the Woods: Charting Metadata with Digital ToolsBy: Laura Ramirez, Senior Library Specialist, University of Houston
In the fall of 2021, a metadata working group was created and charged to streamline the process of evaluating and refining metadata for a retrospective thesis and dissertations digitization (TDD) project at the University of Houston Libraries. The group took to their task by improving existing workflows and reworking scalability through the introduction of an updated automated tool kit created for the team by another member involved with the TDD project. Using MARC records as an existing foundation, metadata was transformed into Dublin Core formatted records with MARCEdit and OpenRefine. Group members then evaluate each Dublin Core metadata record and edit and enhance metadata as needed. As part of the workflow, copyright status is also evaluated and noted in the metadata record. The automated tool kit aids in scaling production by allowing for batch metadata verification, file sorting, and writing EXIF data to the PDF files. This poster highlights the MARC to Dublin Core metadata transformation and the use of the automation tool kit to streamline the metadata process, a necessary step in a large-scale digitization project that promotes accessibility to scholarly materials.
Exploring Tools for Improving Negative Capture By: Erin Mazzei, Digital Media Specialist, Texas State University
In just the past few years, the technology for digitizing slides and negatives has been evolving rapidly. Boosted in part by individual photographers seeking better quality for their own negatives, the result is a wide variety of commercial products to improve image results from both flatbed scanners and camera capture stations. How do some these options compare to each other for use at institutions? This poster proposes to test and compare the results of several types of negative holder and introduce a framework for evaluating the quality and efficiency of others.
Programming for Open Access: Using Python to Promote Open File Formats in the Texas Data RepositoryBy: Ian Goodale, European Studies Librarian, University of Texas at Austin
The preponderance of proprietary file formats being used for scholarly purposes poses an issue for the truly open dissemination of information. This was one of the key points identified by a working group I participated in at the University of Texas at Austin, in which working group members explored ways to improve metadata and reduce proprietary file formats in the Texas Data Repository. As a result of my work on the group, I created a group of Python scripts designed to help promote use of open file formats in the repository. These include scripts that automatically convert specified proprietary file formats to open ones, and that search through uploads to the Texas Data Repository within a specified date range and output a .xlsx or .csv with the dataverses and their files, flagging files with non-open extensions. My poster will describe and demonstrate this evolving resource, which is hosted on GitHub and freely available for others to modify and contribute to, and explain how it aims to make dataverse content more openly accessible to all.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to Digital Preservation By: Adrian Shapiro, Manager of Digital Initiatives and Assessment, Texas Woman's University, and Kristin Clark, Manager of Digital Collections, Texas Woman's University
Digital preservation is important, but how do I get started? This poster will provide a roadmap for how Texas Woman’s University built, and is continuing to build, a cross-departmental digital preservation program with the help of TDL’s Digital Preservation Service. It will provide tips and resources for beginners looking to build a digital preservation program at their institution.
University of North Texas Open Access Publication Review (2019-2021): Workflows and Insights By: Megan Scott, Graduate Student Assistant, University of North Texas
The University of North Texas’ Scholarly Works Open Access institutional repository is home to materials from the UNT community’s research, creative, and scholarly activities. Currently, we are conducting an Open Access publication review for scholarly works generated by UNT in order to learn more about the OA publication practices of the UNT community with the goal of better serving their needs. The workflows of this project consist of a system using Scopus and Zotero to harvest, review, and sort UNT OA publication data from 2019-2021. Through this process we are able to better understand who is publishing Open Access, where they are publishing, and identify challenges and best practices for harvesting this scholarly output for inclusion in the institutional repository. This is an ongoing project which we hope to continue gathering insights from and improving the workflows to maximize its’ usefulness.
Working as a Digitization StudentBy: Jarrett Crepeau, Imaging Lead, University of North Texas
I will be discussing my experience as an Imaging Lead for the Kempner Fund Project at the Digital Projects Lab at the University of North Texas. My role at the lab consists of digitizing, item organization, and doing image quality checks on items from the Kempner project before they are uploaded to the Portal of Texas History. The Kempner Project started in 2017 in partnership with the Rosenberg Library and the Kempner Fund of Galveston, Texas, to establish a digital repository for the Harris and Eliza Kempner Collection on the Portal. The Kempner’s built a large economic base in Galveston dating back to the 1840s, including the growth of the Imperial Sugar Company in Sugarland, Texas. I’ll explore what I have discovered whi
