Poster of Metadata Standards (PDF)

Fascinating video describing how the NY Times graphics department works.

Extremely rewarding slide presentation by a Google UX researcher.

Main takeaways for me:

• “Make no mistake about this. Everyone in this room will need to learn how to design social features on websites. Whether you like it or not.” (biggest surprise from our recent usability study is the repeated call for “personalization” of our services)
• Social networks are not only about “friends”
• Strong ties = typically 4 people you care about the most (range: 2-6)
• Weak ties = 150 people max.
• Temporary ties = librarians, instructors, etc. (a connection which is highly influenced by trust)
• People generally have 4-6 groups of less than 10 people based upon various life stages (college, a particular class, family, a community) which probably don’t overlap much, if at all.
• People make decisions based on their interactions with the above groupings. In other words: networked critical thinking

Decapod is an interesting project with partners from Germany, Canada, and Anarbor, MI and funded through The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

From the site:

The solution will address these problem areas:

1. Allow the camera based capture of bound material by using computer vision techniques to produce flat, clean page images equivalent to those produced from a flat bed scanner.
2. Remove the need for extensive operator intervention in the capture process by detecting scan problems and allowing the operator to rectify the scan immediately.
3. Reduce user intervention in the conversion process by using advanced document understanding techniques to remove almost all intervention, and by reducing the remainder to very simple “1-click” operations.
4. PDF/A outputs will be visually faithful to the original, searchable, and widely usable.
5. Allow the output to be viewable on mobile devices that support PDF reflow.
6. Remove the need for deep software, hardware or digitization skills by integrating all software components into a turnkey end-to-end solution.
7. Remove capital cost barriers by using consumer grade cameras.

Tito Sierra has a very interesting presentation on building library web apps, gave recently for the JHU Libraries Assembly. Lots of good references cited.

Sierra, T. (forthcoming). “Opportunities for Mobile Enhanced Library Services and Collections”, Johns Hopkins University Libraries Assembly 2010, Baltimore, MD, May 21, 2010. [ppt]

via NCSU DLI

Here are the slides from my recent presentation at the 2010 Northwest Archivists conference in April. This tells of the technical and “mindset” decisions we made for our 2009 digitization project at the National Archives. Great experience in Seattle, I’m glad I attended.

CNET has a good run-down of free and fee-based file sharing services:

There are now a handful of free and paid services that make it easy to host these gigantic files and send them to a friend, family member, or business associate.

Very cool do it yourself project from Instructables.com:

What’s the most efficient method for nearly choking a small digitization shop? Success. That’s something we’re experiencing at The University of Montana and we couldn’t be happier. Over the summer, the library partnered with Dave Beck of Native American Studies on a trip to the National Archives to scan documents from their Central Classified Files centering on the Blackfeet Agency during the period from 1907 – 1935 (Record Group 75.) We were pleasantly surprised by the amount of material that our two (very organized) graduate students were able to come back with: 15,000 images taken in a little under four weeks. We’re in the process now of ingesting the material into our digital collection to make them widely available eventually, but in the meantime I thought I’d share the equipment used on the trip.

Testing the camera setup before sending to DC in 2009.

Equipment List:

• Camera: Canon Rebel XSI
• Lens: Canon EF-S 18-55 IS (both came as a kit)
• Tripod: Manfrotto 055X Pro with a center post that fold out horizontally
• Tripod Head: 484RC2 Mini Ball
• Laptop: Dell 131L (one of our circulating laptops for students)
• Carrying Case: Pelican 1300
• Glass bubble level that is attached to the hot shoe
• Seagate 500GB extermal hard drive
• Total cost: Approximately $1,400

The camera was driven by the laptop which previewed the image being captured. The images were saved to the external hard drive and then FTP’d back to the library on a nightly basis. All images were captured as RAW files, and will be converted before being made live. Here’s an example of the quality of image the students came back with. The master image from which this example was derived is 4,272 x 2,878 pixels, the equivalent of a 240 PPI full color scan.

Example of a natural light capture

The rumors are beginning to be convincing:

Book publishers have been in talks with Apple and are optimistic about being included as part of its new portable tablet-sized computer, which the computer giant hopes to launch in time for the Christmas shopping season, according to the FT.

The device is expected to be launched alongside new content deals, including some aimed at stimulating sales of CD-length music, according to people briefed on the project. The touch-sensitive computer will have a screen that may be up to 10 inches diagonally. It will connect to the internet like the iPod Touch – probably without phone capability but with access to the web, and to Apple’s online stores for software and entertainment.

According to the FT, the device could provide an alternative to Amazon’s Kindle, Sony’s Reader and a forthcoming device from Plastic Logic, recently allied with Barnes & Noble. “It would be a colour, flat-panel TV to the old-fashioned, black and white TV of the Kindle,” one publishing executive said.