Presentation November 18, 2010 to Library Staff

On November 18, 2010, the project team provided an update on the project to librarians and staff of the Michigan Tech Van Pelt and Opie Library. The project team created a powerpoint presentation which included a general overview of the project, details of the preservation components of the work, description of the description workflows for producing MARC records from the Proficio software to Worldcat and Voyager, a summary of some lessons learned, and the remaining work to be completed.

Here is a link to a version of the powerpoint slides NHPRC Nov 2010 JRVP

Here is an informal outline of the presentation:

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A) Overview of funded project (Erik 2 minutes)
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slide: “Complete Second Year of NHPRC Grant”

slide:  old location guide
– We have had very limited description and access to our manuscript collections
– Web-based tools would greatly improve users’ ability to browse or search.
– Challenges: relationship between accessions/collections, need for hierarchical data structures, need for standards, exportable to MARC

slide : Text/Grant Project Products
– Summary of agency
– Purchase of software
– Hiring two people
– Products and Timeline for completion

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B) Preservation survey (Julie 5 minutes)
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slide : Survey form
– Part of ongoing preservation activity; briefly mention two PAG grants
– Purpose of NHPRC survey, information captured, how it is added to proficio
– Mention a couple of observations/discoveries
– Completion of a preservation survey
– This positions us for next steps. For instance, close to completing a grant application to NEH

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C) Proficio software and MARC process (Beth 10 minutes)
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slide : Proficio/re:discovery
– collection management tool designed for heritage agencies (originally NPS)
– modules for object collections, books, and archival material
– standardized data structures and encourages use of national standards
– unlike a flat library catalog with item-level monograph records, archival collection management tools allow for description at collection level, series level, folder level, and item level.
– although we are only doing collection level in this project, wanted a tool that would allow us to expand.

slide : screenshot sample record in proficio
– we used it to create collection-level records for each of our manuscript collections
– also required creation of authorities and input of information about different accessions
– proficio also allows for internal management of information about preservation needs, priorities for further work with collections, information about when things were done to collections, etc. Many aspects of collection management that the public never sees.

slide : screenshot MARC record in WorldCat
– ultimately, we output collection-level records as MARC to worldcat
– encountered many challenges (thank-you to Jennifer for her help with these)

slide : MARC record in voyager (maybe show both public and staff view)
– MARC records are then copy-cataloged back into voyager

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D) Progress report and future (Erik 5 minutes)
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slide: Collections register
– has alreaday improved public access
– in addition to the worldcat and voyage records, Beth also maintaining a “collections register” on our blog site

slide: Google results
– Multiple web-based public access points to this collection-level description

slide: Project numbers to date
– MARC records in OCLC, voyager, and on our Collections Register
– Records Beth has started in Proficio
– Accessions
– Authorities
We estimated 931 collections, Crystal surveyed more than 1,000 collections

slide: Unexpected benefits
– increased staff knowledge of collections contents
– role of Beth in the public reference operations
– incredible leap in our move to engage with professional standards for description
  (only possible with the hire of Beth with specific skills in descriptive cataloging)
– important foundation for any future work we might do

slide: Unexpected obstacles
– Proficio is not the tool we need. Does not do MARC, but really isn’t a good tool for archival description.
– Has caused us to look at alternatives. Will move to Archivists’ Toolkit in 2011.

slide: Next steps
– Julie talked about preservation aspects
– Need to revise accessioning workflows for new material
– Need to develop new workflows to physically process collections, arrange and describe, and create finding aids
– need to move beyond collection-level description, and begin to present more descriptive information to users at the series level, the box level, the folder level, and in some cases the item level.
– Encoded archival description
– Additional grant application, designed to process 90+ collections to the folder level

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E) Q&A
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slide: Questions?