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| April 2006 |
HAVERFORD COLLEGE |
No. 3 |
Table of Contents
From the Director
by Bob Kieft
I wrote in these pages in May 2003 about the Tri-Co
Libraries' project to treat their three collections more as one
with the twin goals of postponing the day when any one of the
libraries has to build more book-storage space and of augmenting
our collective holdings with a greater variety of materials. Since
treating the collections as one means, among other things, retaining
or buying one copy of a book rather than two or three, one of
the questions we had to address in order to move forward was this:
how to retain for users the discovery and selection advantages
they feel accrue to shelf browsing when the collection is distributed
among three campuses, in other words, when the chances of any
one book's being on the shelf of any given library are lower than
they might have been in the past (26% of titles are held in more
than one library).
As we spoke with our users in 2001-2002 about our project we
heard several things in addition to their strong belief in the
power of shelf browsing. We heard that they like the way Amazon
lets a reader "open" a lot of books by offering sample
text; that it was tables of contents (TOC) and first chapters
that most helped them decide whether to read a book; and that
they valued the searchable TOC being added to Tripod for newly
published books. We also knew that they were becoming more accustomed
to working online through shopping and web searching.
This evidence encouraged us to think that we could
move browsing from the shelf to the online library catalog by
augmenting catalog records with searchable TOC and sample text,
that is, by adding to the catalog browsing features for older
library materials that an online retailer offers in its bookstore
for the newly published. After talking with a number of interested
parties and holding some exploratory meetings at American Library
Association conferences <http://www.clir.org/pubs/issues/issues38.html#collab>,
we have embarked with partner libraries Emory, University of Florida,
University of Illinois, and the Library of Congress (LC) on a
project called RichCat to create and share TOC and sample text
files for older library materials. The overall goal of the project
is to create a national cooperative of libraries to produce the
TOC and text files for sharing among them so that all libraries
may take advantage of any given library's work.
The project involves experiments in which Emory, Haverford, and
Illinois create digital images of TOC and send them to LC, where
staff are experimenting with software that OCRs and parses the
TOC elements (chapter author, title, etc) so that the resulting
data can go into catalog records for searching in the same way
as the commercially-produced TOC indexing now available for new
titles. The other aspect of the project is to produce sample text
image files and then to test methods for displaying them in Tripod.
Sample of an enriched catalog record in Tripod
Norm Medeiros has been working with student assistants to produce
the TOC and text files at Haverford, and Adam Brin, Tri-College
Libraries Systems Coordinator, has developed the program that
allows browsable book page images to appear on the Tripod screen
with the bibliographic record. We are still in the early stages
of being able to demo these augmented records, and the results
so far of LC's experiments with the TOC parsing software are mixed.
Please write to me <rkieft@haverford.edu> if you are curious
about the experiment; right now we are confining the Tripod records
augmented with sample text to an "experimental" section
of the catalog, which you will need a few simple instructions
to access. Once we have more pieces of the project puzzle in place,
we hope to ask our users to give our "new" catalog a
try.
-Bob Kieft is Director of College Information Resources & Librarian of the College
Tri-Colleges to Test Variations3 Digital Music
Library & Pedagogy System
by John Anderies
The Tri-Colleges will be collaborating with the
Indiana University Digital Library Program in the development
of a turn-key digital music library and pedagogy system known
as Variations3. Indiana University is internationally known for
both its music school and its pioneering work in the field of
music digital library systems. Funding for the three-year project
comes from the Institute for Museum and Library Services.
Variations3 will be built upon the technology of its predecessor,
Variatons2, which is now in use at Indiana University. Variations2
currently provides access to a sizeable collection of streaming
audio, scanned score images, and encoded score notation, as well
as a large suite of navigational and pedagogical tools, including
automatic page turning, bookmarking and playlist features, drawing
and annotating tools, and a musical timeliner.
IU will be providing the Tri-Colleges with hardware, software,
training and support while we will load the system with digitized
audio files and scanned score images from our own collections.
We'll also be contributing metadata that will be shared with IU
and other partner institutions and we will participate in usability
testing and provide feedback to IU as they further develop the
system.
John Anderies, Coordinator for Special & Digital Collections,
will serve as the project director for the Tri-Colleges, and Matt
Nocifore and Joe Camissa from Networking and Systems will be maintaining
the servers and leading the technical aspects of the project.
Michelle Oswell, Humanities Librarian for Music & Literature,
and Donna Fournier, Swarthmore College's Performing Arts Librarian,
will oversee the digitizing and metadata work of the project.
Our current plans are to test the system first on
a small number of courses at all three colleges during the Spring
2007 semester before opening it up to others in the following
semesters. For more information on the project please contact
John Anderies <janderie@haverford.edu>.
-John Anderies is Coordinator for
Special & Digital Collections
Implementing Verify: A New Means of Managing
Electronic Resources
by Marilyn Creamer
More and more resources purchased by the Library
are accessed over the Web, but traditional methods for describing
and controlling subscriptions to electronic resources have proven
inadequate. In order to keep track of the licensing terms and
access details, as well as the complex workflows involved in trialing,
ordering, negotiating, access-enabling, and trouble-shooting,
the Tri-College Consortium has partnered with VTLS of Blacksburg,
VA to design and build an electronic resources management system
named Verify.
As part of a CLIR grant awarded to the Tri-College
Consortium for evaluation and redesign of processes for electronic
resources management (see the Fall 2005 CIR Newsletter
for background information about this initiative), the Libraries
looked carefully at what they do and developed a comprehensive
list of procedures and tasks. After finding that no product on
the market could satisfy our needs, especially those needs which
are unique
Task management in Verify
to library consortia, we decided to enter into a development
partnership with VTLS, giving us the opportunity to build a complex
system from the ground up. We made sure Verify contained a comprehensive
set of data elements, as prescribed by the Digital Library Federation,
in addition to an array of elements necessary to facilitate consortial
management of electronic resources.
Over the past year, we have worked with VTLS programming staff
to refine system capabilities and define data elements and entity
relationships. One set of functions we’ve designed is a
unique alerting system. It consists of login-linked task screens
which change with the status of a resource and alert specific
Tri-College staff when a task for which they are responsible is
ready to be performed. These alerts parallel the progression of
a resource through the various work flows, moving from trial,
to selection, to negotiation, to access-enabling, and finally
ongoing maintenance. Though particularly useful to a handful of
Tri-College staff, the task management module will also serve
the Libraries generally as a clearinghouse for information about
the status of electronic resources.
Once fully implemented, Verify will greatly enhance Tri-College
communication, and lessen the time it takes to establish access
to new resources. It will add structure to our workflows, and
enable us to truly manage all aspects of electronic resources.
-Marilyn Creamer is Serials Specialist
Getting to Know the Helpdesk
by Craig Ross
Academic Computing Center’s Helpdesk, open
daily from 9am to 5pm and Tuesday evenings until 9 pm, provides
walk-in and phone computer support to the faculty, academic staff,
and student body of Haverford College. Helpdesk is currently staffed
by 15 trained computer savvy students, and one full time member
of the Academic Computing Center staff. Helpdesk is intended to
be the first line of contact for computing support on campus.
In addition to everyday problems such as Virus and Spyware removal,
Helpdesk also performs ‘Tier 1’ hardware and software
troubleshooting. Helpdesk is equipped to diagnose many problems
and get warranty support directly from the manufacturer for Dell
computers as well as escalate problems to our onsite Certified
Apple technicians for MacIntosh support issues. Using a wide variety
of software and hardware tools, the Helpdesk staff is able to
repair and retrieve damaged or corrupted files, repair damaged
or corrupted disks, and back-up and restore users’ data.
Faculty, academic staff, and students call on our well trained
and knowledgeable crew of Helpdesk student workers for things
as common as printing problems to tasks as important as preparing
manuscripts for publication. Helpdesk workers also provide basic
instruction for Academic Computing Center’s supported software.
Webpage, spreadsheet, text document, and image creation and manipulation
software are among those applications supported by Helpdesk.
In an effort to provide increased access to our services, Helpdesk
has announced extended hours this semester. Helpdesk will remain
open until 9:00 pm Tuesdays during the academic year to serve
students and provide an after hours contact point for faculty
teaching in the evening. In addition, these evening hours will
allow Helpdesk to assist with laptop / projection issues experienced
in Multimedia classrooms.
Helpdesk, Stokes 204, is open 9:00 am to 5:00 pm Monday through
Friday, and Tuesdays until 9 pm or you may call 610-896-1480.
-Craig Ross is ACC Helpdesk/Public
Computing Lab Coordinator
Teaching with Technology
by Barbara Mindell
For several years Haverford College has been awarding
teaching with technology grants to faculty interested in exploring
ways to enhance their teaching through the use of technology.
This grant program was instituted in order to provide faculty
with the opportunity to develop new and innovative approaches
to education through the use of technology. It was hoped that
these grants would encourage faculty to seek out ways in which
to utilize emerging technologies in the classroom to accomplish
these goals. It was also hoped that faculty would be inspired
by the work being accomplished by their peers and that we would
see an increase in the number and variety of projects being funded
as more faculty sought out these grants.
The original grants coincided with the explosion of the web and
initial creation of a web presence on Haverford’s campus.
Early faculty adopters were able to take advantage of these grants
to create web pages for their courses, which produced an immediate
and positive impact on the student experience. As a result of
these grants, some wonderful and significant compilations of information
were created.
In addition to the early webpage development projects, the Teaching
with Technology grant program has funded a variety of interesting
and innovative projects over the years, including: development
of a website interface to specific CD tracks being demonstrated
in a Music course; a course site that compiled an extensive view
of Medieval art; an interactive language dictionary that utilized
current web tools to illustrate effective use of a language dictionary;
audio annotations critiquing student work; the creation of a Japanese
community of past and current students that includes chat, audio,
video and pictures; interactive video demonstrations of biological
processes and video demonstrations of the proper use of technique
in using certain equipment necessary in a Physics course.
Faculty submissions are solicited in January of each year. The
period of the grant is for one year or longer,
depending on the scope and nature of the proposal.
Successful candidates are notified of their award prior to March
1 of each year. As part of the grant, each faculty recipient is
awarded a small monetary stipend and is assigned 50 hours of trained
technology student assistance to help implement the technology
component. The technology assistant is trained and supervised
by the Academic Computing Center.
Once the initial scope of the project is determined, the faculty
are encouraged to attend planned workshops sponsored by Academic
Computing. The purpose of these workshops is to facilitate the
technology component of the grant and ensure that the student
assistant and the faculty support liaison understand the parameters
of the work required of them. In order to meet these goals, Academic
Computing hires, trains and supervises two summer assistants who
are experienced users of technology and who are assigned to work
full time on the faculty projects. These students are hired with
the understanding that they will remain available throughout the
academic year to maintain and augment the faculty projects they
are assigned.
Upon completion of the grant project, each faculty is asked to
participate in a Technology Symposium sponsored by the Academic
Computing Center. It is hoped that this will provide all faculty
an opportunity to see the types of technology projects that are
being completed with the support of this grant funding and encourage
more faculty to utilize the ideas and experiences of each other
in expanding the curriculum to include innovative and new technologies.
-Barbara Mindell is Director of
Academic Computing Services
Francis Frith
by William Williams
The fine art photographic collection at Haverford
College was started in 1979. Edwin Bronner (1920-2005) Librarian
of the College, Professor of History and Curator of the Quaker
Collection supported its formation. One of the earliest photographs
to enter the collection with Dr. Bronner’s support was Francis
Frith’s Self Portrait in Turkish Summer Costume,
1857. Francis Frith (British) 1822-1898 was born in Chesterfield,
England, of Quaker parents. He left school at the age of 16 and
held various jobs until becoming involved in the printing business,
where he made a small fortune that allowed him to retire at age
34 to pursue his interest in photography.
His self-portrait is one of the most famous in the history of
photography. It was done during the first of three trips he made
to the Middle East in the 1850’s to 1860’s. The acquisition
of this portrait and later first edition books and photographs
by Frith helped establish the high standard, which guides the
acquisition of works for the collection. Photographs like all
collections at the College serve as an adjunct to teaching and
research. This aspect of the collection is also a reflection of
the Quaker roots of Haverford. The Quaker Collection has always
kept extensive biographical and original materials on the activities
of Quakers world wide including their creative and artistic work.
Self Portrait in Turkish Summer Costume
The journeys made by Frith produced four photographic
books with commentaries by him and others that became commercially
successful and were widely distributed due to the public thirst
for pictures and information about the Middle East. At the May
26, 2005, Photographic Auction at Swann Gallery New York City
volume 1 of Egypt and Palestine Photographed and Described
1858-59 and Egypt, Sinai, and Palestine ca. 1862 Supplementary
Volume by Frith were purchased. These volumes containing
76 full plate albumen prints were purchased by the Library in
memory of Edwin Bronner for his service to the College and the
larger community as a historian and Quaker specialist.
Frith, one of the most important 19th century photographers,
whose significance is just now being fully appreciated, was by
all accounts a multi-talented individual in the British gentleman
mode. He was by turns businessman, poet, Quaker theologian, adventurer,
Orientalist, and authorial narrator of his life. These volumes
supply the reader and researcher the means to experience Frith
in these multiple roles.
-William Williams is Professor
of Fine Arts & Curator of Photography
Haverford Music Resources
by Michelle Oswell
New physical and electronic collections to enhance
your musical experience on campus and off are arriving daily.
This past summer, the Library subscribed to two online streaming
audio databases: Naxos Music Online and Smithsonian Global Sound.
At Naxos online, you can listen to over 100,000 tracks of classical,
jazz, and spoken word recordings from Naxos, Marco Polo, Fantasy
Jazz, and other labels. Are you more interested in hearing
music from Africa or Southeast Asia? Try Smithsonian Global Sound,
which features the Smithsonian Folkways Recordings as
the backbone for 35,000 tracks of world music. You can find anything
from traditional songs of Botswana to kroncong from Indonesia,
all in one place. All of these streaming audio files are available
to Haverford students, faculty, and staff.
In print, the six-tome work, Oxford History of Western Music,
by Richard Taruskin (Oxford, 2005), is now on the shelves and
available for check out. Annegret Fauser’s new book, Musical
Encounters at the 1889 Paris World's Fair (Rochester, 2005)
is sure to appeal to those interested in intersections between
East and West, technological advances in the late 19th century,
or French music in general. For those of you more interested in
popular music, check out Bob Spitz’s The Beatles: the
Biography (New York, 2005), Audiotopia: Music, Race,
and America by Josh Kun (Berkeley, 2005), or Nik Cohn’s
Triksta: Life and Death and New Orleans Rap (New York,
2005). On the reference side, we recently purchased the Encyclopedia
of American Gospel Music and Women in Music: a Research and Information
Guide.
New audio recordings are coming in regularly, and
I recently purchased two large CD collections: Jelly Roll
Morton: the Complete Library of Congress Recordings (look
for a display at the Music Library soon), and Schubert: the
Complete Songs. The Schubert collection, 40 discs in all,
is a chronological collection of his songs with texts and translations
that is sure to please the art song fan.
On the video front, Haverford has augmented its
collection with the EMI Classic Archive series, featuring live
performances from some of the 20th century’s greatest instrumentalists,
vocalists, and conductors. We added several new operas on dvd,
including Richard Strauss’ Elektra and Salome,
as well as Handel’s Guilio Cesare. If you’re
looking to see more videos of famous conductors performing the
masterpieces of music, try Leonard Bernstein: the Concert
Collection, which has nine discs of performances such as
Giuseppe Verdi’s Requiem and Dmitri Shostakovich’s
Symphony No. 5, or Herbert von Karajan conducting Beethoven’s
nine symphonies.
I look forward to continuing to build Haverford’s music
collection, digital and in print, over the next several years.
Stop by Union or the Music Library web site <http://www.haverford.edu/library/music/>
to check it out for yourself!
-Michelle Oswell is Humanities
Librarian for Music and Literature
Staff News and Notes
Compiled by Mike Persick
John Anderies, Coordinator for
Special & Digitial Collections, attended the Atlantic Chapter
Meeting of the Music Library Association (ATMLA), at Peabody Institute
of Music in Baltimore, MD, in October, and the Coalition for Network
Information (CNI) meeting in Phoenix, AZ, in December, as a member
of the National Institute for Technology in Liberal Education
(NITLE) delegation.
The oft-mentioned thirty-year “streak”
of baby girls seems to be well and truly broken at Magill Library
with the birth this fall of a baby boy to Mary Lynn Morris
Kennedy, Digital Services Librarian, and husband John.
John Rabindra Kennedy arrived shortly after midnight on September
8th and weighed in at 9 lbs., 2 oz. “Jack” joins big
sister Runa, who had the double-thrill of starting kindergarten
on the same day.
Bob Kieft, Director of College
Information Resources and Librarian of the College, and Mike Persick,
Acquisitions Librarian & Assistant Catalog Librarian, visited
New London, Connecticut, in December to speak to librarians from
the CTW Consortium (Connecticut College, Trinity College, and
Wesleyan University) about the Tri-College work with cooperative
collection development and consortial approval plans.
In other news, Bob was elected to a three-year term
on the Executive Board of the Pennsylvania Consortium of Academic
Libraries (PALCI) and is chairing for them a task force on cooperative
collection development. He has also talked with library school
courses at Pratt Institute, Rutgers University, Indiana University,
and UCLA about his work with the new edition of the Guide
to Reference Sources.
Norm Medeiros, Coordinator for
Bibliographic & Digital Services, has been appointed U.S.
editor of E-LIS, the open archive for Library and Information
Science <http://eprints.rclis.org/>.
Established in 2003, E-LIS provides free access to an international
array of papers in librarianship and related fields.
-Mike Persick is Acquisitions Librarian
& Assistant Catalog Librarian
