Professional Development Opportunities
Introduction to Collection Analysis
Data plays a role in almost all collection development decisions. From choosing what subscriptions to renew to negotiating pricing for packages to making decisions about what formats to collect, data can help make a decision or an argument. As collection development has become increasingly informed by data, a subset of the collection development role has emerged called collection analysis, sometimes also referred to as collection evaluation or assessment. This course will introduce some of the common types of data that are used in collection decisions, such as COUNTER reports and circulation statistics, while also noting limitations and controversies around these reports. Students will practice identifying which kinds of data would be useful for a particular analysis as well as teasing out the shortcomings of the data. Students will learn and practice techniques for combining data from multiple sources into a master Excel spreadsheet. The course requires some reading and discussion but emphasizes hands-on practice in selecting appropriate data for an analysis and working in Excel to compile the data. It will be helpful if students have used Excel before, but it is not necessary to have experience with formulas.
May 3–30
Introduction to Digital Preservation
This course is designed to give the non-archivists, non-preservationist a basic overview of the field of digital preservation practice in libraries, archives and museums. On completion of this course, the student will have knowledge of the history of the field of digital preservation, best practices for establishing and maintaining digitization and digital preservation programs, ethics and social justice issues related to digital preservation practices, and an overview of international approaches to digital preservation work. This course can be taken as one of six courses needed to earn our Certificate in Digital Curation, but can be taken as a stand-alone course as well.
May 3–30
Subject Analysis and Subject Representation
This course focuses on the analysis of the intellectual content of information resources/objects and the representation of content in information retrieval systems, specifically library systems. The analysis of intellectual content has long been a traditional mechanization for retrieval of and access to information resources in libraries. Representing the content of information resources involves a number of critical ideas and distinctions that the cataloger must contend with if the process of resource subject representation is to be done with any efficiency and wisdom. This course will explore the core of that process. This involves exploring the idea of content, including the idea of a subject, and the corresponding possibilities of how to indicate or express that content. We can call the overall process subject analysis but simply saying that it centers on determining the “subject” (or “subjects”) of a resource has to be expanded. As a widely accepted activity, it has gained a variety of names—for example, subject indexing, document analysis, and subject heading determination.
May 3–30
Creating Online Exhibits with Omeka
Omeka is an open source web-publishing platform used by many libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural organizations for creating online exhibits of materials from their collections. This course provides the opportunity to explore the exhibit-building process and gain hands-on experience in creating a professional-level exhibit on a topic of your choice.
June 7–July 4
$175
Fundamentals of Digital Curation in Libraries, Archives and Museums
This course is designed to give the student an overview of the fundamentals of digital curation theory and best practices in libraries, archives and museums. On completion of the course, the student will have a working knowledge of theory, best practices for establishing and maintaining digital curation programs and initiatives, and feedback on work on digital curation projects in the students’ own workplace or area of interest and study. This course can be taken as one of six courses needed to earn our Certificate in Digital Curation, but can be taken as a stand-alone course as well.
July 5–August 1
$175
Introduction to Museums
Are you new to a museum environment, or are you interested in moving in that direction? Learn how museums are different than and similar to the other GLAMs (galleries, libraries, and archives). This course offers students a broad overview of: types of museums as compared to GLAMs; core functions of museums; subfields and career opportunities; the organization of information (systems and practices) within museums. Each week, the course also addresses a key issue in museums today: accessibility, sustainability, labor practices, and social justice. This course is part of our Certificate in Museum Informatics, but may be taken as a stand-alone course as well.
July 5–August 1
Describing Photographs for the Online Catalogue
Students in this course will explore the many ways in which photographic images are described and interpreted by both people and computers. The goal of the course is to broaden the non-specialist cataloguer’s ability to describe the subject content and material qualities of photographs, and to provide a greater understanding of current standards and approaches to image resource access.
July 5–August 1
Creating and Preserving Oral Histories
Popularity of oral histories has been increasing since the mid 20th century when they were used as a research tool to discover the stories of the people behind the labor and political movements of the time. The content of oral history interviews is grounded in reflections on the past as opposed to commentary on purely contemporary events. Oral history can refer to a method of recording and preserving oral testimony and to the product of that process. A successful oral history programs require goals, procedures, and training as well as a plan for access to the interview’s content. The class will also cover the selection and set-up of recording equipment to ensure high quality recordings.
June 3, 1 pm–3 pm Central
$100 (LYRASIS Member) / $125 (non-member)
Digitizing Rare Books
This class will discuss best practices and current issues in digitizing rare books. The instructor will cover scanning and specialized equipment; post-process and digital authenticity; the need for specific metadata description; and the publication of digital rare book collections. A discussion of common types of rare books and their handling needs, along with third party digitization agreements and donor stipulations, will be included. Finally, we’ll cover how to build dazzling and significant rare book-based digital collections, over time.
May 4, 12:30 pm–1:30 pm Central
$50 (LYRASIS member) / $75 (non-member)
Digitization for Small Institutions
Participants will learn about starting a digitization program. The first session covers the basics of project planning, equipment selection, digitization preparation, care and during digitization. The second session covers technical information relevant to getting started with digitization, such as metadata, file format selection, compression, and more. The class also covers quality control, access, and touches upon basic concepts of digital preservation as relevant to small institutions planning digital projects.
August 3–4, 1:00 pm–2:00 pm Central
$125 (LYRASIS Member) / $150 (non-member)
Opportunity to Serve in Atla's Technical Services Interest Group
Are you interested in being on the steering committee of Atla’s Technical Services Interest Group (TSIG)? Qualifications are minimal—basically having an interest in shaping technical services activities at Atla Annual, and even that is not difficult, since technical services people are usually self-starters. Elections will be held in June at Atla Annual 2021 online. You may nominate yourself or someone else. Please send nominations to richard.lammert@ctsfw.edu.
Please visit the TSIG website for more information about the TSIG, the current leadership, plan of the organization, opportunities for involvement, and activities.