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LIS 620 Summer 2018 Showcase
Academic Libraries
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Presenter: Raleigh Daniel Practicum Location: Stanford University Special Collections, Redwood City, CA In working with Special Collections and Archives it is common to work with metadata standards, such as Metadata Object Description Schema (MODS) for digital collections and archive processing finding aids for physical collections, but at present there is little connection between the two. After observing this in the Special Collections department at Stanford University, it became increasingly important to answer the question: Can these essential elements be linked? Based on initial findings, it has been determined that they can be linked if the finding aid is first converted into an Encoded Archival Description (EAD) format and a crosswalk to semantically map the elements of EAD to the elements of MODS is created. |
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Presenter: Samantha Wolf Practicum Location: MERIT Library, Madison, WI The goal of my practicum at MERIT was to research, design, implement, and analyze user experience interviews using Canvas courses. The information technologists at MERIT were interested in elements of design and organization, and how student users react to them. Through passive interviewing methods, I was able to foster an open-ended interview environment that yielded fruitful results. Ultimately, the work I did in this practicum will help the School of Education and possibly the rest of campus. |
Public Libraries
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Presenter: Emily Dean Practicum Location: Fitchburg Public Library, Fitchburg, WI One of my main objectives at the Fitchburg Public Library was to be able to plan effective programming for school-aged children. From observing other librarians implement programs at this library, I gathered STEAM programs had high attendance and success rates. In this paper I discuss the benefits of integrating STEAM learning into regular library programming, areas the Fitchburg Library has excelled in this area, and where there still remain gaps in providing STEAM programs in this community. |
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Presenter: Laura Huff Practicum Location: Monona Public Library, Monona, WI Public library youth services programs are increasingly offering sensory storytimes to meet the needs of their communities. These storytimes are aimed at providing a safe and welcoming environment at storytime for children with autism or other developmental disabilities. Designs for sensory storytime focus on creating opportunities for children to be themselves while interacting in a public space with other children and adults. This paper will explore sensory storytime methods across different public libraries, looking at which elements are consistent, in order to help plan fall storytimes, including a sensory storytime, at Monona Public Library in Monona, Wisconsin. |
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Presenter: Miranda Madro Practicum Location: Fitchburg Public Library, Fitchburg, WI For my practicum, I worked at the Fitchburg Public Library in Fitchburg, Wisconsin. While working on a collection management project, my research question became clear: Why do public libraries create topic-related nonfiction collections separate from their general nonfiction collections, and how is it decided what materials go into those separate nonfiction collections? After contacting eight public libraries, I uncovered many answers to my research question. The most prevalent had to do with the Dewey Decimal system scattering books on certain popular topics throughout a general nonfiction collection, making it necessary to create separate collections for ease of use, and librarians creating an unwritten definition and scope of each of their separate nonfiction collections in order to decide on what materials to include in those collections.
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Presenter: Hannah Majeska Practicum Location: Middleton Public Library, Middleton, WI This summer, I conducted an adult services practicum at Middleton Public Library, located in Middleton, Wisconsin. One of my projects was weeding the adult fiction collection. In relation to my weeding project, I chose to explore the research question, “What are best practices and common challenges in weeding a public library’s fiction collection?” I found that best practices include planning ahead by creating a schedule and guidelines, primarily weeding books which are no longer in demand or which are in unattractive physical condition, and considering outstanding factors such as a book’s status as a classic or part of a series. Challenges include committing staff time, fear of making mistakes, and lack of universal guidelines.
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Presenter: Angela Meadows Practicum Location: Madison Public Library, Madison, WI The Madison Public Library hosts weekly Wild Rumpus programs that incorporate an educational philosophy called Anji Play. A key aspect of this program is that children engage in self-determined play and adults actively observe children at play. During these programs, I’ve noticed a challenge in keeping adults engaged in the programming and that it can be difficult to articulate how self-determined play is supporting child development. To better understand these challenges, I researched how adults understand play, how adults understand play’s role in a child’s development, and how museums have helped adults understand learning through play. The result of this research is recommendations that aim to improve the knowledge of Wild Rumpus volunteers and bring to the fore-front the benefits that Wild Rumpus and Anji Play have on child development. |
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Presenter: Carmen Niemeyer Practicum Location: Madison Public Library, Madison, WI As part of my practicum at Madison Public Library – Central Library in Madison, WI, I created social media content to promote the Madison Living History Project and further engage the public in local history collections. Additionally, I researched how other libraries and cultural institutions use online tools to market local and oral history projects and collections to a public audience/community. The presentation argues that community support and participation, consistent narratives, and collaboration are key to successful promotion of these projects online. |
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Presenter: Anne Spencer Practicum Location: Penrose Public Library, Colorado Springs, CO I worked with the Penrose Public Library staff and patrons in Colorado Springs to determine how the physical spaces at Penrose were being used, what problems were arising from space design, and how the spaces could improve. After preliminary observation, interviews, and research, I found a few key problem areas and gave recommendations on improvements. Then, I focused on what I saw as the largest problem area, the Bay Area, and provided more in depth information on what people wanted from the space, which involved creating and analyzing patron and staff surveys. I am waiting on survey returns before giving any final recommendations backed by responses, but research suggests breaking the Bay Area into smaller user spaces, changing the furniture, and providing more charging stations. |
Archives
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Presenter: Jessica Behrman Practicum Location: La Crosse Public Library Archives, La Crosse, WI Curating Community Digital Collections with Recollection Wisconsin is a new digital preservation practicum experience geared toward helping small memory institutions in Wisconsin that demonstrate a digital preservation need. I was placed at the La Crosse Public Library Archives, where I focused on creating documentation for born-digital photographs and making recommendations for quality control measures. My research question for this practicum, “What digital preservation techniques are needed for born-digital photographs in a small archive?” allowed me zoom in on what’s absolutely needed in this circumstance, what would be preferable, and what may be out of reach for the time being. |
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Presenter: Marisa Campanaro Practicum Location: University Archives at University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI My practicum site was at the University Archives at University of Wisconsin-Madison, working with the Glass Plate Negative collection. My research question dealt with, how do archives better tend to preservation needs of under processed and under cared for collections, especially when it comes to digital/media collections. My preliminary findings for this research are that for many university archives, the problem also comes from being understaffed or underfunded. In the case of UW Archives, a change in staff as well as being understaffed lead to disregard of one of the most fragile collections. |
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Presenter: Sarah Cooper Practicum Location: Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, WI My practicum was at the Wisconsin Historical Society (WHS) where I organized over 300 digitized films and born-digital videos, and created a workflow for how to process new digital videos in the future. My research question was, “What are the best practices and standards for digital video assessment and long-term preservation, and how well is WHS following those standards?” From the research that I have done so far, very few of their digitized films meet the current archival standards. This is largely because of inconsistent policies and the limited digitization capabilities at the time these films were digitized. These problems will hopefully not be an issue going forward now that the digitization capabilities have been improved and that there are set policies in place. |
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Presenter: Anna Olson Practicum Location: University of Wisconsin-Green Bay’s Archives and Area Research Center, Green Bay, WI The University of Wisconsin-Green Bay’s Archives and Area Research Center, located in Green Bay, WI, is in a partnership with the UW-Green Bay Retirees Association to collect and digitize an oral history collection of interviews from current and past university faculty, staff, students, and community members. As this is the UW-Green Bay Archives’ first official oral history collection to be digitized, I wanted to discover what challenges there are for collecting and maintaining oral history collections and how are they addressed. My preliminary findings revealed three prominent challenges: legal issues such as consent and future use of interviews, deterioration of audio files, and accessing oral histories in terms of search and discovery. My paper will further address how other institutions are addressing such challenges. |
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Presenter: Cory Whipkey Practicum Location: University of Wisconsin-River Falls, River Falls, WI The University of Wisconsin – River Falls, located in River Falls, WI, is conducting an archival record clean-up due to duplicated records from a Library Management System upgrade in 2015. This poster discusses my practicum project in identifying duplicated archival records in the catalog and comparing them so Wisconsin Historical Society record can updated their records if needed and UW-River Falls records can be deleted. Through this process I discovered a large amount of unprocessed archival items at UW-River Falls. My research question focused on how to eliminate this backlog. My conclusion was more cataloging staff at the Wisconsin Historical Society and formalized procedures and policies would help to eliminate the backlog. |
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Presenter: Katherine Quanz Practicum Location: Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research, Madison, WI This poster explores the complicated task of processing a legacy collection in minimal time. The More Product, Less Process (MPLP) model is often held as an ideal model for archives struggling with backlogs. Archivists working on personal collections with no organizational structure, however, have difficulty following the recommendations of MPLP. Using the last Shirley Clarke acquisition at Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research, I demonstrate that by designing an adaptable plan, delegating unfinished components, and scanning and skimming the contents of the collection, it is possible to process complex collections efficiently. By using the techniques outline in this poster, it is possible to adapt the principles of MPLP to personal papers. |
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Presenter: Sarah Lange Practicum Location: Rock County Historical Society, Janesville, WI For my practicum at Rock County Historical Society in Janesville, Wisconsin, I wondered which digital content management system would work best for RCHS as it looks ahead to sharing its digital collections online to reach more users and better serve its community. While CONTENTdm is a strong contender because RCHS doesn’t have onsite IT support, I’m also focusing on a couple of open source options, Omeka and ResCarta. This project is part of Curating Community Digital Collections, which pairs students interested in digital stewardship with small cultural heritage institutions across the state. |
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Presenter: Jazmin Ortiz Practicum Location: UW-Madison Archives Oral History Program, Madison, WI Institutions such as archives, museums, and libraries that contain oral history collections face the challenge of making their collections discoverable and accessible by users. Access can be limited due to a variety of factors including limited cataloging and description, recordings being in analog formats, and viewing limited to the institution’s hours of operation. One way institutions are addressing these challenges is by digitizing their oral history collections. The UW Madison Oral History Program is undertaking such a project. My presentation will focus on my experiences at the UW Madison Oral History Program making digitized collections accessible. I will cover challenges to this process and the future work to be undertaken by the Oral History Program. |
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Presenter: Stephen Scheflow Practicum Location: Theodore Roosevelt Center at Dickinson State University, Dickinson, ND Since my practicum was done remotely with a digital library/archive, I wanted to research something that specifically had to do with digital collections. One of my major interests since beginning at the iSchool has been MPLP and its use at institutions. I wanted to research whether or not MPLP makes sense for digital collections, whether its already in use informally, and whether or not other processing models are better suited to digital collections. The Theodore Roosevelt Center instructs interns to use some MPLP techniques and some Maximal Processing techniques. I determined that the TRC should use more Maximal Processing techniques to accomplish their goal of publishing all of their holdings digitally, faster than their current method allows. |
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Presenter: Alec Jacob Thicke Practicum Location: Mt. Horeb Area Historical Society’s Driftless Historium, Mt. Horeb, WI The “Little Norway Collection” has been in the possession of the Mt. Horeb Area Historical Society’s Possession since the closure of the site in 2012. I’ve had the pleasure of processing the collection. Since the collection is very large my Field Work Paper asks the question: How are archival institutions in the US processing collections to best fit the needs of their patrons while keeping the integrity of the materials in mind? My research studies several surveys on current archival processing theories, as well as individual archival processing plans for archival institutions in the US. There is not one archival processing theory/plan that works for every archival institution, but many of these can be used once altered to fit the needs of your own institution. |
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Presenter: Jodi Kiffmeyer Practicum Location: Barron County Historical Society, Cameron, WI How does a county historical society with a paid staff of only two make their digital images available to the public? As with many of their operations, they rely on volunteers. While working with the Barron County Historical Society in Cameron, Wisconsin, as part of the Curating Community Digital Collections project, I had to create a training manual for volunteers who would catalog digital photos after I left. One of my most difficult questions was how to train people with varying degrees of experience to create consistent metadata. My preliminary research uncovered three strategies: prioritize information, capitalize on volunteer experience, and mark records for follow-up. |
Museums
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Presenter: Emily Goodrich Practicum Location: Ho-Chunk Nation Museum and Cultural Center, WI Due to financial reasons, small cultural centers and museums often have to improvise when processing and preserving archival collections. In this presentation, I will be discussing my experiences with the Ho-Chunk Nation Museum and Cultural Center’s photography collections, including the research that went into creating digitization requirements and workflows. I found through my research that it was possible to create high quality preservation files of the photo collection without purchasing new equipment, and that our workflows necessarily needed to follow our available technology. While time constraints limit my ability to finish digitizing these collections, I was able to create documentation that will help future volunteers preserve these cultural photographs. |
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Presenter: Brendan Morris Practicum Location: Wisconsin Veterans Museum, Madison, WI The research conducted for this project has been done at the Wisconsin Veterans Museum in Madison, Wisconsin. The question is, what are the most important aspects of running a successful oral history program? Through preliminary research, four conclusions have been met. First, having a precise scope of who and who will not be included is important. Second, realistic expectations and an understanding of limitations in terms of funding, resources, and time must be addressed. Third, what are your priorities? Lastly, patience, empathy, and good communication skills are vital. |
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Presenter: Morgan Swick Practicum Location: Circus World Museum, Baraboo, WI The Robert L. Parkinson Library and Research Center at the Circus World Museum is considered to be the world’s foremost facility for researching the circus. The facility holds around 2,800 collections pertaining to the American circus. My poster presentation explores the most effective ways to process, digitize, scan, and catalog twentieth-century lithographic posters and make them easily accessible for the patrons. The presentation concludes that the most effective procedure for processing this collection was through the step-by-step process of cross checking the inventory, scanning/digitizing the posters into digital objects, and uploading the digital materials to their PastPerfect catalog to provide online access to the patrons. |
Other Information Agencies
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Presenter: David Clerkin Practicum Location: Rabble, Madison, WI Rabble is a Madison-based tech start-up that partners with libraries to build local music collections. Part of their strategy for reaching potential customers and users alike relies on social media. Managing their social media presence over the summer, I wanted to explore the question how can libraries and organizations sharing library values make the best use of social media? My research finds three major conclusions: institutions should develop guidelines early to inform their social media practices, social media is best used as a compliment to traditional advertising rather than a replacement, and libraries can maximize their social media presence by using it to interact and build relationships directly with the community they serve. Following these conclusions will help create the best results for library social media. |
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Presenter: Eric Crow Practicum Location: Wisconsin Geological & Natural History Survey, Madison, WI My summer practicum site was at the Wisconsin Geological & Natural History Survey in Madison, WI. My primary project was processing the Lee Clayton Manuscripts and Maps Collection. My primary aim was to practice how other disciplines, specifically non-Humanities, approached archival arrangement and description? Processing the collection was comprised of two major parts: Arranging the collection and developing an index and database for material metadata. Two major conclusions I took from this practicum are sometimes archival principals, such arrangement, are dictated by user needs, rather than original order. Additionally, archival materials are not just collections, but also data sets. Indexing the collection has allowed me to see the kind of data a collection can generate beyond its physical form. |
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Presenter: Jarrod J. Irwin Practicum Location: Research Data Services department of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI In completing a practicum at the Research Data Services department of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, I examined how other RDS departments evaluate their services so they can improve their value to researchers at their institutions. This is an important consideration for a major research university like UW-Madison, so I wanted to discover what specific metrics have been used to gauge the effectiveness of RDS departments’ activities. I found that commonly used metrics relate to the number of times students and faculty take advantage of these services, as well as the quantity and usage statistics of the data sets that RDS departments maintain. New initiatives are evaluated through tests and surveys of participants and usage data from web-based resources. |
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Presenter: Alyssa Stevenski Practicum Location: Capital Newspapers, Madison, WI The library at Capital Newspapers in Madison, Wisconsin, has a multitude of unpublished photographs from the 1990s through 2009 that are available to be added to Merlin, the digital asset management software used at Capital Newspapers. These images are kept on CDs. This paper explores a possible strategy for choosing which photographs to digitally add to Merlin. While working with the CDs to create image galleries for Madison.com, I grew interested in how other locations are choosing which items to digitize. I found that having a user-driven strategy, having available staff time, and promoting the work are often integral parts. |
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Presenter: Kristina Warner Practicum Location: Curating Community Digital Collections, WI Curating Community Digital Collections is an initiative supported by a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program. This placement allowed me to work closely with Outagamie Waupaca Library System to create digital preservation guidelines, digital preservation workflows, and a digital collections inventory among many other final outcomes. This practical experience in digital stewardship helped deepen my understanding of what digital preservation is and what goes into creating a policy, all while increasing the capabilities of a small library to curate their own digital collections. |
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Presenter: Joy Stevenson Practicum Location: Lancaster County (Nebraska) Adult Detention Facility Library, Lincoln, NE I am helping to open the Lancaster County (Nebraska) Adult Detention Facility Library. My question is “What are the best practices for providing library services to those in detention? And are we following these best practices?” The answer is both yes and no. Yes – as are offering inmates a selection of books; we have more than the appropriate number of book, and we have established policy and procedure development. No – as there is not a dedicated librarian and an inter-library loan system has not been established. These results are primary as the library was officially opened this week (31 July 2018) and so, only time will tell… |
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Presenter: Rebecca Kuske Practicum Location: Lands We Share Initiative at University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI This summer I have had the opportunity to do my practicum with the Lands We Share initiative. The main objective of this organization is to create a traveling exhibit that focuses on oral histories from six different farming locations in Wisconsin. My research revolves around the conversations surrounding the exhibit, and I am asking how oral histories connect people and incite conversations between members of the community who would not normally speak to each other. Because Lands We Share is in the beginning stages of its project, I have turned to past case studies for research. I have concluded that oral histories expose commonalities that many throughout the different communities can relate to and discuss extensively.
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Presenter: Beth Thomes Practicum Location: Dairyland Power Cooperative, La Crosse, WI My practicum is taking place with a system administrator at Dairyland Power Cooperative in La Crosse, Wisconsin. My work consists mainly of developing and implementing an information governance plan for a new SharePoint Online environment as part of a larger steering committee based on industry best practice findings. Ancillary research regarding obtaining consensus among the steering committee presented itself as the practicum was underway which has been another component of my work throughout the internship. The governance implementation phase will begin next week where retention and disposition management will be applied to sites, libraries, and files. I continue to conduct research and apply on the topic of approaches for achieving consensus in a group.
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Presenter: Rob Green Practicum Location: Iowa Museum Association, IA My field project for the Iowa Museum Association is a virtual museum and lesson plan library, which I designed for a National Endowment for the Humanities grant called Teaching Iowa History. For my research question, I sought to explore what considerations were most important in the successful development of a virtual museum. Having developed many websites in the Drupal content management system, I discovered that the extensive connective relationships between the various required museum content types (artifacts, museum locations, historical eras, personages, themes, lesson plans, etc.) were far more intricate than the data relationships in my previous non-museum site projects. Given the project’s complexity, the Teaching Iowa History project required a very solid and detailed entity relationship diagram early in the project; It was revised continually through the project, but having a baseline to work from allowed the team to refine the overall model and populate the content with confidence.
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