Behind the Scenes with UC’s Digital Archivist: Making Sense of It All

Posted on September 20, 2016 by Suzanne Reller

By Eira Tansey, Digital Archivist/Records Manager

When archivists first make contact with a large group of records, they often perform some form of appraisal. You might think of appraisal as being the calling card of the much-loved PBS television show Antiques Roadshow, in which average people realize that Great Aunt Milly’s painting is a valued masterpiece – or a total dud.

Unlike appraisers, when archivists appraise something they generally aren’t assigning a monetary value, but seeking to articulate the value of the records and the information they contain. The Society of American Archivists defines (http://www2.archivists.org/glossary/terms/a/appraisal#.V2hA1jXERmM) appraisal as:

~ 1. The process of identifying materials offered to an archives that have sufficient value to be accessioned. – 2. The process of determining the length of time records should be retained, based on legal requirements and on their current and potential usefulness. – 3. The process of determining the market value of an item; monetary appraisal.

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Liebig and Combustion Analysis : Notes from the Oesper Collections, No. 40, September/October 2016

Posted on September 8, 2016 by hightss

Justus von Liebig (1803-1873) posing with his apparatus for combustion analysis.

Issue 40 outlines the history and importance of the chemical technique known as combustion analysis and highlights a reproduction of Liebig’s famous 1831 instrument for this purpose made by the late Dr. Melvyn Usselman of the University of Western Ontario and donated to our museum collections in 2005.

Click here for all other issues of Notes from the Oesper Collections and to explore the Jensen-Thomas Apparatus Collection.

Behind the Scenes with UC’s Digital Archivist: Much Ado About Digital

Posted on September 6, 2016 by Suzanne Reller

By Eira Tansey, Digital Archivist/Records Manager

Within the archives profession, “Digital Archivist” is one of the fastest-growing job titles (http://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/provenance/vol31/iss2/5/). The Society of American Archivists offers a Digital Archives Specialist curriculum and certificate (www2.archivists.org/prof-education/das). And library and archives conferences abound on topics of an electronic and digital nature – like Saving The Web (https://www.loc.gov/loc/kluge/news/save-web-2016.html), the Digital Library Federation (https://www.diglib.org/), and the Software Preservation Network Forum (http://www.softwarepreservationnetwork.org/spn-forum/).

So what does a digital archivist do? Every digital archivist’s responsibilities will look slightly different depending on institutional mission, priorities and resources. As the first link indicates, there isn’t even professional consensus whether a digital archivist is one who works with digitization of analog material (like paper documents and manuscripts, rare books, maps, etc), or someone who works with “born-digital” materials. In many institutions, both of those responsibilities may be within the Digital Archivist’s charge. As UC’s Digital Archivist/Records Manager, my responsibilities center on working with born-digital archives, digital preservation, and overseeing UC’s Records Management program. I also work closely with my colleagues in Digital Collections on digitization projects (http://digital.libraries.uc.edu/).

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The Steelyard Balance : Notes from the Oesper Collections, No. 39, July/August 2016

Posted on August 11, 2016 by hightss

A recently acquired 19th-century Chinese steelyard or so-called “opium balance” with an 11” ivory beam and accompanying “teardrop” storage case

Issue 39 briefly outlines the history and principles underlying traditional single pan or “steelyard” balances and illustrates their evolution using examples from our museum collections.

Click here for all other issues of Notes from The Oesper Collections and to explore the Jensen-Thomas Apparatus Collection.

Epicurus and Atomism : Notes from the Oesper Collections, No. 38, May/June 2016

Posted on August 4, 2016 by hightss

Our recently acquired bust of Epicurus
(341-270 BC)

Issue 38 describes a recently acquired bust of the Greek philosopher Epicurus and his importance to the history of atomism.

Click here for all other issues of Notes from The Oesper Collections and to explore the Jensen-Thomas Apparatus Collection.

Check Out the Latest Issue of Source

Posted on June 21, 2016 by Melissa Cox Norris

Read Source, the online newsletter, to learn more about the news, events, people and happenings in UC Libraries.

This latest issue of Source includes an article announcing the new UC academic press, a Q&A about a new position in the Office of Research, and A Note from the Dean: IFLA Coming to Cincinnati. Updates to library websites are showcased in A New Look at Digital Collections and in an article about the Neil A. Armstrong display and website. There are two articles about recent awards – the Provost Technology Innovation Awards and Recognizing Library Student Workers. Read these articles and more.

Source is available on the web at http://libapps.libraries.uc.edu/source/ and via e-mail. To receive Source via e-mail, contact melissa.norris@uc.edu to be added to the mailing list.

All systems now back online after earlier storage outage

Posted on June 7, 2016 by Glen Horton

Update – all systems affected by the storage outage (see description below) are now fully back online. Please contact ucdp@uc.edu or scholar@uc.edu with any questions. Thank you.

(June 7th: 10:42 am)
The isilon storage array maintained by IT@UC had an outage last night. The storage system is back up, but some systems that use it are not. At the time of this blog post, the Digital Resource Commons (https://drc.libraries.uc.edu); the Digital Collections and Repositories website (https://digital.libraries.uc.edu), the Luna image and media repository (https://digital.libraries.uc.edu/luna), and Journals@UC (https://journals.uc.edu) are either down are not fully functional. Some development or test systems are also down. These systems are all in process of coming back online.

Scholar@UC (https://scholar.uc.edu) is up. This blog post will be updated when all systems are back online. You may contact ucdp@uc.edu or Scholar@uc.edu with any questions. Thank you.

New Website for Digital Collections & Repositories

Posted on May 16, 2016 by Glen Horton

Update, May 16, 2016, 4pm: The website migration has been completed. Let us know what you think about the new site!

Next Monday (May 16), the Digital Collections & Repositories department will launch a new website. The website will be fully responsive and will work on all devices. Graphics will be prominently featured with less text overall. New features include a card-based collections page that can be filtered by library, subject, or format. We’re very excited to launch this new site and hope our users will find it easy to use.

During the transition on Monday, May 16, you may experience difficulties using the website as we copy new files over and remove old files.

New Digital Collections & Repositories website home page.

UC Libraries Invests in Digitization

Posted on April 11, 2016 by Glen Horton

The UC Libraries strategic initiative, DigitizeUC, is working to grow in-house digitization capabilities at UC Libraries into a fully-fledged program. UC Libraries has a long history of digitization and even started a University of Cincinnati Digitial Press in the 1990s. However, we have had limited in-house equipment and relied heavily on grants and local vendors to carry out projects. While grants and vendors are still part of our program, we are beginning to expand our in-house capabilities.

DT RG3040 and PhaseOne IQ360

Our first purchase is a significant investment that will serve UC Libraries for many years to come. We purchased a PhaseOne Reprographic System from Digital Transitions. This system includes a 60 MP PhaseOne digital back, DT RCam with electronic shutter, Schneider 72 mm lens, and motorized copy stand. This system will allow us to achieve rapid, high-quality digitization workflows and take on mass digitization projects with a high degree of color accuracy.

Fujitsu fi-6670

Our second purchase is a high-speed, duplex, automatic-sheet-feed Fujitsu scanner that will help us quickly digitize paper materials from the 20th-century and after. We are currently using it in a project to digitize the Lucy M. Shultz Archive held by the Department of English and Comparative Literature. The archive comprises of high-quality photocopies of 19th-century textbooks and handbooks for English composition and rhetoric.

The Digital Collections and Repositories department will be testing this new equipment with pilot projects the rest of this academic year. The DigitizeUC strategic initiative will be proposing a short-term (12-18 months) operations plan for next year that will help us focus our efforts next year and produce digital content.

These efforts and investments are aligned with the first and fourth pillars of UC Libraries strategic plan and would not be possible without the support and vision of Dean and University Librarian, Xuemao Wang, and his cabinet. This represents the first step towards a UC Libraries Digital Lab, a strong foundation for our expanding services to support digital scholarship at the University of Cincinnati.

: Sign from symposium in honor of Albert Sabin’s birthday.

: Albert Sabin polio vaccine poster from Latin America.

: Certificate of appreciation for Albert Sabin from Argentina.

The Search for Sulfur Iodide : Notes from the Oesper Collections, No. 37, March/April 2016

Posted on March 7, 2016 by hightss

The mysterious antique bottle of “sulfur iodide.”

Issue 37 explores the consequences of trying to determine the true contents of an antique bottle of so-called “sulfur iodide” recently donated to the museum.