Monthly Archives: March 2012

Great sessions at TLA!

Greetings all,
There are a number of programs at TLA’s Annual Conference related to Archives and Digital libraries. TLA is held in Houston this year, April 17th-April 20th. We would love to see you there!

Developing a Large-Scale Digital Archives through a Library Consortium
Tue, April 17, 2:00 pm – 3:50 pm
The West Texas Digital Archives, a customized open source repository, contains historical materials including images, text, and video. This program highlights the elements involved in this fruitful collaborative project including the development of content practices, building an online repository, and marketing and sustaining of the archive.
Digital Libraries Round Table (DLRT) business meeting follows the program.

Digitizing Local History: Partnerships and Possibilities
Thu, April 19, 10:00 am – 11:50 am
All history may be local, as some historians claim, but local history is often overlooked. Join academic and public librarians as they discuss their experiences digitizing local history materials during a multi-year training program. Learn what worked, what didn?t, and where you can go for help.
Archives, Genealogy and Local History Round Table business meeting follows the program.

Digitizing Historic Newspapers: What We’ve Learned
Thu, April 19, 1:00 pm – 1:50 pm
Libraries are the primary access points for local newspapers. Speakers outline the Texas Digital Newspaper Program, a partnership among libraries to digitize historical newspapers, and debunk a few myths about digitizing resources. Attendees will find out about resources to help them start and fund their own project.

Metadata Strategies for Getting Objects Online
Fri, April 20 8:00 am – 9:20 am
Does your digitization process always bottleneck at metadata? Do you have a lot of material scanned but a backlog of materials needing metadata? Learn tips and tricks from other librarians who have developed strategies to minimize and reduce the metadata backlog.

Contemporary Collecting: Is Your Archives Keeping up with the Latest Trends?
Fri, April 20, 10:00 am – 11:20 am
In our constantly changing society, archives and cultural institutions should consider collecting materials reflecting modern technologies, trends, and populations. Learn how to develop a selection policy allowing for the acquisition of contemporary materials and to anticipate issues regarding playback mechanisms, migration, and preservation of less common material types.

More information on TLA 2012 conference @ http://www.txla.org/annual-conference

kind regards,
Monica Rivero, DLRT Chair

AHA meeting (March 22) postponed

Due to scheduling conflicts the March 22 AHA meeting and digital media roundtable discussion has been postponed (location and date TBA).

We’re still looking for participants to share information about digitization projects such as:

– what kinds of materials do you digitize?
– are they available online? where?
– if material is online, what platform / software do you use?
– what is your workflow for such projects?
– do you have documentation / guidelines you could share?
– what challenges have you had? what victories?

Also, do you have questions you would like to hear discussed?
Would you like to present on your own efforts?

Please contact Amanda Focke  – afocke@rice.edu or 713-348-2124

AHA Meeting & Digital Media Roundtable – March 22

Join us for the first AHA meeting of 2012 on Thursday, March 22 at 6 pm at Fondren Library, Rice University.

There will be a roundtable discussion about digital media including Woodson Research Center’s Amanda Focke and Dara Flinn, and Monica Rivero from Rice’s Digital Media Center.

Also, please mail your $10 dues to our treasurer:

Terry Brown
Treasurer, AHA!
872 Augusta Drive
Houston, TX 77057

Upcoming meetings:

Our summer meeting will be on July 12. Vindicator Publisher Carol Skewes will make a presentation on “Submitting News and Photos to the Texas Press.”  This will cover the proper ways to submit election news for publication and how to gain publicity for your archives (location TBA).

October is archives month with a dinner, meeting, and an outing and December 5 with be the date of the December Election Meeting and the famous, fabulous Christmas Party.  Terry Brown of the Houston Symphony Archives has been gracious again to offer to host this meeting.