Completion of Kissinger Ingest

In October we completed the ingest of digitized materials for the Henry Kissinger project into Hydra and as a result, checked off a major milestone for the project. Ingest began in September 2014 and overall took 249 days to complete where for many weeks the ingest process was running 24/7 and required close monitoring.

The ingest process involved first creating metadata records in Ladybird from the original EAD files for the Kissinger collection (MS 1981 and MS 2004). This amounted to 16,161 Ladybird objects. Then as each of the 85 hard drives returned from the vendor, each drive had its contents validated through an automated quality control process and then transferred to temporary, network accessible storage for a manual quality control process. Once the digital files passed the quality control phase, they were matched up with the Ladybird object to create the complex parent/child relationship, essentially combining the metadata record with the digital files. This was performed by using the file name from each TIF image and extracting parts of the name to match it to the Ladybird record. Once a match was made, we imported the TIF and associated OCR file into Ladybird to create the ingest package to send to Hydra. Each ingest package contained the original TIF image, OCR file, a derivative JP2 and a derivative JPG. In addition, five metadata files were also attached which make up the Hydra object.

After completing ingest into Hydra, we then performed two independent audits to confirm the quantities of files matched correctly and each file’s checksum matched the original checksum in addition to the checksums calculated along the way to ensure file integrity.

Combining the counts of files for both MS 1981 and MS 2004, this is the end result:

Total Folders 16,161
Folders with digitized content 15,710
PDF files 15,710
Folders containing Audio/Video 157
Total TIF Images 1,530,433
Total OCR Files 1,202,920
Total Ladybird objects 1,546,594
Total Files Ingested into Hydra 13,542,899
Approximate checksums calculated 39,268,398
Estimated size of collection 95 Terabytes

 

The following chart illustrates the growth by month from September 2014 through October 2015.

Kissinger Ingest Graph

November 17th: LIT Tech Talk, SearchFest!

Library IT is pleased to host two events for library staff on November 17th, 2015. Read on for more information!

November LIT Tech Talk:

The Tech Talk for November will be held at 11am on Tuesday November 17th in Bass L01.

Continuing to follow up on a request for more information on who does what in LIT, this month we will turn the spotlight on the Digital Library & Programming Group.

The tentative agenda is:

  • Spotlight on LIT staff: Digital Library & Programming
  • Digital Collections Search and Discovery at Yale Library

SearchFest:

The last SearchFest! session before Quicksearch’s public debut on the Library front door in January will be held on November 17th at 12:30pm in Bass L06.

The goals of SearchFest!:

  • test out existing Orbis or Morris search strategies in our new unified discovery interface, Quicksearch.
  • demonstrate the features and functionality that are unique to Quicksearch
  • review the timeline for Quicksearch’s transition to production in January 2016
  • answer any questions from staff about how to use Quicksearch in either instruction or daily work

As with the first SearchFest!, there will also be pizza served at the beginning of each session.

To register for the November 17th session, click here – 8 spots left!

YUL gets an updated interface for digital collections search and discovery

On Monday 9/21/2015, YUL’s digital collection discovery interface (findit.library.yale.edu) will go live with a new design modeled on the Quicksearch interface design. These coordinating designs let our users know that they are in the same Yale University Library web space and should expect similar functionality.

The new look and feel of digital collections search at YUL- main page (click the image to get a larger view):

Digital Collections Search look and feel

 

Search results in the new design:

Digital Collections Search look and feel - search results

 

There will also be a few new features in the digital collections search added on Monday. These include:

 

  • an Access Restrictions facet, to limit by either open or restricted accessNew feature: Access facet
  • a Repository facet, to limit to and search within a specific repository at YUL

New feature added: Repository facet

  • a Call Number facet, to limit to and search within call numbers assigned to items

New feature: call number facet

 

Another feature coming soon (but not on Monday) is a date slider with a histogram visualization, which gives users the ability to limit by date range and see the frequency of hits in a given year. To see an example of a feature like this used elsewhere, click on this search of Articles+ and look to the lower left to see the date range and histogram.

Coming soon: date range

 

As always, your feedback is welcomed and appreciated. Please use the feedback link on the bottom center of the digital collections search page (or just click here), and tell us your thoughts!

Learn about discovery interfaces at YUL with Rediscover Discovery

Last year, after the successful upgrade of our Articles+ e-resource discovery service and the beginning of the public beta phase of our Quicksearch unified discovery interface, library staff held an information session called Rediscovery Discovery, where we demonstrated features, functionality and sample search strategies in the Articles+ discovery interface and debuted the Quicksearch discovery interface.

This year, we will hold Rediscover Discovery again, covering Articles+ but with more focus Quicksearch. We will also introduce the digital collections search currently in development.

Rediscover Discovery is primarily aimed at instruction and public services staff, but is open to anyone who’d like to attend. Please register for each session as space is limited!

There will be two information sessions:

  • Tuesday August 18th, 10-11am in Bass L06 A&B register
  • Thursday August 20th, 2:30-3:30pm in 17 Hillhouse L07 register

See you at Rediscover Discovery!

First two weeks of LibGuides 2 training completed

Library IT held its first two weeks of LibGuides 2 training from June 9 until June 17.  Eight classes were held in four locations and 40 staff members attended training.  Training materials are available online at

http://guides.library.yale.edu/libguides2

Two more classes will be held in July:

Bass Library L06
Tuesday, July 14, 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon
Thursday, July 16, 1:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.

HydraCamp at Yale

Earlier last month, members of Yale Library IT as well as colleagues from around campus and from other institutions attended Hydra Camp at Yale.

The group Data Curation Experts held the week long training in the Bass Library Instruction room L01. The training wrapped up on Friday March 13th with an Advanced Blacklight Workshop.

Some members of Yale Library IT who attended share their reflections below:

  • What Hydra-related projects are you currently working on?

Eric James
I’m working on Findit, Kissinger, and the future Sufia/Spotlight instances

Kalee Sprague
I work on two Hydra/Blacklight related projects: the Blacklight-based Quicksearch unified search project and the Findit Hydra/Blacklight project

Lakeisha Robinson
I’ve worked on three Hydra/Blacklight projects: Findit, Quicksearch and Kissinger.

Tracy MacMath
I work on the Findit Hydra/Blacklight (Kissinger) project, and will soon be working on the Blacklight-based Quicksearch unified search project.

Jenn Nolte
I do external (non-development) work on the Quicksearch beta project, which is powered by Blacklight.

  • Name three things about HydraCamp that you liked or think will help you with your work:

Eric James
I don’t know if I can name 3 things, but one is I found it helpful how Mark Bussey shared his personal process working with Hydra.

Kalee Sprague
Three things I liked about HydraCamp include:

The introduction to how RDF will fit into the new Fedora4 environment was very useful, especially the examples Drew Myers from WGBH gave showing their work converting PBCore to RDF.  This provided an early road map for our own conversion from XML based Fedroa3 to RDF based Fedora4.

Demos of some of the new Blacklight plugins gave me some interesting ideas for things that could be done in the future in both the Quicksearch and Findit interfaces, including a date slider and gallery view.

I really liked the connections that we made with our colleagues at other institutions that are doing similar implementations; it’s always easier to solve problems if you have good contacts at other institutions, and HydraCamp really strengthens those ties.

Lakeisha Robinson
Here are the things I liked most about HydraCamp:

Recommendations for easier upgrades.

Suggestions for tools to aid in efficient workflow practices.

Clarity on certain pieces of code.

Tracy MacMath

HydraCamp helped me better understand the Hydra stack and how each component interacts with the others.

It was also good to learn a little about databases in Hydra/Fedora, especially how they differ from the relational databases I’ve worked with in the past.

 Finally, it was nice to see Hydra/Blacklight/Sufia implementations from other institutions and learn about the Hydra/Blacklight communities. These are great resources, especially since we’ll be upgrading soon.

Jenn Nolte
I did not attend the whole HydraCamp, just the Blacklight session on Friday. To go through the motions of setting up a virtual machine and getting a Blacklight project up and running was really helpful (and fun!). It isn’t the type of thing I get to work on often and it puts a larger context around the work I do to collaborate with my colleagues in LIT.

  • Any other comments on HydraCamp?

Lakeisha Robinson
In general, I did like the HydraCamp this year and I think it helped a lot.

Tracy MacMath
I found HydraCamp to be particularly valuable because I am new to Hydra (and digital repository development in general).

 

 

 

Library IT to Update SML 315 with New Hardware

Library IT’s Workstation & Technology Services group has upgraded the hardware in conference room 315 in Sterling Memorial Library.

Screen Shot 2015-02-17 at 10.55.52 AM

LIT staff installed an 80 inch monitor and will install a Logitech HD Pro C920 webcam with speakers, similar to what is already in use in SML 511.

After the camera upgrade, SML 315 will be better equipped for video conferencing. The upgrade replaced the projector in the room and will be completely finished by March 1st.

The upgrade to the new monitor and computer is in the room and available for use via Jason Helms.

For questions about the upgrades to SML 315 or other conference rooms in Sterling, please contact Frederick Rodriguez or Reon Keller.

Quicksearch Beta Links on Library home page February 5

Library IT and the Quicksearch Implementation team are preparing to do a code rollout for Quicksearch Beta next week.

After the code rollout staff will test Quicksearch beta. When it is determined that the code rollout was successful, our new web developer Steve Wieda will be putting a link to Quicksearch beta on the YUL homepage http://web.library.yale.edu/ the following Thursday February 5th. This will begin the public beta testing period for Quicksearch!

The link will be under the search box in “Search Orbis Catalog” section on the left side of the page. It will read “Try Quicksearch beta!” Clicking on this link will take you to http://search.library.yale.edu/.  Links will also be available in the ‘Research’ box on the home page, and from the ‘Research’ drop-down in the header.

A description of the latest Quicksearch features is available in theQuicksearch blog at http://libraryunifiedsearch.commons.yale.edu/.  The major enhancement rolling out next week will be to re-name the ‘Catalogs’ section to ‘Books+’.  We are making this change based on undergraduate and graduate student feedback in user studies this fall.  A number of other small interface changes will be made as well.

Over the next several weeks, we will be offering brief information / demo sessions.  Stay tuned for more information on dates.

Please note that because Quicksearch is still in Beta, it will be supported from Monday – Friday, 8am-5pm only.  It will also be subject to outages as we continue to address issues and add new features.

Goizueta Foundation to support the creation of a Digital Humanities Laboratory at the Yale University Library Archives

Yale University Library has received a $3 million award from The Goizueta Foundation to inaugurate a comprehensive initiative in science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM) education at Yale by launching a Digital Humanities Laboratory to be located in Sterling Memorial Library (SML). Indicative of the interdisciplinary vision inspired by STEAM, the laboratory will provide expertise, equipment, and facilities for faculty and students across a wide range of subjects. A portion of the award will also establish an endowment fund to support STEAM education at Yale.

STEAM embodies the idea of amplifying the strengths of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) by combining them with the creativity, visual acuity, and aesthetics drawn from the arts. The Goizueta Foundation’s significant contribution to the STEAM educational enterprise will build on a strong tradition of innovation in teaching and learning across disciplines at Yale and will greatly advance the integration of science, technology, and the humanities in education and research.

Yale University Librarian Susan Gibbons remarked, “The establishment of the Digital Humanities Laboratory provides a locus for the burgeoning interdisciplinary initiatives across Yale which explore teaching, learning, and research at the intersections of STEAM. We are very grateful to The Goizueta Foundation for providing Yale with the opportunity to develop robust support and services for faculty and students.”

The Digital Humanities Laboratory will catalyze existing STEAM-based projects at Yale and support the exploration of new ideas that connect established disciplines and audiences with Yale’s world-class cultural heritage collections. The term “digital humanities” encompasses a variety of emerging practices that transcend the boundary between STEM and the arts and humanities, including the computational analysis of cultural data and the democratization of teaching and research through global networks. Technologists, scientists, and humanities scholars on the Yale faculty who are already pioneers in STEAM education, as well as those who are newcomers to the field, will be able to use the laboratory to create new and compelling ways for scholars to engage with the sciences, arts, and digital technology in the twenty-first century.

“We believe that STEAM is a critical component of twenty-first-century learning, and The Goizueta Foundation is pleased to join with Yale University in this strategic initiative. It will provide a unique opportunity to join the university’s historic strengths in teaching and learning in the humanities with my father’s vision for innovation and creativity in education and public life,” commented Olga Goizueta Rawls, Chair and Chief Executive Officer of The Goizueta Foundation.

About The Goizueta Foundation

The Goizueta Foundation was established in 1992 by the late Roberto Goizueta, former Chief Executive Officer of the Coca-Cola Company. The mission of the Atlanta-based foundation is to empower individuals by partnering with innovative non-profit organizations to produce lasting change in the areas of education and family services.

Mr. Goizueta graduated from Yale College in 1953 with a degree in engineering, and The Goizueta Foundation has been a generous donor to Yale, especially in the areas of biomedical and chemical engineering. Most recently, the foundation has supported the Advanced Leadership Program in the School of Engineering and Applied Science, and the Science, Technology, and Research Scholars (STARS) Program in Yale College, designed to support historically underrepresented students in the sciences, engineering, and mathematics.

For more information, please contact amanda.patrick@yale.edu, Director of Communications, Yale University Library

via Yale University Library News: The Goizueta Foundation to support the creation of a Digital Humanities Laboratory at the Yale University Library Archives.

Library IT testing Adobe Connect for use in Library conference rooms

In partial response to some library departments’ relocation to 344 Winchester, Jenn Nolte and Reon Keller from Library IT are currently testing the Adobe Connect video conferencing and collaboration service in Library-operated conference rooms around campus. Library IT is also simultaneously testing Microsoft’s Lync service, which is a chatting, phone and video conferencing service. All testing at the various sites have been successful thus far. Some rooms are already equipped with the necessary hardware, making it easy to set up and determine the best approach to video conferencing.

Conference rooms tested so far:

  • Lewis Walpole
  • Sterling 315, 332, 409 and 511
  • BRBL

Library IT will also test conference rooms at CSSSI, Medical and Divinity.

Once testing is completed, look for a how-to web page with set up information, video conferencing etiquette, best practices and a list of video conference enabled rooms. Library IT will also be conducting training on how to use Adobe Connect as well.

For questions, please contact reon.keller@yale.edu or jennifer.nolte@yale.edu.