Graduate School of Library and Information Science

September 5, 2007

 

Digital Libraries (LIS 759)

Lewis 131

Fall 2007

 

Professor Nancy John

Crown 313

Office hours: Wednesdays, 9 a.m.-noon and by appointment

njohn@dom.edu

 

Course Description

 

Digitization is a technology that affects all aspects of the information cycle and information services: creation, collection, organization, dissemination, and utilization. This survey course will review digital collections within the broader context of library and information services and will examine issues of creation, selection, collection, organization, dissemination and access, and preservation of electronic records. The course will address conceptual foundations as well as practical understanding of digital libraries. Prerequisites: LIS 701, 703, 704

 

Course Objectives

 

At the conclusion of this course, students will be able to:

 

  • Articulate an understanding of the conceptual basis of digital collections, including the relationship of digital collections to the existing infrastructure of library collections and services;
  • Identify collections for digital selection, creation and/or conversion based on an understanding of broad theoretical and practical collection management issues;
  • Understand and discuss a variety of policy issues, legal and ethical concerns, including copyright, privacy, preservation, and universal accessibility;
  • Create and evaluate a project management plan for a digitization project;
  • Understand issues of organization and control of digital objects, including introductory aspects of database creation and maintenance, metadata schemes, protocols and standards, and equipment selection and evaluation;
  • Discuss future potential and barriers for digital libraries.

 

Required Texts:

 

Bishop, Ann Peterson, Van House, Nancy, and Buttenfeld, Barbara, eds.  Digital Library Use: Social Practice in Design and Evaluation.  MIT Press, 2003.

 

Morville, Peter.  Ambient Findability. O’Reilly, 2005.

 

Required Readings Also Taken From:

 

Sun Microsystems. The Digital Library Toolkit. 3rd edition.  Available online at http://www.sun.com/products-n-solutions/edu/whitepapers/digitaltoolkit.html. 

 

Information Management Resource Kit.  “Digitization and Digital Libraries.” Available online at. http://www.imarkgroup.org/moduledescrE_en.asp

 

Sitts, Maxine K., ed. (2000).  Handbook for Digital Projects: A Management Tool for Preservation and Access.  1st edition.  Andover, MA. Northeast Document Conservation Center. Available at http://www.nedcc.org/oldnedccsite/digital/dman.pdf

 

Additional Resources:

Articles and Websites as assigned per class meeting (see schedule). 

 

Periodicals - Digital Libraries and Information

Digital Library Projects: Samples

  1. California Digital Library: http://www.cdlib.org/
  2. Chopin Early Editions: http://chopin.lib.uchicago.edu/
  3. Cornell Library Digital Collections: http://moa.cit.cornell.edu/
  4. Digital History, The University of Houston : http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/
  5. The Digital Library Testbed (UIUC): http://dli.grainger.uiuc.edu/
  6. Duke University: Rare Books, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library: http://library.duke.edu/specialcollections/collections/digitized/index.html
  7. The Hermitage Museum: http://www.hermitagemuseum.org/html_En/index.html
  8. Historic Pittsburgh: http://digital.library.pitt.edu/pittsburgh/
  9. Illinois Digital Archives: http://www.idaillinois.org/
  10. International Children's Digital Library http://www.icdlbooks.org/
  11. J. Paul Getty Museum: http://www.getty.edu/museum/
  12. Library of Congress American Memory Project: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html
  13. Nebraska State Historical Society, especially “Revealing History.”: http://www.nebraskahistory.org/lib-arch/research/photos/digital/history.htm
  14. New Jersey Digital Highway : http://www.njdigitalhighway.org/
  15. NLNZ: Kilbirnie-Lyall Bay Community Centre Oral History Project: http://www.natlib.govt.nz/collections/digital-collections
  16. San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Collections : http://www.sfmoma.org/collections/collections_overview.html
  17. Schomberg Center for Research in Black Culture: Images of African Americans from the 19th Century : http://digital.nypl.org/schomburg/images_aa19/
  18. “Turning the Pages” online gallery: http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/ttp/ttpbooks.html
  19. UVA Library Electronic Text Collections: The Philip S. Hench Walter Reed Yellow Fever Collection: http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/
  20. Virtual Motor City: Images from the Detroit News: http://dlxs.lib.wayne.edu/cgi/i/image/image-idx?c=vmc;page=index

Assignments                                                                                      Grade          Due Date

 

Assignment 1:

Analysis of a digital library/ collection                                          100                Sept 26   

Exercises, 3 @ 50 points each                                                               150               (various)

CONTENTdm Project: Digital Library creation       (in groups)

Assignment 2: Project Plan                                                        150                Nov 7

            Assignment 3: Digital collection                                                  100                Nov. 28

Research Paper on an Issue relevant to Digital Libraries                            250                Dec 12

Blackboard contribution and engagement:                                                150            throughout

Blackboard activities will include posting and answering questions about the content of this course, discussing readings and posting interesting readings for the class.

In-Class participation and engagement                                                    100             throughout

Students are expected to be attentive and engaged regardless of their interest in the day’s topic. Points will be awarded continuously throughout the course to reflect high-quality, engaged participation. Inattentive behavior (e.g. doing email during class, sleeping, distracting conversation) will result in no points being awarded for a given session.

 

                                                                           TOTAL:             1000

Academic Honesty and Integrity:

 

Students of the university must conduct themselves in accordance with the highest standards of academic honesty and integrity.  Failure to maintain academic integrity will not be tolerated.” For definitions of plagiarism, cheating and academic dishonesty, see p. 20 of the 2007-2008 Student Handbook and Planner.

 

"All students of the GSLIS are expected to observe high standards of academic honesty and integrity. Any student whose conduct violates such standards may be subject to disciplinary action as determined by due process." (GSLIS Bulletin, p. 48) Plagiarism is unacceptable and will result in project failure. See Purdue University's "Avoiding Plagiarism" at http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/research/r_plagiar.html or Indiana University's "How to Recognize Plagiarism" at http://education.indiana.edu/~istd/test.html if you feel unsure about what is and is not considered acceptable behavior when using other people's words and ideas.

Grading

Assignments may be submitted on paper or electronically (by email as an attachment, or via Blackboard) and are due (time-stamped) by the close of class on each due-date. A minimum of 10 points will be deducted for late submissions. Network failures are not a valid excuse. All electronic submissions will be acknowledged within 24-hours. All written work should be clear and error free.

Note: Please refer to the Dominican grading policy (listed below class) regarding GSLIS standards for letter grades.

A

A-

B+

B

B-

C+

C

C-

 

 

94-100

90-93

86-89

82-85

78-81

74-77

70-73

65-69

 

 

 

 

         


 

 

Classroom policies regarding attendance and late arrival:

Students are expected to arrive to class on time and stay for the entire session.  You are graduate students and adults and are responsible for your actions.  While I will not take attendance, I do notice whether or not you are late for class or skip sessions altogether.  Frequent tardiness or missing classes without good cause will be held against you.

 

Students who must miss a class due to religious observance, illness or other emergency should notify me by e-mail or phone before class time.  Students are responsible for obtaining class materials distributed during their absence, for ensuring their familiarity with the material covered in class, and for completing any assignments on schedule.

 

You are expected to turn off all cell phones and pagers during class so that full attention can be given to the work at hand.

 

Statements about consequences for failure to meet the requirements of the course or classroom policies:

 Students are expected to attend class, read the assigned texts, participate in class discussions, participate on the course Blackboard site, and complete in-class and homework assignments in the timeframes stated.

 

Taping or videoing the class

There will be no taping or videoing of the class unless the reason is to conform with ADA requirements.  If you do need special allowances because of an ADA situation, please let me know immediately so I can accommodate you.

 

Detailed Class Schedule

 

In general, classes will have the following format:

  1. Discussion and questions about readings, assignments, course logistics, future lectures etc.
  2. A lecture/presentation on the day’s topic (generally 60-90 minutes)
  3. A 15-20 minute break (as time allows)
  4. A class participation session; examples are a hands-on assignment, student presentations, or in-depth discussion of the assigned readings
  5. 5-minute wrap-up

 

September 5   

1)       Course introduction: Syllabus, student expectations.

2)       Presentation: Overview of digital libraries - context, concepts, definitions; what makes a good digital collection?

3)       Review and discussion of some existing digital library projects

4)       Assignment of digital collections for Assignment 1.

5)       Creation of working groups for Assignment 2-3 and for posting on the Blackboard site.

Assigned reading in preparation for class:

Information Management Resource Kit; Lesson 1 overview, “Why Digital Collections and Libraries?” (Available online at. http://www.imarkgroup.org/moduledescrE_en.asp)

 

September 12

Topic: Laying out the issues concerning digital libraries; how digital libraries are similar and different from traditional libraries and from other electronic services.

Exercise 1 due.

Assigned reading in preparation for class: Digital Library Use, chapters 1, 2, 3, 4

 

September 19

Topic: Usability of digital libraries; designing interfaces, promoting use and re-use, search and retrieval, how users manipulate items in a collection, formats of objects

Assigned reading in preparation for class: Digital Library Use, chapters 5, 6, 7

 

September 26 (Digital Library Analysis due)

Topic: Technical issue - formats and reformatting, capture, and conversion

Assigned reading in preparation for class: Digital Library Use, chapters 9, 10, 11, 12

IMARK Units 1 and 4

Digital Library Toolkit, Chapter 1

Smith, Abby.  “Why Digitize?”  Available online at http://www.clir.org/pubs/abstract/pub80.html

McKie, Robin and Thorpe, Vanessa. “Digital Doomsday Book Lasts 15 Years, Not 1000.” Available online at http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,661093,00.html

 

October 3

Topic: Technical issue – metadata and preservation of objects.

Assigned reading in preparation for class: Ambient Findability, chapters 1, 2, 3, 4

IMARK Units 2 and 3

Digital Library Toolkit, Chapter 7

“Moving Theory into Practice: Digital Imaging Tutorial.”  Cornell University.  Available

online at http://www.library.cornell.edu/preservation/tutorial/ .

 

October 10

Topic: Technical issue – standards for interoperability

Assigned reading in preparation for class: Ambient Findability, chapters 5, 6, 7

Exercise 2 due.

 

October 17

Topic: Project needs, planning and management

 

October 24

            Topic: Sustainability of digital collections, business plans etc.

Exercise 3 due.

 

October 30

Topic: CONTENTdm overview

 

November 7 (Project Plan due)

Topic: Software alternatives

 

November 14

Project work in class

 

November 21 (Thanksgiving)

NO CLASS

 

November 28 (CONTENTdm Digital Collection Due)

Presentations on the CONTENTdm collections

 

December 5

Presentations on the CONTENTdm collections

 

December 12 (Research paper due)

Class wrap up: The future of digital libraries

Discussion. Students are asked to contribute discussion questions on Blackboard.

Revisiting of Digital Library Use, Ambient Findability, CONTENTdm projects, etc. 

 

Assignments and exercises:

 

Exercise 1. Due September 12, 2007.

Identify a collection that the Dominican Library should offer as a digital collection. The collection could be a group of digital objects that would be brought together or a group of analog objects that would be digitized or a combination. Describe your proposed collection and the objects that would be part of it.

 

Assignment 1. Due September 26, 2007.

Describe your assigned digital library/collection and prepare an analysis of the library/collection. In your analysis, answer the following questions: What is the purpose of the collection? Who is the audience? Is the collection easy to use? And to re-use? How well does the collection meet its goals?  Could you improve upon the design or presentation? Has the material been selected well? Is there adequate information about each object?

 

Exercise 2. Due October 10, 2007.

The Dublin Core metadata set is described at http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Choose a digital object and complete as many of the 15 elements as you can. If you are unable to complete an element, describe what you would need to know to be able to fill in the element or why the element is inappropriate/unnecessary for your digital object. You do not need to encode your metadata, a simple table, spreadsheet or narrative is sufficient.

 

Exercise 3. Due October 24, 2007.

Choose an existing digital library/collection project. How is it locatable by a user/scholar? Try various searches in search engines and gateways, through Web pages and other reference sources. Write up your findings.

 

Assignment 2. Due November 7, 2007.

Group Report: Digital Library creation Project Plan

 

Assignment 3. Due November 28, 2007.

Group project: Digital Library Project in CONTENTdm

 

Research paper: Due December 12, 2007.

            15-page double-spaced paper on a topic related to Digital Libraries.

            Include at least 10 references.

Your work will be assessed according to the following criteria:

1)       Relevancy of the topic

2)       Clarity of exposition:

-                       Coherent synthesis of the professional literature

-                       Logical train of thought

-                       Adequate connections between ideas, support of generalizations, choice of illustrative examples

3)       Use of writing conventions:

-                       Proper grammar, spelling, and sentence structure

-                       Appropriate use of citations and references

4)       Bibliography:

-                       Reflects a careful review of available literature related to the topic/issue

-                       Includes at least ten sources (in several formats, e.g. books, articles, Web sites)

-                       Follows proper bibliographic format (e.g. Chicago Manual of Style)