Digital Initiatives Team: 2005 Annual Report
December 5, 2005
Our first meeting was convened on January 14, 2005.
Goals for 2005
- Image management
- Web site reorganization
- Inventory of digital projects
Progress
Image Management: There was less activity on this front as a team than anticipated. However, this was primarily due to uncertainty early in the year regarding the future of Digitool, and other possible replacements. With DCR’s launch this month of the Fedora-based World’s Fair project, and the adoption of minimum metadata standards and best practice guidelines for digital projects, image management in Special Collections will again be a primary goal of the Digital Initiatives Team for 2006. Accomplishments in 2005 include:
- Vendor demonstration of ContentDM collection management system
- Regular updates regarding status of Digitool and Fedora
- Team member participation on DCR Best Practice Guidelines for Digital Projects initiative (Ann Hanlon and Gretchen Gueguen)
- Development of departmental scanning database template using minimum metadata requirements for use as a stop-gap method to capture current scanning initiatives while image management system is being put in place.
Web Site Reorganization: Web site reorganization has proved to be the main focus of this group in 2005. Reorganization is still a work in progress and will continue to be a primary goal in 2006. Accomplishments in 2005 include:
- Submission of Justification statement to WAC
- Consultation with Jennifer Hanna regarding Special Collections web pages and the new Communications Plan
- Development of web template for Special Collections
- Development of major groupings of web pages (Using Collections; Reading Rooms; Unit web pages)
- Application of web template to Maryland Room web pages as test/demonstration case
- Draft of top Special Collections web page
Inventory of Digital Projects: Through consultation with members of the team, as well as Digital Collections and Research, the team compiled a current list of digital projects in Special Collections. This list will continue to be updated through 2006.
- Compilation of inventory of projects
- Posting of current projects to password-protected web page (note: plan to eliminate password protection since this no longer includes information about funding or proposed projects)
- Additionally, an Excel spreadsheet of the inventory, including funding information and status of grants-applied-for projects and projects in development, is also available upon request
