Metadata collection improvements for the Sunshine State Digital Network

The Sunshine State Digital Network (SSDN) is a service hub for the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA), and has it’s administrative home here in FSU’s Special Collections & Archives division. One main activity of SSDN is collecting metadata for digital collections around the state and passing it along to DPLA for inclusion in their

Data and Doldrums

With a title like Metadata Librarian, you would expect I know a lot about library data: the standards, the structures, and the use of data in library technology. I do! But I also have days where the data I know so much about becomes a beguiling and frustrating adversary. One aspect of my work is

Catalogs (how do they work?)

Lately I’ve been thinking about search bars. We have them on our computers, our phones, and our websites. Library websites have a lot of search bars. How are these little boxes able to deliver results for materials? So how does a search for library materials work? There’s three main components to a search system: the

Leon High School Yearbooks

Yearbooks are a venerable tradition in high school. They collect and hold memories of a formative time in our lives. Yearbooks also serve as resources for research. They document trends in education, sociology, and demographics. The Digital Library Center recently partnered with Leon High School–the state’s oldest public school–to digitize and make accessible their yearbooks

FSU facts at your fingertips

Have you ever wondered what the average salary of an FSU professor was in 1961? ($8,940). Have you ever been curious to know how many full-time students were enrolled in 1995? (23,950). This information and much more is available in the FSU Fact Books now available on DigiNole. There’s a wealth of data in these

FSU Sports Media Guides

When you’re watching a sports broadcast, have you ever wondered how the commentators can have some many facts and figures about the teams and players so readily available? I don’t doubt some commentators have some statistics memorized, but they also get some help from media or press guides published by the teams. Sports media guides

The Year Without a Homecoming Queen

Serious drama began unfolding in October 1972 in the lead up to Florida State University’s homecoming week. As reported in the Florida Flambeau, students had an unconventional choice for Homecoming Queen: Ron Shank. Mr. Shank’s candidacy for homecoming queen stirred up plenty of controversy. Administrators balked. Rallies were held in his support. Lawyers were consulted. In response

Protecting digital material: Strategies for digital preservation

In the first post in this digital preservation series, I shared some of the unique challenges digital material brings to the preservation game. In this one we will look at some of the technologies and tools digital stewards employ to protect our digital assets. How can you tell when a computer file has been corrupted?

Digital Preservation: New Material, New Challenges

In this digital world we are increasingly creating, storing, and publishing material entirely in electronic forms. While this is great for the trees and other resources used in making paper, it introduces new challenges in the process of collecting and preserving materials. The preservation needs of paper are pretty well understood. Guidelines for ideal environments (heat

Teaching Machines to Read

Written language is a persistent tool for information communication. Many cultures develop it somewhere during their history. A written language allows groups to share records, instructions, and cultural heritage across many years (some examples of written language held by Special Collections & Archives date to 2000 BCE). The modern world still relies heavily on written