University of Louisville Libraries Host Conference Featuring Ball State University Libraries' Group; CONTENTdm Experiences Discussed

On Friday, November 17, 2006, the University of Louisville Libraries hosted a group from Ball State University Libraries for a one-day conference to share Ball State’s ideas and experiences with building its digital collections using CONTENTdm, an XLM-based digital management system that stores and provides access to all forms of digital media.

Conference planning began in May, 2006 by Dwayne K. Buttler, J.D. Professor and Evelyn J. Schneider Endowed Chair for Scholarly Communication at the University of Louisville’s Ekstrom Library. Planning was completed by Conference Chair, Rachel Howard, Digital Initiatives Librarian at the University of Louisville. Dr. Fritz Dolak coordinated activities at Ball State’s University Libraries. The conference was held in the new wing of the Ekstrom Library in the attractive, newly opened Elaine L. Chao Auditorium.

Ball State participants included James A. Bradley, Head of Metadata and Digital Initiatives; Fritz Dolak, Copyright and Intellectual Property Manager and Special Assistant to the Dean; Sarah E. Duncan, Assistant Archivist for University Records and Digital Projects; Bradley D. Faust, Assistant Dean for Library Information Technology Services; Arthur W. Hafner, Dean of University Libraries; John B. Straw, Director for Archives and Special Collections Research Center; P. Budi Wibowo, Head of Digital Library and Web Services. The University Libraries initiated its use of CONTENTdm in April, 2005, view http://libx.bsu.edu/index.php.

Dean Arthur Hafner said that his hope for the interaction with the University of Louisville Libraries was to share some of Ball State’s expertise and experience, serve as a resource while the University of Louisville develops its digital initiatives, form a nucleus for a users group for interstate cooperation, and form a stronger relationship/partnership with the University of Louisville University Libraries.

University of Louisville’s Dean of University Libraries, Hannelore B. Rader, graciously welcomed over 40 attendees from across Kentucky and the university, included persons from Eastern Kentucky University, Kentucky Department of Libraries and Archives (KDLA), the Kentucky Historical Society, and the Louisville Free Public Library. Attendees from the University of Louisville included the Art Department, Department of Fine Arts, Health Sciences Library, and Law School. University Libraries’ units included attendees from the Administration, Special Collections, Technical Services, and University Archives and Records Center.

Rachel Howard spoke about digital initiatives at the University of Louisville. Professor Butler spoke at different times during the conference about legal issues surrounding copyright and intellectual property.
The Ball State group addressed a range of topics and issues:
· Implementation and experiences using a digital content management system like CONTENTdm
· Challenges and opportunities in building a digital library collection from content acquisition to access management
· Strategies for developing and building successful partnerships among multi-type organizations
· Customizing CONTENTdm for address client needs and the institutions technology infrastructure
· Understanding and responding to intellectual property and copyright issues

Arthur W. Hafner presented "University Libraries’ Digital Initiative: Administration and Outreach" about the value of digital collections for providing opportunities to meet the University’s instructional and research objectives as part of library’s transformation from exclusively print to a print and digital environment; considerations for selecting CONTENTdm, initial/later funding and unanticipated costs, and early/later staffing considerations for Ball State’s digital initiative, organizational structure, partnering with academic units and local, regional cultural heritage institutions.

James A. Bradley spoke on "Virtual Breadcrumbs: Metadata and the Digital Artifact" including strategies for metadata planning for CONTENTdm implementation. Methodologies to maximize access to digital objects for a variety of end user types.

Fritz Dolak's talk entitled, "So You Want to Digitize? – Here’s What You Need to Do" covered factors such as costs/fees, licensing, and Fair Use when digitizing materials owned by the library, by partner organizations, or that are in the public domain. Professor Dwayne Butler expressed his views and cited legal cases on some of these topics, too.

John B. Straw spoke on "Digital Partners: Collaborating to Build Digital Resources" which covered establishing/maintaining mutually-beneficial partnerships with academic departments, students and faculty, community members and groups, and other cultural, historical, and educational institutions. Positive aspects of collaboration, such as wider range of materials, shared resources, technical support, compliance with standards, private and public funding; collaboration pitfalls such as ownership and copyright, handling and security for materials, control, and cost. Value and role of written agreements and communication.

Bradley D. Faust covered "CONTENTdm Enhancements – Plans for the Digital Media Repository (DMR) Implementation at Ball State – Future Directions" including a discussion of CONTENTdm enhancements, such as adding the Zoomify viewer, a custom student interface to present searchers with result sets limited to objects available for their user view, improved authentication methods control to access objects with usage limits as required by copyright, an embedded Windows Media Player to improve usage of audio and video objects, among other innovations.

P. Budi Wibowo spoke on "Applying Group Permissions to Collections and/or Items by Customizing CONTENTdm" about authentication and authorization issues for item level and collection level access control. Reviewed process to create the Copyright checkbox screen, a form presented to every user before access to the Architecture Images collection is granted. Discussed Ball State’s PowerPoint Plug-in, a locally developed application for using high resolution images for classroom instruction. Reviewed how to “hide” collections from public view that are in development or used for testing purposes.