University Libraries Experience Digital Development Success in Past Year and Plan for Initiatives in New Year

Arthur W. Hafner, Dean of University Libraries, outlined the Libraries’ strategic goals in the June 2008 issue of this newsletter. One of those five goals was to expand the Libraries’ digital initiatives and facilitate development of emerging media opportunities for learning, research, and classroom enhancement.

The beginning of a new year provides us an opportunity to review progress on this goal and to look ahead and make plans for further achieving our goals.

The Ball State University Libraries have made many exciting advancements toward accomplishing digital initiatives in the past year, including:

Increasing the number of digital objects in the Digital Media Repository (DMR) to over 112,000 items to support research, learning, and teaching
- Designing a new DMR public interface with enhanced features, new content, expanded menus, and improved navigability
- Implementing Zoomify in DMR collections to allow users to view, zoom, and pan detailed images in a quick and efficient manner
- Enhancing DMR collections by creating Google interactive maps for selected collections, such as Muncie Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps and the Man Haters Film Collection
- Developing the Cardinal Scholar Institutional Repository to provide global access to Ball State’s student and faculty work

In total, 14 new digital collections have been made available for global access in the Digital Media Repository (http://libx.bsu.edu), bringing the total to 72.

Here are a few digital developments to watch for in 2009:
- An emerging media project to create educational applications using Digital Media Repository collections and other University Libraries’ digital resources through Microsoft Surface™ that will allow for data and digital asset manipulation by students for class projects
- A partnership to create a digital collection of Delaware County aerial plat maps that illustrate property changes between 1976 and 2006, including land development and use, zoning changes, and urban sprawl
- Collaborative grant projects with other institutions for the University Libraries to provide digitization services and host their digital collections
- New enhancements to Digital Media Repository collections, including a portal to U.S. Veterans digital resources
- New collections in the Digital Media Repository, including digital audio and video interviews with United States military veterans, Ball State University monographs, early issues of the Ball State Daily News (then called the Easterner), Indiana archeological surveys, and rare books from Archives and Special Collections
- The opening of the Helen B. and Martin D. Schwartz Special Collections and Global Digital Complex on the first floor of Bracken Library

For more information, contact John B. Straw, Assistant Dean for Digital Initiatives and Special Collections, JStraw@bsu.edu, 765-285-5078.

Ball State University Libraries’ Musical Instrument Collection is the Newest Addition to the Digital Media Repository

The Ball State University Libraries’ Musical Instrument Collection is the newest addition to the Digital Media Repository (DMR). It is another example of how digital collections can expose students, faculty, and researchers to robust resources in the Libraries’ collections.
This collection can be viewed at http://libx.bsu.edu/collection.php?CISOROOT=%2FMusInst or browse the Educational Resources Collections at http://libx.bsu.edu/.
This collection uses digital photographs, streaming audio files, and 3-D rotating videos to represent the wide assortment of musical instruments available for checkout for two week loan (with option for renewal) in the Libraries’ Educational Resources Collections.
The collection of physical instruments has been growing since 1938. The earliest instrument represented online is a shepherd flute, a wind instrument made of bamboo. To discover their physical location and availability, click on the “Locate This Item in CardCat” link in the document description view in the DMR.
The online artifacts in the Musical Instrument Collection provide examples of a wide variety of instrument types, such as percussion, stringed, and wind instruments. The instruments also represent numerous cultures from five continents. The collection can be used in research of those various cultures, and the instruments themselves can be implemented in displays that illustrate the culture to which they are indigenous.
This collection of musical instruments is valuable to educators and students, as many can be used in the classroom for the instruction of music skills. There are numerous percussion instruments, including several multi-player sets that are perfect for hands-on student activities. Autoharps and various other instruments can also be used by student teachers to teach music in the classroom.
The flexible functionality of the Digital Media Repository, backed by CONTENTdm, allowed Metadata and Digital Initiatives (MADI) staff to package multimedia items for each instrument together in one compound object. These digital objects are essentially portfolios of each instrument that include digital photographs, streaming audio files, and 3-D rotating videos.
Working with laptops and microphones, MADI staff built a modular recording studio. Most of the instruments were played and recorded, and the sound files were then transferred to audio workstations for mixing. The intent for the recordings is to provide sound clips that students, faculty, and researchers can use to learn how an instrument sounds, particularly for some of the more obscure items like the West-African rattle-like instrument called axatse.
In addition to sound samples and still images, MADI personnel created QuickTime virtual reality videos of many of the instruments. Items were photographed from several angles and then compiled into a movie file, which allows the user control over how he/she views the object. The movies present the viewer with a more complete view of an object that cannot be captured in merely still images.
For more information about the Musical Instruments Collection in the DMR, contact Amanda A. Hurford, Ball State University’s Digital Initiatives Multimedia Developer, AAHurford@bsu.edu, (765) 285-3349.

Improvements in Authentication Process to Allow Mac Users Access to Streaming Digital Content

Recently, the University Libraries began an ambitious project that holds great promise for increasing access to digital audio and video assets available in the Ball State University Digital Media Repository (http://libx.bsu.edu). This important new resource, which is a project of the University Libraries, offers rich and diverse digital resources for students, faculty, and others to use for teaching, learning, and research.

Access to audio and video content is an important service offered through the Digital Media Repository. Currently, the University Libraries utilize a Windows Media Services 9 system to stream much of the digital audio and video content that is part of the DMR. Unprotected content from the Windows Media platform is easily streamed to students and faculty using both Windows and Mac client systems. However, access to protected content is a problem for users of Mac systems.

Protected content are digital objects with access restrictions set to comply with copyright and intellectual property rights. This content is easily accessed from a Windows Media Player on Microsoft Windows computers. Mac systems, however, cannot complete the authentication process and persons are denied access to the protected content. Because the Digital Media Repository receives a large number of hits from Mac users from both on- and off-campus, this is a real problem for the University Libraries and our content partners.

In early February 2007, we decided to explore the possibility of solving this Mac access problem without changing the streaming technology we had adopted. We knew that we could adopt a different streaming technology to address this issue, yet we wanted to explore more fully options with our Windows Media Service 9 streaming solution.

Another reason we chose not to move away from our current Windows Media solution is that Microsoft’s Digital Rights Management (DRM) solution holds promise. That is, the Windows Media DRM technology makes it possible to protect, deliver, and play individual, subscription, and promotional digital media content on computers, portable audio devices, Portable Media Center devices, or networked devices that are connected to an Internet protocol (IP) network.

Our research to solve this problem revealed that one reason Mac clients cannot authenticate to Windows Media Services 9 is incompatible authentication methods used by Windows and Mac systems. The Windows Media Services 9 system, for example, supports two types of authentication methods, Negotiate and Digest Authentication. The Mac systems support the Basic Authentication method. After further research and analysis, our conclusion was to resolve the problem by writing a server-side authentication plug-in for Windows Media Services 9. This is exactly what we have done over the past two months. That is, we have developed a plug-in, and we are now ready to beta test it in a production environment.

The plug-in, developed on a Virtual Server test environment in the University Libraries, is a server side component that uses Basic Authentication to provide Mac systems access to protected assets. It is a COM object written using VB.NET, the Microsoft Windows Media Services 9 SDK (Software Development Kit) and .NET Framework v1.1 architecture.

The plug-in, when enabled, will prompt Mac users for a Ball State computer username and password. The authentication process is accomplished by checking a user’s credential against the Windows domain (Active Directory). A nice feature is that it can also be modified to authenticate against any database, e.g. SQL Server, MySQL, etc. This plug-in is intended to operate alongside existing authentication methods currently in place.

The plug-in will allow protected content to be accessed using the Windows Media Player for Mac. We are continuing to investigate options for authenticating access to protected content from other Mac media players such as the QuickTime player with Flip4Mac and iTunes.

For more information, contact P. Budi Wibowo, Ball State University Libraries’ Head of Digital Libraries and Web Services, BWibowo@bsu.edu, (765) 285-8032.

This newsletter article first appeared in The Library Insider 5(5): 6; May 2007.

A Vision for the Archives' Role in the Digital World

The students, faculty, and researchers who make up the customer base for academic libraries and archives are increasingly expecting more innovative and value-added services. Inspired by technological advances, they want flexibility, decentralized access, and a convergence of print and digital media to address their research needs.

As the demand grows for better and quicker access via the Internet to unique resources found in archival repositories, archivists with the skills and vision to prepare and make the rich resources of their collections available in digital format are at the forefront of a new professional frontier. The development of the digital archivist is driven by customer expectations and the emerging role of the archives in fulfillment of those expectations.

As archives and special collections continue to be a primary source for research materials to digitize that may generally be made available without worry of copyright infractions, the archival repository will increasingly play a pivotal role in the digital revolution.

At the same time that focus expands from curating paper-based materials to migrating those materials to digital form for increased accessibility, archivists are also concerned with the challenge of preserving and making available the vast universe of “born digital” assets. The creation of large data sets in “real-time” collections presents unique issues for archivists.

All of these challenges and opportunities create a need for forward-thinking professionals with new approaches to the field of archival science. Research shows that the role of the digital professional requires new competencies and skills beyond traditional training. Today’s digital archivist must combine the knowledge of traditional archival practices with expanded technological skills to achieve the vision of the archives as a place where print and digital media successfully converge to meet research needs.

Youngok Choi, Assistant Professor of Library and Information Science at Catholic University of America, and Edie Rasmussen, Professor and Director of the School of Library, Archival and Information Studies at the University of British Columbia, addressed the need for these new professionals based on a survey that they recently conducted of current digital professionals in U. S. academic libraries.

Among several findings, Choi and Rasmussen concluded that the constantly changing digital environment necessitates that digital librarians and archivists “must be able to adapt to change and continue to learn” and that more professionals educated in the area of digital libraries and archives will be required as institutions are digitally transformed. (D-Lib Magazine, September 2006).

As priorities shift due to digital advancements, new dimensions are being added to the archival and library professions. Archivists and librarians face the challenge of acquiring the necessary skills to both strengthen their traditional roles and quickly acclimate to a dynamic and transformative new environment.

A visitor to the Ball State University Libraries’ Archives and Special Collections will quickly see how the unit’s personnel are adapting to this dynamic digital environment and are embracing a new vision of our role as digital archivists. As the scanners move across the printed page or photograph, the digital projector illuminates the image of a rare document for a class of students, and the archivists create multiple Web pages of finding aids and online exhibits, the advent of the digital archivist and the progression towards the digital archives vision is evident in this archival repository.

Welcome to the home of special collections AND digital projects, a convergence that will produce new and exciting resources for generations of students and researchers.

For more information, contact John B. Straw, Ball State University Libraries’ Director for Archives and Special Collections, JStraw@bsu.edu, (765) 285-5078.

This newsletter article first appeared in The Library Insider 5(4): 6; April 2007.

Ball State University Libraries’ Friends of Alexander M. Bracken Library Annual Dinner and Kirkham Lecture Scheduled

The annual dinner and meeting of the Friends of the Alexander M. Bracken Library will be held on the evening of March 28, 2007, at the Ball State University Alumni Center. A reception will begin at 6 p.m. followed by dinner at 6:30 p.m.

At the business meeting following the meal, outgoing and incoming members of the Board of Governors will be recognized. Completing their three-year terms are Dr. Jayne Beilke, Mrs. Dorothy Danner, Mr. Larry Campbell, Mrs. Nancy Carlson, and Ms. Gretchen Cheesman. New Board members are Dr. Carol Flores, Mrs. Marilyn Carey, Mrs. Marianne Vorhees, Mr. Hank Milius, and Mr. Thomas Spotts.

Following the business meeting, the Kirkham Lecture will be delivered by Dr. Warren Vander Hill, Mr. Hurley C. Goodall, and Dr. John Weakland. The topic is “The Middletown Digital Oral History Collection,” which includes interviews with African-American, Jewish, and Catholic citizens of Muncie, Indiana, that were conducted from the 1970s through recent years. The University Libraries are now transcribing and digitizing these taped interviews as part of a $25,125 Library Services and Technology (LSTA) grant. The oral history collection will be available through the Ball State University Digital Media Repository, a project of the University Libraries, at http://libx.bsu.edu on the Web.

Dr. Vander Hill is Provost and Vice President Emeritus of Academic Affairs at Ball State. He conducted the two Jewish oral history projects. Mr. Goodall is a former Indiana state legislator and played pivotal roles in three different African American oral history projects. Dr. Weakland is Professor Emeritus of History. He coordinated the oral history project for the three Catholic churches in Muncie and conducted interviews for St. Mary Catholic Church.

The Kirkham Lecture is named for Dr. Bruce Kirkham, professor emeritus of English at Ball State. He was the founder and first Executive Secretary of the Friends, serving as Executive Secretary for 25 years. He retired from Ball State University in 2000.

Tickets for the dinner are $20. For information on joining the Friends or to purchase tickets, contact John B. Straw, Executive Secretary for the Friends of the Alexander M. Bracken Library, at JStraw@bsu.edu, (765) 285-5078.

This newsletter article first appeared in The Library Insider 5(3): 8; March 2007.

African-American and Jewish Oral History Interviews from Muncie are Now Accessible through the Ball State University Digital Media Repository

Students, faculty, and researchers at Ball State University and from around the world can now hear the voices of Middletown USA as they tell the stories of the African-American and Jewish experience in Muncie, Indiana. The words illustrating the life and culture of persons past and present can be heard and read anywhere, anytime through a new collection that is now accessible through the Ball State University Digital Media Repository, a project of the University Libraries.

Two oral history collections from the University Libraries’ Archives and Special Collections Research Center have been digitized and transcribed and are now available for study, research, and classroom instruction via the Internet. The audio and transcripts of the “Black Muncie Oral History Project Collection” and the “Middletown Jewish Oral History Project I Collection” can be accessed in the Digital Media Repository, http://libx.bsu.edu, under the “Middletown Digital Oral History Collection.”

The Black Muncie Oral History Project was conducted from 1971 to 1978 by Hurley C. Goodall, Ball State professor J. Paul Mitchell, and Ball State graduate students, with a grant from the Muncie Human Rights Commission. The interviews with long-time African-American residents of Muncie include discussions of subjects such as segregation, the Ku Klux Klan, the Great Depression, organized labor, and the economic, social, and religious experiences of African-Americans.

The Middletown Jewish Oral History Project I was conducted in 1978 and 1979 by Ball State University professors Warren Vander Hill and Dwight Hoover, under the sponsorship of Mr. Martin Schwartz. The interviews document Muncie’s Jewish community during the 1920s and 1930s. Topics discussed include anti-Semitism, the Ku Klux Klan, and other economic, social, and religious issues.

These two collections will be joined by two other African-American oral history collections, another Jewish one, and three collections of oral histories conducted with members from the parishes of the Catholic churches in Muncie to make up the Middletown Digital Oral History Collection.

The creation of this digital oral history resource was made possible by a $25,125 grant from the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) that was awarded to the University Libraries by the State Library of Indiana for fiscal year 2006-2007. This is the second consecutive LSTA grant for digitization awarded to the University Libraries.

For more information, contact John B. Straw, Ball State University Libraries’ Director, Digital Media Repository, JStraw@bsu.edu, (765) 285-5078.

This newsletter article first appeared in The Library Insider 5(3): 8; March 2007.

Google Book Search Project: Its Promise for Ball State University's Students, Faculty for Research, Learning

Libraries without walls has become a catchphrase, the digital dream of making information available to anyone, anywhere, anytime. The Google Book Search Project (GBSP), a massive book digitization project begun in 2004, is taking us strides closer to that reality, http://books.google.com.

As part of Google’s newest partnership with Princeton University Library, Google plans to scan and make available one million titles over the next six years. Google has already established book digitization agreements with leading civic and national libraries like the New York Public Library and the National Library of Catalonia and academic libraries, including Harvard, Oxford, Stanford, University of Michigan, University of California, University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Virginia, University of Texas at Austin, and Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Google has also announced that it will partner with Germany’s Bayerische Staatsbibliothek (Bavarian State Library).

Initially, Google adopted an aggressive, hotly contested, plan to digitize books indiscriminate of copyright. Google’s problematic proposal to digitize any book unless formally forbidden by contact from authors, publishers, or other copyright holders mired early digitization progress. However, the library partnerships quickly refocused digitization efforts on public domain titles, books published before 1924 that are no longer protected by copyright law.

To date, GBSP provides access to 524,600 full text, public domain books, fully searchable and available 24/7/365 to Ball State University students and faculty. This translates into unprecedented research access to both popular and rare titles from the period of 1521 - 1924. Whether looking for a 17th Century discourse on witchcraft, a cookery book from 1810, or a New York Times bestseller from 1900, Google Book Search Project is the place to go!

Locating a book is simple, and Google offers advanced search fields including author, title, ISBN, publication year, and publisher. For example, if you are only interested in antebellum writings on American slavery, you can enter your search terms and add a publication range of 1840 to 1860. Select “Full View” to limit searching only to public domain books, where full-text viewing is available to the user. Additionally, Google provides powerful right-hand navigation of a retrieved book and links the user to the book’s title page, table of contents, and index. A search box for full-text searching within the retrieved book allows a user to locate relevant parts of a text without browsing through page after page of the book. This functionality empowers Ball State students and faculty to conduct streamlined and precise textual research.

Another important long-term benefit of GBSP is the creation of digital surrogates for the increasing number of brittle books that are too fragile to circulate and are often stored for preservation with very limited physical access. GBSP is at once offering unprecedented access to aged texts and democratizing research, eliminating the need for rare book interlibrary loan borrowing fees or expensive travel to research repositories. Additionally, fragile books are protected from overuse and excessive handling.

As Ball State’s University Libraries continue to leverage the power of technology to organize and present access to dynamic learning and teaching resources, we recognize the value of directing our users to the GBSP as a growing and unequaled online research resource for pre-1924 texts.

To make this searching easier for students and faculty, the University Libraries provide ubiquitous linking from our site to this invaluable resource. Links are available through the Digital Commons on both the e-Books page and under each subject in the World Wide Web Resources page. The Google Book Search Project is an important asset to the University Libraries’ digital initiatives and enhances the rich print and digital collections already made available by the University Libraries for teaching, learning, and research.
For more information, contact Matthew C. Shaw, Ball State University Libraries’ Electronic Resources Librarian, MCShaw2@bsu.edu, (765) 285-1302.

This newsletter article first appeared in The Library Insider 5(3): 7; March 2007.