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Editing uploaded records in the Alaska's Digital ArchivesThis tutorial describes how to edit metadata, files, and bands for records uploaded to the Alaska's Digital Archives.
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Alaska's Digital Archives metadata standards guideThis document will lay out the requirements or suggestions for the content of each field that accompanies the items you’ll be adding to the Alaska’s Digital Archives. This should be used in tandem with the Adding Metadata tutorial which will explain the process of filling in the metadata fields.
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Getting started with the ContentDM Project Client part 5: Adding files to your projectThis is the fifth part of a five-step tutorial on setting up the software for participation in the Alaska's Digital Archives project. It describes how to add the files (images, audio, documents, etc.,) to a project in preparation for attaching descriptive metadata to those files. Part 1 is the steps that must be complete prior to installing the software, Part 2 is installing the software, Part 3 is Creating a project, Part 4 is Setting up a project.
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Getting started with the ContentDM Project Client Part 4: setting up your projectThis is the fourth part of a five-step tutorial on setting up the software for participation in the Alaska's Digital Archives project. It describes the steps that must be completed to fill in the default information that will apply to all files added to the project. Part 1 is the steps that must be complete prior to installing the software, Part 2 is installing the software, Part 3 is Creating a project, Part 5 is Adding files to a project.
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Getting started with the ContentDM Project Client part 3: Creating a projectThis is the third part of a five-step tutorial on setting up the software for participation in the Alaska's Digital Archives project. It describes the steps that must be completed to create a project: the function within the ContentDM software that allows you to attach metadata to files. Part 1 is the steps that must be complete prior to installing the software, Part 2 is installing the software, Part 4 is Setting up a project, Part 5 is Adding files to a project.
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Getting started with the ContentDM Project Client Part 2: installing the softwareThis is the second part of a five-step tutorial on setting up the software for participation in the Alaska's Digital Archives project. It describes the steps to download and install the software. Part 1 is the steps that must be complete prior to installing the software, Part 3 is Creating a project, Part 4 is Setting up a project, Part 5 is Adding files to a project.
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Getting started with the ContentDM Project Client Part 1: The things you need to do ahead of timeThis is the first part of a five-step tutorial on setting up the software for participation in the Alaska's Digital Archives project. It describes the steps that must be completed before downloading the software. Part 2 is installing the software, Part 3 is Creating a project, Part 4 is Setting up a project, Part 5 is Adding files to a project.
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Digital Access and Preservation PolicyThe Digital Access and Preservation Policy is to provide guidance and authorization on the preservation of digital materials at the UAA/APU Archives and Special Collections. Digital materials at the UAA/APU Archives and Special Collections are in a variety of formats. The Archives has in its holdings digitized photographs, either for preservation purposes or reference, born digital content, digitized copies of audio, video, and film, as well as photographs taken of materials not usually kept within the collections, i.e. awards and plaques. The Digital Access and Preservation Policy (DAPP) will outline, in further detail, the different types of digital content within our holdings, how each should be treated, and how each should be saved.
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COMMFISH: all about Alaska's commercial fisheries collectionsOne of the more unique holdings in the Alaska Resources Library and Information Services (ARLIS) stands out due to its extensive size and breadth—the CommFish collection. The entire management history related to Alaska's commercial fisheries is documented here, including controversies over fishing rights, subsistence, and much more. These reports, including primary source data reported nowhere else, precede statehood and capture in great detail the extent, scope, successes, failures, policy decisions, and inventories of Alaska's fisheries statewide. When statehood was realized in 1959, the agency responsible for managing commercial fisheries was also established: the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G). Fishery managers in the newly created agency recognized early on that much of the data compiled would be of professional interest, while other information clearly had a public right-to-know component. As a result, a diverse number of series to meet each of these information needs was initially established. Over time, however, these series have been subject to the familiar vagaries common to all gray literature, such as title changes, name irregularities, and murky bureaucratic authorship. ARLIS inherited these extensive collections from several ADF&G libraries over a period of years. Most of the items had never been distributed outside of the agency, and ARLIS often owns the only copy. Recently, ARLIS has spent much time and effort to provide original cataloging for these materials in OCLC. ARLIS’ approach to cataloging these complex series may also be of interest to librarians facing similar challenges.
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The Journal of Fred W. FickettWhen I was assigned to transcribe the Fred W. Fickett journal as part of a research project 1 was excited at what the project might bring. Little did 1 know that it would take me on a journey of Alaskan history and the surprising and interesting collection of documents relating to it. The process of transcribing Fickett's journal was both exciting and frustrating. Each page brought new discoveries and new complications. Fickett’s struggles along the way, his descriptions of the horrible things they were forced to eat as their stocks grew thinner and thinner, the difficulty travelling through slushy snow and cold, all were little windows into the past. 1 grew to like Fickett, his descriptions of the horrible food almost had a sense of a badge of honor, a brag about how bad things got. Not all elements of the journal were windows into the past. When the words were obscured or Fickett’s handwriting became illegible I would sit alone in my room and mutter my frustrations and irritations to Fickett and the journal. His misspellings, although indicative of a time when the spellings of words was more fluid, provided me with some amusement along the way. Perhaps the most frustrating portion of the process was the transcribing of his sun observations. They in and of themselves entailed complications with trying to recreate his tables, but they were made worse when he had crossed them out and rewritten new numbers next to the old ones. 1 had some things to say to Fickett about that as well. When it came to write the paper, 1 first began comparing the two primary sources of the journey. Lt. Henry Allen’s report on the 1885 expedition was integral to my research because it provided me with an anchor for what Fickett was describing. By comparing the two I was able to discover facts about the trip that are glossed over in one, but written in detail in another, and it provided me with a fun way to see what each man felt it important to record along the way. One of my most intriguing discoveries was that there seemed to be some suggestion of tension between Fickett and Allen, which was not really enough to confirm solidly, but certainly gave me an impression of some conflict. My research extended outward to the ARL1S and the Consortium library, where I looked for information regarding previous expeditions to see where people had explored prior to Allen and Fickett, and what was said about the trips. There were a number of trips that I found interesting, and that Fickett and Allen had found interesting too. 1 enjoyed finding references to the books 1 was looking at in Fickett and Allen’s journals, and finding references to Fickett and Allen in reports written around the same time. 1 looked also into journals and websites, where I found old Science articles regarding the trip and their discoveries. These articles were interesting insights into what the scientific and lay scientific community found interesting about Alaska. Some of them were written by Allen himself and mirrored what he had put in his report. This is also where I discovered most of the articles that reference the expedition, and Allen’s report in particular. Despite all my research I never found a book or journal that cited Fickett. Although some made mention of the existence of the journal, whether it was read or not remains unclear. My path wrapped full circle, and I found myself again looking into the archives, and discovered that the journal that I was working from and that 1 had transcribed, turned out to be a transcription written by Fickett shortly after he finished his trip from the notes he took along the way. In researching further, I found the original journals he took, and in reading these, 1 discovered that my earlier impressions of tension between Allen and Fickett was, if not confirmed, at least reinforced by additional comments that did not make the transcription 1 had worked from. The archives had more secrets to reveal. I had found an entry regarding a handkerchief that had been used as a flag, and in researching the archives I found the handkerchief. In my head, as I read the journal, the handkerchief I pictured was a white silk handkerchief, so 1 was surprised to see a brightly colored handkerchief, still tied to the stick which had made it into a flag. It was a real connection with history to see this artifact. Although a great deal has happened in Alaska in the past 150 years, so much so that Fickett would barely recognize the places he traveled, I can look at a handkerchief that was carried by the first Euro-Americans to travel to the head of the Copper River. I found this a truly inspiring project. It is the first project where I have felt a part of the research community. Most papers involve research previously done, primarily, but between being the first one to transcribe this journal and writing a comparison between Fickett and Allen's observations, something which I cannot find reference to anywhere else, 1 feel like I have had a small opportunity to contribute meaningfully to the knowledge of Alaskan history. It has been a very exciting experience, and 1 only hope that my efforts will prove to be worthwhile for further research.
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Merging Catalogs in Alaska: Navigating Shifting BoundariesThe Joint Library Catalog, a network of 72 public, academic, special, and K-12 li-braries that serves 65 percent of Alaska’s population, has conducted three catalog mergers in three years. As new libraries join the consortium, they face changes to OPAC design, lending procedures, and cataloging standards. Their patrons gain access to over 1.7 million titles (4.1 million items) located across the state, availa-ble to hold and send, plus reciprocal borrowing privileges.
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The Provisional Government and 1917: The Legitimacy ParadoxThe significance of the Russian revolution has been a hitter ongoing argument for historians and political scientists alike. Couched within that debate is the significance and meaning of I bl 7. For some, the significance of 1917 is based around the rise of the Bolsheviks to power and the centrality of class struggle. For others, it is a critical moment of hard political power wielded by Lenin and the Bolsheviks.1 But, behind that debate, lays the meaning of 1917 and the Provisional Government. In the simplest of terms, there was a crisis of legitimacy. To understand the meaning of 1917 it must be recognized that, while the Russian Provisional Government was perceived as a legitimate government externally, internally it was considered almost wholly illegitimate. The events of 1917, and thus the events of the revolution and civil war that followed, hinged upon the legitimacy and sovereignty of the Provisional Government. Thus the Provisional Government represents a critical factor; the understanding of 1917. One must recognize that the Provisional Government failed to survive, at least in part, because its leaders assumed its legitimacy, while the Russian population increasingly rejected it. The leadership utterly failed to obtain a sovereign and legitimate mandate, either through legislation, by the popular consent of the Russian people, or by investit ure of authority through institutional succession. The purpose of this paper is to illuminate some of the points which caused the Provisional Government to fail. In particular there appear three critical reasons for this failure; the internal politics of the Provisional Government, its relation to the Army, and its relation to the Russian population.
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Neurowhat? Neurorhetoric: The Marriage of Rhetoric and NeuroscienceIn 1990 president George Bush senior made an official proclamation that the 1990s would be the “Decade of the Brain.” But interest in the brain did not stop after 1999, it only continued to grow. In 2013 president Barack Obama proposed the BRAIN initiative, Brain Research Through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies. Bush and Obama state that advances in neuroscience are getting science closer to creating better treatments and cures for brain disease and mental illness, like Parkinson’s, epilepsy, schizophrenia, and PTSD. But neuroscience advancements have become of interest to more than the presidents and the medical community. The media and the public have caught the brain craze as well. Magazines feature articles about neuroscience reports, and more nutritional supplements are showing up to help maintain and improve the brain. Books and games advertise their ability to train your brain and exercise your mind. It is not only the presidents and the public that have a growing investment in neuroscience. New fields in academics are starting to show up, like neurolaw, neuroeconomics, neuroeducation, and neurorhetorics. The growing field of neurorhetorics has much to offer to academia. Neurorhetoric can look at the growing persuasive appeal of neuroscience and neuroimages, but it is also a versatile field for interdisciplinary discussion. Neurorhetoric looks at neuroscience research to see what new perspectives can be gained to create and add to conversations in rhetoric and rhetorical theories. In collaboration with neuroscientists, rhetoricians in neurorhetoric can look at the language and structures in neuroscience to provide new insight to scientists in how they rhetorically frame their research, bringing about new questions for neuroscience research. Hall 2 Neurorhetoric can add to a number of different rhetorical fields, such as feminist and gender studies, animal studies, and the rhetoric of disability. In 2010 Rhetoric Society Quarterly published a special issue on neurorhetoric, featuring Jordynn Jack and Gregory Appelbaum’s “’This is Your Brain on Rhetoric’: Research Directions for Neurorhetorics,” which has since become the cornerstone of neurorhetoric research. I will be using it to look at the methodology taking shape for neurorhetoric, and the conversations that have started in neurorhetoric about the appeal of neuroscience. I will then look at some of the ways neurorhetoric is interacting with the rhetoric of disability to display one of the ways neurorhetoric is being used. Neurorhetoric as a field of rhetoric inquiry sounds harrowing as an undergraduate, and I will recount my experience in looking into this field.
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ePortfolios Interview 2Deborah Mole interviews Paul Wasko of Academic Innovations and eLearning at the University of Alaska Anchorage about the ePortfolio project.
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Identification and Comparison of Gray Literature in Two Polar Libraries: Australian Antarctic Division and Scott Polar Research InstituteGray literature collections were investigated and compared at the libraries of the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) and the Scott Polar Research Institute (SPRI) in order to improve accessibility. These collections are important to Arctic and Antarctic researchers, but are problematic because they are not well documented, often have limited access, and are arranged by subject using a classification system specific to polar libraries. Tangible results of the project include estimates of the number of gray literature items in the polar subject categories for the two libraries, along with a template of a user’s finding aid to these collections. In addition, 172 sources from four Antarctic expeditions in the early part of the 20th century were selected as a representative sample; 64 from AAD and 108 from SPRI. While small, the sample was a focused topic with enough variety of materials to provide good examples for accessibility issues. Inquiries are continually received at AAD and SPRI for information related to these four expeditions, so improved access will be beneficial for both researchers and the two institutions. Making the material more available is also very timely, anticipating renewed interest from the public with the approaching centennial celebrations of two of the expeditions coming up in 2010 and 2011. Despite the similar subject nature of the collections, only ten items were duplicated in the two libraries. Solutions for improving access, such as linking the gray literature collections to broader initiatives are addressed in more detail in the final report. Providing the references in a metadata format to include in an online catalog or linked to a website will increase visibility and use of the materials. Suggestions for improving the arrangement of the materials and reducing duplication within the collections are also discussed in the final report available on my blog. http://www.consortiumlibrary.org/blogs/dcarle/sabbatical/
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Alaska Resources Library and Information Services: Building Community in the 49th StateThe Institute of Museum and Library Services recognized the community-building achievements of an unusual library in Anchorage, Alaska when it bestowed one of three 2001 National Awards for Library Service on the Alaska Resources Library and Information Services (ARLIS). This award, the highest in the nation, is given to libraries that “demonstrate a core commitment to public service through innovative programs and active partnerships that address the urgent and changing needs within the communities they serve.”
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Alaska Resources Library and Information Services: Pioneering Partnerships on the Last FrontierFive federal agencies, one state agency, one state-federal entity, and one university combined their library resources to create the Alaska Resources Library and Information Services (ARLIS), which opened in Anchorage in 1997. This new library focuses on Alaska’s natural and cultural resources, and serves agency personnel, university faculty and students, and local and international researchers from the public and private sectors. Funded by its parent agencies and collectively directed by a team of six librarians, ARLIS is recognized for its unique and innovative structure, one-of-a-kind collections, and quality in-depth service.
