Library Tech Talk

Inactive blog with technology and project updates from U-M Library Information Technology.
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Posts in Library Tech Talk

Showing 11 - 20 of 128 items
many hammers
  • Paul Frederick Schaffner
Paul Schaffner gives an introduction to batch editing metadata using tools that have worked well for him as part of his role in the Text Creation Unit (TCU) within the University of Michigan Library's Digital Content and Collections Department. The instructions and guidance provided, while originally aimed at cataloguers, can be utilized by anyone by following along with Paul's instructions and referring to the suggested resources and links within the article.
Picture of a spider web
  • Rachel Vacek
Over the past 20 years, the University of Michigan Library has led the way on creating digital collections and establishing best practices around digital preservation that have become benchmark standards for other libraries. However, as our web presence expanded, it became increasingly difficult to adapt it at scale, keep pace with the changing needs of research, and create cohesion between a growing number of applications, sites, and services. It eventually became clear that a new model for web governance was needed. In this post, learn about the library’s history around its web governance and what led us to establish a new committee to create a vision and strategy for our web presence. You’ll also read about some of the committee’s accomplishments so far and learn how the committee’s members are supporting the recently launched Library Search application and the ongoing website redesign.
Engines of the Hancock and Calumet Railroad in the Copper Country. Note that cow catchers have become permanently installed snow plows.
  • Jackson Huang
As an intern in Digital Content and Collections (DCC), I have been working with various older digital collections and projects, to address any issues that have come up since their creation. Each of these collections is unique in content and format, with digitization, description, and access processes designed within the context of grants, stakeholder goals, user needs, and technical capacity. Most recently, I completed a project to ensure access to digitized materials from the Superiorland Library Cooperative (SLC) and through this project learned several lessons that are useful for me -- and anyone else working with older digitized materials -- to keep in mind for future projects with digital collections.
Screen shot of online exhibits site
  • Nancy Moussa
On October 21, 2018, the U-M Library launched a new version of the Online Exhibits site. Our exhibits run on the Omeka platform (classic version 2.6.1), a free, open-source content management system for online digital collections.
  • Ken Varnum
The new University of Michigan Library Search interface, the discovery interface for library resources at the U-M Library, was launched on July 30, 2018.
A pair of snow covered trees against the background of a green aurora sky.
  • Greg Kostin
On most Fridays I engage in an ongoing experiment in virtual pairing using test driven development (TDD).
New Search Interface
  • Ken Varnum
How the University of Michigan Library is unifying the user experience of discovery across multiple kinds of information, from the catalog to licensed content, from subject expertise to library webpages and LibGuides.
Image of many colored pencils
  • Bill Dueber
In line with the University of Michigan Library's strategic plan to support diversity, individuals in the Library Information Technology division started a Diversity Reading Club where colleagues can come together to lean and discuss readings on the subject. The Reading Club has been going for over a year and a half, and we discuss what it is and why we think it works.
A graph of organization nodes and edges depicting the United States Federal bureaucracy.
  • Joshua Steverman
MARC Authority records can be used to create a map of the Federal Government that will help with collection development and analysis. Unfortunately, MARC is not designed for this purpose, so we have to find ways to work around the MARC format's limitations.
  • Eliot Scott
Contributing to software projects can be harder and more time consuming than coding customized solutions. But over the long term, writing generalized solutions that can be used and contributed to by developers from around the world reduces our dependence on ourselves and our organizational resources, thus drastically reducing our technical debt.