OCLC Western Digitization and Preservation Center, Lacey, Washington

July 7th, 2006

Today I met with Gayle Palmer, Digital and Preservation (DPR) Services Manager, OCLC Western.

Gayle joined OCLC in July 2002 and coordinates program services, consulting, training and grant facilitation programs for the DPR Western Center. She has been active as a trainer in the areas of project management, metadata, and web development for government information.
Gayle formerly served as a Principal Library Information Specialist at the Washington State Library. While at the State Library she served as the program coordinator for Washington State’s Government Information Locator Service and conducted the Statewide Digital Images Initiative. Among the past development projects she has directed are the Find-It! Washington find-it.wa.gov/ and Find-It! Consumer finditconsumer.wa.gov/ search engines. She was the coordinator of the Washington State Newspaper Program. She acts as a grant reviewer for the Institute for Museum and Library Services, National Leadership Grant office.

Gayle is an active contributor to local history and has served as an editor and compiler of two historical books and the union list of Washington newspapers on microfilm. She received a Masters of Science in Library and Information Science from Case Western Reserve University and a BA in History from the University of Michigan.

Gayle has graciously agreed to serve as one of my project advisors for my sabbatical. We met in Lacey, Washington and discussed the three component parts of my project. In the course of the meeting, we talked about possible campus resources to be digitized:

• historical backfiles of the Courier (60 linear feet with film shot for each issue.)
• current microfilmed copies of the Courier (microfilmed for the Library several years ago by the Hntington Library)
• Oral histories
• photograph collections throughout the campus (including Library archival collections, departmental collections, Tournament of Roses years, OMD, etc.)
• videos produced for the college promotions
• audio cassettes (of historical interest)
• art slides from the Art Faculty
• online reserves
• sheet music collections (not bound by copyright)

Other possbilities she urged me to consider addressed the needs of more global campus uses including

• student records
• internal documents
• research office publications
• E-portfolios

In addition, we spoke of grant opportunities including Librarians for the Twenty-First Century, National Endowment for theHumanities (NEH), the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS),and the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC). Focus of these grants will be shaped after I survey community colleges in the state to assess where they are in the digital arena. Focus could be on skill development, organizational approach to managing digital projects including development of a demo project that illustrates the effectiveness of a digital asset management system, e-portfolios that encourage student/faculty interactions, policies and procedures.

Gayle and I discussed the possibilities of getting directors from different states together. One possibility would be to look at a grant with the Library Directors from the Western States that would focus on training and planning digital projects.

Gayle mentioned Clark Kelso will paly an integral role in the development of IT in California. Professor J. Clark Kelso serves as Governor Schwarzenegger’s Special Advisor on Information Technology and Chief Information Officer for the State of California. As Chief Information Officer, he is responsible for providing State leadership on information technology policy and for working collaboratively with other information technology leaders throughout state government. http://iwceexpo.com/attendees/bios2006/j_clark_kelso/index.html

More later...

Follow up notes: Western State Community Colleges focused on Managing Libraries in the Digital Age (How flat is your library?) Look at the Silicon Valley History Project
focus on management, funding, strategies, changing environment/skill building
Possible contract with OCLC Western or the Community College League