Streaming Audio and SMIL for Oral Histories

I am behind in blogging my activities so I am posting these course descriptions as a place marker until I have the time to record my notes and thoughts. One thing I will share now is that Trevor Bond from WSU (Pullman, WA) was a great teacher for both of these classes.

Often these all day sessions are a bit overwhelming however, he blends hard background information with examples and activities that stimulate discussion and sharing. The session on EAD was so useful since the "students" shared so much of their interests and experiences. It really enhanced the class.

Course description from OCLC Western webpage:
Making sound files available over the Internet is becoming an increasingly popular method to highlight audio collections, such as oral histories. This workshop will provide a nontechnical, hands-on overview of national standards, best practices, and the equipment required to digitally record oral histories. The workshop will cover the entire process including the planning, recording, processing, editing, cataloging, and streaming of digital oral histories. The implementation of SMIL (Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language) to synchronize streaming audio with transcripts will also be discussed.

What you will learn
Understanding the multifaceted workflow of organizing a digital oral history project;
The ability to plan and implement digital audio projects;
Strategies for converting analog oral history recordings to digital; and
The infrastructure necessary to make digital audio accessible.

OCLC course on EAD (Encoded Archival Description)

Today, I head for OCLC Western to take this course on EAD. My husband looked a little perplexed as I explained what it is....it seems he thinks I am "all over the place," and I do feel at times like I am a "kid in a candy shop." Yet, that is what this leave is all about...playing and enhancing my learning about a wide, diverse group of areas that I have not had time to keep up with as a Dean. See course description below...Notes to follow...

Encoded Archival Description (EAD) is emerging from theory into practice as organizations expand the number of digitized archival collections that they manage. This workshop provides advice for organizations that want to implement the EAD standard and develop internal best practices for the use of the EAD version 2002 encoding standard. The workshop will cover issues relating to preparation before encoding including the implementation of DACS (Describing Archives a Content Standard) and Greene and Meissner's notion of more product, less process. Includes discussion of techniques and practices for encoding finding aides; reviews national EAD best practices and support sites as well as providing examples drawn from such projects as the Northwest Digital Archive (NWDA) and the California Digital Library (CDL).

What you will learn
Understanding the complexities of managing archival collections using EAD;
Creating practical workflow models for using EAD; and
Practice in applying the principles and theory.

End of a conference...

After Saturday at the conference, I was tired and a bit overloaded. I headed for Hwy 5 and inadvertently got caught in the express lane heading north. No problem, I was just going to get off and head south when I realized I was a mile away from University of Washington. I have always wanted to see this campus and since my cousin Morgan is a pre-nursing student, I called her and she was home. It was great to get a personal tour.

It is a beautiful campus with an old, gothic style university library. We walked into the third floor reading room and it reminded me of a cathedral. Beautiful and filled with light! Morgan had never seen this room before so I know she enjoyed seeing it as well.

http://students.washington.edu/prabir16/library.jpg

We walked around the campus with its gorgeous trees and views and then I dropped her off at Trader Joe’s for work. Great ending to a great day!

Sunday, I arrived early for the Sunrise Session on Transforming the Future: 20/20 Foresight. A futurist, Bob Treadway outlined planning strategies for the year 2020. I then headed for the exhibits where I attended a exhibit seminar on Library Services in the Web 2.0 environment where the Alliance Library System in East Peoria, IL has established a library place called Info Island on SecondLife.com. It is amazing how engaged their users are in this virtual library space. I then went to a presentation on Overdrive’s audio and video collections and then looked for exhibits that may help us with marketing and delivery of services. I was interested to find Bookletters, a great looking marketing newsletter as well as READ posters customizable with pictures of Library or college staff.

After several hours in the exhibits, I met Gail Palmer from OCLC for lunch and we discussed some of my projects as well as some grant ideas.

Monday--I attended the exhibits picking up some free books for my library and then headed to the CJCLS (Community and Junior College Library Section session meeting. There were 4 table discussions and I joined the one on membership, publicity and publications. I thought I might be able to provide some insights on the Vo-Tech book, but we ran out of time.

On Monday, Sirsi’s drop in session on Social bookmarking introduced me to del.icious and the value of using this service of categorizing and capturing bookmarks for reference (or personal) use. Can’t wait to try it…Also attended the Contentdm Users' Group meeting in the afternoon.