On Tagging and Controlled Vocabularies

Clay Shirky's Ontology is Overrated: Categories, Links, and Tags is certainly a provocative and the discussion about importance of controlled vocabularies and effective use of tags is still ongoing in various forums where catalogers and those interested in description of resources congregate (even if mostly virtually). When it comes to ontologies and controlled vocabularies, I believe that there is a need for the profession to use consistent terminology. If several nomenclatures do exist, they should always be documented and properly referenced. I think that librarians, archivists, and museum curators should provide metadata that contain controlled vocabulary, even pre-coordinated. That said I also believe that popular taxonomies (folksonomies) should be considered when providing access to digital resources. The controlled vocabularies can serve mostly system-related and administrative functions for the staff, they also provide initial categorization. Once the object is in the system, it can move freely throughout the collection prodded by whatever probabilistic algorithm. Including folksonomies into metadata (or maybe rather indexes) for searching and browsing can make finding objects in collections easier, as it provides users with more options. It is also a social commentary on a given culture or society and an indicator of interest among users. However, that does not mean resignation on established terms, because the scholarly and professional needs of expert users have to be addressed, as well. There is no dichotomy. It's not either folksonomies or controlled vocabularies, because both systems can coexist and complement each other.

Proposed Collection for Drupal Test

There are few occasions when digitised material does not make it into a repository and remains sitting in the staging area. There are usually legitimate reasons for the delay and sooner or later the project will be picked up. This particular project contains images that were digitised for publication. The book is out, most of the digitized images too, but there are still some that did not make it into the repository yet.

I would like to create a collection of images of front-covers and title pages from this project, and look at them as a cultural artifact in their own right, rather than just a manifestation of a book.

The collection may offer several ways to be browsed - based on the language or script used, date of publication, authors of the books, and creators of the book design. The subject depicted on the front cover, if any, certainly should also be a descriptive facet, and a particularly suitable for tagging. Many of these books and their covers had a message to convey to those who took the book into their hands. The message of the books has certainly changed and users can access it from different angles now; the same book can be a piece of Bolshevik propaganda for some, for others just a popular children's book.

Project Management and Digital Libraries

There is ample evidence that planning for a digital project is important. However, in all of those texts on project management I encountered there was always an assumption, sometimes explicitly stated, that the project was something new, unique, outside of the usual operation of the given body. I work for an organization where projects are our daily operation - all staff members are managed through projects. As a result, all members of the team usually know what their roles are; there is no need to worry about buy-in, because our products are based on material submitted by the partners. Previously, there were some initiatives coming from the team in order to participate in grants and gain some additional funds, but those projects could have been realized only because the Partners - the stakeholders - were interested.

The whole environment and operation is relatively low risk; the whole team relatively successful and accepted. The relationships within the team are built on trust. I realize that that can easily backfire, however, I consider that an asset. This trust is also a motivating factor and generates interest, commitment, and sense of professionalism on the part of the team. The members of the team often bring up suggestions that lead to improving workflows and amending our policies which further improves the work environment.

It is clear that the project has to have a clear sense of direction, because not all suggestions have to necessarily lead in the right directions. H. Frank Cervone's articles brought the philosophy of project management that was a bit remote and too technical to the familiar turf of the libraries and other cultural and heritage repositories. It was a reminder that current practices should not be taken for granted and always have to be validated in practice during implementation and execution. Monitoring and constant evaluation are really key.

LAMP Framwork and Digital Collections

I do not think my perspective on the way digital information is managed has changed that much since the course started , but I have gained a much better understanding of how digital information is managed, manipulated, used, and re-purposed. Databases always seemed to be a key aspect of digital information management and thanks to the MySQL crash-course, I was able to better understand how data are entered into database, in what form and format (data-type), that these things matter and they can be quite helpful and powerful when used right. The date data-types could enhance the information users' require - the way chronological data can be computed and manipulated, unfortunately in most library and archival content standards, chronological data are of little use from the point of view of machine manipulation, as they are usually entered as unrestricted text strings.

The real eye opener, however, was the last part of the course on PHP and MySQL. The ease with which the database could be queried, data retrieved, and delivered to the browser really surprised me. However, the effortless update of the database was the real coup for me. It made me think again about the Web 2.0 participatory aspect and how useful they can be to the cultural heritage field. I realize that both
delivery and update actions were rather unsophisticated and many blocks of code would be required to update databases with useful, normalized data and also to retrieve them in a more user-friendly way.

The relative ease with which the whole system is built and operates , convinced me that the LAMP framework is a viable concept, quite suitable for libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural and heritage institutions both big and small.