Student Assignments Portfolio:

Information Organization and Access

Search & Discovery

Summary: To compare and critique three different interfaces— UIUC Classic Catalogue, UIUC, VuFind Catalogue, and Amazon- for appraisal of effectiveness of retrieval and accurancy of readers' advisory features. PDF here

Literature Review - Performing Arts Students' Information Needs

Summary: A review of Jennifer Mayer’s article “Serving the Needs of Performing Arts Students: A Case Study” is concerned about the specific needs of performing-arts students, the author is concerned whether the library’s services are useful for their populations’ needs and whether students are receiving adequate disciplinary-library instruction.
PDF here

Copyright

Policy Tracking Guide

Summary: A summary of the U.S. Copyright law, and its relevance to information professionals
PDF here

Reference Services

Index & Abstract Resources

Responses to sample reference questions.
PDF here

Annotated Reference Guide - Art & Art History

This annotated subject guide serves to orientate art and art history researchers towards reference resources, both in print and online, that may best fulfill their information-seeking needs. The population that this guide serves are adults conducting research for professional, academic, and independent objectives. Sample populations may include the library users at The Art Institute of Chicago and The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. The following selections are informed by resource needs defined by Art Libraries Society of North America’s Core Competencies.
PDF here

Website Review - Art Museum Education Resource

A sample application of evaluation (using Carol A. Singer's "Selection and Evaluation of Reference Sources") applied to The Getty Research Institute online exhibition “Bauhaus: Building the New Artist” (published in 2019).
PDF here

Bibliographic Metadata

Samples of MARC21 cataloguing records for different types of materials, using OCLC.

Assignment 1: Non-fiction Book

PDF here

Assignment 2: Fiction Book

PDF here

Assignment 3: Audio Disc

PDF here

Assignment 4: Video

PDF here

See also my webpage about organizing and cataloging the collection at the Italian Cultural Institute library.

Artists' Books

Zero magazine: auction alert, acquisition recommendation to artists' book library

Summary: A report based on a recent auction posting, describing historical relevance and potential use value to researchers, a review of the availability of the items in other reserach collections, a comparison prices on similiar items, and final recommendation defense.
PDF here

Acquisition Statements - Joe Jone's Fluxus is Dead & Carol Genetti's Chyme

Summary: A description of two artists' publications for a special-collection library with emphasis on artists' books and objects, including historical relevance and potential use value to reserachers, as well as sample cataloge records.
PDF here

Tracking and Pricing Provenance

* this course was taken at SAIC through my (previous) ARTIC staff-benefits

Presentation, The Case of St Louis Art Museum's Ka Nefer Nefer Mummy Mask

PDF of presentation slides here, full text available on request

Final Report, Houdon's Bust of Madame de Se'rilly (Art Institute of Chicago #1996.79)

PDF of presentation slides here, full text available on request

Archival Management

Appraisal

Summary: A sample appraisal report with recommendations (including details of decision-making process), based on a supplied record survey of non-current records managed by the Division of Rehabilitation Services (DRES) at The University of Illinois.
PDF here

Arrangement

Summary: A sample processing plan with arrangement scheme for the imagined contents of a George B Fell Papers archival collection (based on supllied details).
PDF here

Literature Review - Personal Archives

Summary: A review of Devin Becker and Collier Nogues’s survey report “Saving-Over, Over-Saving, and the Future Mess of Writers’ Digital Archives,” which focuses on the personal digital archiving practices (and needs) of emerging writers.
PDF here

See also my webpage about managing the archive project at the Alliance Francaise of Chicago.

AV Materials & Archives

Digitization & Preservation Strategy (for Burnham Archives)

Summary: The strength of the The Ryerson & Burnham Archives at The Art Institute of Chicago is in its artist' and architects' papers, particularly its materials 19th- and 20th- century architecture. Although the majority of these collections' contents are in manuscripts and photographs, there are also AV materials within individual collections. Yet, these AV materials are largely inaccessible due to their physical and intellectual distancing from the collection: AV materials are stored from their collections, and the lack of technical or descriptive information about the AV materials has alienated them from the library's services despite their vunerable nature. In this paper, I offer some immediate and long-range remediation plans.
PDF here

See also samples of items that I helped process during a collections internship at Chicago Film Archives, using the PBCore-based schema within their customized version of Collections Access.

Digital Preservation

Personal Archive - File Arrangement and Retention Schedule

Summary: A sample retention schedule for 4 different record groups, with varying deposit schedules and retention duration based on appraisal of scope and contents.
PDF here

Group Project - File Inventory, Identification, and Preservation (for University of Illinois' Sousa Archives)

Summary: A sample digital preservation plan for the Michael Manion born-digital collection, currently in accession phase by the Sousa Archives & Center for American Music. The Manion collection is an interesting case for digital-preservation considerations due to the varied nature of file formats, extensions, and rendering software that the creator used. We have been asked by the digital preservationists at UIUC to offer consultation on files that have been pending file-format identification. Including file-format identification, file extention survey, a discussion of key proprietary softwares that the included files require, and preservation recommendations (including 3 sample AIPs).
PDF here

Metadata Theory and Practice

Assignment 1: Create a simple Dublic Core record for an artist's book, using Oxygen XML Editor.

text view



grid view

Assignment 2: Create 3 different Dublic Core records for the 3 different manifestations of the Seikilos stele (the original three-dimensional object, a digital audio recording, and a digital image), then create a single CDWA-light (Categories for Description of Works of Art, using Art & Architecture Thesaurus) record to contain information about all of the manifestations.

DC for object, text view



DC for audio, text view



DC for image, text view



CDWA record, grid view

Assignment 3 - Technical Metadata Analysis, PBCore and MIX Schemata: Analyze a PBCore metadata record and a MIX metadata record (that uses FITS), then write a short paper defining the technical characteristics of specified fields.

Summary: This assignment focuses on Technical Metadata, a subcategory of the Administrative Metadata for information resources. For this project we will analyze select metadata fields that are included in sample PBCore and MIX records. These two schemas standards were both developed to address particular community needs for more complete technical-attribute information. Previous schemas, focusing more in descriptive and access metadata, were found to be insufficient for digital still image and audio-video metadata needs. PBCore and MIX are often used alongside other standards, such as DC, PREMIS, DACS/EAD, and MODS.
PDF here

Assignment 4 - Preservation and Provenance Metadata in PREMIS: Create a PREMIS metadata record for the digital audio file used in Assignment 3.

Snapshot of detail from record, text view.
PDF of full record here

Assignment 5 (Group Assignment): Create a custom metadata schema, a data dictionary for the schema, and sample metadata records using the schema.

TREE schema for citizen scientist-arborist, design view

Data dictionary for TREE schema


Summary: The TREE Data Dictionary includes semantic units. The template for each entry includes a place for notes about how to create or use the semantic unit. Semantic units may or may not contain semantic components, which are defined as semantic units in their own right. A semantic component’s repeatability and obligation may vary from its containing semantic unit.
PDF here


Sample record for a Honey Locust tree using the custom TREE schema, grid view