Hometown Memories Online

I was reading my hometown paper today online. I am from a small town in Seymour, Indiana. In fact, “the small town” referred to in John Mellencamp’s so-named 80′s hit. The leading story was about digitizing records to make search work faster and with more comprehensive results. These deja vu moments almost surprise me in a very pleasing sort of way. It is like the universe is saying, “you made the right choices.”

Going Digital With A Purpose

A large collection of court records from the late 1800s are being converted into digital files by New Perspectives Inc. (NPI). Creating digital files that can be indexed, searched and accessed is an honorable task. The benefit here is that the employees hired by NPI are individuals with physical impairments that are learning job skills that will help them make a future for themselves.

Seeking Consistency and Standards

The National Information Standards Organization (NISO) voting members recently approved a new project to develop recommended practices for Packaging and Exchanging Serial Content. Many different organizations, including libraries, archives, indexing services, etc., work better and more efficiently when they exchange and work with digital files that make up serial content. However, these files are in some type of package that isn’t always the same or compatible.

Indexing Next Door

Indexing is important regardless of the content, type, volume or location. That was made even clearer to me when I found this article about a small county courthouse indexing their documents into digital archives for safety in lieu of disasters or identity fraud. Of course we are all for digitizing content for ease in findability as well, but when I realized this article, which I found on Google News, was about a small town just a few miles from my hometown. In fact, my sister lives in this particular town.

Typography as a Science

Like many people, I have varied interests in my life, both professionally and personally. Graphics, design and typography crosses the lines into both of those worlds. So when I found this interesting diagram on Flickr, it piqued my interest and I thought I would share it with you.

Paper and Digital Paper

OCLC WorldShare Metadata collection management functionality has been launched to offer more efficient ways for libraries to manage electronic resources and improve user access.

Start with a Solid Foundation

lifeIMAGE offers cloud-based software that facilitates transferring, indexing, and searching for digital medical images to help prevent redundant patient exams. In addition to saving time and money, this can also reduce radiation exposure for patients. In addition, a cloud-based service can help providers securely and automatically share results of imaging exams in the cloud. lifeIMAGE products include open application software interfaces for healthcare information technology companies to use to facilitate data exchange between healthcare providers.

Historical Cultural Data Being Digitized

Culture and online are two words rarely used together, but recently the European Parliament voted through a directive that allows anyone to access ‘orphan works’ – cultural works for which no copyright owner can be located. In addition to this, the digital portal Europeana has offered to freely reuse the metadata associated with its 20 million digitized cultural objects.

Digital Forensics in Archiving

The Society of American Archivists (SAA) 2012 annual meeting was held a couple of weeks ago. One of the many courses offered by SAA addressed digital forensics. The emerging partnership between law enforcement and the archival enterprise continues to strengthen. This might seem unusual, but it has the potential to establish some best practices in extracting data.

EBSCO Made the Ranks

EBSCO has been named to this year’s InformationWeek 500. This annual listing of the nation’s most innovative users of business technology is a honorable place to land and they have done it twice.

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