Those of us who took the opportunity to attend the presentation by Carol Hixson and the University of Oregon at AALL in St. Louis on digitizing collections on July 9 were quite energized. Entitled Transforming Technical Services Staff and Librarians into Digital Library Specialists: The Continued Evolution of the University of Oregon’s Metadata and Digital Library Services, the presentation generated electric excitement in the room. Carol discussed her department’s journey from a traditional cataloging unit circa 2000 to what they boast today: a Metadata and Digital Library Services team staffed by 30 people. These folks are scanning and describing images for the University’s premiere digital library collections and take responsibility for PR and instruction about the collections.
Starting out in 2000, Carol had a dedicated staff but faced challenges presented by a budget deficit and lost and frozen positions. Because Carol began the journey guided by her mantras “cataloging must change” and “cataloging is a public service”, she found developments and events aligning with her mission and purpose. Carol and her staff began acquiring skill sets such as Dublin Core, XML and TGM, and new vocabularies such as FAST, while also mastering new standards including NISO Z39.87 and PREMIS. The University’s Preservation and Cataloging Departments merged in 2001 and digital collections work began in March of 2003. The Image Services Center joined the Department in July of 2004. Today the University of Oregon’s digital collections are an amazing cultural treasure chest to peruse on the web site. Carol stressed that their digital collections work is not MARC and is not AACR2.
Librarians were introduced to the process of how to analyze and describe the content of an image. The University now has a digital project librarian for the first time, and she is reviewing the collections and enhancing public interface. Carol recapped the Department’s successes: an 114% increase in traditional cataloging productivity in the past three years; seven digital collections publicly available with 16,000+ items added since 2003; abundant cross-training opportunities created; and greater collaboration within departments established.
Additional kudos to Carol as she assumes the role of University Librarian at the University of Regina in Saskatchewan on September 25. The University of Oregon will certainly miss her vision and leadership! The link to her presentation is at: https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/dspace/handle/1794/3020.