UC Santa Barbara Library

When tragedy strikes your community, few people think about preserving the objects associated with the social mourning process.  This paper discusses a project to document our community’s response to a mass murder.  It describes how we collected and organized materials from spontaneous memorials to make them accessible to scholars in the future.  Material culture is not just the realm of archaeologists; it is also the domain of librarians, archivists, curators and historians.  Our project demonstrates how a campus community can work together to preserve materials that tell the story of such an event and those who were affected by it.

A map set is a collection of map sheets that are considered part of the same intellectual work, but not necessarily published at the same time.  An index map is an overview map of the geographic region covered by a map set, and shows the grid system with the corresponding grid cell codes to help users find which map sheet covers their area of interest.

When ingesting a scanned index map into a digital library along with scanned map sheets, the relationship between the index map and the map sheets is that of a related work, whereas the relationship between map sheets and the map set as a whole is that of a child and parent.  This allows complex relationships such as when index maps cover more than one map set.

The Alexandria Digital Research Library (ADRL) digital library created by UC Santa Barbara Library uses this relationship in its data model to enable the display of index maps on web pages displaying the map set as well as each map sheet's web page.  

At the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), librarians teach Interdisciplinary 1 (INT 1): Fundamentals of Library Research. This credit-bearing class addresses concepts such as: catalog and database searching techniques, understanding citations and information structures, as well as locating credible print and online news sources. Instruction librarians emphasize the importance of thinking critically about information, introducing them to diverse range of information and perspectives. A significant component of INT1 entails collaboration with Special Collections to promote the unique and diverse resources. Technology is changing the nature of libraries and modifying the ways librarians teach information literacy. As stated in communication by IFLA President Sinikka Sipilä , “…libraries and other intermediaries support good governance by providing the access to information and media and skills, needed to help make informed decisions.” How can academic librarians address the challenges and opportunities that continue to emerge with new technologies?

Materials in Special Collections have traditionally been documented in online catalogs and finding aids. In this regard, the California Ethnic and Multicultural Archives (CEMA) has a rich collection of materials related to the different ethnic groups of California. The UCSB Library has been working to make these materials more discoverable by utilizing new technology such as Archivists’ Toolkit, ArchivesSpace, and Aeon, as well as the California Digital Library’s (CDL) Online Archive of California (OAC) and Calisphere.

Both Archivists’ Toolkit and ArchivesSpace are open source data management systems that support archival processing and access to the materials. With the advent of increased digitization of finding aids to collections, the OAC provides free public access to detailed descriptions of primary resources. Calisphere, on the other hand, provides freely accessible digital surrogates of primary source materials, such as posters, photographs, letters, etc. curated across the University of California Special Collections libraries.  Angela Boyd, Gary Colmenar, and Elaine McCracken presented the poster on August 14 & 15, 2014 at the IFLA Information Literacy Section Satellite Meeting in Limerick, Ireland.

In the United States, the library residency (sometimes referred to as a fellowship or internship) is defined as a temporary, entry-level position in a library that targets post-library school graduates as part of a diversity recruitment and/or early career development program.  There are fewer than 30 such programs in the USA.  

We conducted a nationwide survey of library residency programs in the USA.  Questions  addressed program planning and decision-making, attitudes toward various aspects of libraries and residents, and the effectiveness of residency programs in context.  This information will be used to develop a model for libraries that have existing residency programs or that want to start a similar program.

 Our research will paint a picture of the landscape of library residency programs in the USA.  A comprehensive survey of both residency coordinators and residents has not been conducted before.

The workshop and companion poster begin with both a theoretical and practical background based on our research. In the interactive portion, participants will be asked to share their individual experiences with early career development in their own countries; to discuss the need for effective early career development programs; and, finally, to design the ideal residency program that can be adapted for their own community needs.

This poster and a workshop was presented by Angela Boyd on August 19-20, 2013 at the IFLA World Library and Information Congress  79th IFLA General Conference and Assembly in Singapore, Singapore.

The UC Santa Barbara Library faced significant challenges in 2012 when it was determined that the collection of 700,000 volumes in the Library’s central tower had to be permanently reduced by 20 percent because of seismic retrofitting for an expansion and renovation project. While many libraries have reported on methods of engaging with faculty to inform selection decisions for offsite storage, little has been reported about using survey methodology for this purpose. To develop strategies for relocation that would have the least impact on research and teaching, a team of UCSB librarians worked with a faculty committee and the campus Social Science Survey Center to develop a survey of user behaviors and preferences in accessing library information resources. Members of the faculty committee were nominated by academic deans and the Academic Senate. The survey was distributed in spring 2012 to all faculty and graduate students. The target population returned 772 surveys, yielding a margin of error of 4.2 percent and a confidence level of 99 percent. Using survey results, the Library team developed six strategies for offsite storage selection. The strategies were then evaluated by the faculty committee to ensure consistency with the survey outcomes. Once approved by the committee, the strategies were presented to the campus and are now being implemented. The poster summarizes the steps taken by the Library team working with the faculty committee. It also presents the six strategies with supporting survey data displayed by graphs.  Janet Martorana presented the poster on June 30, 2013 at the American Library Association Annual Conference in Chicago, Illinois.

Angela Boyd and Yolanda Blue presented the poster on October 1-2, 2014 at West Virginia University Libraries in Morgantown, West Virginia.  The poster presents research findings  highlighted in a talk given by the authors.

With the launch of massively multiplayer online roleplaying games (MMORPGs), players were given the opportunity to build their own communities within the confines of virtual worlds created by the game developers.  When Star Wars Galaxies was launched in June 2003, players were also given the opportunity to manipulate their environment.  SWG Developers not only allowed players to place structures within the landscape of the game, but also gave them the opportunity to decorate the interiors of their buildings.  It wasn’t long before players began to open their own museums.  At first, the museums were nothing more than decorated houses containing developer-made paintings and objects.  Eventually, however, the museums evolved and now there are quite a number that include interpretive labels, thematic exhibits, and more.  While some of these museums are quite well known within their communities, they are virtually unknown by those who do not play the game. 

That is not the case for the museums in another virtual community, however.  The emergence of museums in the virtual world of Second Life has been the topic of much discussion in the museum community.  Also launched in 2003, Second Life presents itself as a 3-D virtual world rather than a game.  In the world of Second Life players can create just about anything they can imagine and add it to the environment including, of course, museums.  Some of those museums have been replicas of real-life museums created by private individuals.  Other museums in this virtual environment were created as initiatives of established real-world museums.  But there are some museums in Second Life that only exist in that virtual landscape.  The International Space Museum, one such museum, has spawned a real-life non-profit organization to support the work of the virtual museum. 

All of this activity in virtual museums brings with it some interesting questions for members of the museum community.  Are virtual museums “real” museums?  And if they are, what are the implications for established real-life museums?  This paper will examine a variety of museums in two virtual environments ― the MMORPG Star Wars Galaxies and the virtual world of Second Life.  It will apply established definitions of what is a museum and determine which of those virtual museums appear to meet the criteria.  Finally, it will draw conclusions about the “realness” of virtual museums and the potential of these institutions for reaching new audiences.