Selected Presentations and Documents from the 2011 RBMS Preconference

Below is a list of programs from the 2011 RBMS Preconference for which electronic files are available. Not all presentations are represented. For a complete list of programs from the 2011 Preconference please see the complete online schedule or refer to the PDF version of the print program. Please refer to each title to see what files are available.

Photographs from the Preconference are available on flickr.

Audio and Video Files

Please send all concerns or comments about these files to the 2011 Preconference Program Chair Steven Smith. For ideas regarding future improvements and innovations, please contact the 2010-2011 RBMS Chair, Mike Kelly.

The audio is recorded digitally and compressed in stereo MP3. The files must either be downloaded and played in a stand-alone media player, or can be played with a browser plug-in. Windows Media Player and Quicktime are both media players are free to download and have been tested on these files.

As part of ACRL/RBMS’s professional development efforts, ACRL/RBMS recorded several presentations at the RBMS 52nd Annual Preconference for distribution after the preconference. Some speakers also provided ACRL/RBMS with presentation files for distribution after the preconference. This in no way relinquishes the authors'/presenters' ownership of this material nor waives their right to continue to present it and/or portions thereof as they choose.

Plenary Sessions:

I. Cultural Stewardship: The Challenge of Acquisition, Preservation, and Access in a Time of Perpetual Crisis [audio]

Lee Hampton, Amistad Research Center at Tulane University
Greg Gibson, Ten Pound Island Books
Rebecca Hankins, Texas A&M (moderator)

II. Sectional Focus, National Value: Why Regional Collections Really Matter [audio]

*This plenary session was co-sponsored by the Bibliographical Society of America and the St. Louis Mercantile Library.

Mark A. Greene, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming
John Hoover, St. Louis Mercantile Library, University of Missouri—St Louis
Jeffrey D. Marshall, Bailey/Howe Library, University of Vermont
Tim West, Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina [notes]
Kevin Graffagnino, Clements Library, University of Michigan (moderator)

III. How Special is Your Library?: Special Collections and the Value of Academic Libraries [audio]

Sarah M. Pritchard, Northwestern University [slides]
Christian Dupont, Atlas Systems, Inc. [outline]
Lisa Carter, The Ohio State University Libraries
Jennifer Paustenbaugh, Oklahoma State University Libraries (moderator)

 

Short Papers:

1: Collecting in Changing Times

Moderator: Daniel J. Slive, Bridwell Library, Southern Methodist University (SMU)
“Mapping the Boundaries of the Book Trade” [slides]
Jordan Goffin, Providence Public Library
“Exploring New Initiatives in Tough Economic Times”
R. Arvid Nelsen, Northwest Architectural Archives
“Special Collections and the Community: Collecting Local History in the 21st Century”
Melissa Nykanen, Pepperdine University

As special collections libraries rethink their collections, potential holdings and uses may begin to transform. This panel will examine areas in which new collecting domains can be identified, new approaches to collection development practiced, and new tools developed to explore historical materials.

 

Seminars:

A. Z702 Is for Book Thief: The Role of Technical Services in Collection Security [audio]

Nina Schneider, William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, UCLA (moderator)
Randal Brandt, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley
Ellen Cordes, Yale University
Steven K. Galbraith, Folger Shakespeare Library

Following the 2010 RBMS Conference Program, To Catch a Thief: Cataloging and the Security of Special Collections, this seminar will explore cataloging rare materials while being ever mindful of securing those collections. This seminar will look at those questions, and possible answers, from a cataloger’s point of view. Are they practicable? What happens if the best answer is in direct conflict with department priorities? What is the responsibility of technical services when it comes to collections security? How should we prioritize our limited time when we consider our responsibility for our collections?

B. Yes, We Scan!: Innovative Approaches to User-initiated Digitization [audio]

Jennifer Schaffner, OCLC Research (moderator) [introductory slides]
Anne Bahde, San Diego State University [slides]
Anne Blecksmith, Getty Research Institute [slides]
Julia Gardner, University of Chicago [slides]

This seminar presents innovative experiments with scanning and delivering digital copies of special collections materials at the request of users. The speakers have established different, yet equally creative, streamlined workflows to fulfill their users ’ requests, including self-serve scanning in the reading room, collaborating with interlibrary loan (ILL) colleagues to use existing infrastructure and expertise, and using a tiered approach to capture and manage the digital files created by fulfilling user requests. Speakers will discuss workflows-in-progress, lessons learned, and how they learned to stop worrying and love digital copy requests.

C. Digital Intermediation of Physical Stuff: How Technology Influences the Movement of Books from Bookseller to Curator to Cataloger to Professor [aide-mémoire]

Michael Inman, The New York Public Library (moderator)
James P. Ascher, University of Colorado at Boulder
Heather Cole, Houghton Library, Harvard University
Andrew Gaub, Bruce McKittrick Rare Books

The evolving challenges of digital technologies and documentation sometimes obscure the physical objects that constitute the seed grain of special collections. We all -- administrators, booksellers, curators, scholars, and researchers -- look for newfangled digital technologies to speed the plough, be it through researching, cataloging, or promoting our books. Yet, our work remains fundamentally tied to the physical material, and while electronic technology is often sexy, it serves merely as an intermediary by which we explore and interpret our collections.

This seminar will discuss the role of the digital intermediary in the life-cycle of books: from bookseller to curator to cataloger, and finally into classroom. Andrew Gaub will explore the changing relationship between printed reference works and online resources in shaping a bookseller's description, as well as the usefulness (or uselessness) of copy counting in the digital age. Heather Cole will examine the challenges of collection development, outreach, and access in environments of both increased expectation and limited resources for digital projects. Finally, James P. Ascher will depict how progressively organic institutional description moves an object from cataloging to the classroom and how reading lists of books is really teaching.

F. Hidden Collections and Small Budgets

Melissa A. Hubbard, Southern Illinois University Carbondale (moderator)
Anna M. Ferris, University of Colorado at Boulder [slides]
Anne K. D. Myers, Southern Illinois University Carbondale [slides]

Exposing “hidden collections” continues to be of interest to the profession, but how much change is possible at institutions with large backlogs and small budgets? This seminar presents strategies for increasing rare book cataloging productivity without increased funds, which are culled from the results of a survey of rare book catalogers, as well as the experience of the presenters.

G. Pecha Kucha with Our Stuff: Teaching with Rare Books, Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections

James P. Ascher, University of Colorado at Boulder (moderator)
Jennifer Borderud, Baylor University: "The Business of Printing: Rare Books in the Business School Curriculum" [slides]
Kathryn DeGraff, DePaul University: "So What's a Primary Source Anyway?"
Lori Dekydtspotter, Indiana University, and Cheryl Torok Fleming, Indiana Wesleyan University: "'The lights are on, and everyone's home': Using interactive learning tools in the rare materials classroom"
Julia Gardner, University of Chicago: "Instruction as Outreach: Promoting Special Collections Through Collaborative Partnerships"
Sarah Horowitz, Augustana College: "Picturing History: Using a Photograph to Introduce Historical Research" [slides]
William Modrow, Florida State University: "Why are all the primary sources in Special Collections?"
Jennifer Sheehan, University of North Texas: "Building Books and Breaking Them Down: Using Historic Materials to Teach Modern Preservation" [slides]
Heather Smedberg, University of California, San Diego: "500 Freshmen, 3 Approaches, 1 Quarter" [slides]

Pecha kucha is a fast-paced and entertaining new format for presentations using brevity and clarity. Each presenter is limited to exactly twenty slides, progressing automatically at twenty seconds per slide, resulting in a 6 minute, 40 second focused showcase of their work. For the first RBMS Preconference seminar using this format, we're taking a pecha-kucha peek inside each other's special collections classroom. Presenters will demonstrate innovative in-class exercises, experimental instructional approaches, or tried-and-true tricks and tools for teaching with the “stuff” of our profession.

H. Next Generation Library Catalogs and Cataloging

Elizabeth Johnson, Indiana University (moderator)
Jackie Dooley, OCLC Research [slides]
Eric Lease Morgan, University of Notre Dame [handout]
Aislinn Sotelo, University of California, San Diego [slides]

What constitutes a "next-generation" online catalog? How will the changing discovery and metadata environment affect the creation, management, and use of special collections cataloging data? This seminar will examine some innovative features of existing next-generation catalogs, as well as factors that catalogers should consider relative to the effectiveness of the data that they create.

 

Case Studies Panels

Four Case Studies in Collaboration panels were offered, two of which were recorded.

I. Working with Underserved Communities [audio]

Julie Grob, University of Houston Libraries
"Archiving H-Town: Working with Local Rappers to Build the Houston Hip-Hop Collection"

Dr. Christine Marin, Arizona State University, and Joyce Martin, Labriola National American Indian Data Center, Arizona State University
"Working with Underserved Communities and Non-Traditional Collections" [slides]

Maggie Kopp, Brigham Young University (moderator)

IV. Digitization on a Shoestring

Jason Kovari, Cornell University
"Breathing Life into the University of Mississippi Digital Collections" [slides]

Jennie A. Levine Knies, University of Maryland Libraries
"'One Way or Another:' The University of Maryland Digitization Experience" [slides]

Erin Passehl, Digital Collections Librarian and Archivist, Western Oregon University
"Capitalizing on (un)limited Potential: Building Digital Collections with a Student Workforce" [slides]

Jason Kovari, Cornell University (moderator)