Posts on Mark A. Matienzo https://matienzo.org/posts/ Recent content in Posts on Mark A. Matienzo Hugo -- gohugo.io en-us Thu, 29 Apr 2021 10:43:01 -0700 On Sourcery, or the enclosure(?) of remote access https://matienzo.org/2021/on-sourcery-or-the-enclosure-of-remote-access/ Thu, 29 Apr 2021 10:43:01 -0700 https://matienzo.org/2021/on-sourcery-or-the-enclosure-of-remote-access/ In this post, I try to unpack some of my concerns around <a href="https://sourceryapp.org">Sourcery</a> as raised in my Society of California Archivists keynote, and how they relate to the visibility of archival labor, austerity, and enclosure. IAH Forecast - Disquiet Junto Project 0476 https://matienzo.org/2021/iah-forecast-disquiet-junto-project-0476/ Mon, 15 Feb 2021 21:41:01 -0800 https://matienzo.org/2021/iah-forecast-disquiet-junto-project-0476/ An experiment with recording a new single using VCV Rack and REAPER based on a compositional prompt. I ended up recording two tracks. Perfecting a favorite: oatmeal chocolate chip cookies https://matienzo.org/2020/perfecting-a-favorite/ Sun, 29 Nov 2020 20:49:53 -0800 https://matienzo.org/2020/perfecting-a-favorite/ <p>I have a horrible sweet tooth, and I absolutely love oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. I tend to bake as a means to cope with stress, and of course, more often then that means making these cookies. After making many iterations, I&rsquo;ve settled upon this recipe as the ultimate version to which all compare.</p> In Memoriam and Appreciation of Rob Casson (1974-2020) https://matienzo.org/2020/in-memoriam-robcasson/ Thu, 01 Oct 2020 09:15:36 -0700 https://matienzo.org/2020/in-memoriam-robcasson/ <p>The world lost one of its brightest and most charming lights earlier this week, Rob Casson. Many of us knew Rob through the <a href="https://code4lib.org">Code4Lib</a> community and conferences and his work at Miami University Libraries. We miss his generosity, patience, sense of humor, and genuine kindness. Those of us who got the chance to socialize with him also remember his passion for music, and some of us were even lucky to see live shows in the evenings between conference sessions and other social activities.</p> <p>On Sunday, October 4 at 1:30 PM Pacific/4:30 PM Eastern, those of us who knew him through Code4Lib and the world of libraries are encouraged to gather to share our memories of him and to appreciate his life and work. Please join me and my co-organizers, Mike Giarlo and Declan Fleming on <a href="https://stanford.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJModu2orz0tHdALiAbc_p7Kqw2_yRRkbzu_">Zoom (registration required)</a>.</p> <figure><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/bigdpix/3316646551/"> <img src="https://matienzo.org/images/robcasson.jpg" class="u-photo" alt="Robert Casson (robcaSSon), 30 Jan 1974 - 29 Sep 2020."/> </a><figcaption> <p>Robert Casson (robcaSSon), 30 Jan 1974 - 29 Sep 2020. <a href="https://declan.net/">Photo: Declan Fleming.</a></p> </figcaption> </figure> First SOTA activation https://matienzo.org/2020/first-sota-activation/ Tue, 29 Sep 2020 04:21:47 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2020/first-sota-activation/ <p>About a month ago, I got my ham radio license, and soon after I got pretty curious about <a href="https://www.sota.org.uk">Summits on the Air</a> (SOTA), an award scheme focused on safe and low impact portable operation from mountaintops. While I like to hike, I&rsquo;m arguably a pretty casual hiker, and living in California provides a surprising number of options within 45 minutes driving time for SOTA newbies.</p> Optimizing friction https://matienzo.org/2020/optimizing-friction/ Mon, 10 Aug 2020 21:21:51 -0700 https://matienzo.org/2020/optimizing-friction/ <p>Over and in response to the last <a href="https://matienzo.org/2020/besieged/">few months</a>, I&rsquo;ve been reflecting about intentionality, and how I spend my time creating things. I have tried to improve the <a href="https://indieweb.org/">indieweb</a>biness of my site, and understanding what it means to <a href="https://indieweb.org/scratch_your_own_itch">&ldquo;scratch my own itch&rdquo;</a>. This resonates particularly lately because it&rsquo;s leading me to mull over which parts should be hard and easy. Unsurprisingly, much of that is personal preference, and figuring out how I want to optimize from the perspective of user experience. Friction in UX <a href="https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2018/01/friction-ux-design-tool/">can be a powerful tool</a>, part of what I&rsquo;m trying to find is where I want to retain friction as it helps me remain intentional.</p> A Hugo shortcode for embedding Mirador https://matienzo.org/2020/mirador-hugo-shortcode/ Sat, 25 Jul 2020 19:38:46 -0700 https://matienzo.org/2020/mirador-hugo-shortcode/ <p>I spent a little time over the last day or so trying to bodge together a shortcode for Hugo to embed an instance of <a href="https://projectmirador.org/">Mirador</a>. While it&rsquo;s not quite as simple (or full-featured) as I&rsquo;d like, it&rsquo;s nonetheless a starting point. The shortcode generates a snippet of HTML that gets loaded into Hugo pages, but (unfortunately) most of the heavy lifting is done by a separate static page that gets included as an <code>&lt;iframe/&gt;</code> within the page. That page parses URL parameters to pass some of the parameters when Mirador gets instantiated.</p> <p>Getting a consistent way to load multiple IIIF manifests, either into comparison view or for populating a resource list also needs some work, which also led me to grapple with thinking through the <a href="https://iiif.io/api/content-state/0.2/">IIIF Content State API</a> spec, which will require some more attention, too.</p> Besieged https://matienzo.org/2020/besieged/ Fri, 17 Jul 2020 09:20:46 -0700 https://matienzo.org/2020/besieged/ I have spent the last four and a half months feeling like everything is slipping from my grasp – personally, professionally, and in between. The torpor of life under a pandemic and a world wracked with pain has led me to feel like I am stuck in slowly-drying glue. Planning too far ahead seems nearly pointless. And yet, every day, we are asked to undertake haruspicy, to speculate about how our organizations and ourselves should respond to the remaining uncertainty, ideally with precision. The world keeps turning and we are asked to keep up, while taking care of family members, grieving our losses, or dealing with other challenges amplified by the present circumstances. At the same time, I feel myself slowing down, or at least to continue trying to slow down. I have not read anything more substantial than an article since February, despite getting a stack of books out of the library in preparation for more time at home. The cognitive load of mailing packages can sometimes be too much. Comments on revisions to SAA statement on Diversity and Inclusion https://matienzo.org/2020/comments-on-revisions-to-saa-dei-statement/ Thu, 27 Feb 2020 09:06:00 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2020/comments-on-revisions-to-saa-dei-statement/ <p>The <abbr title="Society of American Archivists">SAA</abbr> Council has issued a <a href="https://www2.archivists.org/news/2020/call-for-member-comments-saa-statement-on-diversity-equity-and-inclusion">call for comments</a> on the SAA Statement on Diversity and Inclusion. As noted in the announcement, the revision includes changes to expand the statement to cover equity as well. Comments are open on the revisions until March 12, 2020, and what follows are the <a href="https://www2.archivists.org/news/2020/call-for-member-comments-saa-statement-on-diversity-equity-and-inclusion#comment-540">comments that I&rsquo;ve submitted</a>.</p> Books read, January-February 2020 https://matienzo.org/2020/books-read-jan-feb-2020/ Thu, 13 Feb 2020 19:27:53 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2020/books-read-jan-feb-2020/ <p>I&rsquo;m trying to do a better job tracking what I&rsquo;ve been reading. Here&rsquo;s a start.</p> Solidarity, logistics, and infrastructure on Prime Day https://matienzo.org/2019/solidarity-logistics-infrastructure/ Mon, 15 Jul 2019 15:00:03 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2019/solidarity-logistics-infrastructure/ <p>July 15 and 16th are &ldquo;Prime Day,&rdquo; Amazon&rsquo;s attempt to drive up sales and artificial demand around things we don&rsquo;t need at prices they&rsquo;ve convinced us that we can afford. Thanks to <a href="https://twitter.com/histoftech">Mar Hicks</a>, many of us heard that workers at a Shakopee, Minnesota fulfillment center are holding a <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-07-08/amazon-workers-plan-prime-day-strike-despite-15-an-hour-pledge">six-hour work stoppage</a> on one of the busiest days of the year. Alongside, many have called for a boycott on Amazon and its subsidiaries (Whole Foods, Goodreads, Twitch, etc.), and others have called for a general strike to protest <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/rachelsandler/2019/07/11/internal-email-amazon-faces-pressure-from-more-than-500-employees-to-cut-ties-with-palantir-for-working-with-ice/">Amazon&rsquo;s collaboration with Palantir in aiding ICE</a>. With all of this in mind, I&rsquo;ve been reflecting on what larger scale industrial actions could look like when we look at Amazon&rsquo;s simultaneous leveraging of centralization and unreliability of single resources to provide critical infrastructure for the IT sector and its own operations.</p> 2018: a year in gratitude https://matienzo.org/2019/year-in-gratitude/ Thu, 03 Jan 2019 14:30:00 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2019/year-in-gratitude/ <p>This year was largely complicated and often felt like a massive garbage fire to myself and my crew. I didn&rsquo;t accomplish a number of my goals and was <a href="https://matienzo.org/2018/iterative-intentions/">inconsistent about others</a>, so recapping awesome things I did doesn&rsquo;t feel appropriate and also happens to be a soft reminder of either failure or things not going as planned. I also tend to hate &ldquo;best of the year&rdquo; lists but I find them helpful to remember about where I found joy or the ability to connect to something outside of myself. I suppose this is an attempt to reconcile those things, or perhaps more in line with the end of year spirit, a way to articulate gratitude to the people and things around me that impacted me.</p> When basil has gone to seed: contemplative pesto https://matienzo.org/2018/when-basil-has-gone-to-seed/ Fri, 21 Sep 2018 18:09:57 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2018/when-basil-has-gone-to-seed/ <p>We are growing three kinds of basil in our garden: &ldquo;regular&rdquo; basil, purple basil, and Magic Mountain basil. The regular basil and Magic Mountain basil have been thriving quite a bit; the purple basil, less so, as it is growing at the base of the regular basil plant. But the other two, my goodness. The regular old basil was going to seed, though, much to the chagrin of my partner. I&rsquo;d promised for weeks on end to do something with all that basil, as the stems grew woodier, and as the flowers turned from brilliant white to the brown of kraft paper. Meanwhile, the Magic Mountain basil also grew tall and bushy, went to flower, but only because that&rsquo;s what it&rsquo;s supposed to do.</p> Evidence of Them: Digitization, Preservation, and Labor https://matienzo.org/2018/evidence-of-them-digitization-preservation-and-labor/ Fri, 14 Sep 2018 20:44:47 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2018/evidence-of-them-digitization-preservation-and-labor/ <p><em>This is a lightly edited version of the presentation I gave as part of as a part of <a href="https://archives2018.sched.com/event/ESmV/507-pop-up-digitization-isnot-preservation-room-change">Session 507: Digitization IS/NOT Preservation</a> at the 2018 Society of American Archivists Annual Meeting. The session was overall pure fire, with thoughtful, funny, provocative, and challenging presentations by Julia Kim, Frances Harrell, Tre Berney, Andrew Robb, Snowden Becker, Fletcher Durant, Siobhan Hagan, and Sarah Werner. My heart goes out to all of them. All of the images used in the presentation were adapted from <a href="https://theartofgooglebooks.tumblr.com">The Art of Google Books</a>.</em></p> What one says and does not say: vulnerability, leadership, and professional trajectories https://matienzo.org/2018/what-one-says-and-does-not-say/ Thu, 19 Jul 2018 09:05:55 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2018/what-one-says-and-does-not-say/ An extended reflection on professional trajectories, leadership, vulnerability, community, and finding my voice, written as part of my participation in the IT Leadership Program. Beyond hearing (one another): radical empathy in archives-as-workplace https://matienzo.org/2018/beyond-hearing-one-another/ Sun, 10 Jun 2018 08:20:08 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2018/beyond-hearing-one-another/ <p>I am writing this amidst being crammed into a seat flying back from New York City, after a few days of intensive meetings. Between a number of good and less ideal things, my mind has felt really unsettled lately, and I&rsquo;m working through some professional malaise, and feeling a bit rudderless. In an attempt to give myself something be myself optimistic about and to set some direction, I reread <span class="h-cite"><a href="http://www.michellecaswell.org/">Michelle Caswell</a> and <a href="https://marikacifor.com/">Marika Cifor</a>&rsquo;s <time class="dt-published">2016</time> <em>Archivaria</em> article <a href="https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0mb9568h">&ldquo;From Human Rights to Feminist Ethics: Radical Empathy in Archives&rdquo;</a>.</span> Part of their analysis outlines four affective shifts in archival relationships based on radical empathy - those between 1) archivist and records creator, 2) archivist and records subject, 3) archivist and user, and 4) archivist and larger community. Given a long list of topics on my mind (precarity, developing inclusive workplaces and cultures, my own uncertain pathway), it felt like there was plenty of space to identify other shifts.</p> Sending WebSub notifications from static sites using Netlify functions https://matienzo.org/2018/websub-static/ Tue, 13 Feb 2018 16:33:46 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2018/websub-static/ <p>As part of my <a href="https://matienzo.org/2018/iterative-intentions/">iterative intentions for 2018</a>, I started a project to rebuild and simplify my website. I&rsquo;ve used Jekyll for quite some time (either by itself or with Octopress), and as part of the latest iteration of the site, I&rsquo;ve been working to align the site more with <a href="https://indieweb.org/">Indieweb</a> principles, and to smooth the deployment path for my site by hosting it on <a href="https://netlify.com/">Netlify</a>.</p> <p>One challenge with Jekyll and other static site generators is that &ldquo;dynamic-ish&rdquo; functionality, including sending notifications through protocols like <a href="https://websub.rocks/">WebSub</a>. The trouble is knowing where these actions fit into the build process for your site: you don&rsquo;t want to send the notifications before your site gets built, or pushed to the <abbr title="content delivery network">CDN</abbr> hosting your site. Recently, Netlify announced a private beta for its new <a href="https://functions-beta--www.netlify.com/docs/lambda-functions/">Netlify Functions</a> service, which provides lambda-style functions deployed as part of your site deployment. One of the neat features that exists as of the beta is the ability to <a href="https://functions-beta--www.netlify.com/docs/lambda-functions/#event-triggered-functions">trigger the functions via Netlify events</a>, like when your site successfully deploys.</p> Notes on ITLP Workshop 1 readings https://matienzo.org/2018/itlp-readings/ Sat, 06 Jan 2018 21:43:03 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2018/itlp-readings/ <p>I completed my reading and viewing assignments for my cohort&rsquo;s <span class="h-event"><strong>IT Leadership Program Workshop 1</strong> (<time class="dt-start" datetime="2017-01-09">January 9</time>-<time class="dt-start" datetime="2017-01-11">January 11</time> at <span class="p-location">UC Berkeley</span>.) This is a brief set of notes for my own use about how all of them tie together.</p> Iterative Intentions for 2018 https://matienzo.org/2018/iterative-intentions/ Mon, 01 Jan 2018 11:43:12 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2018/iterative-intentions/ While I enjoy seeing what my friends are setting their intentions towards in the new year, I don&rsquo;t really believe in new year&rsquo;s resolutions for myself. They tend to wear on me heavily whenever I&rsquo;ve proclaimed a long list of things I&rsquo;m hoping to get better at. Instead, this year, I&rsquo;m starting with a very short list. My hope is that I can commit to a small number of good habits at a time, which I can then build on iteratively. I want to have the windows of reinforcement stay small at first (maybe a week or two), and once I feel satisfied about whichever habits I&rsquo;ve committed to, I can add more. I&rsquo;m starting with three items: Rebuilding this website: simplified tooling; new layout/style; using and publishing more structured data, and a partial implementation of a stack following Indieweb and Solid principles. The last part is intentionally slippery, but I mostly really care about sending and receiving notifications at this point. A Push-to-Talk Conference Call Foot Pedal https://matienzo.org/2016/push-talk-conference-call-foot-pedal/ Sun, 04 Sep 2016 14:16:50 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2016/push-talk-conference-call-foot-pedal/ <p>My current position at <a href="https://dp.la/">DPLA</a>, especially since we are remote-first organization, requires me to be on lots of conference calls, both video and audio. While I&rsquo;ve learned the value of staying muted while I&rsquo;m not talking, there are a couple of things that make this challenging. First, I usually need the window for the call to have focus to unmute myself by the platform&rsquo;s designated keystroke. Forget that working well if you need to bring something up in another window, or switch to another application. Secondly, while we have our own preferred platform internally (Google Hangouts), I have to use countless others, too; each of those platforms has its own separate keystroke to mute.</p> <p>This all leads to a less than ideal situation, and naturally, I figured there must be a better way.</p> How We Work: The DPLA Technology Team Core Values https://matienzo.org/2016/dpla-tech-team-core-values/ Tue, 05 Jul 2016 00:00:00 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2016/dpla-tech-team-core-values/ <p>One of the most important aspects of the work of the <a href="https://digitalpubliclibraryofamerica.atlassian.net/wiki/display/TECH/">DPLA Technology Team</a> is ensuring that we maintain a common frame of reference for all of our efforts. This is situated in multiple aspects - in terms of our shared technical knowledge, the overall <a href="https://dp.la/info/about/strategic-plan/">DPLA strategic plan</a>, and more. Overall, however, the guiding principles for our work are best understood through the core values that inform how we work together within our team, as well as with our colleagues at DPLA and across the network of our stakeholders and collaborators. These values are not only designed to be aspirational; instead, they also inform practical aspects of our day to day work, allowing us to work together effectively through their articulation of cultural norms and expectations. In addition, our values encourage us to be intentional about our work, even when faced with challenges from deadlines, staff capacity, and other external pressures.</p> Open, Free, and Secure to All: DPLA Launches Full Support for HTTPS https://matienzo.org/2016/dpla-launches-full-support-for-https/ Wed, 01 Jun 2016 00:00:00 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2016/dpla-launches-full-support-for-https/ <p>DPLA is pleased to announce that the entirety of our website, including our portal, exhibitions, Primary Source Sets, and our API, are now accessible using HTTPS by default. DPLA <a href="https://dp.la/info/terms/privacy/">takes user privacy seriously</a>, and the infrastructural changes that we have made to support HTTPS allows us to extend this dedication further and become signatories of <a href="https://libraryfreedomproject.org/ourwork/digitalprivacypledge/">the Library Digital Privacy Pledge of 2015-2016</a>, developed by our colleagues at the <a href="https://libraryfreedomproject.org/">Library Freedom Project</a>.</p> DPLA and the International Image Interoperability Framework https://matienzo.org/2016/dpla-and-iiif/ Tue, 10 May 2016 00:00:00 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2016/dpla-and-iiif/ <p>DPLA, along with representatives of a number of institutions including Stanford University, the Yale Center for British Art, the Bibliothèque nationale de France, and more, is presenting at <a href="http://iiif.io/event/2016/newyork/">Access to the World’s Images</a>, a series of events related to the <a href="http://iiif.io/">International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF)</a> in New York City, hosted by the Museum of Modern Art and the New York Academy of Medicine. The events will showcase how institutions are leveraging IIIF to reduce total cost and time to deploy image delivery solutions, while simultaneously improving end user experience with a new host of rich and dynamic features, and promote collaboration within the IIIF community through facilitated conversations and working group meetings.</p> Ever to Excel: Towards an Apologetics of the Spreadsheet https://matienzo.org/2016/ever-to-excel-towards-an-apologetics-of-the-spreadsheet/ Sat, 12 Mar 2016 16:54:32 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2016/ever-to-excel-towards-an-apologetics-of-the-spreadsheet/ <p><em>This is the written version of my presentation from <a href="http://2016.code4lib.org/">Code4lib 2016</a> in Philadelphia, on March 8, 2016. My presentation was part of a panel with my friends <a href="http://christinaharlow.com/">Christina Harlow</a>, <a href="http://lawlesst.github.io/">Ted Lawless</a>, and <a href="http://flyingzumwalt.com/">Matt Zumwalt</a>, after which we had some discussion moderated by <a href="http://thisismattmiller.com/">Matt Miller</a>. My <a href="https://matienzo.org/storage/2016/2016-Mar-code4lib/">slides</a> are available, as are the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCaQ-hHJvcE">video of all talks from the panel</a>.</em></p> My Jekyll todo list https://matienzo.org/2016/jekyll-todo-list/ Tue, 16 Feb 2016 23:01:24 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2016/jekyll-todo-list/ <p>A running list of things I want to do or have done. A lot of this relates to adopting the <a href="https://indiewebcamp.com/">IndieWeb</a> ethos</p> IndieWebCamp NYC 2016 https://matienzo.org/2016/indiewebcamp-nyc-2016/ Sun, 24 Jan 2016 17:24:49 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2016/indiewebcamp-nyc-2016/ I&rsquo;m at IndieWebCamp NYC and I just added some microformats data to my site. Hurrah! Edit: And I&rsquo;ve successfully sent a Webmention by hand from the command line. Time to add that to the Jekyll build process&hellip; Developing and implementing a technical framework for interoperable rights statements https://matienzo.org/2015/developing-and-implementing-a-technical-framework-for-interoperable-rights-statements/ Wed, 20 May 2015 00:00:00 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2015/developing-and-implementing-a-technical-framework-for-interoperable-rights-statements/ <p>Within the Technical Working Group of the <a href="http://dp.la/info/2014/03/03/promoting-<p>interoperability-working-on-rights/">International Rights Statements Working Group</a>, we have been focusing our efforts on identifying a set of requirements and a technically sound and sustainable plan to implement the rights statements under development. Now that two of the Working Group’s white papers have been released, we realized it was a good time to build on the <a href="http://dp.la/info/2015/05/11/the-principles-for-establishing-international-interoperable-rights-statements/">introductory blog post</a> by our Co-Chairs, Emily Gore and Paul Keller. Accordingly, we hope this post provides a good introduction to our technical white paper, <a href="http://bit.ly/1QtmmmT"><i>Recommendations for the Technical Infrastructure for Standardized International Rights Statements</i></a>, and more generally, how our thinking has changed throughout the activities of the working group.</p> DPLAFest Attendees: Support LGBTQ Youth in Indiana! https://matienzo.org/2015/dplafest-attendees-support-lgbtq-youth-in-indiana/ Fri, 17 Apr 2015 00:00:00 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2015/dplafest-attendees-support-lgbtq-youth-in-indiana/ This is a joint blog post by DPLAFest attendees Benjamin Armintor and Christina Harlow, and DPLA staff members Mark Matienzo and Tom Johnson. After the passage of SEA 101 (the Indiana Religious Freedom Restoration Act), many scheduled attendees of DPLAFest were conflicted about its location in Indianapolis. Emily Gore, DPLA Director for Content, captured both this conflict and the opportunity the location provides when she wrote: We should want to support our hosts and the businesses in Indianapolis who are standing up against this law… At DPLAfest, we will also have visible ways to show that we are against this kind of discrimination, including enshrining our values in our Code of Conduct. We encourage you to use this as an opportunity to let your voice and your dollars speak. As DPLAFest attendees, patronizing businesses identifying themselves with Open for Service is an important start, but some of us wanted to do more. During our visit to Indianapolis, we are donating money to local charities supporting the communities and values that SEA 101 threatens. Profit & Pleasure in Goat Keeping https://matienzo.org/2015/profit-and-pleasure-in-goat-keeping/ Thu, 26 Feb 2015 00:00:00 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2015/profit-and-pleasure-in-goat-keeping/ <p>Two weeks ago, we officially announced <a href="http://dp.la/info/2015/02/11/dpla-releases-krikri-0-1-3/">the initial release of Krikri</a>, our new metadata aggregation, mapping, and enrichment toolkit.</p> <p>In light of its importance, we would like to take a moment for a more informal introduction to the newest members of DPLA’s herd. Krikri and Heiðrún (a.k.a. Heidrun; <a href="http://www.forvo.com/word/hei%C3%B0r%C3%BAn/">pronounced like <i>hey-droon</i></a>) are key to many of DPLA’s plans and serve as a critical piece of infrastructure for DPLA.</p> <p>They are also names for, or types, of goats.</p> What DPLA and DLF Can Learn from Code4lib https://matienzo.org/2015/what-dpla-and-dlf-can-learn-from-code4lib/ Wed, 18 Feb 2015 00:00:00 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2015/what-dpla-and-dlf-can-learn-from-code4lib/ <p><em>This post has been crossposted to the <a href="http://www.diglib.org/archives/7938">Digital Library Federation blog</a>.</em></p> <p><a href="http://code4lib.org/conference/2015">Code4lib 2015</a> was held last week from February 9-12, 2015 in Portland, Oregon. The Code4lib conferences have grown in the last ten years, both in terms of size and scope of topics. This growth is particularly impressive when you consider that much of the work of organizing the conference falls upon a circulating group of volunteers, with additional organizational support from organizations like the <a href="http://www.diglib.org/">Digital Library Federation</a>. It has become clear to me that the Code4lib community is interested in ensuring that it can develop and support compelling and useful conferences for everyone who chooses to participate.</p> A Helping Hand: Free Software and the DPLA https://matienzo.org/2014/a-helping-hand-free-software-and-the-dpla/ Mon, 24 Feb 2014 00:00:00 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2014/a-helping-hand-free-software-and-the-dpla/ <p>As you probably know, DPLA is committed to making cultural heritage materials held in America's libraries, archives, and museums freely available to all, and we provide <a href="http://dp.la/info/developers/">maximally open data</a> to encourage transformative uses of those materials by developers. In addition, DPLA is also proud to distribute the software we produce to support our mission to the wider community. The Greatest Adventure https://matienzo.org/2013/the-greatest-adventure/ Wed, 20 Nov 2013 13:00:00 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2013/the-greatest-adventure/ With apologies to Rankin/Bass and Glenn Yarbrough, the greatest adventure is what lies ahead. After almost four great years working for Manuscripts and Archives at the Yale University Library and two and a half rewarding years as the Technical Architect on ArchivesSpace, I am excited to announce that I&#8217;ve accepted a position as the Director of Technology for the Digital Public Library of America, a small but well-supported non-profit dedicated to free and open access to cultural heritage materials. More information about my new position can be found in the press release. While I am sad to be leaving a great institution and a great project, both with fantastic colleagues, I look forward to contributing my time, energy and expertise to the addressing the huge challenges and encouraging the exciting possibilities of DPLA. If you&#8217;d like to join me in this adventure, I&#8217;m also happy to announce that DPLA will be hiring two Technology Specialists very soon, so if you&#8217;re interested or have any questions, please don&#8217;t hesitate to contact me! Computer Anonymous New York https://matienzo.org/2013/computer-anonymous-nyc/ Tue, 22 Oct 2013 00:00:00 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2013/computer-anonymous-nyc/ In my previous post, I wrote about wanting to address issues of privilege in the space between archives and technology. As a first step, I mentioned organizing a New York group of Computer Anonymous. I&rsquo;m pleased to announce that we&rsquo;ve scheduled our first meeting: Tuesday, October 29, 2013, 6:30 PM - ?, at Pacific Standard, 82 Fourth Avenue, Brooklyn, NY We have about seven people who have indicated that they&rsquo;re planning on attending. If you&rsquo;re interested, please comment here, contact me via Twitter or Email, or leave a comment on this Github issue. I believe that a Computer Anonymous group in New York is a great chance to start having both tough and positive conversations. I realize that it won&rsquo;t solve everything, and that our initial location may not be ideal, but I&rsquo;m certainly amenable to other ideas and doing better outreach. I want to see both the technology and archives professions become more diverse, more equitable, and healther communities that in which I can encourage others to join. Cha(lle)nging the dynamics of privilege in archives and technology https://matienzo.org/2013/privilege-archives-technology/ Tue, 15 Oct 2013 00:00:00 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2013/privilege-archives-technology/ Like others, I found the presidential address of Jackie Dooley last August&rsquo;s Society of American Archivists annual meeting to be problematic. At the time, I had little more to add than what was articulated by others, such as Sam Winn&rsquo;s post on professional privilege. As the dust settles, though I&rsquo;ve gotten a lot more clarity. The Society of American Archivists is not really an easy place to examine our privilege or our struggle. There are many ways in which we desperately need to examine privilege within the context of our profession as well as the overall organization, but for now, I&rsquo;m going to limit this post to addressing an issue that has been racing through my head since the SAA annual meeting, which concern privilege and the intersection of archives and technology, the area in which I work. I am nothing if not enthusiastic about open culture and open source software and their transformative potential. I release my own work (meaning software, presentations, writing, etc. Collaboration Before Preservation: Recovering Born Digital Records in the Stephen Gendin Papers https://matienzo.org/2013/collaboration-before-preservation-recovering-born-digital-records-in-the-stephen-gendin-papers/ Thu, 26 Sep 2013 00:00:00 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2013/collaboration-before-preservation-recovering-born-digital-records-in-the-stephen-gendin-papers/ <p>For some, the phrase &ldquo;born digital resources&rdquo; may be unfamiliar, but Ricky Erway, Senior Program Officer at OCLC Research wrote a brief essay entitled <a href="http://www.oclc.org/content/dam/research/activities/hiddencollections/borndigital.pdf?urlm=161291">Defining &ldquo;Born Digital&rdquo;</a>, which provides a handy, working definition: &ldquo;items created and managed in digital form.&rdquo; Manuscripts and Archives, the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, and Yale University Library overall have had a notable history of working with born digital resources over the past ten years.</p> Emotion, Archives, Interactive Fiction, and Linked Data https://matienzo.org/2013/emotion-archives-interactive-fiction-linked-data/ Mon, 18 Feb 2013 00:00:00 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2013/emotion-archives-interactive-fiction-linked-data/ <p>[<strong>Edit (Feb 24, 2013):</strong> Thanks to the fantastic work of <a href="http://www.tararobertson.ca">Tara Robertson</a>, the <a href="http://archive.org/details/Day4LTMark">video of my lightning talk</a> is now available!]</p> <p>I gave a lightning talk entitled <a href="https://matienzo.org/storage/2013/2013Feb-code4lib-lightning-talk">&ldquo;Wielding the Whip: Affect, Archives, and Ontological Fusion&rdquo;</a> at the <a href="http://code4lib.org/conference/2013">2013 Code4lib conference</a> in Chicago, Illinois. This lightning talk was one of the most difficult presentations I&rsquo;ve ever given for a number of reasons, including the emotional aspect of the content itself, as well as the fact that several of the ideas I was trying to articulate weren&rsquo;t fully baked. I&rsquo;ve been thinking about this for the four to six months in various capacities and with different focuses, especially as I read more interactive fiction and learn more about it (as well as about hypertext in general). This post serves as an expansion of some of the ideas in my lightning talk and as a way to further the discussion around the following question:</p> <blockquote> <p>Can we write interactive fiction and (semi-/para-)fictional hypertext that leverages linked data to create an emotional connection to the &ldquo;real world&rdquo;?</p> </blockquote> 24 Hours: The Day of Digital Archives https://matienzo.org/2011/digital-archives-day/ Fri, 07 Oct 2011 10:05:21 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2011/digital-archives-day/ Thursday, October 6 was the Day of Digital Archives, organized by friend and colleague Gretchen Gueguen at the University of Virginia. I missed the post deadline yesterday, but it's been a busy week, so I might as well walk through some of the highlights of my work related to digital archives that occurred during that 24 hours from 12 am Thursday to 12 am Friday. 12 AM: It's late, but I'm finishing the last bit of work of writing up lecture notes. This fall, I am teaching a class on digital preservation as an adjunct in the iSchool at Drexel University. The iSchool is on the quarter system, so we have only ten weeks to cover a wide variety of material. Last week the students got an introduction to the Reference Model for an Open Archival Information System, and this week's topics (on which I am writing the lecture notes) are selection and appraisal, assessment, provenance, and authenticity. Some of the sources of the week's material include a forthcoming case study from the City of Vancouver Archives, the DCC Curation Manual's chapter on appraisal and selection, sections of the CLIR publication Authenticity in a Digital Environment, and the final report of the W3C Provenance Incubator Group. How to Hack SAA https://matienzo.org/2011/how-to-hack-saa/ Sun, 21 Aug 2011 12:50:48 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2011/how-to-hack-saa/ <p>Inspired by my friend <a href="http://declan.net/">Declan Fleming</a>'s "<a href="http://wiki.code4lib.org/index.php/How_to_hack_code4lib">How to Hack Code4lib,</a>" I have been motivated to put together a guide to surviving and enjoying the Annual Meeting. It can be a seemingly scary (and potentially lonely) experience if it's your first conference, and we archivists are not always known for our extrovertedness. So, without further ado, here is my brief list of suggestions - again, some of which have been shamelessly <del>stolen</del> adapted from Declan's guide.</p> Tweeting Up at SAA2011 https://matienzo.org/2011/tweeting-up-at-saa2011/ Wed, 13 Jul 2011 10:19:21 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2011/tweeting-up-at-saa2011/ Thanks to the great work of Lance (@newmsi), Rachel Donahue (@sheepeeh), and Angelique Richardson (@RandomArchivist) last year, the first SAA Tweetup was pulled off successfully in Washington, DC. Given that this year's SAA Annual Meeting is just a few weeks away, Hillel Arnold (@helrond) and I have elected to organize one in Chicago, as well. We're holding this year's Tweetup on Thursday, August 25, starting at 9 PM, at the Clark Street Ale House, which is about a mile from the conference hotel and easily walkable and accessible by public transportation. Feel free to join us after the alumni mixers - and please join us even if you don't use Twitter. Please RSVP at http://twtvite.com/saa11tweetup; while RSVPs are not required, they will help us and the bar plan ahead. Supporting Hyatt Workers and UNITE HERE Local 1 at the 2011 Annual Meeting of SAA https://matienzo.org/2011/supporting-hyatt-workers-and-unite-here-local-1-at-the-2011-annual-meeting-of-saa/ Mon, 27 Jun 2011 16:23:47 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2011/supporting-hyatt-workers-and-unite-here-local-1-at-the-2011-annual-meeting-of-saa/ Some of us archivists have growing concerns regarding the long-standing labor dispute between UNITE HERE Local 1 and the management of the Hyatt Regency Chicago, the location of the 2011 Annual Meeting of the Society of American Archivists. Most recently, this labor dispute has led to a one-day strike of housekeepers, dishwashers, bellmen and other hotel workers on June 20, 2011. SAA has not given its membership any guidance to its membership about how to support UNITE HERE Local 1 and the Hyatt's hotel workers. Accordingly, my colleague Hillel Arnold and I have put together an website for archivists to find and share ideas. This website, Support Hyatt Workers at SAA2011: An Unofficial Resource, is now live, and provides ideas for actions that anyone can perform, plus lists of those specifically for individuals who have either chosen not to attend and for those that are attending. This site allows anyone to contribute and comment either generally on a given page or in response to particular ideas. Sumer Is Icumen In https://matienzo.org/2011/burnout/ Mon, 06 Jun 2011 23:04:21 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2011/burnout/ I have spent the last several months in a fog. Emotions tend to get the better of me whenever faced with a barrier in my work life. It's gotten increasingly difficult for me to see the forest for the trees, no matter how much I tell myself that my work is for the greater good of my unit, my institution, and archivy. Self-doubt creeps in, as does stress, frustration, depression. Positivity begins to wane, with optimism replaced by apathy and sarcasm. You stop seeing the good in things and other people, and you stop being inspired. You desperately want to get away, pull the plug, clean the slate, or otherwise just put everything to a grinding halt. You stop asking "why can't I do that?" and start asking "why should I care?" instead. I don't think this is the first time I've faced burnout, and while it certainly won't be the last, the extent to which it's affected me this time around is astounding. In Memoriam: Robert Frost, 1952-2011 https://matienzo.org/2011/in-memoriam-bob-frost/ Sun, 27 Mar 2011 08:05:04 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2011/in-memoriam-bob-frost/ I am sad to announce the passing of Robert L. "Bob" Frost (1952-2011). Bob was an associate professor at the University of Michigan School of Information, my alma mater, where he had taught since 2000. Bob had been battling cancer for over two years. Ed Vielmetti has written an obituary of Bob on his blog, including the announcement from SI Dean Jeffrey Mackie-Mason. Bob was an inspiration to many of us SI alums, and his magnetic personality, sharp wit, and joie de vivre ensured he had a bevy of his students and colleagues buzzing around him at any given time. I had the opportunity to take his class Material Culture and the Interpretation of Objects in the spring of 2004, my final semester at SI. The class was intense in a way that few of my other classes at Michigan were, and it provoked my continuing curiosity in identifying theoretical frameworks to analyze the everyday world. Bob reinforced my fascination with Wilhelm Reich and The Fugs by introducing me to Dušan Makavejev's W. WikiLeaks & the Archives & Records Profession: a Panel Discussion https://matienzo.org/2011/wikileaks-panel/ Thu, 06 Jan 2011 22:20:03 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2011/wikileaks-panel/ UPDATE: The text of my remarks can be now found online at https://matienzo.org/presentations/2011/wikileaks/. I am honored to be one of the speakers at "WikiLeaks & the Archives & Records Profession," a panel discussion organized by the Archivists Roundtable of Metropolitan New York and the Metropolitan New York City Chapter of ARMA International. The panel will be on January 25, 2011 at the Center for Jewish History. From the announcement: Do WikiLeaks and its complex, attendant issues shift our conceptualization of our roles as information professionals? How might WikiLeaks change the public's views on usage of and access to archives and records? To what extent is the most recent release of diplomatic cables a product of information mismanagement? Addressing these and many more questions, our confirmed speakers include Trudy Peterson, former Acting Archivist of the United States (1993-1995) and current representative for the Society of American Archivists on the Department of State's Historical Advisory Committee; Fred Pulzello, Solutions Architect in the Information Governance practice at MicroLink LLC; Jim Fortmuller, Manager of Systems Security at Kelley Drye & Warren LLP in Washington, DC; Mark Matienzo, Digital Archivist in Manuscripts and Archives at Yale University Library; and Derek Bambauer, Associate Professor of Law at Brooklyn Law School. What's Your Delicious Story? https://matienzo.org/2011/whats-your-delicious-story/ Tue, 04 Jan 2011 22:17:43 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2011/whats-your-delicious-story/ Update: I've added a question on Quora about this too - feel free to contribute your story there. In my last post, I talked a bit about the notion of Delicious being a platform with a myriad of uses, and I've been actively wondering about this since then. Upon further reflection, I've realized that the best way to figure this out is actually to engage and ask people directly. Accordingly, I'm asking for your help. Of course it's upsetting that Delicious is being sunsetted, but other than individual users and Archive Team, people seem to be doing very little about it. Delicious is clearly more than the bookmarks. I want to gather information about how people like you and me actually used it beyond it's obvious functionality. Did you use it to manage resources for your dissertation? Did you use it to communicate with family about a serious event or illness? How did you go beyond the boundaries of it being just " Delicious and the Preservation of "Platforms" https://matienzo.org/2010/delicious-and-the-preservation-of-platforms/ Wed, 22 Dec 2010 23:59:28 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2010/delicious-and-the-preservation-of-platforms/ Just as plenty of others have, I recoiled in horror when I heard that Delicious (née del.icio.us) was being "sunsetted". Regardless of the red flags that have been raised about its potentially imminent demise, I've still been using it on a daily basis. I've been an active user for over 6.5 years, which is longer than I can say for just about any other web platform or service. I deleted my Friendster and Myspace accounts quite a while ago; I've been on Flickr almost as long as Delicious, but the bookmarking wins out by a good four months or so. I started using Delicious in my final semester of library school, and it shows. I used it for procrastinating as well as a way to organize research materials before I had Zotero. The bulk of the bookmarks from that first day of use (February 24, 2004) were likely imports from my browser, but I quickly showed a facility for adding stuff that I saw as interesting, useful, etc. Update: Aus-Archivists Not Dead? https://matienzo.org/2010/aus-archivists-listserv-update/ Thu, 18 Nov 2010 08:50:09 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2010/aus-archivists-listserv-update/ Earlier today I'd posted about the Australian Society of Archivists' announcement about the Aus-Archivists listserv being "lost." Tim Sherratt, an Australian colleague and friend of this blog, announced this post on ArchivesLive, the Ning group created by the ASA seemingly to replace the listserv. Pat Jackson, ASA President, has already responded with an update: The ASA National Office has not lost the Aus-Archivists list-serv. We have moved from an outsourced service provider to managing our new server at the National Office. The Aus-Archivists list-serv was a bit too ancient for our spanking new server to manage. In terms of the posterity of the contents of the list-serv, the wonderful discussions and debate it fostered and engendered, they are not lost. It is our intention to post them to the ASA website where they can be perused. Further to that, it is my understanding that the Aus-Archivists list-serv is also deemed to be permanent under the ASA retention schedule. The ASA will be investigating other methods of storing the list-serv for permanent retention. Goodbye, Aus-Archivists: Listservs and the Commitment to Digital Preservation https://matienzo.org/2010/aus-archivists-listserv/ Thu, 18 Nov 2010 02:14:20 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2010/aus-archivists-listserv/ <p>[<strong>Update:</strong> Aus-Archivists might not be gone for good, as ASA intends to share the entire run of postings on its website. See <a href="https://matienzo.org/2010/aus-archivists-listserv-update/">this post</a> for details.]</p> <p>Despite my relative <a href="https://matienzo.org/2010/giving-up-on-a-and-a/">distaste for the A&amp;A list</a>, I have previously found it useful and <a href="https://matienzo.org/2007/saa-listserv/">argued for its retention</a> when it was threatened in 2007. I still agree with most of what I wrote 3.5 years ago, although I might have toned things down in retrospect. In an effort to find other e-mail discussion lists on archives that engaged my interest, I joined <a href="http://www.mailman.srv.ualberta.ca/mailman/listinfo/arcan-l">Arcan-L</a> (the Canadian archivists' listserv) and Aus-Archivists (the Australian archivists' listserv, maintained by the <a href="http://www.archivists.org.au/">Australian Society of Archivists</a>).</p> <p>Surprisingly, Aus-Archivists had been idle since around the end of October. I noticed <a href="http://twitter.com/ausarchivists/status/29524056111">this tweet</a> from the Australian Society of Archivists only in passing at the beginning of November:</p> <blockquote><p>The ASA Office would just like everyone to know that our List Serv is still currently unavailable, we apologize for any inconvenience...</p></blockquote> <p>I didn't hear anything else between then and earlier today. I should note that I'm not a member of ASA, and so I can't speak to any communication they had with their membership. However, today a message was sent out by Pat Jackson, the ASA President, to all Aus-Archivists subscribers, announcing that the listserv was lost entirely. Disco-Powered pymarc https://matienzo.org/2010/disco-powered-pymarc/ Sun, 17 Oct 2010 15:31:14 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2010/disco-powered-pymarc/ I'd been long interested in starting to develop code using some sort of MapReduce implementation for distributed computing. I have never been able to get my head around Hadoop, so I gave up with that pretty quickly. I recently discovered Disco, a MapReduce framework with an Erlang-based core. Disco also allows you to to write your worker code in Python, which was a huge plus to me. After stumbling through the tutorial, I took the word count demo and put together some basic code using pymarc that gathered tag count statistics for a bunch of MARC files. The code's still in a very early form, and arguably should carve up large files into smaller chunks to pass off to the worker processes; I've gotten around this for the time being by splitting up the files using yaz-marcdump. Once I split the files, I pushed them into a tag of DDFS, the Disco Distributed File System. This was a useful way for me to write some demo code both for using pymarc and Disco. The Future of ArchivesBlogs https://matienzo.org/2010/the-future-of-archivesblogs/ Tue, 14 Sep 2010 20:28:55 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2010/the-future-of-archivesblogs/ Every project has it's day. I've administered ArchivesBlogs for four years now. Originally, I created it to fill a void when blogging was new to the archival profession, and archivists were having to make the case for dedicating staff time to shepherding early social media projects. Four years later, things are much different; I'm less interested in Web 2.0 (professionally speaking), more archivists are blogging, and more repositories are maintaining their own blogs. Despite the changes in the archival blogosphere and repository administration, archivists still contact me occasionally and remind me of the value of ArchivesBlogs. It's also lead to some interesting debates in the past. I still think it has its place, but I don't want to be the only person shaping its future. I've also been thinking for a while that I want to get out of the aggregation business, and I believe time to put together a succession plan. The reality is that I don't have the time to rethink what ArchivesBlogs could be, or even give it the care and feeding it needs to keep running. Why I Have Given Up On the Archives and Archivists List https://matienzo.org/2010/giving-up-on-a-and-a/ Wed, 28 Jul 2010 19:44:58 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2010/giving-up-on-a-and-a/ I am certainly not the first person to chime in on this topic, and I certainly hope not to be the last. Inspired by two fantastic posts by Ben Bromley and Maureen Callahan, I have chosen to discuss the reasons why I have given up on the Archives and Archivists List. Unlike Ben and Maureen, who discuss why they choose not to post to the list, I'm also including reasons why I choose not to read or subscribe to the list anymore. For what it's worth, until yesterday, I had been on the A&amp;A List for almost nine long years. I don't think the majority of the traffic is terribly useful. This can be incredibly frustrating, especially there's a question on topic you happen to know something about. Telling someone how to perform a Google search is not an adequate response.Given the signal-to-noise ratio of the list, useful or timely messages can be easily buried. Off-topic messages seem to be the rule rather than the exception. With Little Fanfare, dLIST Goes Down https://matienzo.org/2010/dlist-downtime/ Thu, 11 Mar 2010 01:05:09 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2010/dlist-downtime/ I've been meaning to blog about this for a while. DLIST, the Digital Library of Information Science and Technology, maintained by the University of Arizona School of Information Resources and Library Science, has been down for at least three months. Any URL formerly part of DLIST gets automatically redirected to an announcement page that reads as follows: Aging hardware and conversion issues following a system crash have taken their toll on DLIST, the University of Arizona's Digitial Library of Information Science and Technology. We are currently exploring choices and alternatives both to short term recovery and long term sustainability. The resources and metadata are fully recovered, and we hope to put them back online in a new repository soon. If you or your institution would like to assist with the DLIST project, please contact us at sirls@email.arizona.edu. Thanks for your support! While I feel for the difficulties they've had in maintaining it, I have to admit that it's a bit frustrating for me from the standpoint of someone who submitted material to DLIST. Code4lib 2010: Southern Hospitality https://matienzo.org/2010/code4lib-2010/ Mon, 01 Mar 2010 23:27:00 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2010/code4lib-2010/ I recently returned from a trip to Asheville, North Carolina for this year's Code4lib conference. Despite the unavoidable hiccups that some attendees experienced as they tried to head home from the conference, I believe that this year's conference was the most successful one that I happened to attend. If I'm right, I think this year had a record number of attendees, a record number of new attendees, and much tighter organization to make the new folks feel welcome. The social activities were certainly more planned and organized than last year, which was a welcome change. While I certainly didn't mind hollering out to the crowd that I would be going to see some bands or to a particular restaurant like I had in previous years, it was nice to see other folks take the lead. The newcomer dinners seemed to go pretty well; the brews cruise and barbecue excursions went smoothly; and even the game(s) of Werewolf seemed to take a life of their own. Description Peddlers and Data.gov: Two Peas In a Pod https://matienzo.org/2010/nara-and-data-dot-gov/ Thu, 28 Jan 2010 23:32:45 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2010/nara-and-data-dot-gov/ As you may have heard, the National Archives issued a press release today announcing the release of three data sets on Data.gov: The first milestone of the Open Government Directive was met on January 22 with the release of new datasets on Data.gov. Each major government agency has uploaded at least three datasets in this initial action. The National Archives released the 2007—2009 Code of Federal Regulations and two datasets from its Archival Research Catalog. This is the first time this material is available as raw data in XML format. The Archival Research Catalog, or ARC, is NARA's primary access system for archival description, representing 68% of NARA's entire holdings. This breaks down to the following: 2,720,765 cubic feet 520 record groups 2,365 collections 102,598 series 3,265,988 file units 292,887 items In addition, there are 6,354,765,793 logical data records and 465,050 artifacts described in ARC. NARA's decision to share this data is a breakthrough for archives and people who love data. Onward And Upward... https://matienzo.org/2009/yet-another-job-change/ Tue, 22 Dec 2009 02:26:48 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2009/yet-another-job-change/ It's fitting that this the hundredth (gosh, only the hundredth?) post, because I have rather important news. First, my fellow developers/producers/UX designers at The New York Public Library and I have been dealing with every minute detail on the upcoming, Drupal-based replacement to the NYPL website. You can see a live preview at http://new.nypl.org/. I can proudly say that this project has helped both me personally and NYPL overall play nice in the open source world - we've been actively contributing code, reporting bugs, and sending patches to the Drupal project. Also, our site search is based on Solr, which always bears mention. In addition, after a working tirelessly as a developer at NYPL for the last year and a half, I have decided to move onward and upward. I am leaving the cozy environs of the still-recently renovated office space I share with my spectacular coworkers. It was not an easy decision by far, but it feels like the best one overall. Clifford Lynch Clarifies Position on Open Source ILSes https://matienzo.org/2009/clifford-lynch-response-to-leaked-sirsidynix-report/ Fri, 30 Oct 2009 10:50:03 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2009/clifford-lynch-response-to-leaked-sirsidynix-report/ Clifford Lynch, Executive Director of the Coalition for Networked Information, has responded to the leaked SirsiDynix report that spreads horrific untruths about open source. Marshall Breeding posted Lynch's response on GuidePosts. In particular, Lynch notes the following: I don't think that I ever wrote those words down in an article; I suppose I may have said something to that effect in an interview or q&amp;a in some conference program like ALA Top Tech, though perhaps no quite as strongly as it's expressed here. I have without question spoken out about my concerns regarding investment in open source ILS development in the last few years. IF I did say this, it feels like it's used a little out of context -- or maybe the better characterization is over-simplistically -- in the report. ... I think there are still major problems -- many of which we really don't know how to solve effectively, and which call for sustained and extensive research and development -- in various areas where ILS get involved in information discovery and the support of research and teaching. SirsiDynix Report Leaked, Spreading Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt about Open Source https://matienzo.org/2009/leaked-sirsidynix-report/ Thu, 29 Oct 2009 21:46:23 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2009/leaked-sirsidynix-report/ Thanks to Twitter, I discovered that Wikileaks has posted a report written by SirsiDynix Vice President for Innovation StephenAbram which spreads a fantastic amount of fear, uncertainty and doubt about both open source software in general and, more specifically, the suitability of open source integrated library systems. As the summary provided by Wikileaks states, This document was released only to a select number of existing customers of the company SirsiDynix, a proprietary library automation software vendor. It has not been released more broadly specifically because of the misinformation about open source software and possible libel per se against certain competitors contained therein ... The source states that the document should be leaked so that everyone can see to what extent SirsiDynix will attempt to spread falsehoods and smear open source and the proponents of open source. In addition, as you may have heard, the Queens Library is suing SirsiDynix for breach of contract; for what it's worth, the initial conference is scheduled for next Monday, November 2, 2009. pybhl: Accessing the Biodiversity Heritage Library's Data Using OpenURL and Python https://matienzo.org/2009/biodiversity-heritage-library-python-module/ Mon, 19 Oct 2009 23:24:08 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2009/biodiversity-heritage-library-python-module/ Via Twitter, I heard about the Biodiversity Heritage Library's relatively new OpenURL Resolver, announced in their blog about a month ago. More specifically, I head about Matt Yoder's new Ruby library, rubyBHL, which exploits the BHL OpenURL Resolver to provide metadata about items in their holdings and does some additional screenscraping to return things like links to the OCRed version of the text. In typical fashion, I've ported Matt's library to Python, and have released my code. pybhl is available from my site, PyPI, and Github. Use should be fairly straightforward, as seen below: import pybhl import pprint b = pybhl.BHLOpenURLRequest(genre='book', aulast='smith', aufirst='john', date='1900', spage='5', volume='4') r = b.get_response() len(r.data['citations']) 3 pprint.pprint(r.data['citations'][1]) {u'ATitle': u'', u'Authors': [u'Smith, John Donnell,'], u'Date': u'1895', u'EPage': u'', u'Edition': u'', u'Genre': u'Journal', u'Isbn': u'', u'Issn': u'', u'ItemUrl': u'http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/15284', u'Language': u'Latin', u'Lccn': u'', u'Oclc': u'10330096', u'Pages': u'', u'PublicationFrequency': u'', u'PublisherName': u'H.N. Patterson,', u'PublisherPlace': u'Oquawkae [Ill.] :', u'SPage': u'Page 5', u'STitle': u'', u'Subjects': [u'Central America', u'Guatemala', u'Plants', u''], u'Title': u'Enumeratio plantarum Guatemalensium imprimis a H. Access and Description Reconsidered https://matienzo.org/2009/access-and-description-reconsidered/ Fri, 16 Oct 2009 00:03:54 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2009/access-and-description-reconsidered/ What exactly is archival access, and how does archival description make it possible? I feel like that in some form or another I've been struggling with this question throughout my career. Recently, this blog post from The Top Shelf, the blog of the University of Texas at San Antonio Archives and Special Collections Department, came across my radar, wherein they write (emphasis in original): UTSA Archives and Special Collections is among the growing number of archives to create an online presence for every one of its collections. ... We were able to utilize inventories generated by former and current collection assistants to create guides to the collection with folder-level and box-level descriptions. The project resulted in access to more than 130 collections and 2000 linear feet of materials. What defines that accessibility? I certainly don't intend to be a negative Nancy about this - adding finding aids and other descriptive metadata about collections is obviously useful. But how has it necessarily increased access to the materials themselves? AIP Receives NHPRC Funding To Digitize Samuel Goudsmit Papers https://matienzo.org/2009/aip-goudsmit-grant/ Mon, 28 Sep 2009 08:54:08 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2009/aip-goudsmit-grant/ I'm happy to pass on the news that my former employer, the Niels Bohr Library & Archives of the American Institute of Physics, has received funding from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission to digitize the entirety of the Samuel Goudsmit papers. From the announcement on the Center for History of Physics/Niels Bohr Library & Archives Facebook page: Goudsmit (1902—1978) was a Dutch-educated physicist who spent his career in the US and was involved at the cutting edge of physics for over 50 years. He was an important player in the development of quantum mechanics in the 1920s and 1930s; he then served as scientific head of the Alsos Mission during World War II, which assessed the progress of the German atomic bomb project. Goudsmit became a senior scientist at Brookhaven National Laboratory and editor-in-chief of the American Physical Society. The papers consist of an estimated 66,000 documents, which include correspondence, research notebooks, lectures, reports, and captured German war documents; the collection is the most used in the library. A Gentle Reminder https://matienzo.org/2009/a-gentle-reminder/ Tue, 08 Sep 2009 20:49:48 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2009/a-gentle-reminder/ On the eve of teaching my first class of my course (LIS901-08, or, Building Digital Libraries: Infrastructural and Social Aspects) at LIU's Palmer School of Information and Library Science, I'd like to remind you of the following. The syllabus is available on online, if you're curious. Privacy, Censorship, and Good Records Management: Brooklyn Public Library in the Crosshairs https://matienzo.org/2009/bpl-in-nytimes/ Wed, 19 Aug 2009 22:53:13 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2009/bpl-in-nytimes/ Over at librarian.net, Jessamyn West has a brief write up about a post on the New York Times' City Room blog about placing access restrictions on offensive material (in this case, one of Hergé's early Tintin books at the Brooklyn Public Library). More interestingly, she notes, is that the Times was given access and accordingly republished challenges from BPL patrons and other community members. Quite astutely, Jessamyn recognizes that the patrons' addresses are removed but their names and City/State information are published. If your name is, for example, [name redacted], redacting your address doesn't really protect your anonymity. I'm curious what the balance is between patron privacy and making municipal records available. It's a good question that doesn't have an incredibly straightforward answer. My first concern was about whether BPL had kept the challenge correspondence beyond the mandated dates in the New York State records schedules. After doing some digging, on the New York State Archives' website, I came across Schedule MI-1 (" Everything is Bigger in Texas, Including My Talks on The Semantic Web https://matienzo.org/2009/pre-saa2009/ Thu, 06 Aug 2009 07:31:01 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2009/pre-saa2009/ I'll be at the Society of American Archivists Annual Meeting next week in Austin, Texas. It looks to be a jam-packed week for me, with a full-day Standards Committee/TSDS meeting on Tuesday, followed by THATCamp Austin in the evening, an (expanded version of my) presentation on Linked Data and Archival Description during the EAD Roundtable on Wednesday, and Thursday's session (number 101): "Building, Managing, and Participating in Online Communities: Avoiding Culture Shock Online" (with Jeanne Kramer-Smyth, Deborah Wythe, and Camille Cloutier). And to think I haven't even considered which other sessions I'm going to! Anyhow, I hope to see you there, and please make either or both of my presentations if you can. Must Contextual Description Be Bound To Records Description? https://matienzo.org/2009/must-contextual-description-be-bound-to-records-description/ Thu, 30 Jul 2009 21:05:08 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2009/must-contextual-description-be-bound-to-records-description/ I've been struggling with the fact that (American) archival practice seems to bind contextual description (i.e., description of records creators) to records description. Much of these thoughts have been stirring in my head as a result of my class at Rare Book School. If we take a relatively hardline approach, e.g. the kind suggested by Chris Hurley ("contextual data should be developed independently of the perceived uses to which it will be put", 1, see also 2), it makes total sense to separate them entirely. In fact, it starts making me mad that the &lt;bioghist&gt; tag exists at all in EAD. Contextual description requires that it be written from a standpoint relative to that of the creator it describes. I guess what I keep getting hung up on is if there could be a relevant case that really merits this direct intellectual binding. I therefore appeal to you, humble readers, to provide me with your counsel. Do you think there are any such cases, and if so, why? Seeking Nominations for Co-Chair, RLG Programs Roundtable https://matienzo.org/2009/rlg-programs-roundtable-cochair-nominations/ Wed, 29 Jul 2009 19:28:29 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2009/rlg-programs-roundtable-cochair-nominations/ Apologies for any duplication - we're just trying to get the word out! As co-chairs of the RLG Programs Roundtable of the Society of American Archivists, we're seeking nominees to co-chair of the Roundtable for 2009-2011. If you'd like to nominate yourself or someone else, please email Mark Matienzo, Co-Chair, at mark at matienzo.org. Please submit all nominations no later than 5 PM Eastern Time on Friday, August 7. Serving in a leadership position for a Section or Roundtable is a great way to learn about SAA and its governance, contribute to new directions for the Society, and work with other archivists on interesting projects. It is also a great way to serve the Society! Your RLG Roundtable Co-Chairs, Thomas G. Knoles Marcus A. McCorison Librarian American Antiquarian Society Mark Matienzo Applications Developer, Digital Experience Group The New York Public Library The Archival, The Irreconcilable, and The Unwebbable: Three Horsemen and/or Stooges https://matienzo.org/2009/the-archival-the-irreconcilable-and-the-unwebbable/ Wed, 22 Jul 2009 22:55:30 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2009/the-archival-the-irreconcilable-and-the-unwebbable/ This week in Charlottesville has been a whirlwind exploration of standards and implementation strategies thus far during my class, Designing Archival Description Systems, at Rare Book School. My classmates and I have been under the esteemed tutelage of Daniel Pitti, who has served as the technical architect for both EAD and EAC. Interestingly, there's been a whole lot of talk about linking data, linked data, and Linked Data, date normalization, and print versus online presentation, among other things. In addition, a few things have floated past on my radar screen this week that have seemed particularly pertinent to the class. The first of these was a post by Stefano Mazzocchi of Metaweb, "On Data Reconciliation Strategies and Their Impact on the Web of Data". In Stefano's post, he wrote about the problem of a priori data reconciliation vs. a posteriori; in other words, whether you iron out the kinks, apply properties like owl:sameAs, etc., on the way in or on the way out. "Summer Camp for Archivists" Sounds So Much Better https://matienzo.org/2009/summer-camp-for-archivists-sounds-so-much-better/ Sun, 19 Jul 2009 17:03:17 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2009/summer-camp-for-archivists-sounds-so-much-better/ Crossposted to NYPL Labs. I'm staying with colleagues and good friends during my week-long stint in Charlottesville, Virginia for Rare Book School. If you're here - particularly if you're in my class (Daniel Pitti's Designing Archival Description Systems) - let me know. I'm looking forward to a heady week dealing with descriptive standards, knowledge representation, and as always, doing my best to sell the archives world on Linked Data. Notes and thoughts will follow, as always, on here. "Using the OCLC WorldCat APIs" now available in Python Magazine https://matienzo.org/2009/python-magazine-article-on-worldcat-apis/ Tue, 14 Jul 2009 21:04:16 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2009/python-magazine-article-on-worldcat-apis/ As of last Thursday, I have been inducted into the pantheon of published Python programmers (aye, abuse of alliteration is always acceptable). My article, "Using the OCLC WorldCat APIs," appears in the latest issue (June 2009) of Python Magazine. I'd like to thank my editor, Brandon Craig Rhodes, for helping me along in the process, not the least of which includes catching bugs that I'd overlooked. The article includes a brief history lesson about OCLC, WorldCat, and the WorldCat Affiliate APIs, a detailed introduction to worldcat, my Python module to interact with OCLC's APIs, and a brief introduction to SIMILE Exhibit, which helps generate the holdings mashup referenced earlier on my blog. Subscribers to Python Magazine have access to a copy of the code containing a functional OCLC Web Services key ("wskey") to explore the application. NYART Presentation: Archives & The Semantic Web https://matienzo.org/2009/archives-and-the-semantic-web/ Thu, 25 Jun 2009 21:42:24 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2009/archives-and-the-semantic-web/ This last Tuesday, I spoke at the Annual Meeting of the Archivists' Roundtable of Metropolitan New York, where I gave a talk on archives and the Semantic Web. The presentation went over very well, and colleagues from both the archives field and the semantic technology field were in attendance. I did my best to keep the presentation not overtly technical and cover just enough to get archivists to think about how things could be in the future. I also have to give a big hat tip to Dan Chudnov, whose recent keynote at the Texas Conference on Digital Libraries helped me organize my thoughts. Enjoy the slides, and as always, I relish any feedback from the rest of you. Drupal For Archivists: Documenting the Asian/Pacific American Community with Drupal https://matienzo.org/2009/documenting-the-asian-pacific-american-community/ Sun, 14 Jun 2009 21:28:04 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2009/documenting-the-asian-pacific-american-community/ Over the course of the last academic year, I have been part of a team working on survey project aimed at identifying and describing archival collections relating to the Asian and Pacific American community in the New York City metropolitan area. The results of the fifty-plus collections we surveyed have been posted on our Drupal-powered website, which has been an excellent fit for the needs of this project and has also enabled us to engage many of the challenges the project has presented. By way of introduction, this survey project seeks to address the underrepresentation of East Coast Asian/Pacific Americans in historical scholarship and archival repositories by working with community-based organizations and individuals to survey their records and raise awareness within the community about the importance of documenting and preserving their histories. Funded by a Documentary Heritage Project grant from METRO: Metropolitan New York Library Council, the project is a collaborative effort between the Asian/Pacific/American Institute and the Tamiment Library/Robert F. worldcat In The Wild at OCLC's WorldCat Mashathon in Amsterdam https://matienzo.org/2009/worldcat-in-the-wild-at-oclcs-worldcat-mashathon-in-amsterdam/ Fri, 22 May 2009 20:41:01 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2009/worldcat-in-the-wild-at-oclcs-worldcat-mashathon-in-amsterdam/ It's good to see other people using your code. Thanks to the OCLC Devnet Blog, I found out that Etienne Posthumus used worldcat for a demo application he built during the WorldCat Mashathon in Amsterdam last week. Even more interesting is that Etienne's application was deployed on Google App Engine. Courtesy of OCLC's Alice Sneary, there is a brief video of Etienne presenting his application to the other Mashathon attendees: Batch Reindexing for Drupal + Solr https://matienzo.org/2009/batch-reindexing-for-drupal-solr/ Thu, 14 May 2009 00:46:38 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2009/batch-reindexing-for-drupal-solr/ Crossposted to NYPL Labs. Sorry for any duplication! Hey, do you use Drupal on a site with several thousand nodes? Do you also use the Apache Solr Integration module? If you're like me, you've probably needed to reindex your site but couldn't be bothered to wait for those pesky cron runs to finish — in fact, that's what led me to file a feature request on the module to begin with. Well, fret no more, because thanks to me and Greg Kallenberg, my illustrious fellow Applications Developer at NYPL DGTL, you can finally use Drupal's Batch API to reindex your site. The module is available as an attachment from that same issue node on drupal.org. Nota bene: this is a really rough module, with code swiped pretty shamelessly from the Example Use of the Batch API page on drupal.org. It works, though, and it works well enough as we tear stuff down and build it back up over and over again. DigitalNZ and Brooklyn Museum API Modules for Python https://matienzo.org/2009/digitalnz-and-brooklyn-museum-api-python-modules/ Tue, 12 May 2009 23:45:20 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2009/digitalnz-and-brooklyn-museum-api-python-modules/ I've been busy the last few weeks, so I didn't even really announce this to begin with! I've been playing around with some of the cultural heritage APIs that are available, some of which I learned about while I was at Museums and the Web 2009. While I was away I released code for a Python module for interacting with the Brooklyn Museum Collections API. After chatting with Virginia Gow from DigitalNZ, I also got motivated to write a Python module to interact with the DigitalNZ API. The code for both is fairly unpolished, but I'm always ready for feedback! Both modules are available as Mercurial repositories linked from my Bitbucket account. There's also a small cluster of us working on a museum API wiki to begin sorting out some of these issues. Comparably speaking, the library and archives world has it somewhat easy... The Medium Is Not The Message https://matienzo.org/2009/the-medium-is-not-the-message/ Mon, 11 May 2009 12:34:17 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2009/the-medium-is-not-the-message/ "Electronic records" is a particularly awful phrase and does not even actually capture anything about the underlying records at all. As far as the term goes, it's not too far off from "machine readable records." As a profession, can we start actually thinking critically about the underlying technical issues and push for using terms that more accurately describe what it is we're dealing with? I understand it's a convenient catch-all term, but there is a large range of issues that differ with the kinds of data and systems. Drupal for Archivists: A Drupal-built Archives Reference Blog https://matienzo.org/2009/adrupal-built-archives-reference-blog/ Sat, 02 May 2009 22:30:10 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2009/adrupal-built-archives-reference-blog/ When Mark asked me to write about our use of Drupal at the Dickinson College Archives and Special Collections, the first thing I thought about was when our Archives Reference Blog was initially launched in April 2007. I couldn't believe that it has been two years already. I am pleased to report that my colleagues at Dickinson and I are enormously happy with the results of those two years. I hope others may find this brief explanation of how and why we are using Drupal as a reference management tool to be helpful and instructive. The concept for our implementation of Drupal was a simple one. I was thinking about the fact that we help researchers everyday to locate information that they want, but that what they discover among our collections or learn from them seldom gets shared, except by those who write for publication. So, what if we shared via the web, through a simple blog format, the basic questions posed by our researchers along with a simple summary of the results? Why You Should Support Linked Data https://matienzo.org/2009/why-you-should-support-linked-data/ Thu, 26 Mar 2009 15:40:46 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2009/why-you-should-support-linked-data/ If you don't, I'll make your data linkable. Coming Soon: Drupal for Archivists https://matienzo.org/2009/coming-soon-drupal-for-archivists/ Mon, 23 Mar 2009 22:09:00 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2009/coming-soon-drupal-for-archivists/ I've been fairly quiet lately as I've been busy with this and that, but I thought I'd let everyone know that I've been beginning to put together a series of posts entitled "Drupal for Archivists." Drupal, as you may or may not know, is a flexible and extensible open source content management system. There will be a general overview of some of the important concepts, but it'll focus less on the basics of getting people up and running — there are plenty of resources out there, such as the wonderful tutorials and articles available from Lullabot. Instead, I've drafted a handful of guest bloggers to discuss how and why they're using Drupal. Keep your eyes peeled! Brooklyn Museum Releases API https://matienzo.org/2009/brooklyn-museum-releases-api/ Thu, 05 Mar 2009 08:32:52 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2009/brooklyn-museum-releases-api/ The always groundbreaking Brooklyn Museum has now released an API to allow the public to interact with their collections data. I can't even tell you how happy I am about this in terms of an open data perspective. Also, this is the direction that makes the whole "detailed curation by passionate amateurs" thing possible. There are only three simple methods for accessing the data. Ideally, it would be nice to see them put their collections metadata up as linked data, but now I'm daring to dream a little. Hey, wait a minute! I think that's the perfect way to start playing around with the API. Doing some digging through the documentation, I'm seeing that all the objects and creators seem to have URIs. Take a crack at it - the registration form is ready for you. Moving worldcat to Mercurial and Bitbucket https://matienzo.org/2009/moving-worldcat-to-mercurial-and-bitbucket/ Sat, 28 Feb 2009 17:24:39 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2009/moving-worldcat-to-mercurial-and-bitbucket/ It's official - I've moved the codebase for worldcat, my Python module for working with the OCLC WorldCat APIs, to be hosted on Bitbucket, which uses the Mercurial distributed version control system. You can find the new codebase at http://bitbucket.org/anarchivist/worldcat/. Make Me A Structured Vocabulary Or I'll Make One For You https://matienzo.org/2009/structured-archival-thesauri/ Fri, 20 Feb 2009 23:12:01 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2009/structured-archival-thesauri/ The Society of American Archivists released the Thesaurus for Use in College and University Archives as an electronic publication this week. Specifically, it was issued as a series of PDF files. Is this data stored in some sort of structured format somewhere? If so, it's not available directly from the SAA site. There's no good reason why TUCUA shouldn't be converted to structured, linkable data, expressed using SKOS, the Simple Knowledge Organization System. It's not like I need another project, but I'm sure I could write some scraper to harvest the terms out of the PDF, and while I'm at it, I could write one to also harvest the Glossary of Archival Terminology. Someone, please stop me. I really don't need another project. Go FOAF Yourself https://matienzo.org/2009/go-foaf-yourself/ Thu, 19 Feb 2009 01:16:05 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2009/go-foaf-yourself/ I'm really looking forward to next week's code4lib conference in Providence, despite my utter failure to complete or implement the project on which I am presenting. In particular, I'm really looking forward to the linked data preconference. Like some of my other fellow attendees, I've hammered out a FOAF file for the preconference already so that Ed Summers' combo FOAF crawler and attendee info web app. This is what the sample output looks using my FOAF data. It's good to see we're well on our way to have an easily creatable sample type of RDF data for people to play with. At a bare minimum, you can create your FOAF data using FOAF-A-Matic and then edit it to add the assertions you need to get it to play nice with Ed's application. See you in Providence, but go FOAF yourself first. Developing Metrics for Experimental Forms of Outreach https://matienzo.org/2009/developing-metrics-for-experimental-forms-of-outreach/ Mon, 16 Feb 2009 23:28:03 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2009/developing-metrics-for-experimental-forms-of-outreach/ ArchivesNext recently inquired about how archivists measure success of 2.0 initiatives. It's hard to determine some 2.0-ish initiatives will really impact statistics when you don't really define what the results you're trying to see. I'd like to open the question further — how do we begin developing metrics for things that sit on the cusp between forms of outreach? Furthermore, I'm curious to see where this information is captured — do archivists wait until the end to gather survey data, or if they working towards something like we at NYPL Labs are doing with Infomaki, our new usability tool developed by Michael Lascarides, our user analyst. dEAD Reckoning #2: Mixing/Matching With Namespaces and Application Profiles https://matienzo.org/2009/dead-reckoning-2/ Sun, 15 Feb 2009 14:38:09 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2009/dead-reckoning-2/ So, it's time for another rant about my issues with EAD. This one is a pretty straightforward and short one, and comes down to the issue that I should essentially be able to mix and match metadata schemas. This is not a new idea, and I'm tired of the archives community treating it like it is one. Application profiles, as they are called, allow us to define a structured way to combine elements from different schemas, prevent addition of new and arbitrary elements, and tighten existing standards for particular use cases. However, to a certain extent, the EAD community has accepted the concept of combining XML namespaces but on a very limited level. The creation of the EAD 2002 Schema allows EAD data to be embedded into other XML documents, such as METS. However, I can't do it the other way around; for example, I can't work a MODS or MARCXML record into a finding aid. Why not? You're All Sheep https://matienzo.org/2009/youre-all-sheep/ Thu, 05 Feb 2009 00:16:54 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2009/youre-all-sheep/ Made by Twittersheep, a new project made (in part) by my acquaintance Ted Roden, a creative technologist for New York Times Research & Development. A Bird's Eye View of Archival Collections https://matienzo.org/2009/a-birds-eye-view-of-archival-collections/ Wed, 21 Jan 2009 01:11:12 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2009/a-birds-eye-view-of-archival-collections/ Mitchell Whitelaw is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Design and Creative Practice at the University of Canberra and the 2008 winner of the National Archives of Australia's Ian Maclean Award. According to the NAA's site, the Ian Maclean Award commemorates archivist Ian Maclean, and is awarded to individuals interested in conducting research that will benefit the archival and historical profession in Australia and promote the important contribution that archives make to society. Dr. Whitelaw has been keeping the world up to date on his work using his blog, The Visible Archive. His work fits well with my colleague Jeanne Kramer-Smyth's archival data visualization project, ArchivesZ, as well as the multidimensional visualization projects underway at the Humanities Advanced Technology & Information Institute at the University of Glasgow. However, his project fascinates me for a few specific reasons. First of all, the scale of the datasets he's working with are astronomically larger than those that any other archival visualization project has tried to tackle so far. API Fun: Visualizing Holdings Locations https://matienzo.org/2009/api-fun-visualizing-holdings-locations/ Sun, 18 Jan 2009 22:55:32 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2009/api-fun-visualizing-holdings-locations/ In my previous post, I included a screenshot of a prototype, but glossed over what it actually does. Given an OCLC record number and a ZIP code, it plots the locations of the nearest holdings of that item on a Google Map. Pulled off in Python (as all good mashups should be), along with SIMILE Exhibit, it uses the following modules: geopy simplejson web.py and, of course, worldcat. If you want to try it out, head on over here. The curent of the code will soon be able as part of the examples directory in the distribution for worldcat, which can be found in my Subversion repository. This Is All I'm Going To Say On This Here Blogsite Concerning The Brouhaha About The Policy for Use and Transfer of WorldCat Records Because I Have Other, More Interesting And More Complex Problems To Solve (And So Do You) https://matienzo.org/2009/this-is-all-im-going-to-say-on-this-here-blogsite-concerning-the-brouhaha-about-the-policy-for-use-and-transfer-of-worldcat-records-because-i-have-other-more-interesting-and-more-complex-problems-t/ Sat, 17 Jan 2009 03:45:04 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2009/this-is-all-im-going-to-say-on-this-here-blogsite-concerning-the-brouhaha-about-the-policy-for-use-and-transfer-of-worldcat-records-because-i-have-other-more-interesting-and-more-complex-problems-t/ The moderated discussion hosted and sponsored by Nylink went pretty well. Also, I don't need the records to have fun with the data "” I just need robust APIs. (In fact, as I said today, I'd prefer not to have to deal with the MARC records directly.) Robust APIs would help making prototypes like this one I hacked together in a few hours into a real, usable service. Lightening the load: Drupal and Python https://matienzo.org/2009/lightening-the-load-drupal-and-python/ Thu, 08 Jan 2009 01:01:12 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2009/lightening-the-load-drupal-and-python/ Man, if this isn't a "you got your peanut butter in my chocolate thing" or what! As I wrote over on the NYPL Labs blog, we've been up to our necks in Drupal at MPOW, and I've found that one of the great advantages of using it is rapid prototyping without having to write a whole lot of code. Again, that's how I feel about Python, too, but you knew that already. Once you've got a prototype built, how do you start piping stuff into it? In Drupal 6, a lot of the contrib modules to do this need work - most notably, I'm thinking about node_import, which as of yet still has no (official) CCK support for Drupal 6 and CCK 2. In addition, you could be stuck with having to write PHP code for the heavy lifting, but where's the joy in that? Well, it so happens that the glue becomes the solvent in this slow, slow dance. dEAD Reckoning #1: A FaTHEADed Failure For Faceted Terms and Headings in EAD https://matienzo.org/2008/dead-reckoning/ Wed, 31 Dec 2008 01:56:32 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2008/dead-reckoning/ A while back, I wrote a Bad MARC Rant, and I considered titling this a Bad Metadata Rant. However, as the kids say, I got mad beef with a little metadata standard called Encoded Archival Description. Accordingly, I figured I should begin a new series of posts discussing some of these issues that I have with something that is, for better or for worse, a technological fixture of our profession. This is in part prompted by thoughts that I've had as a result of participating in EAD@10 and attending the Something New for Something Old conference sponsored by the PACSCL Consortial Survey Initiative. Anyhow, onto my first bone to pick with EAD. I'm incredibly unsatisfied with the controlled access heading tag &lt;controlaccess/&gt;. First of all, it can occur within itself, and because of this, I fear that there will be some sort of weird instance where I have to end up parsing a series of these tags 3 levels deep. Also, it can contain a &lt;chronlist/&gt;, which also seems pretty strange given that I've never seen any example of events being used as controlled access terms in this way. Going off the Rails: Really Rapid Prototyping With Drupal https://matienzo.org/2008/going-off-the-rails-really-rapid-prototyping-with-drupal/ Tue, 30 Dec 2008 00:21:01 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2008/going-off-the-rails-really-rapid-prototyping-with-drupal/ Previously posted on http://labs.nypl.org/. The other Labs denizens and I are going off the rails on a crazy train deeper down the rabbit hole of reimplementing the NYPL site in Drupal. As I pile my work on the fire, I've found that building things in Drupal is easier than I'd ever thought it to be. It's a scary thought, in part because I'm no fan of PHP (the language of Drupal's codebase). Really, though, doing some things can be dead simple. It's a bit of a truism in the Drupal world at this point that you can build a heck of a lot just by using the CCK and Views modules. The important part is that you can build a heck of a lot without really having to know a whole lot of code. This is what threw me off for so long - I didn't realize that I was putting too much thought into building a model like I normally would with another application framework. Does SAA Need To Support Who I Am? https://matienzo.org/2008/does-saa-need-to-support-who-i-am/ Mon, 15 Dec 2008 22:06:22 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2008/does-saa-need-to-support-who-i-am/ There's been a whole lot of discussion in the archivoblogosphere about the perceived need for quasi-informal interest groups that are fundamentally driven by identity. While I agree with this in theory, I must register my opposition to having SAA promote, support, or provide any sort of infrastructure for such groups. Fundamentally, I am against this because I believe it poses a strong threat to the privacy of archivists. deliciouscopy: a dumb solution for a dumb problem https://matienzo.org/2008/deliciouscopy-a-dumb-solution-for-a-dumb-problem/ Wed, 03 Dec 2008 03:01:27 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2008/deliciouscopy-a-dumb-solution-for-a-dumb-problem/ You'd think there was some sort of tried and true script for Delicious users to repost bookmarks from their inboxes into their accounts, especially given that there are often shared accounts where multiple people will tag things as "for:foo" to have them show up on foo's Delicious account. Well, there wasn't, until now (at least as far as I could tell). Enter deliciouscopy. It uses pydelicious, as well as the Universal Feed Parser and simplejson. It reads a user's inbox, checks to see if poster of the for:whomever tag was added to your network, and reposts accordingly, adding a via: tag for attribution. It even does some dead simple logging if you need that sort of thing. The code's all there, and GPL license blah blah blah. I hacked this together in about an hour for something at MPOW - namely to repost things to our shared account. It's based on Michael Noll's deliciousmonitor.py but diverges from it fairly quickly. Enjoy, and give any feedback if you must. Idle Hands Are The Devil's Plaything https://matienzo.org/2008/idle-hands-are-the-devils-plaything/ Wed, 26 Nov 2008 01:44:21 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2008/idle-hands-are-the-devils-plaything/ I've had my hands full lately. Two weeks ago I was at the MCN conference (wherein, among other things, I have continued my dominion as Archduke of Archival Description by taking over the MCN Standards SIG chair position from The Bancroft Library's Mary Elings), and next week I'm off to Philadelphia for the PACSCL Something New for Something Old conference. I hammered out the coherent, written version of my paper I gave at EAD@10. I prepared a proposal for next February's code4lib conference in Providence (ahem, vote for mine, if you're so inclined): Building on Galen Charlton's investigations into distributed version control systems for metadata management, I offer a prototype system for managing archival finding aids in EAD (Encoded Archival Description). My prototype relies on distributed version control to help archivists maintain transparency in their work and uses post-commit hooks to initiate indexing and publishing processes. In addition, this prototype can be generalized for any XML-based metadata schema. On top of that, I'm working with a fine group of folks on the RLG Programs project to analyze EAD editing and creation tools, doing hardcore schema mapping at work, and somehow finding enough time to play a little Doukutsu Monogatari to unwind. Developing Automated Repository Deposit Modules for Archivists' Toolkit? https://matienzo.org/2008/developing-automated-repository-deposit-modules-for-archivists-toolkit/ Mon, 17 Nov 2008 19:43:59 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2008/developing-automated-repository-deposit-modules-for-archivists-toolkit/ I'd like to gauge interest for people to help add code to Archivists' Toolkit to automate the deposit of digital objects into digital repositories. At first glance, the biggest issue is having to deal with differing deposit APIs for each repository, but using something like SWORD would make sense to bridge this gap. Any and all feedback is welcome! Python WorldCat Module v0.1.2 Now Available https://matienzo.org/2008/worldcat-010/ Thu, 06 Nov 2008 02:27:23 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2008/worldcat-010/ In preparation for the upcoming WorldCat Hackathon starting this Friday, I've made a few changes to worldcat, my Python module for interacting with OCLC's APIs. Most notably, I've added iterators for SRU and OpenSearch requests, which (like the rest of the module) painfully need documentation. It's available either via download from my site or via PyPI; please submit bug reports to the issue tracker as they arise. EDIT: I've bumped up the version number another micro number to 0.1.1 as I've just added the improvements mentioned by Xiaoming Liu on the WorldCat DevNet Blog (LCCN query support, support for tab-delimited and CSV responses for xISSNRequests, and support for PHP object responses for all xIDRequests). EDIT: Thanks to Thomas Dukleth, I was told that code for the Hackathon was to be licensed under the BSD License. Accordingly, I've now dual licensed the module under both GPL and BSD. V8-Powered Libraries and the Happiness Engines that Run Them https://matienzo.org/2008/v8-powered-libraries-and-the-happiness-engines-that-run-them/ Fri, 03 Oct 2008 11:00:59 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2008/v8-powered-libraries-and-the-happiness-engines-that-run-them/ <p><em>Previously posted on <a href="http://labs.nypl.org">http://labs.nypl.org/</a>.</em></p> <p><a title="Games we used to play / writte... Digital ID: 1255304. New York Public Library" href="http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/id?1255304"><img src="https://matienzo.org/images/1255304.jpg" alt="Games we used to play / writte... Digital ID: 1255304. New York Public Library" align="left" /></a></p> <p>A week ago today, a few of my <abbr title="Digital Experience Group">DEG</abbr> colleagues and I went to see <a href="http://mamamusings.net/">Liz Lawley</a> from <abbr title="Rochester Institute of Technology">RIT</abbr>'s <a href="http://social.it.rit.edu/">Lab for Social Computing</a> give a talk entitled "Libraries as Happiness Engines." It was a modified version of a <a href="http://www.shushers.ca/cil2008/?p=14">talk she gave at this year's <abbr title="Computers in Libraries">CiL</abbr> conference</a>. The gist of the talk was that <a href="http://gaming.ala.org/">gaming in libraries</a> means not just using established games to draw the public into the library, but also to begin implementing game mechanics into libraries that allow them to flourish as social spaces. In particular, these game mechanics include things like collecting, points, feedback, exchanges, and customization.</p> <p>I've been ruminating on this for the last week or so in a couple different ways. First of all, I've been trying to figure out how we could implement game mechanics within NYPL.</p> <p> An Open Letter to SAA Council and the 2009 Program Committee https://matienzo.org/2008/saa2009-proposal-deadlines-open-letter/ Thu, 02 Oct 2008 12:36:13 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2008/saa2009-proposal-deadlines-open-letter/ I apologize for using my blog to soapbox, but I felt like this was a significant concern that I should share with my readers. If you wish to support my position, please consider sending an e-mail to SAA Council and the 2009 Program Committee Chairs. Dear 2009 Program Committee Members and SAA Council Members, I understand that we are nearing the deadlines for submission of proposals for sessions at the 2009 Annual Meeting of the Society of American Archivists. I also understand the reasons behind having an earlier deadline than past years. However, I am deeply concerned with the decision to have the deadline set to be October 8, 2008, which is Yom Kippur and the day which the Jewish High Holidays end. As is often the case, conference proposals often coalesce at the last minute, and this is further complicated by the fact that the beginning of Rosh Hashana fell on September 29, 2008. I recognize that the deadline is most likely immutable at this point, but I am asking that SAA Council and future Program Committees pay attention to when the High Holidays fall in future years. The Apex of Hipster XML GeekDOM: TEI-Encoded Dylan https://matienzo.org/2008/dylan-in-tei/ Wed, 01 Oct 2008 16:26:46 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2008/dylan-in-tei/ Via Language Log: The Electronic Textual Cultures Lab (ETCL) at the University of Victoria has, in an effort to draw more attention to TEI, chosen to prepare an encoded version of the lyrics to Bob Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues" and overlaid the resulting XML over the song's video. The resulting video is available, naturally, on YouTube. ETCL's Ray Siemens writes about the reasoning behind this on the TEI Video Widgets blog: At the last gathering of the Text Encoding Initiative Consortium, in Maryland, a few of us were discussing the ways in which TEI has eluded some specific types of social-cultural representation that are especially current today . . . things like an avatar, or something that could manifest itself as a youtube posting. A quick search of youtube did reveal a significant and strong presence of sorts, but it was that of Tei the Korean pop singer (pronounced, we're told, "˜tay'); so, our quest began there, setting out modestly to create a video widget that would balance T-E-I and Tei in the youtube world. Introducing djabberdjaw https://matienzo.org/2008/introducing-djabberdjaw/ Mon, 22 Sep 2008 23:17:27 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2008/introducing-djabberdjaw/ djabberdjaw is an alpha-quality Jabber bot written in Python that uses Django as an administrative interface to manage bot and user profiles. I've included a couple of plugins out of the box that will allow you to perform queries against Z39.50 targets and OCLC's xISBN API (assuming you have the requisite modules). djabberdjaw requires Django 1.0 or later, jabberbot, and xmpppy. It's available either from PyPI (including using easy_install) or via Subversion. You can browse the Subversion repository, too. ArchivesBlogs 3.0 https://matienzo.org/2008/archivesblogs-30/ Tue, 09 Sep 2008 01:47:33 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2008/archivesblogs-30/ Thanks to Jeanne from Spellbound Blog, I was made aware of the fact that ArchivesBlogs hadn't really been doing its job. So, I ripped out its guts and put it back together. It's running the latest, shiniest versions of WordPress, FeedWordPress, and Auto Delete Posts, and now it has added Feedburner and WP Stats goodness. Let me know if you discover any peculiarities in the updated set up. Slaying the Scary Monsters https://matienzo.org/2008/slaying-the-scary-monsters/ Mon, 08 Sep 2008 16:55:53 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2008/slaying-the-scary-monsters/ <p><em>Previously posted on <a href="http://labs.nypl.org/">http://labs.nypl.org/</a>.</em></p> <p><a title="Drawings of monster and devil. Digital ID: 434322. New York Public Library" href="http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/id?434322"><img src="https://matienzo.org/images/434322.jpg" alt="Drawings of monster and devil. Digital ID: 434322. New York Public Library" /></a></p> <p>Getting up to speed is hard anywhere, and it's especially difficult in a large, complex institution like <abbr title="The New York Public Library">NYPL</abbr>. Other than just understanding the projects that you're given, you also are thrown headfirst into making sense of the culture, the organization, and all the unspoken and occasionally unseen things that allow you to do your job. There's no clear place to start this, so a good portion of the time you have to keep on top of that while you start thrashing away at your work. The question remains, though, how do you organize this stuff? How do you enable sensemaking in yourself and your peers?</p> <p> Everything Old is New Again https://matienzo.org/2008/everything-old-is-new-again/ Fri, 05 Sep 2008 19:39:18 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2008/everything-old-is-new-again/ Goodbye, WordPress - I've been drinking more of the KoolAid. I rebuilt my personal/professional site (not this blog) in Drupal. Migrating the content was pretty easy (about 15 static pages, no posts). The functionality is astounding - I only started working on redoing it yesterday and I've already got a great infrastructure. Expect a detailed post before too long, or at least a link to a colophon on said site. Matienzo, The San Francisco Treat https://matienzo.org/2008/going-to-saa2008/ Tue, 26 Aug 2008 17:07:40 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2008/going-to-saa2008/ I'm packing up and heading out to SFO this evening for SAA2008. Right now I'm frantically backing up my Zotero repository, making sure I have a bunch of sources to peruse on the plane as I hack away on my slides for EAD@10. You might be surprised that my idea of me jumping out of a cake in the shape of an &lt;archdesc&gt; tag wearing a bathing suit was not even considered, so it looks like I'll actually have to put some coherent thoughts together. I've got to make a grand entrance somehow. I'll be chairing the Description Section meeting as well, so behave yourselves, kids. Bad MARC Rant #1: Leader Positions 06 and 08 https://matienzo.org/2008/bad-marc-rant-1/ Mon, 25 Aug 2008 13:49:37 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2008/bad-marc-rant-1/ I understand why the MARC leader position 08 is a good idea in theory. In fact, MARBI Proposal 97-07 suggests: a change in definition to Leader/08 code "a" for clarification; making code "t" (Manuscript language materials) obsolete in Leader/06 and using code "a" instead; redefinitions of codes "a" and "p" in Leader/06; renaming the 008 for Books to "Textual (Nonserial); and deleting field 006 for Mixed material. I can safely say that some pretty funky stuff gets cataloged with the leader position 08 set as "a," and much of it is incorrect, at $MPOW and otherwise. What is Leader/08 actually supposed to be used for? MARBI Proposal 97-07 again states: Code a indicates that the material is described according to archival descriptive rules, which focus on the contextual relationships between items and on their provenance rather than on bibliographic detail. The specific set of rules for description may be found in 040 $e. All forms of material can be controlled archivally. Python WorldCat API module now available https://matienzo.org/2008/python-worldcat-api-module-now-available/ Tue, 19 Aug 2008 22:42:00 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2008/python-worldcat-api-module-now-available/ I'd like to humbly announce that I've written a pre-pre-alpha Python module for working with the WorldCat Search API and the xID APIs. The code needs a fair amount of work, namely unit tests and documentation. I've released the code under the GPL. The module, called "worldcat", is available from the Python Package Index. You can also checkout a copy of the code from my Subversion repository. Seriously, Follow Our Lead https://matienzo.org/2008/seriously-follow-our-lead/ Wed, 30 Apr 2008 15:52:15 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2008/seriously-follow-our-lead/ OCLC's Lorcan Dempsey makes a great point as usual in his post "Making tracks": In recent presentations, I have been suggesting that libraries will need to adopt more archival skills as they manage digital collections and think about provenance, evidential integrity, and context, and that they will also need to adopt more museum perspectives as they think about how their digital collections work as educational resources, and consider exhibitions and interpretive environments. I doubt that any archivist would disagree with this. Even better, I think this offers a great opportunity to reach out and have those in allied fields really understand how and why we've done things slightly different for so long. I'm glad to see that my new employer has picked up on this holistic approach with platforms like the NYPL Blogs. Now, It Can Be Told https://matienzo.org/2008/now-it-can-be-told/ Sun, 20 Apr 2008 16:05:28 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2008/now-it-can-be-told/ After a little over two years processing, referencing, and cataloging, and hacking at AIP, I'm skipping up to the City That Never Sleeps to join Jay Datema, Josh Greenberg, and company in the NYPL Labs. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't thrilled about this opportunity, and I'm ready to see where my new job will take me. The next major hurdle will be finding a place to live, so if you're privy to anything in Brooklyn, please let me know. ICA Releases International Standard for Describing Functions https://matienzo.org/2008/ica-releases-isdf/ Thu, 03 Apr 2008 15:35:02 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2008/ica-releases-isdf/ The ICA's Committee of Best Practices and Standards released the first edition of the International Standard for Describing Functions (ISDF). Like much of ICA's other work in descriptive standards for archives, ISDF is designed to be used in conjunction with established standards such as ISAD(G) and ISAAR(CPF), as well as standards in preparation such as ISIAH. ISDF will assist both archivists and users to understand the contextual aspects of the creation of records of corporate bodies. Through ISDF and related standards, archivists will be able to develop improved descriptive systems that can be potentially implemented using a Linked Data model. Google Message Discovery https://matienzo.org/2008/google-message-discovery/ Thu, 03 Apr 2008 13:52:06 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2008/google-message-discovery/ Amidst this week of notorious hoaxes, Google has launched Google Message Discovery as an enterprise-focused add on for its Google Apps platform. Google Message Discovery goes well beyond a simple and reliable e-mail backup system and provides three key features of interest to records managers: Content-addressable storage for electronic mail stored immediately upon sending or retrieval Creating explicit retention policies based upon time Compliance with relevant laws and best practices Straightforward discovery for any use, regardless if internal or concerning litigation Google Message Discovery, as well as other related offerings such as e-mail security, clearly has its origins in Google's acquisition of Postini last year. Postini isn't some startup with dubious or perpetually beta offerings (e.g. Dodgeball or GrandCentral); some of their better known clients include BASF and Merrill Lynch. At $25 per user per year, the service seems to be an incredible steal. Easy Peasy: Using the Flickr API in Python https://matienzo.org/2008/easy-peasy-using-the-flickr-api-in-python/ Wed, 26 Mar 2008 17:27:13 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2008/easy-peasy-using-the-flickr-api-in-python/ Since I'm often required to hit the ground running at $MPOW on projects, I was a little concerned when I roped myself into assisting our photo archives with a Flickr project. The first goal was to get a subset of the photos uploaded, and quickly. Googling and poking around the Cheeseshop led me to Beej's FlickrAPI for Python. Little did I know that it would be dead simple to get this project going. To authenticate: def create_session(api_key, api_secret): """Creates as session using FlickrAPI.""" session = flickrapi.FlickrAPI(api_key, api_secret) (token, frob) = session.get_token_part_one(perms='write') if not token: raw_input("Hit return after authorizing this program with Flickr") session.get_token_part_two((token, frob)) return session That was less painful than the PPD test for tuberculosis. Oh, and uploading? flickr.upload(filename=fn, title=title, description=desc, tags=tags, callback=status) Using this little code plus a few other tidbits, I created an uploader that parses CSV files of image metadata exported from an Access database. And when done, the results look a little something like this. Movin' and shakin' in the archives world https://matienzo.org/2008/movin-and-shakin-in-the-archives-world/ Fri, 21 Mar 2008 12:44:23 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2008/movin-and-shakin-in-the-archives-world/ ArchivesNext recently discussed Library Journal's annual list of "Movers and Shakers," pondering what a comparable list in the archival profession would look like. For those who don't know, the list recognizes "library advocates, community builders, 2.0 gurus, innovators, marketers, mentors, and problem solvers transforming libraries." After some rumination, ArchivesNext is now calling for nominations to generate a similar list. Do your civic duty and nominate either a project, an individual, or even a situation worthy of this recognition! Behind The Times: Where I Finally Speak Of code4lib 2008 https://matienzo.org/2008/code4libcon2008/ Mon, 17 Mar 2008 22:24:16 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2008/code4libcon2008/ OK, OK. A post about code4libcon 2008 is long overdue. The minor details: the weather was nice, food was decent, good beer was abundant, and live music was enjoyable. Onto the real meat... This time around, I felt like I got a whole lot more out of attending; I'm not sure if this is due to the changing nature of my job, increased attention, or some other factor, like neckferrets and dongles. The great majority of the talks, be they keynotes, traditional presentations, or even just lightning talks, were excellent. Furthermore, this time around I felt a whole lot more connected to the miasma - so much so, in fact, that I ended up giving two lightning talks (or three, depending on if you consider the one I gave with Gabriel Farrell on kobold_chiefain Fac-Back-OPAC). The most impressive thing overall, though, were lolcats that came out to play: Thanks to the work of Noel Peden and Dan Scott, the videos should be up soon enough. DataPortability.org and the Dream of a Web 2.0 Backup System https://matienzo.org/2008/dataportabilityorg-and-the-dream-of-a-web-20-backup-system/ Tue, 29 Jan 2008 20:13:22 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2008/dataportabilityorg-and-the-dream-of-a-web-20-backup-system/ I just discovered DataPortability.org through Peter Van Garderen's blog post about it. I was entirely surprised that I'd heard nary a peep about it. Some basic examination (running a WHOIS query on the domain) shows that it's still a fairly new project. I have to say, though, that I'm entirely impressed. Those involved have given a whole lot of thought to how they're going to be doing things, as evidenced by those who have signed up to be involved and the DataPortability Charter. To wit, the Charter's principles tend to speak for themselves: We want sovereignty over the profiles, relationships, content and media we create and maintain. We want open formats, protocols and policies for identity discovery, data import, export and sync. We want to protect user rights and privacy. And, of course, the thing that made me squeal with delight like a pig in mud: 4. DataPortability will not inventing any new standards. I mean, that's probably the best news that someone like me could get. Announcing zgw.py, or, how I stopped worrying and learned to love Z39.50 https://matienzo.org/2008/announcing-zgwpy/ Sun, 27 Jan 2008 20:07:43 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2008/announcing-zgwpy/ After more than a few late nights and long weekends, I'm proud to announce that I've completed my latest pet programming project. zgw.py is a lightweight Z39.50-Web gateway, written, naturally, in Python. None of this would be possible without the following Python modules: Aaron Lav's PyZ3950, the beast of burden; Ed Summers' pymarc, the smooth-talking translator; and web.py, quite possibly the best and most straightforward Python web framework available. I initially undertook this project as an excuse to play with PyZ3950 and to teach myself the workings of web.py; I'd played with Django, but it seemed entirely excessive for what I was working on. First, I should mention that zgw.py isn't designed to be a complete implementation of a Z39.50 gateway. There are many areas in which there is much to be desired, and it's probably not as elegant as some would like. However, that wasn't the point of the project. My ultimate goal was to create a simple client that could be used as a starting point from which to develop a complete web application. No Excuses To The Power of Infinity https://matienzo.org/2008/no-excuses-to-the-power-of-infinity/ Mon, 21 Jan 2008 19:17:06 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2008/no-excuses-to-the-power-of-infinity/ I have no excuses for not updating this blog. I thought about forcing myself to comply some sort of resolution - you know, given the new year and all - but everyone knows how those turn out. Regardless, I have a whole backlog of things to post about, most notably being the countless Python programming projects I've been working on lately. Expect more posts to arise over the next few days as a result of this. Also, I have no excuses for botching up ArchivesBlogs temporarily by mucking about and wiping out some of WordPress's databases that make FeedWordPress, the plugin that grabs content for ArchivesBlogs, do its thing. The recovery was simpler than I thought it would be, but this is probably the largest amount of unplanned downtime we've had. Keep your eyes open, as a replacement for FeedWordpress may itself becoming along sooner or later. Web 2.0, Disaster, and Archives https://matienzo.org/2007/web-20-disaster-and-archives/ Thu, 25 Oct 2007 01:13:12 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2007/web-20-disaster-and-archives/ Many of Web 2.0's detractors argue about it's real value, but given the wildfires in Southern California, I was happy to see it really put to good use. KPBS, a San Diego radio station, has been using Flickr and, even more shocking (at least for some), Twitter as ways to disseminate information and news quickly. The use of Twitter is particularly interesting as it can send out SMS messages. You might recall a few years ago when protesters in the Philippines used SMS to organize political rallies and warn of police retaliation. The California State Library Blog also has provided information from the California State Archivist about archives affected by the fires. In addition, information about disaster recovery for libraries and archives is available both on a regional level by the San Diego/Imperial County Libraries Disaster Response Network and on the state level by the California Preservation Program. Please hold those affected by the fires in your thoughts, and if you can, contact SILDRN or the CPP to help. ArchivesBlogs Upgrades & Related Weirdness https://matienzo.org/2007/archivesblogs-upgrades-related-weirdness/ Wed, 24 Oct 2007 17:28:55 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2007/archivesblogs-upgrades-related-weirdness/ I've updated ArchivesBlogs to the latest version of WordPress, as well as the latest versions of the plugins that do the heavy lifting (FeedWordPress and Auto Delete Posts). In so doing, I found that the database structure of WordPress 2.3 is radically different, causing some of my elegant work to break (namely, the use of the Auto Delete Posts plugin, for which I wrote a patch). You may have seen duplicate posts, no new posts on specific feeds (language and blog type), and possibly other unpredicted outcomes. Everything seems to be working properly now, so if you see anything strange or that doesn't work, let me know. Dust in the Wind(y City) https://matienzo.org/2007/dust-in-the-windy-city/ Mon, 03 Sep 2007 18:28:23 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2007/dust-in-the-windy-city/ SAA2007 came and went. Everyone knows that I'm no good at liveblogging or semi-liveblogging, so don't expect an exhaustive report - potentially better sources include ArchivesNext and Spellbound Blog. Here are my personal highlights, which is just about the best that this here boy archivist can pull off. The pre-conference SAA Research Forum. While I only got to see the second half of the day, this is where the meat was according to those who were there for the whole thing. The Description Section steering committee meeting. This was probably the most instructive for me as I'm the incoming chair. Hacking away on my remarks most of the week and successfully pulling off our session. Jennifer Schaffner from OCLC/RLG Programs substituted for Merrilee Proffitt and did a swell job. She's a great person to discuss all these crazy ideas with for two reasons - she's established in the profession and new to OCLC! I eagerly await her posts at hangingtogether. Hey Chicago https://matienzo.org/2007/hey-chicago/ Tue, 28 Aug 2007 13:11:37 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2007/hey-chicago/ I'm in the Windy City for SAA2007. I'll be pretty busy the first few days in town, but remember, if you want to find me, just look for the glasses. Also, make sure you come to the Description Section meeting and Session 503 on Friday! Happy Birthday ArchivesBlogs! https://matienzo.org/2007/happy-birthday-archivesblogs/ Tue, 21 Aug 2007 18:14:33 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2007/happy-birthday-archivesblogs/ It was one year ago today that I made ArchivesBlogs available to the public. Time sure seems to fly by fast! Since then there have been a lot of changes - layout, platform, and hosting - but still, I remain involved for the long haul. Thanks to all who provided suggestions, submitted blogs to be syndicated, and any other guidance along the way. ArchivesBlogs now syndicates nearly 100 blogs in 9 languages! When Life Hands You MARC, make pymarc https://matienzo.org/2007/when-life-hands-you-marc-make-pymarc/ Fri, 20 Jul 2007 18:13:39 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2007/when-life-hands-you-marc-make-pymarc/ It's a bad pun, but what can you expect from someone who neglects his blogs as much as I do? I've been busy, somewhat, and one of my latest forays has been getting a grip on Python, an absolutely wonderful programming language. I actually enjoy writing code again, which is more than a bit scary. I was sick of the mangled scripts and workflows I came up with at MPOW to handle converting MARC data to HTML and other such nonsense. Writing Perl made me feel unclean. After playing around with Ed Summers' pymarc module, I began hacking about and putting my own hooks into the code here and there. I longed for MARC8 to Unicode conversion, which is a necessary evil. Digging around, I came across Aaron Lav's PyZ3950 module, which had its own little MARC code. After bugging Ed via #code4lib, and hassling Aaron in the process, Ed began incorporating the code and I started some testing. Just a short while later, the conversion code worked. Archives Camp: Talking About Archives 2.0 https://matienzo.org/2007/archives-camp-talking-about-archives-20/ Wed, 06 Jun 2007 15:12:54 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2007/archives-camp-talking-about-archives-20/ ArchivesNext recently discussed the possibility of having some "Archives 2.0"-themed events this summer, and I think it's a great idea. Now, we may not be able to throw something together in time for SAA, but it seems like the idea of at least meeting up informally is percolating. There's a wealth of opportunities available for archives and archivists to improve access to their holdings through social software and the like. My vision, as I said in a comment on the post, would be to end up with an unconference along the lines of a Library Camp (or more generally, a BarCamp), maybe with lightning talks if enough of us have something to show off or talk about. Like Library Camp, I'd like to see a "bridging the gap" session where we learn and share ways about how to talk to IT staff and other stakeholders essential to our ideas taking off. I facilitated a such a session at Library Camp East, and although trying at times, it was really instructive. NARA Frees Their Data, Somewhat https://matienzo.org/2007/nara-frees-their-data-somewhat/ Wed, 23 May 2007 12:25:52 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2007/nara-frees-their-data-somewhat/ I'm a bit surprised that this hasn't come across anyone's radar, because it seems awfully damn significant to me. According to this post on the A&amp;A listserv by Michael Ravnitzky, the National Archives and Records Administration released an exhaustive database of box holdings of all the Federal Records Centers. He doesn't really say how he obtained this database, but my guess is he just asked based upon his background and interest in public access to government information - I've come across his name on material relating to FOIA before. The file he received from NARA is a 155 MB Microsoft Access database, and soon after he posted about it to the listserv, Jordan Hayes and Phil Lapsley took the opportunity to host the database, converted it to MySQL, and wrote a few simple query forms for the database in PHP. Hayes also provided some basic documentation on how to use the forms since MySQL query syntax is probably not familiar to most people on the A&amp;A list. Sticking My Neck Out https://matienzo.org/2007/sticking-my-neck-out/ Mon, 07 May 2007 16:10:50 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2007/sticking-my-neck-out/ It's been some time since I've had a substantive post, and I don't really intend to write one now. I figured I should mention, however, that I've been featured lately in print and in the blogosphere. Jessamyn West of librarian.net interviewed me for an article ("Saving Digital History") in Library Journal netConnect. In addition, I was tapped by the wonderful folks at Booktruck for the latest installment in their "Ask a Male Librarian" series. I swear someday soon I'll write something much more interesting and less self-promotional. Upgrading Kubuntu to Feisty Beta Breaks Privoxy https://matienzo.org/2007/upgrading-kubuntu-to-feisty-beta-breaks-privoxy/ Wed, 11 Apr 2007 12:46:15 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2007/upgrading-kubuntu-to-feisty-beta-breaks-privoxy/ While I fully intend to go over my full experience upgrading to the latest development release of Kubuntu, one of the things that I first noticed was that Privoxy didn't seem to work or to be speaking with Tor, preventing me from that lovely "anonymous" browsing experience. I noticed that in the upgrade the ever important "forward-socks4a / localhost:9050 ." line in /etc/privoxy/config wasn't in the upgraded version (actually, it shouldn't be). Apparently during the upgrade, I told it to clobber my config file with the one distributed, saving my old version (luckily) to /etc/privoxy/config.dpkg-old. Once that I added that line back, I'm now able to surf a bit more safely. Protection From Human Pests https://matienzo.org/2007/protection-from-human-pests/ Tue, 27 Mar 2007 17:49:48 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2007/protection-from-human-pests/ A few months ago (while I was at NACO training) I got a reader's card at the Library of Congress. For a while I pretty actively went and requested books on Saturday afternoons. In particular, I was interested in archival manuals from outside the United States. One of the most interesting books I found was S. M. Jaffar's Problems of an Archivist, a manual written in Pakistan in 1948. I was struck by the following passage ("Protection From Human Pests"), taken from pp. 28-29: "Human pests" and "White Huns" are the common epithets applied to human species acting as enemies of archives. History has recorded many such instances of vandalism as the wholesale destruction of priceless treasures of art and literature, the burning of big and beautiful libraries, the transport of camel-loads of books to distant countries and the sale of valuable manuscripts at ridiculously low prices. The transfer of artistic and literary treasures of subjugated countries by the conquerors to their homelands to adorn their own museums and libraries has depleted those countries of that wealth. Five Non-Library Blogs I Read https://matienzo.org/2007/five-non-library-blogs-i-read/ Fri, 23 Mar 2007 14:49:18 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2007/five-non-library-blogs-i-read/ I won't bother waiting to be tagged to do this, because all the cool kids already are. I read too many blogs already, so here we go. Mary Eats is, as one would easily assume, a blog about food. Mary started the blog while she and her husband were living in Korea, and thus there's an overwhelming emphasis on Korean food and restaurants. She moved to Seattle relatively recently and began culinary school, too. My two favorite parts of this blog are when she makes videos and when she makes comics, like this one about konbu. Language Log is a blog written by linguistics faculty from around the world, wherein they tackle important and not-so-important issues like linguistic prescriptivism, 419 scammers, the Pirahà language, and cheese steak rolls served at Chinese restaurants in Philadelphia, all with a good sense of humor. Information Aesthetics covers all sorts of stuff related to information visualization. Essentially, it's just one massive blog full of data porn, from treemaps to Youtube videos using Isotype symbols. Two Work-Safe Tidbits about Archives and Erotica https://matienzo.org/2007/two-work-safe-tidbits-about-archives-and-erotica/ Wed, 21 Mar 2007 14:56:40 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2007/two-work-safe-tidbits-about-archives-and-erotica/ First, via my associates at booktruck.org, I came across a review of the comic book Demonslayer v. 2.2, by a certain Marat Mychaels, et al. at Comics Should Be Good. While the fact that the reviewers pan the comic book seems only marginally of interest to those of us wading in archivy, I should draw your attention to a specific part of this issue. Apparently one of the characters goes to visit the Director of Archives at the New York Museum of Natural History, who has chosen to decorate his office in the style of some seemingly life-sized works by (fellow Peruvian) Boris Vallejo. Secondly, everyone knows how much of a pain digital preservation is, particularly in terms of born-digital cultural materials. So, who should archivists and curators look to for guidance? Kurt Bollacker, digital research manager at the Long Now Foundation (and formerly of the Internet Archive), holds up the pornography industry as a potential leader of the pack. Possible ArchivesBlogs Downtime: Software Upgrade https://matienzo.org/2007/possible-archivesblogs-downtime-software-upgrade/ Wed, 14 Mar 2007 12:44:37 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2007/possible-archivesblogs-downtime-software-upgrade/ I finally noticed that FeedWordPress, the plugin I use to maintain ArchivesBlogs, has been updated within the last month to work with WordPress 2.1 and higher. I hope to get this working pretty soon, but I apologize in advance if it ends up going down for a few days. Throwing Out the Baby, the Bathwater, and the Bathtub: The Sad State of the Archives and Archivists Listserv https://matienzo.org/2007/saa-listserv/ Tue, 13 Mar 2007 23:25:12 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2007/saa-listserv/ Today, Nancy Beaumont, Executive Director of the Society of American Archivists, made an announcement on the Archives & Archivists listserv that SAA would no longer retain the first thirteen years of posts from the listserv. During this time the listserv was hosted by Miami University of Ohio, and last September, the list was moved to an SAA server. This stems from a decision made by SAA Council that they not retain the archives for three reasons: 1) an appraisal decision informed by the SAA's archives at the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee, 2) a consideration of administrative issues, and 3) a consideration of cost. While the appraisal decision is well-informed by the claim that the list archives do not have evidential value as SAA records, the belief that these records have little informational value does not sit well with me. The list archives document the development of archives becoming a stronger profession in the face of technology and the creation of a tight-knit social network. Braindump https://matienzo.org/2007/braindump/ Mon, 05 Mar 2007 18:06:14 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2007/braindump/ I'm really behind on posting, and I apologize. There are a few action items that I should mention before I clear my brain to allow me to start posting things with actual content. ArchivesBlogs moved, but mail to archivesblogs.com was not working for a while. A few people mentioned this to me, but I didn't get this resolved until just last week. After who knows how many attempts trying to get something posted on Boing Boing, I finally made it when I had more information about the hottest chili peppers in the world. I now have a food blog, so if you're interested, check it out. It's called Feeding the Hungry Ghost. Now that that stuff is out of the way, I can start posting about "important" things again, like my trip to Georgia for code4lib 2007. Tomato "Foam"? https://matienzo.org/2007/tomato-foam/ Fri, 23 Feb 2007 03:39:19 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2007/tomato-foam/ I know, I know - you're probably thinking "foams are so over," regardless which side of the molecular gastronomy fence you sit on. If you're a fan of the strange powders and physical state changes of food, you might be saying "C'mon, everybody knows that espuma is the new foam!" Yeah, right - and aire is the new espuma. They're all pretty much the same thing, and you've got to be bullshitting yourself if you think that Adrià and his ilk don't know this already. If you're convinced that all this stuff is mumbo jumbo designed to take away from traditional technique, then fine. I don't particularly care either way. I made a foam that wasn't really a foam ... or was it? I was bored tonight when I was about to make supper for myself. Yesterday I got a whole bunch of free samples from National Starch, but I haven't really been able to do anything with them since I've left them sitting in my office. Eatin' Fresh and (Mostly) Raw https://matienzo.org/2007/eatin-fresh-and-mostly-raw/ Wed, 14 Feb 2007 23:00:35 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2007/eatin-fresh-and-mostly-raw/ I left work early yesterday for a doctor's appointment, which left little time for lunch. On the way there, I snacked on some almonds and raisins to tide me over. By the time I finally got done with the tests and consultation my stomach was making unholy groans that sounded like ghosts were plaguing my GI tract. Since there were a few things I wanted to pick up anyhow, I headed to Whole Foods and stopped by the deli first to get a sandwich. For what it's worth, I got the "tuna niçoise" sandwich, which wasn't all that niçoise (it tasted alright, though). Despite warnings of the possibility of olive pits listed on the wrapper, I couldn't find a single piece of olive anywhere close to it except in another area of the deli case. The sandwich was much larger than the amount of food I've become used to eating in one sitting, so I roamed the aisles stuffed to the gills with tuna, bread, green beans, and hardboiled eggs. Adventures in Fermentation: Yogurt For Beginners https://matienzo.org/2007/adventures-in-fermentation-yogurt/ Tue, 13 Feb 2007 04:44:10 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2007/adventures-in-fermentation-yogurt/ I decided somewhat spontaneously to make my own yogurt after casually reading about the process and realizing how incredibly simple it is. After consulting a wide variety of sources - both print and electronic, like any good information professional would - I set to the task at hand. Mise en place A large stainless steel or aluminum saucepan A large stainless steel, aluminum, unglazed ceramic, or heat-resistant glass bowl A large wooden or stainless steel spoon A kitchen thermometer A heating pad Towels A ladle Containers for storing the finished yogurt Ingredients 1 quart of high-quality, organic milk 1 pint of organic heavy cream (if so desired) 1/4 to 1/2 cup organic yogurt with live cultures (see below) Some, but not all, of the directions that I read suggested that you sterilize all equipment before you begin making the yogurt by immersing it in boiling water. If you decide to do so, I would strongly suggest that you avoid using plastic containers to store the yogurt. ArchivesBlogs On The Move https://matienzo.org/2007/archivesblogs-on-the-move/ Wed, 31 Jan 2007 23:39:50 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2007/archivesblogs-on-the-move/ Thanks to the wonderful people at ibiblio, ArchivesBlogs will be changing hosts! If you're not familiar with ibiblio, it's one of the largest and oldest public digital library collections on the Internet. In addition to the upcoming hosting of ArchivesBlogs, ibiblio also hosts librarian.net and Library Web. Pardon any interruptions in access given the impending move; everything should be settled within a few days. Also, a few changes I've made to the backend should fix most of the continuing issues with certain feeds not aggregating. Let me know if there are any problems that still occur. ArchivesBlogs Revamped https://matienzo.org/2007/revampedjan2007/ Tue, 09 Jan 2007 03:59:52 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2007/revampedjan2007/ After many late nights toiling away, I'm done with the latest version of ArchivesBlogs. I've changed things quite a bit - most notably, I've switched platforms from Plagger to Wordpress using the FeedWordpress plugin to do the heavy lifting of syndication. I've decided to do away with the old OPML structure as well since the taxonomy wasn't as refined as I would have liked. Instead, FeedWordpress can categorize posts as they come in, which has allowed me to create a brand new taxonomy for ArchivesBlogs based on language. Each language can also have its own feed now. The one thing missing that I'm really itching to put back in place are the social bookmarking links; none of the plugins I've come across so far seem to like my theme, so I may just end up writing my own plugin. Anyhow, please give me feedback - I'm itching to do more. Is Open Data the Point? https://matienzo.org/2006/is-open-data-the-point/ Fri, 22 Dec 2006 16:00:01 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2006/is-open-data-the-point/ I've been thinking about the biblioblogosphere's reaction to Casey Bisson's decision to use the $50,000 he was awarded by the Mellon Foundation for his work on WPopac to purchase LC bibliographic data and open it up to anyone who wanted to take a crack at it. Yes, this is a "Good Thing," and valuable to the library community as a whole, but I feel like there are some things we're overlooking. Dan Chudnov and I seem to agree, but I'm not going to go so far to damn those who herald this as a "new era." It's a little premature to say where it will go, but I have to admit that I'm occasionally confused and often a little bit insulted by some of the talk surrounding this issue. I wonder how interesting all the bibliographic data of LC is to begin with. What's in the dump paid for by the Mellon Award money? I'd guess monographs and serials, and probably audiovisual materials. The State of Open Source Archival Management Software https://matienzo.org/2006/the-state-of-open-source-archival-management-software/ Thu, 21 Dec 2006 00:01:25 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2006/the-state-of-open-source-archival-management-software/ It's been a while since I've written here, but other responsibilities at both at home and work have kept me busy. To get back into the swing of writing regularly, I thought I'd take a look at one of the biggest hot-button topics in archives this year: the development and release of open source archival management systems. Between this year's and last year's SAA conferences, there were three sessions that, at least in part, dealt with the development of open source software for archives. In turn, this reflected the three major projects that archivists have been developing: Archivists' Toolkit, Archon, and ICA-AtoM. Archivists' Toolkit is the oldest of the three projects; the first meeting and project proposal date from 2002. It may very well be the best funded of the three projects, as it received a $847,000 grant from the Mellon Foundation. However, it also seems to be the least mature, in my opinion, as I've not seen a live demo that's publicly accessible. MARAC Friday Afternoon Report https://matienzo.org/2006/maracfriday/ Fri, 27 Oct 2006 15:59:39 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2006/maracfriday/ The mid-Atlantic archivists are in a brief recess between now and the final session of the day, and it's been thoroughly interesting to say the least. I missed the caucus meetings this morning, unfortunately, but the plenary session was well worth it because it's got the gears turning about archival access systems even though it wasn't directly about them. Paul Israel of the Edison Papers Project spoke at length about Edison's legacy and collaboration with others. The talk emphasized that Thomas Edison was much more than a great inventor and owed a great deal of his success to his entrepreneurial nature, which I didn't know much about. While we didn't get to see him give us an interactive presentation of the site, I noticed how exhaustive the digital edition was. While the architecture of the site is a little confusing for me, there's so much content I didn't know where to begin or even what to search for! The series notes are a great way to browse through the collection, though. Morristown Calling: MARAC Fall Meeting https://matienzo.org/2006/morristown-calling-marac-fall-meeting/ Thu, 26 Oct 2006 17:41:24 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2006/morristown-calling-marac-fall-meeting/ I'm at the Westin Governor Morris in Morristown, New Jersey for the MARAC Fall Meeting. I just got back from visiting the Morris Museum with a few folks, and now I'm enjoying the (expensive) wireless connection here. This time around I don't know so many folks here, so shoot me an e-mail or comment if you're in attendance. Expect a more detailed post soon; I'm exhausted from being up early to catch Amtrak! Library Camp East post-mortem https://matienzo.org/2006/library-camp-east-post-mortem/ Fri, 13 Oct 2006 16:55:13 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2006/library-camp-east-post-mortem/ I know this post is well overdue, but the last few weeks have kept me extremely busy. Library Camp East was amazing; fun, thought-provoking, and inspiring. John Blyberg and Alan Kirk Gray (as well as the rest of the Darien Library Staff) did a heck of a job preparing for all of us descending into the auditorium. They even gave me a cool mug that my co-workers envy. I also finally got to meet Dan Chudnov and Casey Bisson, whose blogs I've followed for a while now. Jessamyn West and John posted nearly exhaustive lists of posts by LCE attendees for reference. (For what it's worth, Jessamyn also tips her hat to ArchivesBlogs and apologizes for us not meeting at two conferences so far. I share the blame!) Fortunately for my readers, I have precious little to add in terms of comments (although I tagged some Library Camp-related links on Unalog). I actually was called into service to lead a session by accident (I happened to be scratching my nose), but I was happy enough to moderate the discussion on how techies and non-techies can learn to talk to each other. ArchivesBlogs 2.0 https://matienzo.org/2006/archivesblogsupdate2point0/ Sun, 24 Sep 2006 21:15:06 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2006/archivesblogsupdate2point0/ After doing some frantic hacking this week I'm happy to announce that I've unveiled the second major revision to ArchivesBlogs. Other than a change in color, I have added the subscription list in the sidebar using a slightly modified version of Dan McTough's Optimal browser for OPML.The OPML file it renders is also the subscription list used by Plagger. Anyhow, let me know what you think. I'm sure there are some kinks that need to be ironed out. I'm off to Library Camp East early tomorrow (a 4:05 AM train out of DC). I hope to write-up a post-mortem soon after. On what "archives blogs" are and what ArchivesBlogs is not https://matienzo.org/2006/responsetolannon/ Fri, 22 Sep 2006 11:51:48 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2006/responsetolannon/ I had fully earmarked addressing Thomas G. Lannon's "Archive Blogs" post on Documenting Sources, his blog, for over a week now after discovering it in my requisite vanity search of Technorati. Other things (even reading) have kept me busy, though, hence the unintentional neglect. I've had plenty of time to reflect upon it at this point, so I might as well respond to some of his points. He first asks the following: What is an Archive Blog? This should be a crucial question as the growing field of "blogs about archives" offers up posts stretching from the recent SAA conference to South Carolina Gamecocks. Perhaps it would it be helpful to make a distinction between official blogs relating to news and services from archival repositories and personal blogs written by people who happen to work in archives? It is an important question indeed. When I came up with the idea for ArchivesBlogs (and when I was still calling it " SAA 2007 Session Proposal: The Changing Nature of Description and OPACs https://matienzo.org/2006/saa-2007-session-proposal-the-changing-nature-of-description-and-opacs/ Tue, 12 Sep 2006 00:03:42 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2006/saa-2007-session-proposal-the-changing-nature-of-description-and-opacs/ During the Description Section meeting at this year's SAA conference, I made an informal proposal for a session concerning the changing nature of OPACs, changes in the library cataloging world, and the impact of those on descriptive practice in archives and manuscript repositories. I'd like to invite any of you, if you're interested, to let me know if you'd be interested in assisting me with putting together a proposal on this topic. A small group of us met briefly after the Description Section meeting and discussed the possible formats and areas of discussion. We determined that a seminar-style discussion seemed most appropriate, with perhaps a brief presentation on a specific area presented by the panelists on a given aspect of these issues. Possible areas for presentation and discussion include: The changing nature of the OPAC in the library world: open-source, problems with vendors, adding Web 2.0-like features (the "next generation of finding aids" session at this year's conference included good examples of this) The impact of changes at LC and the OCLC/RLG merger: LC's decision to end creating series authority records, rumors of abandoning LCSH, decreased importance of cataloging in general to LC administrators, the future of NUCMC and ArchiveGrid The impact of Meissner and Greene's " Coming soon: ArchivesBlogs 2.0? https://matienzo.org/2006/coming-soon-archivesblogs-20/ Fri, 01 Sep 2006 16:58:17 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2006/coming-soon-archivesblogs-20/ After two weeks of use, Plagger has proven itself to be pretty resilient. I've been asking myself how I can make ArchivesBlogs even better, and I've finally got a few ideas. A site redesign. I'd like different colors. Categorizing the feeds, e.g. separating blogs by individuals from repository blogs. This will probably end up with me creating a couple of Plagger configurations and dumping them into different subdirectories on ArchivesBlogs. Better support for tags. It'd be nice to pull them out and have automagically linked Technorati tags. Scrubbing HTML from the feeds to create valid XHTML for the syndication page(s). Plagger supports the Perl module HTML::Scrubber so it seems. This is a Big Deal to someone like me. Adding a directory - most likely in OPML - for as many blogs about archives and archivists as possible since it's just not possible to do that for some blogs using Plagger. The most straightforward example are archives with blogs that are part of a library-wide blog and therefore don't have their own feeds. ArchivesBlogs news: Disappearing Blogspot Blogs https://matienzo.org/2006/archivesblogs-news-disappearing-blogspot-blogs/ Tue, 29 Aug 2006 17:02:10 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2006/archivesblogs-news-disappearing-blogspot-blogs/ ArchivesBlogs has been going strong for over a week now. If you use Blogspot and had a blog previously syndicated by ArchivesBlogs, your content may be temporarily unsyndicated. The specific problem is HTTP 502 error, which seems to indicate a problem with a proxy server at Blogspot. In any rate, they should return soon enough -- it would be nice to have the 9 blogs back! ArchivesBlogs update: service links https://matienzo.org/2006/archivesblogs-update-service-links/ Thu, 24 Aug 2006 16:54:24 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2006/archivesblogs-update-service-links/ I've upgraded Plagger (the software behind ArchivesBlogs) to the latest version and it's allowed me to add service links to del.icio.us, unalog, digg, Reddit, and Technorati. I suppose I could add more (ma.gnolia, Furl, etc.), but I'll hold off doing that for the sake of cluttering the interface for the time being. If you have any service links you'd like to see, let me know and I might be able to hack something together. Announcing ArchivesBlogs https://matienzo.org/2006/announcing-archivesblogs/ Mon, 21 Aug 2006 10:32:40 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2006/announcing-archivesblogs/ Since my last post about syndicating blogs about archives, I've played around with the idea and different software packages to do it, including Planet and Plagger. I'm happy to announce that after a few days work I was able to put something together. ArchivesBlogs is an aggregator for blogs about archives. It runs Plagger and updates hourly, outputting HTML, RSS, Atom, OPML (for import into other aggregator), and a FOAFroll. The site design is simple, but i'm happy with it. I took whatever archives blogs I knew about and added them, so if you know of any others or you want yours removed, let me know. Syndicating archives blogs https://matienzo.org/2006/syndicating-archives-blogs/ Mon, 14 Aug 2006 16:46:07 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2006/syndicating-archives-blogs/ I still haven't had enough time to process everything I took in or ideas I came up with as a result of the SAA conference. Many were more diligent than I and I'm sorry to say I didn't meet them, but some highlights follow: Geof Huth took notes on the SAA Awards Ceremony, Christie Peterson pitted Archon against Archivist's Toolkit, Jessamyn West blogged about her session on blogs, Peter Van Garderen discusses his experience at the conference including his session on archives and Web 2.0, and Merrilee Proffitt from RLG mentioned the blog session and RLG Roundtable. I'm not even up to speed on the rest of the archival blogs out there. In a stroke of genius and madness I've got an idea that I may put into motion. I'm thinking about setting up an instance of Planet, a Python-powered web-based news aggregator. It's pretty common in the FLOSS world, and has been picked up by the code4lib folks; they're running theirs as planet code4lib. Report from SAA: Archival Solidarity and International Cooperation https://matienzo.org/2006/report-from-saa-archival-solidarity-and-international-cooperation/ Wed, 02 Aug 2006 16:28:42 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2006/report-from-saa-archival-solidarity-and-international-cooperation/ The Archival Solidarity Session was really great and generated a lot of dialog. It was originally organized by Nancy Marrelli of Concordia University (Montréal), but she couldn't make it on account of a family emergency. Trudy Huskamp Peterson led the discussion in her place and did a wonderful job. Essentially, Archival Solidarity is a project involving the ICA's Section of Professional Associations that concerns "international archival development" through bilateral projects. There are several major issues at play. First, existing methods of international development are not working for archival projects, either because of bureaucracy in general or archives being of lower priority in comparison to needs such as sanitation, adequate health care, and the like. We identified that one of the most critical aspects is the lack of communication or methods to share information. There is no central "hub," formal or informal, that allows archivists to share information about assistance needed or offered. The International Fund for Archival Development (FIDA), coordinated by the ICA, was supposed to serve as such, but apparently operational issues prevent it from working effectively. Report from SAA: Give Me Free WiFi https://matienzo.org/2006/report-from-saa-give-me-free-wifi/ Wed, 02 Aug 2006 11:46:22 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2006/report-from-saa-give-me-free-wifi/ I'm at the Hilton Washington, the site of the SAA conference. I've registered and picked up my free totebag. I, and others, have bemoaned the lack of connectivity in the conference area. Wireless is only available in the lobby, so it seems, and it's rather pricy ($5.95 for 4 hours or $9.95 for 24 hours). I know archivists are often thought of as being technologically behind (whether we are is a Pandora's box that I won't open in this post), but I feel that some sort of net access is necessary at every conference. I'm just barely able to get it through my cell phone, which is how I'm posting now. Unfortunately, I get no reception on the conference floor so I needed to make my way up to the lobby anyhow. I missed the Standards Committee meeting since I was a little late and I didn't want to barge in since the doors were closed. It's nearly time for the Archival Solidarity session, which sounds interesting to me since I'd like to get involved in ICA. Conference Time https://matienzo.org/2006/conference-time/ Wed, 02 Aug 2006 01:20:24 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2006/conference-time/ I'm one of several bloggers attending the SAA conference the rest of this week. Nothing against CoSA or NAGARA, but I'm attending the conference for the organization to which I belong. My schedule is pretty packed, and if you're one of us be sure to attend the Description Section meeting since I'm running for Vice-Chair. SocketsCDR Audio Zine 3 out soon! https://matienzo.org/2006/socketscdr-audio-zine-3-out-soon/ Sat, 22 Jul 2006 17:56:54 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2006/socketscdr-audio-zine-3-out-soon/ I'm going to be on the latest installment of the SocketsCDR audio zine, curated this time around by Rebecca Mills of The Caution Curves. Sean, the SocketsCDR label honcho, just posted the cover artwork for it and it looks like a great line-up, including friends like The Plums and Stamen & Pistils. This will be my first release in a while (other than the collab CD with myself, Cotton Museum, and Actual Birds on Casanova Temptations). More details will follow, naturally. Upgrading Kubuntu Breezy to Dapper https://matienzo.org/2006/upgrading-kubuntu-breezy-to-dapper/ Fri, 02 Jun 2006 16:41:42 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2006/upgrading-kubuntu-breezy-to-dapper/ Upon hearing about yesterday's release of Kubuntu 6.06, I decided to upgrade from the previous release, Kubuntu 5.10. I'd like to say that it went off without a hitch, but it didn't. It did, however, go mostly well, and I realized that my problem was that I continued to use applications while Adept installed the new packages. I couldn't install all the packages, and I ended up with a minorly disfunctional kernel that wouldn't allow ndiswrapper to load properly, preventing me from using my internal wireless card. Once I rebooted (and used a spare PCMCIA wireless card to gain connectivity), I was able to finish installing the rest of the packages that had not finished properly and rebooted again. Everything pretty much worked, but I'm having to tweak some lost settings, most notably in KMail. Other than that, it's been working out fine! RLG + OCLC = Clog Roc? https://matienzo.org/2006/rlg-oclc-merger/ Thu, 04 May 2006 16:09:06 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2006/rlg-oclc-merger/ The technical services world has been in an uproar lately, between LC's decision to stop creating series authority records (particularly since they didn't consult PCC members beforehand) and the fallout after Calhoun report. We might as well have another drink, because as librarian.net reports (along with several others), OCLC and RLG are about to merge. It's mindblowing to think that RLG employees did not find out any sooner than the rest of us, and that either organization has yet to consult its members. However, RLG plans to do so, but it will be interesting to see how this pans out. In particular, some folks worried about the merging of data and the future of RedLightGreen. I know it's not considerably better, but they seem to be overlooking Open WorldCat. Change of Platform https://matienzo.org/2006/change-of-platform/ Wed, 03 May 2006 15:49:27 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2006/change-of-platform/ Nearly a year ago I switched from Wordpress to Drupal. I chose to switch back, partially because it was capable of doing way more than I needed it to! I thought I didn't want to be limited by blog software, but apparently that's not a terribly huge concern anymore. The old site had frightfully little content (three posts in Dalliance, a few personal posts, and links to papers). I'm redoing my non-blog site with PURLs since I don't have access to an e-prints server to which I can upload my varied previous academic work. Anyhow, the important stuff is soon to come, with Dalliance possibly moving to another host (probably Wordpress.com). Anything linking to one of the papers or my code snippets will be edited as needed. An updated version of Nick Gerakines' mail2rss.pl https://matienzo.org/2006/mail2rss/ Mon, 10 Apr 2006 10:39:00 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2006/mail2rss/ A little over a month ago, Nick Gerakines posted a Perl script to be called from a Procmail configuration file. It seemed to work pretty well, but the anal-retentive cataloger/standards geek in me decided to pass the results through a feed validator. It failed in a few key areas: missing version attribute in the rss tag, improper guid and link tags, and a pubDate with a non-RFC822 date. These all seemed pretty easy to fix, so I went ahead and made some changes. My fixes are a bit inelegant, but they create valid RSS 2.0. It was pretty trivial to add an RSS version number and to fix the guid error; the latter just required adding the isPermaLink="false" attribute to that tag. However, Nick's original code required parsing the pubDate tags to determine when to kill data that was over 6 hours old. I didn't want to be bothered parsing an RFC822 date with this, so I moved that information into a category tag. Mid-November 2005 updates: Dalliance off the ground! Site changes galore! DC Not Bad! https://matienzo.org/2005/midnovember2005updates/ Fri, 11 Nov 2005 00:56:38 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2005/midnovember2005updates/ I've finally gotten around to doing some serious work on the site. I've completed the first post for my defunct blog, and it's about one of my favorite songwriters ever, Dr. Franklin Bruno. I've also figured out some of the odd intricacies of Drupal and am finally getting this site to have a look and feel of which I can be proud. I've settled in nicely to Washington, DC, and I'm living in a decent area of town within a reasonable interest of a decent watering hole, groceries, and the Metro. Halloween has come and gone; I dressed up as everyone's favorite St. Vitus dancer, Ian Curtis, complete with requisite noose. My friend Corey took similar cues as far as the era and scope of his costume, and chose to dress up as Henry Rollins. The weather has stayed mostly warm, so I've been spoiled on that front too. More changes are coming soon, so stay alert. Off on my way: in transition to Washington, DC https://matienzo.org/2005/off-on-my-way-in-transition-to-washington-dc/ Mon, 29 Aug 2005 23:11:39 +0000 https://matienzo.org/2005/off-on-my-way-in-transition-to-washington-dc/ I'm pleased to announce that I will be joining the staff of the National Anthropological Archives and Human Studies Film Archives of the Smithsonian Institution's Department of Anthropology as a project archivist. I will have two initial primary responsibilities: cataloging Plains Indian ledger art for the non-profit ARTstor Project, and original cataloging and bibliographic enhancement of audio, film and video collections in support of the NAA's new Endangered Languages Program. This program also collaborates with the University of Utah's Center for American Indian Languages and is also part of the Documenting Endangered Languages project, supported by the National Science Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities. I will be starting work for the NAA/HSFA on September 6, 2005, and will be working on a 12 month term contract.
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