diglib: DCC Meeting March 21, 2005: Notes

[Carol Hixson <chixson@darkwing.uoregon.edu>]

Below are my notes from today's meeting.
Please send corrections and clarifications
to the list.  -- Carol
***********************************************************
DCC Members Attending:  Brownmiller, Chadwell, Felsing,
	Helmer, Hixson
Other library staff: Harper, Robare, Sundt, Willey

The group began by looking at the completed survey
form that Carol and Corey had worked on. (See email
http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/%7Ejqj/diglib/archive/msg00653.html
of March 18 for details.)

There was discussion about the origin of the survey. It was
discussed at the DCC meeting in December. (See email
http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~jqj/diglib/archive/msg00618.html
of December 14, 2004 for details.) Many of the
categories had been based on a survey that the University
of Kansas had drafted. The Kansas survey had focused on the
item level rather than on the collection as a whole.

We discussed the desired end result. The desired result
is to be able to manage and sustain the digital content that
we are creating. The survey has been informed by a lot
of the issues we've been discussing since August.
Bob asked what we were afraid of. The group consensus
was that we are afraid of losing digital content that needs to
be maintained and are afraid that at least some of what is
being created within the library is not backed up adequately,
is not being created in sustainable formats, does not have
adequate information to make the files useful, and is not
being tracked adequately.

There was consensus that the survey form was too detailed
and intimidating for most people to be able to deal with. The
group spent the bulk of the meeting time discussing mechanisms
for carrying out a useful survey. The Access to Collections
initiative with its survey of uncataloged collections was considered
a useful model. The consensus for how to proceed with the survey
was:

* provide a contextual document that explains what we're after
and why it's important
* do a pared down survey with a smaller number of questions
* provide a web form with definitions and choices for most
of the questions
* follow up with interviews with departments and/or individuals
to get needed information

The group spent the final minutes identifying the key questions.

Next steps:
* Corey and Carol will draft questions and run them
by the group for fine-tuning
* Carol begins to draft the context document and runs
it by the group for review and editing
* we find a guinea pig to test out the survey questions on
* we develop a web form
* we explain the issue at Faculty meetings, CD meetings, and
over email
* we ask Admin to endorse the survey
* we carry out the survey and identify continuing education needs
for library staff

Notes by cgh