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As part of the cost assessment project we recently underwent, I was asked to provide a count of how many items and pages were digitized during each fiscal year that the Special Projects Digitization Program has been in operation.

To do this, I first reviewed all available documentation of which projects have been undertaken, when they were started, how much material was estimated for digitization, and what files were to be produced. I used this to draw up a rough framework to guide my approach to counting specific files within the various structures used to store the many digital surrogates produced. Given the variety of source media, derivatives created, and file hierarchies used, this step was necessary to create meaningful data that could be complied across all of the variations, and to provide a reference point to check the very large numbers I would be coming up with by using the computer to count files.

A number of changes have recently been made to our XTF discovery interface system.

The most obvious one is that we’re now calling the system DIMES, which was a name chosen a while back in a naming contest which you all voted on. Congrats again to Laura for coming up with the winning idea! Along with this name change, we’ve also changed the URL for the system to http://dimes.rockarch.org/xtf/search.

A few weeks ago, I attended the annual code4lib conference in Chicago. Code4lib is more than a conference; it’s a loose collective of software developers, programmers and people who work with technology in libraries, all of whom connect through a listserv, an internet relay chat (IRC) channel, and various forms of social media in addition to the annual meeting. Code4libbers tend to have a strong open-source bias, and are also mostly people who work for secondary education institutions. I always find code4lib conferences to be inspiring and a little overwhelming. There’s a flood of new information, and many old friends to catch up with and new people to meet.

The last few years, many of the individuals attending the conference have become much more interested in archives, and in applying technical solutions developed for library uses to archives. This year I noticed a lot more interest in issues surrounding archival discovery and preservation systems.

In Fall 2012, I attended an Electronic Records Management course at Pratt Institute’s School of Library and Information Science.  The course focused on the organizational transitions and culture changes required for successful electronic records program implementation, staffer roles and responsibilities, current practices in management of electronic records in email, inventorying, vital record program, disaster recovery and retention scheduling.

At ALA Midwinter this past January, I hosted the Digital Preservation Interest Group meeting with my co-chair, Meghan Bergin. It was an excellent session, if I do say so myself. Below is a listing of the presentations. Slides are available on ALA Connect.