NELINET offers a number of educational opportunities in the Digital Services area, including courses and seminars. In general, courses cover a specific topic in some detail, are limited to groups of 10-15, and often provide an opportunity for hands-on activity. Seminars and Institutes take a broader view of a topic, often include multiple, expert speakers, involve a larger group of attendees, and allow for discussion and interaction between the presenters and audience, and among participants. Educational programs are most often held at NELINET's offices in Southborough, MA. Many of the courses are also available as customized courses at your institution.

Institutes

Copyright Issues for Digitization Projects

Copyright Issues for Digitization Projects is intended to introduce participants to the key issues surrounding copyright for digital materials, and to provide resources for further exploration. Topics include: basics of copyright issues, including the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, ownership, public domain, and privacy issues; how digital primary source materials differ from traditional materials; intellectual property analysis to determine copyright status; permissions issues and institutional risk tolerance; and developing institutional policies for digital materials.

Seminars

Digital Project Management

Do you have a project in mind, or underway, but don't know how best to approach it? Our experts will share their experience and offer guidance through the steps of project management from concept through workflow and implementation to evaluation. The day's program will also include a planning exercise. The focus will be on digital projects, but good project management skills can be applied to many library activities. Use what you learn in the seminar to get ready for a new project!

Courses

Digital Imaging: From Scanner to Web Page

Digitizing materials for the Web is a great way to make them available to a wider audience. It's easy to do with the right tools and a little planning. We'll discuss the relevant issues including equipment needs, image quality, and intellectual property rights.

Dublin Core: Issues and Applications

Dublin Core is a metadata standard increasingly used for description of online resources. It has been used to provide access to digital collections worldwide, and is available as a resource description option in OCLC's Connexion service. The 15 Dublin Core elements are simple and flexible enough to be used by anyone to make their materials more accessible. In this course we will explore the pros and cons of using Dublin Core, learn how to apply the Dublin Core elements, discuss when the use of Dublin Core is appropriate, and find out how to incorporate Dublin Core into your workflow. Course participants will have an opportunity to create Dublin Core records of their own.

EAD Basics: Putting Finding Aids on the Web

Instructors:
Susan von Salis, Archivist and Information Systems Administrator, Schlesinger Library
Kim Brookes, Director of Information Technology, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study

This course presents a basic introduction to EAD (Encoded Archival Description), the SGML-based encoding standard used for making the searching and display of finding aids possible via the Web. The course focuses on marking up a finding aid in EAD using SGML, although the very similar XML version will be touched on briefly. In addition, the course provides an overview of the tools necessary to complete an EAD project (software for markup, searching and display tools, etc.). Participants will have the opportunity to get hands-on markup experience in a supportive environment, and to share experiences with other archivists using EAD in the region.

Elements of Photoshop

Instructor:
Tom Lingner, Professional Photographer

An introduction to the powerful image-editing and photo-retouching possibilities available with Adobe's Photoshop Elements software. Techniques from Photoshop Elements can be applied to the use of the Photoshop.

Emerging Metadata Topics

This course presents an overview and synthesis of current metadata-related topics such as XML, DTDs, OAI, METS, MODS, and DOI. Discover what the acronyms stand for and what they really mean. Understand the impact these emerging standards will have on your institution. Find out what you need to know to make the right decisions for your collections, now and in the future.

FRBR and the Future of the Online Public Access Catalog

FRBR (Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records) is a theoretical model that outlines new directions for the use and display of bibliographic information. FRBR will improve the usability of search results, simplify ILL, and transform OCLC's WorldCat database. This program will acquaint you with the FRBR model, related technologies, and their application in the future Public Access Catalog.

Getting Started with Digital Libraries

Digitizing materials can increase access to your rare or special collections, expand your user base, preserve fragile materials, and raise public awareness of your organization. Become acquainted with the issues and concerns entailed in a digitization project through an overview of relevant topics such as collection assessment, metadata, copyright, and technical requirements. Understanding what's involved in the development of digital collections will help you make the right decisions about your collections and digitization projects.

Introduction to CONTENTdm

Learn how to manage your digital collections using CONTENTdm software, a digital collection management tool. This hands-on course will cover the complete workflow from importing and describing digital objects to uploading files to the server. Other topics will include modifying metadata templates, creating and modifying controlled vocabularies, and collection administration. Course participants will have an opportunity to add images to a temporary collection, create metadata, and view and search the collection on the Web.

Introduction to XML

Instructor: Patrick Yott, Digital Initiatives Librarian, Brown University

This course will provide a hands-on introduction to the eXtensible Mark-up Language (XML). There will be a short introduction to XML and its relationship to other mark-up languages, but we will spend the majority of the day building XML files. We will cover topics such as the basic syntax of XML, the construction of simple data structures, and validation of XML files. Students will leave with working, validated XML files and a basic grounding in what XML can do, and how it is put into use. There are no formal prerequisites, but familiarity with HTML is strongly suggested. Students should bring a blank diskette since they will leave with working, usable files.

Introduction to XSLT

Instructor: Patrick Yott, Digital Initiatives Librarian, Brown University

This course builds on a basic knowledge of XML and will focus on transforming XML documents using eXtensible Stylesheet Language Transformations (XSLT). The course will cover the basic XSLT template model and conditional processing and emphasizes hands-on instruction. Students will leave with working, valid XSL files and an increased understanding of how XML documents can be used in a library setting. Basic knowledge of XML is required.

Digital Topics @ NELINET Seminar Series

NELINET is hosting a series of seminars presented by local experts designed to address important issues related to digital collections.

Future seminar topics will include:

• Intellectual Access for Digital Content
• Technical Infrastructure of a Digital Library
• Copyright in the Digital World
• Preservation of Digital Objects

Past seminar topics:

• Fundamentals of Archival Acquisition and Appraisal (December 4, 2003)
• Grant Writing for Preservation and Digitization Projects (September 16, 2003)
• Online Course Management: Issues and Applications (August 20, 2003)
• Nuts & Bolts of Digital Collections (July 30, 2003)
• Intellectual Property Rights for Digital Collections (May 29, 2003)
• Digital Project Management (June 25, 2002)
• Funding Your Digital Project: Tips for Successful Grant Writing (April 8, 2002)
• Developing Digital Collections: Why, What, Who, How? (December 4, 2001)

October 11, 2005