Optical Character Recognition for Music Notation

I am wondering if anyone out there has had any experience with Optical Character Recognition for Music Notation (or OCM).  It sounds like a really neat idea and am interested to try it out although it seems to me that there is a fairly large cost barrier to doing this and also that it takes a lot of time.  I just read Andrew Bullen’s article “Bringing Sheet Music to Life” My Experiences with OMR” in Code4Lib Journal – Issue 3.  Prior to reading this article I had not heard about this technology.  I think it would be neat project to digitize some of the sheet music in the collection in our archives at the library where I work.  Any thoughts, ideas or suggestions would be very much appreciated.

Evidence of Me… by Sue McKemmish

It has been a long hiatus from blogging for me, but I just finished reading the article “Evidence of me…” by Sue McKemmish from Archives and Manuscripts the Journal of the Australian Society of Archivists” 24(1) 1996 and feel compelled to write a blog post on the topic.

“Evidence of Me…” discusses the reasons why people keep and destroy records.  McKemmish questions what documents people keep, why they keep them, for how long they keep them and why they keep them.  She also looks at the reasons why people destroy or burn documents.  She looks at this from the point of view of Patrick White, a writer, who at the beginning of his career destroyed his manuscripts and letters out of “morbidity” and later on in his career became less afraid of privacy and more concerned with leaving some trace of his life for the future.  McKemmish also looks at libraries and archives as targets in the 1990s during the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina and the immediate destruction of documents to insure on an immediate level that  against future claims by dispossessed persons and on a more profound level to destroy all evidence and memory that those people ever lived in that place and that those cultures ever existed at all.  In this article McKemmish also considers electronic documents and how archivists are finding ways to get involved at the beginning of records at corporate and administrative environments and discusses what archivists can do for personal papers that will become future archives collections.

It is really just beginning to occur to me that with  “paperless” office environments and with the proliferation and ease of personal computing that many people have turned to using electronic documents and that there personal papers will become lost, destroyed, and forgotten.  With actual paper the act of destruction is generally more deliberate than with electronic files that can easily become lost, forgotten, corrupted or obsolete.  It made me think of the diaries that I wrote as a kid and (deliberately) destroyed as a teenager.  I could not bear reading them in my teenage years.  Sometimes I wish now that I had kept them and hid them from myself instead, not that there was anything in them of much importance to my life today, but I would find it interesting to look back to see evidence of how I thought as a child and memory of events in my life.

The article also has made me consider my (rather lengthy) post-secondary education route and how I’ve gone from taking paper notes and graduating college with many notebooks filled with paper, to currently studying for a masters degree and having far less written on paper, yet though reading and writing far more than I ever did in college.  If someone looked back at the traces of my education what would they think?  I only have final essays printed and many of my papers from my undergraduate degree were lost when my computer crashed.

I think too about children now growing up in a world of digital cameras.  Many children won’t even have their picture recorded on film – instead it’ll only be recorded by digital cameras.  There are many more photos taken on digital cameras than were taken on film, but far fewer pictures printed.  This may be good for the environment, but what will it mean when it comes to traces being preserved into the future?  What will the cost be to transfer these files to other formats when technology changes?  What will the cost/barrier be?  How many people with personal computers and digital cameras out there are making back ups?  If they are doing back ups then how are they backing up files – are they using multiple file formats and media types?

Google Newspapers?

I just read on the Lifehacker blog that Google is now digitizing historical newspapers.  You can check out the news release from Google here on the official Google blog.  Interesting that they have gone from digitizing books to digitizing newspapers.  I am quite interested to see what the reaction is from publishers and libraries about this.

My wordle

I just created a sort of tag cloud from Wordle for my blog – you could do this with pretty much any text or any file.  I thought it was fun so am sharing this with you.  I created this at wordle.net from this blog:

Library Theft

I just found the cutest story I have ever seen about library theft here.  I never would have thought about this and am glad that library cards have nostalgic trading card value though I admit I would be a bit concerned over the privacy issues involved with trading the old cards from the back of books.  I love that these children are so fascinated with the old library cards and hope they didn’t get in too much trouble.

Why Digitize Your Collection?

I was talking to some people about digitization and then began realizing that not everyone understands the important of digitizing collections in Archives and Libraries.

We all hear about access when it comes to digitization.  People all over the world will be able to see the photos in your collection.  This helps out researchers and genealogists.  It may even get someone to go to the library when they would not otherwise visit – even if it is a virtual visit, it really can make an impact and leave a lasting impression.

In addition to simply being able to physically access the collection anytime and from anywhere around the world, digitization gives you the opportunity to index your photo collection (and cross index too) so that it becomes searchable in a variety of ways and becomes more useful to everyone.

Did you know that digitization offers an element of preservation?  When you put material online people are sure to comment – at least if you invite them to comment – and then you may find out more information about the photo collection in your library that may otherwise have been lost.

Digitization can (and should) become part of a disaster recovery plan.  Data should be stored in a different place from the photos themselves so that hopefully if one is destroyed than the other could be preserved.  As well, there should be multiple copies (and multiple formats) for your digital data.

The ALA has a framework for digitization and they state that “digital resources must receive appropriate preservation” and that “preservation activities require the development of standards, best practices,
and sustainable funding models to support long-term commitment to digital
resources.”  Without these digitization is not at all a method of preservation.

Although digitization can be a form of preservation it should *never* replace the proper care and preservation of the original photos and negatives.  Technology advances and changes and these should be stored properly if at all possible.  In fact, it is more likely that these photographs will have a longer life then the digital copies since digital copies require software and computers to see and the technologies used are changing pretty rapidly.

When digitizing one should definitely be aware of copyright and should think about getting an attribution license so any content put up is attributed back to your library/archive.  There is a plethora of information out there.  I really like this manual since it provides a really basic overview of things you should cover when starting a digitization project and it was done at a fairly small library as a starting point.  As well, the CHIN and Cornell tutorials are quite helpful as is the Getty Imaging book.

You can check out what I have digitized at:  www.ourontario.ca and at flickr.com.

Not Quite What I Was Planning

A friend at work told me I had to take a look at this book “Not Quite what I was Planning: Six-word Memoirs by Famous and Obscure Writers”.   The cover of the book is pretty well designed.  Inside the book the text is designed as well.  The words on the cover are arranged into a number 6.  The word “memoirs” in the banner on the cover is coming off the page which gives the cover a level of velocity.

Before opening this book, I had not realized that someone could tell so much in as little as six words.  Some are written as poems, others as gossip headlines.  Some made me laugh, others made me cry.  I think I’d like a copy of this to turn to and read and ponder just one 6 word memoir each day.

Six of my favourites:

“Cheese is the essence of life.” – Mary Lynch

“Made labor saving software: thousands unemployed.” – George Girton

“EDITOR. Get it?”

“I write because I can’t sleep.” – Ben Mezrich

“Somehow she lived without an iPod.” – Jennifer Grouser

“Thought long and hard. Got migraine.” – Lisa Levy

AAO Conference

So, here I go throwing acronyms at everybody with my title.  Something I find we do too much in libraries and archives – and I can confidently say in other professions too.

Yesterday I returned home from the Archives Association of Ontario Annual Conference in Windsor.  The focus of the conference was on building partnerships and many wonderful and great ideas were put forth.  I met so many colleagues who I could bounce ideas off and people I could learn from.  Although it really was a very small conference it truly was a wonderful experience and I am delighted that I had the opportunity to attend.

The conference began on the VIA train for me – I quickly found out I was sitting beside a fellow archivist who would be attending the conference.  I had felt so nervous to attend the conference for the first time, but this fellow archivist made me feel truly comfortable and introduced me to people every chance.

One really big point that was raised at the conference was the need of archives to talk to one another more and to know about what is going on so that we can help one another out.  I think that this can really only come through greater communication among archival organizations and developing partnerships and strong communication between other cultural organizations too.

There are many partnerships available to us if we go out looking for them and are creative about it and really think about our needs and the needs of the individuals, organizations, associations we hope to partner with.  When attempting to form a partnership, one must talk in words that the potential partner can understand and at the same time show confidence and legitimacy so that you can be trusted.

Examples of partnerships include working with libraries, museums, galleries, volunteers, universities, other archives, schools and government.  Partnerships can be started for many reasons from acquiring funding, obtaining/sharing expertise and creating awareness of the role of the archives in the community.  A partnership may be started to accomplish a single goal or may be much more long term.

I am very fortunate to be part of an archive with many partnerships – some informal, others formal.  Partnerships are crucial to me in my position at work and without partnerships my job right now would not exist.  The talk about partnerships was eye opening and fascinating.  I really enjoyed the conference.

I wish I had brought a camera with me – there are some nice walking paths in Windsor that I explored while attending the conference and my hotel had a beautiful view of Detroit and the river – though sometimes it was admittedly quite noisy with ships passing by and with the Red Wings winning the Stanley Cup!

I am so fortunate to have a workplace that supports my learning and development by providing me with the opportunity to travel to this conference and am thankful for the people at the  AAO for putting together a conference filled with learning opportunities and experiences and for providing me with the opportunity to meet friends and colleagues in this field.

The Importance of Course Selection…

I am now down to my last three courses towards a masters degree that will qualify me as a librarian.  I am seeing most of my friends graduate and go to job interviews and getting feedback from them about the importance of course selection.  Part of me is sad to see them leave me behind in graduate school but I am also really excited for my friends.  I chose to go the part-time route so I could work while I finish up my degree and am really grateful for the experience I am having.  I love my job and the people I work with.  Also, I know that I am going to really miss school when I finish up this degree.

Many of my friends are being asked by prospective employers if they took courses in Readers’ Advisory, Collection Development and Information Literacy.  This makes me more than a little nervous since I have been avoiding taking courses in Readers Advisory and Collection Development since I feel like these are things that may be better suited to learning on the job.  I took an advocacy course and I felt like the issues in that class were really important for libraries and for anybody in the profession to understand.  I think design is also pretty crucial to getting people to step in the front door of a library and to come back – though customer service also plays a strong part in that and I think the collections and library programs do too.  I have taken a course in Children’s Collection Development.  Do you think that counts?  How important is it that I take these courses?  I have a couple of years working as a library technician under my belt and am now working as a librarian archivist on a digitization project.  Did you take these courses?  Do you think it will hinder my chances at getting a permanent position when I graduate if I don’t take these courses?  Would I be able to learn these skills on the job or should I focus on taking these courses in the fall and winter?  Maybe it depends on the job I want to have when I graduate? Any advice would be appreciated.

Digitization Project Update

I never realized how much digitization would involve and have learned so much.  I had to develop standards and looked at what many of the libraries and archives out there were doing.  I had to decide on how to back-up my work.  Also I have had to think about what to digitize first and prioritize the collections.  Luckily I took the advice of so many that have done this before me.  I did not jump in right away and start digitizing.  I researched and figured out what would hopefully work best.  When I am digitizing I am making a preservation copy (a large TIFF file) and a small jpg that can be easily posted online.  I am hoping that this will allow us to follow a scan once policy.  So, if someone wants to have a print of a photograph they have seen online I can size the unedited master file to the size they require.  This allows for people to look at a specific photo in detail and will hopefully allow us to upload larger higher resolution photos as people get better quality screens on their computers.  We are pretty fortunate to be able to use the OurOntario.ca toolkit for this project.  The one great thing is that a person does not need much technical knowledge to upload photographs to the website.  At the moment I have digitized just over 600 photographs.  Although it is a slow process, in the end it should be really worthwhile.  Describing the photographs takes a lot of time since I am putting in all of the details that we know and thereby making the images searchable on the website.  It is really great to see that the list of organizations contributing to the ourontario.ca project is increasing as I really think this is a wonderful project.  I will soon be at the point where I will be finalizing my design for  marketing materials and promoting this project to the local community.  You can browse through the images I have posted here.  If you have any comments, suggestions or ideas for me about this project (or marketing this project) I would appreciate it.