Volume 16, Number 2: April/May 2010

Page 2 The Vice Provost for University Libraries reflects on Google’s recent experience in China. • A new digital collection of 19th-century Spanish women’s magazines is now available to researchers. Page 3 Collector Gary Wait donates a treasure trove of juvenile literature from the 19th century to the Northeast Children’s Literature Collection at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center. Page 4 The Map and Geographic Information Center offers a new internship program, where students earn three academic credits and work eight hours a week while developing advanced Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and digitization skills. Page 5 Associate Professor of Anthropology Kevin McBride describes his work in having an important site in the Pequot War declared an historic battlefield. Page 6 Staff members celebrate anniversaries of library service. Page 7 The Libraries’ art exhibits program is celebrated in photos.

Raw as Archival Still Image Format: A Consideration

Source materials like fine art, over-sized, fragile maps, and delicate artifacts have traditionally been digitally converted through the use of controlled lighting and high resolution scanners and camera backs. In addition the capture of items such as general and special collections bound monographs has recently grown both through consortial efforts like the Internet Archive's Open Content Alliance and locally at the individual institution level. These projects, in turn, have introduced increasingly higher resolution consumer-grade digital single lens reflex cameras or "DSLRs" as a significant part of the general cultural heritage digital conversion workflow. Central to the authors' discussion is the fact that both camera backs and DSLRs commonly share the ability to capture native raw file formats. Because these formats include such advantages as access to an image's raw mosaic sensor data within their architecture, many institutions choose raw for initial capture due to its high bit-level and unprocessed nature. However to date these same raw formats, so important to many at the point of capture, have yet to be considered "archival" within most published still imaging standards, if they are considered at all. Throughout many workflows raw files are deleted and thrown away after more traditionally "archival" uncompressed TIFF or JPEG 2000 files have been derived downstream from their raw source formats [1][2]. As a result, the authors examine the nature of raw anew and consider the basic questions, Should raw files be retained? What might their role be? Might they in fact form a new archival format space? Included in the discussion is a survey of assorted raw file types and their attributes. Also addressed are various sustainability issues as they pertain to archival formats with a special emphasis on both raw's positive and negative characteristics as they apply to archival practices. Current common archival workflows versus possible raw-based ones are investigated as well. These comparisons are noted in the context of each approach's differing levels of usable captured image data, various preservation virtues, and the divergent ideas of strictly fixed renditions versus the potential for improved renditions over time. Special attention is given to the DNG raw format through a detailed inspection of a number of its various structural components and the roles that they play in the format's latest specification. Finally an evaluation is drawn of both proprietary raw formats in general and DNG in particular as possible alternative archival formats for still imaging.

Institutional Repository Workflow from Initial Inquiry to Repository Upload

A workflow flowchart on the verification steps involved in preparation to uploading assets to the University of Connecticut's institutional repository (http://digitalcommons.uconn.edu). This flowchart is geared towards assisting subject liaisons who also serve as series administrators for UConn@DigitalCommons.

Volume 13, Number 2: April/May 2007

Page 2 – The Vice Provost for University Libraries reflects upon the strides made in the last year. Page 3 - Ornithologist David Sibley’s Edwin Way Teale lecture is featured. Page 5 - In a guest column on diversity issues, Professor Hedley Freake examines what UConn is doing to engender cultural understanding in students. Page 6 - Staff anniversaries and awards. Page 7 - Finding articles, images, and music easier with new database locator.

Volume 11, Number 2: April/May 2005

Page 2 – The Vice Provost cites 2004/2005 as a year of significant accomplishments for the Libraries. • The Dodd Research Center and the Human Rights Institute plan a conference on economic human rights for October. Page 3 - Researcher Bill V. Mullen talks about the work of avant garde musician, composer, and author Fred Ho, whose archive is in Archives & Special Collections. Page 4 - Students tell us why they come to the library. • The Dodd Research Center commissions two students to create a logo for its 10th anniversary celebration. • Fragile pamphlets are given new life in the Conservation Lab. Page 5 - The library sponsors a national symposium to explore new technology. • Our newest digital project can lead you to everything you ever wanted to know about Connecticut. • A new Pharmacy Library will open its doors in June. Page 6 - Staff News: service anniversaries and new faces. Page 7 - The Class of 1955 is raising $50,000 for an undergraduate instruction classroom in the library.

Google Analytics & CONTENTdm: Harness Up Your Repository Metrics

A demonstration of the installation and use of Google Analytics with CONTENTdm in order to better gather metrics and insight into both general and specific online traffic across such digital repositories. Issues addressed will include collection-level traffic, digital object-level traffic, general site referrals to the repository, specific referrals to the repository, search engine referrals, user keywords, traffic occurring inside and/or outside an institution’s own network, reporting options.

Volume 10, Number 3: September/October 2004

Page 2 - Users tell us what they think about library service, and library director Brinley Franklin explains why he thinks the library is a good investment. Page 3 - Pulitzer Prize-winning music critic Tim Page, once the beneficiary of the library’s music collections, is now a patron of the Music & Dramatic Arts Library. Page 4 - Donors to the Libraries during FY 2004 Page 5 - Remembering Theora Whetten, long-time Friend of the Libraries; welcoming new Friends, the Class of ‘55. Page 6 - Beach Society members include the Libraries in their estate plans. Stamford honors Estelle Feinstein. Page 7 - Jack & Virginia Stephens donate a collection of Connecticut town histories.