bhlstaffcallfeb2018

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Dial from U.S.: 1-877-860-3058
Dial from outside U.S.: link to international conference lines
Passcode 961479
Lead: Bianca Crowley
Notetaker: Grace Costantino

Charge: Biodiversity Heritage Library Staff share the collaborative responsibility for the daily operation, improvement, and promotion of the BHL as related to the mission and goals of the Library and its participating institutions. Staff participate in project communications, including monthly conference calls, BHL's issue tracking system, and various outreach and engagement activities. Staff are responsible for the digitization, discoverability and maintenance of content contributed to the BHL repository by its participating institutions.

Attendees (All) - TYPE DIRECTLY in the google doc

Agenda & Notes

Reminder: Toggle Mute/Unmute using *6

New to the call? Please introduce yourself and welcome!

new call schedule

Reminder: new every other month staff call schedule (Bianca)
First call of 2018. Trying a new ever other month schedule this year. We will check-in about half way through to see if bi-monthly okay. On the off-call month, Bianca is having open "office hours" that people can call into to ask questions during same date/call time. Bianca sends reminders about this.

Last month Jo from Kew called in and they had a quick discussion about digitization things.
Jo: It was really useful. I would advise anyone else to call in because it's a good opportunity to talk about any issues you may be having.

Bianca leaves line open for anyone to call in at any time.

Round Robin updates (All)

• It's our first call of 2018 - anyone care to share any BHL related goals for the year?
• Have you had any BHL happenings at your institution from the past few months?
• Do you have any questions/comments to share with the group? Chances are someone else has a similar question.
• Do you think it would be helpful to record our staff calls?
• BHL wiki FYI

Michael (Cornell) - personal goals, planning to work with Bianca on creating collection on pomology, apple and cider related and creating landing page for that. Also want to get through backlog and scan everything waiting to be scanned.

When will pan-BHL fund be replenished? We don't have date yet, but it will be after the Members Meeting, potentially sometime in April. But still working on process for adding funds to contract and it can take some time. We'll keep everyone posted on the status.

Michael (Cornell): Are we still sticking to only high priority items? Or is there leeway with medium priority.

Bianca: I really encourage you all to prioritize on your own. We indicate high priority digitization requests for things we have permission to digitize through permission agreements. The publisher expects to see their items in BHL within the year. We don't promise a certain turnaround time but we try to fulfill quickly. Make sure you get the in-copyright items taken care of. Other items are up to you. Most scanning requests that come in from users are low priority automatically, but you can decide to up priority if you want to.

Liz (CMN): We want to establish some priorities. We've been doing digitization mostly adhoc and responding to requests from users, but we'd like determine what our priorities for our collection are and get those digitized. The public is starting to pick up on our contributions to BHL and we're getting a lot of media attention and interviews. Our answer to the question on priorities remains open so our goal is to define those priorities.

Jackie (SIL): Unofficial goal this year is to eliminate outstanding requests from 2010, 2011, and 2012. Only 25 tickets, so I'd like to think we can close this year. A lot of these were lower priority and a majority are rare or need treatment or cataloging so that's why they've lingered. I encourage other BHLers to join us in this quest to fulfill old requests. We're currently supporting field book scanning for the Smithsonian Field Book Project, so a lot of our scanning will be field books this year, in addition to permissions titles coming out of EABL. I'm trying to stay on top of the scan request pool, so we're trying to take those things out of the pool that we can do. A little over 80 tickets now. If the requests are still in the pool, it means SIL can't fulfill so I encourage others to go in to find candidates to scan.

Mai (AMNH): Two of our Fedex boxes got lost in last EABL shipment and rerouted from NY to Princeton and went to Utah on the way. Finally got them back, nothing damaged, sent back to IA, but we're waiting to digitize because EABL out of funds. Should we use pan funds for anything still marked as EABL?

Bianca: Project is winding down but I don't think it's finished yet. As far as digitization goes, treat any permissions that BHL has acquired through any means as priorities and you can use the pan institutional funds to digitize those. We do have commitments to these publishers to include in BHL, so it is something that needs to be taken care of. We need to get some info from EABL folks at later time to address some of these outstanding scanning requests.

Mai (AMNH): In some cases with rare book requests, we were the last "hope." If we can't scan these internally, I've just been leaving the issues open in Gemini. How should I handle these?

Bianca: Two options: if you're sure AMNH was last hope, you can close as "won't fix." Other option is to punt back into scan request pool. As we acquire new partners, others might be able to take on. Make sure "type" is scan request and it says "unreviewed." Don't have anyone assigned to it. Make sure you leave a comment to indicate that you couldn't scan it anymore.

Mai: Do you have a preference?

Bianca: I think the won't fix option is the best for now because it's useful because we can direct people to a distinct set of materials. I say that because our scan request pool is over 80 some requests right now. I wouldn't want those rare requests to get lost in those right now.

Jackie (SIL): I agree, but before you move something to won't fix or scan request pool, check other partners to make sure that no one else can scan.

Bianca will remind people using document how to reassign issues . Basic steps:

1. search BHL partner catalogs for the requested material (in OCLC Connexion, select "Institution Holdings (li:)" from the <Holdings> drop down menu and enter the code [no quotes] in the <Institutions> field"YAM,COO,IBT,BOH,HMZ,DLC,VXG,MOA,FRBDG,SINLB,N8Q,RBG,SMI,GIS,AGL,UIU,YUS,ANS,CHBCG,CAW,OONMNS,JVG,LACAL,MBW,CNH,SMISA,"
2. identify several BHL holding institutions
3. enter a comment into the Gemini issue indicated the holding institutions and OCLC number(s)
4. assign the appropriate Resource(s) to the issue using http://s.si.edu/BHLscanmatrix as a reference -- likely easiest to pick one institution to begin with and let them know they can pass it onto the other holding institutions listed in your comment

Others want to share goals? Share them on listserv.

Do you think it would be helpful to record our staff calls?
Would recording calls be useful for those who can't make the call? Would you if you missed the call listen to a recording of a call previously held?
Mai (AMNH): I would find a recording useful.

BHL wiki FYI
Bianca: Wikispaces is saying farewell. Our bhl wiki will be going away at the end of September 2018. Wikispaces is going under basically. There is nothing coming in to replace it. BHL Secreatriat and tech team are looking at alternatives going forward. We may have a painful process ahead and thanks for your patience as we try to put out information in another platform.

We will retain the information, and we do have ideas for what we might use instead, but we're not sure on the details yet. We will keep you informed and prioritize this because the timeline has been established for us.

Silver lining - wiki can be unwieldy and hard to find things. Good opportunity to find a better solution.

Email Bianca if you're worried about preserving specific pages. Or for any questions about this? Email Bianca.

Committee updates

EC

• Planning underway for Members Mtg

Technical Development update (Joel Richard or Carolyn Sheffield)
Bianca: Macaw has surpassed a million pages uploaded.

Carolyn other updates: Full Text Search: Since last call, tech team (largely Mike L.) working on moving ahead with full txt search, primary focus of tech team. Cleaning up issues found and preparing for testing. Done first round of preliminary user testing (3 Smithsonian staff) on beta site. Tests conducted in site, in person with observational feedback. Overall positive. Tech team will be discussing results of testing next week. Will be preparing for next round of testing coming up over next few months. Goal to have series of different user groups to target for tests. First group largely specimen collection managers. Looking for other kinds of users from science backgrounds and general public. Will be looking for suggestions from staff and partner community for other testers moving forward so stay tuned for info on that.

Blog migration moving along. Joel will be presenting to Smithsonian IT for production soon.

page inserts and other page image corrections reminder and documentation (Bianca)

• submit a Gemini issue via email to: feedback@biodiversitylibrary.org or visit https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/contact#/comments
• There is some documentation on page insertions process. Still a draft but Bianca will be updating soon. If you have any page image corrections that need to happen, best thing to do is submit a Gemini issue. Bianca will get it and she can get in touch with you about the problem.
• If you've already corrected the image, I still need to hear from you via Gemini so I can direct tech team to help fix metadata issues that will result from this.
• Our page images live in IA exclusively. When we harvest metadata in BHL about these images, we are taking a snapshot of that book. When you add a page to a book in IA, we need to do some corrections in BHL. It means we need to get tech folks involved. So be sure to submit Gemini issues about this.
• Jackie (SIL): When we do this now, I just assign to Mike directly. Should I instead assign you?
• Bianca: Don't assign anyone. Enter them as regular issues and I will assign as necessary.
• Jackie: Should I make another ticket for re-alignment if this is part of a larger issue?
• Bianca: We're trying to help focus Mike's time on full text search, so we're trying to triage issues to others as appropriate to save his time.
• Jackie: kay, I will make another issue when this happens and link back to other issue. Make it a "tech issue" ticket and assign to no one. Bianca will handle from there.

Outreach update** (Grace Costantino)

• Coming soon! New and improved BHL blog! Check out a screenshot of the new blog homepage here.
  • We’re updating the design, navigation, and functionality of the BHL blog by migrating to a Wordpress site hosted on Smithsonian servers. We expect to launch the new site in the next 4-8 weeks.
  • The blog URL will remain the same: blog.biodiversitylibrary.org. All content on our current site will be migrated to the new site, and links for previously-published posts will continue to resolve on the new site.
  • New features and functionality include:
    • Improved navigation
      • 
    • Homepage content highlights
      • 
    • Post preview display
      • 
    • Author profiles and links
      • 
    • Simplified guest post submission: We will have a new form on a webpage allowing authors to submit guest posts for publication directly to the blog. This will greatly streamline the guest submission process and eliminate the need for authors to have logins to submit posts. Grace will send an email to all regular post contributors with details on this process once we get closer to launch.
    • Subscribing to the blog via email: As with our current blog, we will have the option to subscribe to the blog to receive new posts as emails. If you are currently subscribed via email to our existing blog, you will have to reconfirm your subscription once the new site launches since we'll now be hosting the blog on a new site. I will send out an email to all current blog subscribers with instructions on how to do this after the launch. If you don't reconfirm your subscription following those instructions, you won't receive our blog posts via email anymore.

Cataloging Group update (Bianca)

• reviewing initial sample of BHL records in OCLC

Bianca asked cataloging group to review sample records in OCLC. Been making progress with OCLC to give them sample to put into WorldCat. Cataloging group is reviewing that sample right now. Probably lots of work ahead but Bianca and CG working on this.
Collection Management update (Bianca Crowley)

• digital imaging specs updated

Bianca updated with cropping recommendations. Thanks to SIL, UIUC, and Harvard for their input. Months ago we had a discussion about uncropped pages. We weren't talking about uncropped completely but cropped outside the pages, which is different than our typical cropping inside page image. Specs now have recommendations on this.

• moving walls -- now that it's Feb 2018 we can digitize as follows up to X years from TODAY
  • E.g.: for a 3 year moving wall we can digitize up to Feb 2015

Time to revisit incopyright titles that we include in BHL that have moving walls or embargoes assigned to these titles. Publisher will say we're free to include content in BHL up to a certain point. According to permission form, we can digitize up to however many years to publisher elects from the present day. For a title with a 3 year moving wall right now, we can digitize anything up to February 2015. It may be most practical to revisit those incopyright titles you've digitized in the past and prepare to add new issue sometime this year.

Part of Bianca's task is revisit moving wall issues in Gemini and refresh those so that institutions are alerted to add the next issue.

• deduping in Gemini reminder
  • search using magnifying glass icon
  • put phrases in quotes, AND boolean operator works

We have goal in BHL to avoid deduplication in BHL as much as possible. We have requested that everyone try to add their intent to digitize as a ticket in Gemini. Add a ticket for any title you will be digitizing into Gemini, and this lets everyone else know that they should not also scan this title. This helps us all save time and money on scanning.

So check Gemini system after you check BHL to make sure you're not duplicating efforts that are already underway. Ask Bianca via email if you need help searching Gemini.

Michael (Cornell): I've never signaled intent to scan in the past. Is there are particular naming convention in title to use?

Bianca: Easiest thing to do is email feedback@biodiversitylibrary.org, say you're going to digitize title x, and I can format issue as needed. You could also create the issue directly in gemini and add the title of the book as the gemini title so we'll see the list of book titles as gemini issue titles. We don't really want you to put a list of all titles together in one issue. We want a separate issue for each title. You can make it a scan request and assign yourself.

Jackie: Currently we do suggestion for our scanning and use scan request as those things coming from users.

Bianca: It doesn't really matter how you do it, but I see "scan request" as either user requests or staff scanning.

We just need to see that title in Gemini somewhere. Otherwise, folks don't know you're working on it, they might scan it as well, and then we end up with multiple copies that can be frustrating as wasting time and money.

Grant Project Updates

• Field notebooks CLIR/Arcadia -- (Adriana Marroquin)

Arcadia and CLIR wrapping up in May. Arcadia: 63% done for digitization. Primarily as of January half time person at SIA, an intern, and support of SIL digitization to achieve this. 200 items since call in Dec added. Final report is forthcoming for this project - it's due in august.

CLIR - interim report is upcoming at end of this month. Partners please keep an eye on email in case Adriana has questions. 78% complete on digitization. 83,000 pages added since call in Dec. almost 2,000 items are in BHL collection, just under 160,000 pages. Started adding Berkley MVZ items (needed MARC record help to ingest). Continue reading FBP blog series. Just had one from NYBG, Harvard last month.

CLIR 2017 application was not selected this round. Some interest from partners to address comments from review board to resubmit.

• NDSR grant -- (Bianca on behalf of Joe deVeer)
  • The residents completed their work and departed in early January. We have now begun the process of composing the final project executive summary which is due in August. Each of the mentors are currently reading the resident’s final white papers and gleaning their recommendations for the next generation BHL and any other points of interest that should be included in the summary. The mentors will have a face-to-face meeting on March 12 in LA prior to the Annual Meeting to discuss our findings from the reports and how we can synthesize them for the executive summary.

Find links to recordings of past webinars from NDSR residents here: http://blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2017/11/announcing-five-webinars-from-bhls-ndsr.html

• Expanding Access -- IMLS (Susan Lynch)

Next ad hoc session for open discussion/training on March 22 (March 15 Secretariat will be at the BHL Annual Meeting)
Next BHL Staff call on April 19, 2018 @ 11am ET