As you might have guessed from all my blathering on about my lack of experience in the archival world, my resume is a little thin. So, I like to beef it up with "Professional Development". When a workshop, seminar, conference, etc. shows up at a reasonable distance and for a reasonable cost, I'm there. Ideally, my attendance to these events are for networking, but inevitably, I only chat with those at my table, and we're not exactly exchanging business cards.
This event was no different, but still very enjoyable. It was about two and half hours due East, so I had to be up pretty early, which sucked, but that also meant traffic was light. That was a good thing, since I had just come to the Cuyahoga River as the sun came up, and the mist coming off the river was just astounding, so my eyes were off the road momentarily.
Really. It was just for a moment.
I showed up early to an event for the first time in, well, ever. It was only about 15 minutes, but enough time to refresh, and fill up on coffee. (The caffeinated of which was quickly exhausted; all that was left in the afternoon, during the post-lunch drowse, was decaf. Sigh.)
The workshop was put on by the Society of Ohio Archivists and the Ohio Historical Society, whose Digital Services Team presented Digitization 101. I loved that this presentation was essentially a step by step discussion of how to develop and put up online collections, according to what worked for OHS. I had read a book recently on creating online exhibits, but it mainly focused on tools and options, not on project planning and selection criteria. Much more comprehensible for me, I'm considering revisiting my family photos collection and applying these steps (obviously the scanning is already done, and I won't necessarily have a content management system to use), such as project proposal, budget, logic charts, and metadata. See the things I get excited about? I don't know.
Copyright, presented by a very upbeat and charming Michelle Deis, who owns Inspire Information Services, LLC that provides copyright services to libraries and other organizations, cleared up some of the mist that blinded me when it came to this complex legal issue. I say "some" because frankly, without full time dedication to studying copyright, I'm not sure I'll ever figure it out without handy sources, like this chart by Peter Hirtle (which may not be the same link offered by Ms. Deis, but I don't have my notes nearby). One thing I know, copyright is not the only thing archivists need to consider when debating what to put into online collections. Publicity rights require permission from the subjects of photos, even if the photographer signed over copyright to the archives. You either do the legwork, take the risk, or just post landscapes. We all want online access to everything, but it's not always so easy to accommodate the masses.
Copyright isn't any less intimidating after this workshop, and so my blog posts have included fewer and fewer pictures. One man's creative freedom stems another...
It was a good workshop, and I met a current MLIS student, and an archivist who works at a university just across the river from me. I enjoyed my conversations with them, and wouldn't have minded more breaks so that we could have talked more. Either way, it was a day filled with some great information, and I'm all about that.
