Providing equitable access to library technology is not only good for service, it’s the right thing to do. But how can you decide how to select and implement cost-effective computer technology for users who need assistive help?

Implementing Cost-Effective Assistive Computer Technology: A How-To-Do-It Manual for Librarians® by Jane Vincent contains step-by-step guidance supplemented by many forms and checklists to help you make these important decisions. The checklist and worksheet below below will help you get started with the planning process.

Excerpted from: Implementing Cost-Effective Assistive Computer Technology: A How-To-Do-It Manual for Librarians®, pp. 41; 113. ©2011 by Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.

Learn more about this author and her work.

Remember, there is a practical, new How-To-Do-It Tip from Neal-Schuman’s acclaimed How-To-Do-It Manuals® every two weeks. Make sure you never miss an update by subscribing to our blog feed or signing up for email delivery.

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Congratulations to Marcia Lei Zheng, co-recipient of a National Leadership Grant from the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). Dr. Zheng and her co-recipient, Karen Gracy, both faculty members in the School of Library and Information Science at Kent State University, will use the funds amounting to $219,386 to improve digital resources through Linked Open Data (LOD).

Dr. Zheng is the co-author of Metadata. (Click here to learn more.)

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If a local historical society donated an extensive photo collection to your library, and asked that you put the collection online, would you know where to start? Deciding what data to keep, in this case photographs, is often the first step. But how can you evaluate the collection and know which of the photos to digitize?

Today’s How-To-Do-It Tip comes from Digital Curation: A How-To-Do-It Manual , by Ross Harvey, and it can help your library decide which data ought to be digitized.

Appraisal and Selection Policies
Appraisal and selection policies are developed to assist in answering the key questions of appraisal and selection (Do we want to keep the data? Do we need to keep the data? How long do we keep the data?) and to ensure that the right data are kept for valid reasons. Policies are important because they allow informed consistent decisions to be made that can be defended if challenged. An appraisal and selection policy for digital objects or data typically addresses five themes:

1. Future users (the designated community)
2. The feasibility of preservation (both economic and technical feasibility)
3. Legal and intellectual property rights
4. Whether data is mission-critical, vital to the success of a project or organization
5. Associated data (metadata or description and representation information)

The Data Audit Framework, developed in the United Kingdom by HATII at the University of Glasgow and the DCC, articulates these themes in its five principal classification questions (Jones, 2008). These help auditors decide whether data sets can be classed as vital, important, or minor:

• Are these data central to your research?
• Will the data be useful in the future?
• Are you the intellectual owner?
• Are they documented and in a sustainable form?
• Are they already being preserved elsewhere?

More specifically, an appraisal and selection policy for digital objects or
data assists data curators to answer questions such as these:

• Does the digital object or data fit into the archive’s selection policy?
• Who will or might use the digital object or data in the future? Is there a defined designated community?
• Is it economically feasible to keep the digital object or data?
• Can acceptable legal and intellectual property rights, to keep and reuse the digital object or data, be negotiated?
• Is there a legal requirement to keep the digital object or data for a certain period of time? Is there a requirement to make them accessible during this period?
• Does the digital object or data constitute the “vital records” of a project or organization and therefore need to be retained indefinitely?
• Is it both technically feasible and worthwhile in cost/benefit terms to preserve the digital object or data?
• Does sufficient documentation and metadata exist to explain the character and enable the discovery of the digital object or data?

Examination of appraisal and selection schemes provides further guidance. One example is the Data Preservation Alliance for the Social Sciences (2005) appraisal guidelines. These guidelines provide a consistent framework for appraisal decision-making for social science data.

Eight questions are posed:

1. How significant are the data for research?
2. How significant is the source and context of the data, particularly in regard to scientific progress and society?
3. Is the information unique?
4. How usable are the data?
5. What is the timeframe covered by the information?
6. Are the data related to other data in the archives?
7. What are the cost considerations for long-term maintenance of the data?
8. What is the volume of data?

Although these criteria are intended for data archives, specifically social science archives, they are more widely applicable. Questions 5 (What is the timeframe covered by the information?) and 6 (Are the data related to other data in the archives?) address the relationship that the data set being appraised has with other data, as this may enhance its value: for example, the data set may be a continuation of a longitudinal study and valuable for this reason. Question 8 (What is the volume of data?) relates to the feasibility of preservation, as an archive may not be equipped to store and curate large quantities.

Exerpted from: Digital Curation: A How-To-Do-It Manual, pp. 138-139. ©2011 by Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.

Remember, there is a practical, new How-To-Do-It Tip from Neal-Schuman’s acclaimed How-To-Do-It Manuals® every two weeks. Make sure you never miss an update by subscribing to our blog feed or signing up for email delivery.

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Ulla De Stricker, co-author of The Information and Knowledge Professional’s Career Handbook: Define and Create your Success with Jill Hurst-Wahl, shares some of her views about the book and the information profession with us. Ulla is a Knowledge Management Consultant on projects associated with information acquisition, knowledge worker support, and institutional memory. Kim Dority at Infonista compared reading this book to “hanging out with two really smart, experienced, and wise mentors,” so we’re lucky to get to spend more time with the author.

·  What were some key reasons making you and Jill feel the book had to be written?

Jill and I consider ourselves “natural mentors” in that we have offered support to professional colleagues for our entire careers. It was a natural evolution for us to co-author The Information and Knowledge Professional’s Career Handbook: Define and Create Your Success. In it, we boil down the advice we have shared though the years with colleagues at any stage of their careers. The profession of librarianship—in all its modern variants—is changing ever faster, and the career opportunities go far beyond the standard ones in academic, corporate/government, and public/school libraries. However, it is obvious that many newly minted holders of the Master’s Degree in Library and Information Studies/Science, as well as mid-career professionals, may not have had opportunities to think carefully through such questions as “What is my best professional role?” and “What type of work environment would enable me to maximize my education and abilities?”. Similarly, matters such as navigating corporate politics, succeeding in a managerial role, and developing a professional brand may not have been covered in any depth during graduate school. The book is intended to raise a number of questions for readers to stimulate their thinking and encourage them to plan – but give chance a chance when it comes to their careers.

·  What have readers’ reactions been?

It delights me to hear how the book is experienced as refreshingly direct and practical. It is gratifying to find out that it is valuable for others to read about “the way it really is.” Indeed, Jill and I made it a point to speak frankly about our own experiences in order to offer our hard-earned insights. A second feature readers appreciate is the fact that the book has relevance throughout a career—some chapters will be very apropos for students and recent graduates while other chapters will resonate more once some experience has been accumulated. We did intend the book as a permanent career companion as well as a perfect graduation gift!

·  How did you like writing this book, and do you have a favorite chapter or section?

I enjoyed every bit of the writing, yet if I were to point out two areas particularly close to my heart they would be knowing who you are and developing your brand. I’m passionate about encouraging colleagues to shed any shyness and get busy promoting their skills to potential employers—and that is not at all straightforward (quite apart from the fact that some members of our profession express a reluctance to toot their horns). At the same time, I’m down to earth about the need for information professionals to project a polished image commensurate with their competencies and to build a reputation through association work and similar profile-raising activity. Here, I always stress the good news that giving to the profession through volunteering returns benefits many times over… it pays to get involved.

·  If you could achieve one small miracle for the information profession today, what would it be?

I would dearly love to see in my lifetime a dramatic lift in the overall societal understanding of what information professionals do. In some professions, practitioners—say, veterinarians and accountants—do not need to explain their work because their value and functions are well understood by most people. Information professionals, however, very much need to explain to potential employers how their qualifications are applicable to a gamut of roles, for example in client relations, marketing, policy analysis, and more. It would be a major career boost for our profession if private sector managers, government officials, and policy makers were clear on the wisdom of investing in the skills of an information professional. The challenges of information overload, knowledge worker silos, loss of intellectual capital through retirement and attrition, and similar phenomena will not go away… and information professionals can do a lot to ameliorate them. We information professionals must address collectively the challenge of raising awareness about our potential contributions.

Learn more about The Information and Knowledge Professional’s Career Handbook: Define and Create your Success on the book’s Web page, and be sure to keep up with Ulla on her professional blog www.destricker.com, which she updates with recent articles and seminars.

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Finding the best way to organize images for your collection can feel like a challenging task. Today Margot Note talks to with us about her new book, Managing Image Collections: A Practical Guide, and shares her enthusiasm for bringing this sometimes-theoretical subject down to earth. Margot is a Certified Archivist based in New York and is the Director of Archives and Information Management at World Monuments Fund, an international historic preservation organization. She has spent her career working in the cultural heritage sector, including in small liberal arts colleges, public and academic libraries, and archives.

 · How did you become interested in images and their collections?

While I was studying history in grad school, I found that images were often the only primary sources of information about my research subjects. My attraction to images continued as I further educated myself in library and information science and archives and records management. At my current position as Director of Archives and Information Management at World Monuments Fund (WMF), an international historic preservation organization, I manage a visual collection depicting more than 600 conservation projects in 90 countries over the past 45 years. To bring the images to a global audience, I’ve led an initiative to digitize thousands of images and create metadata for ARTstor. Through this opportunity, I’ve learned about the fundamentals of image management quickly! I’ve found that although my interest has always been in the past, preserving history relies on today’s technology.

· Why did you decide to write this book?

When I tried to gain knowledge about managing traditional image collections of slides and photographic prints while also providing access to born-digital and digitized images, I discovered that there wasn’t a detailed guide on best practices for managing hybrid collections. While much has been written on image management theory, practical viewpoints have often been ignored. Balancing theory against practice protects both digital and analog collections and ensures that digitization projects run smoothly and the resulting digital collections are of superb quality.

· Who should read your book?

I wrote the book for archivists, librarians, and curators who manage image collections in heritage institutions, such as museums, galleries, archives, and academic and large public libraries. Administrators, scholars, and students interested in the challenges confronting professionals in this specialized area would also benefit from this book.

· What will readers discover from your book?

I wanted to cover a gamut of topics, including selection strategies, digital image creation, quality control, metadata access, and preservation. The book can be used by collection managers embarking on digitization projects or who are managing an existing projects. I’ve also included a guide of issues to consider while planning a digital project, a glossary of image collection terms, and a section on further reading.

· What has been the response to Managing Image Collections: A Practical Guide?

Overwhelmingly positive! It’s amazing that my work has reached Japan, Botswana, Slovenia, and other countries. Readers have found it informative and easy to read, as I tried to write in an engaging style. Too often, books on this subject are dry. My favorite part of the book is when I summarize the history of photography, which has become a new passion of mine.

Learn more about Managing Image Collections: A Practical Guide on the book’s Web page.

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For the last fourteen years, Jane Vincent has worked for the Center for Accessible Technology providing consultation to libraries on assistive technology acquisition and use throughout California, as well as evaluating Web site accessibility for businesses and organizations and performing assistive technology evaluations for individuals. She recently turned her expertise to writing Implementing Cost-Effective Assistive Computer Technology: A How-To-Do-It Manual for Librarians®, newly published this October. Here, Jane dispels some of the fictions surrounding assistive technology and shares her thoughts on how to implement assistive technology in libraries successfully.

· Assistive technology is usually thought of as equipment specifically for people with disabilities. Do you think this is accurate?

Not at all! I often say that assistive technology exists not because people have disabilities, but because computers are badly designed. Take the standard keyboard—the key markings usually take up about a fourth of the available space, instead of using large print that would make the keys easier to read by elders, children, and others. Inexpensive stick-on labels can greatly improve keyboard legibility. Another example is software that reads text aloud, which is a powerful tool for blind people and people with learning disabilities, but can also be helpful to beginning readers, ESL students, and anyone whose eyes are too tired for proofreading. And so on.

That said, many libraries will likely need to implement policies to ensure that the people who most need assistive technology to use computers will have priority access. Among several checklists and guides in the book is a series of questions to work through in setting policy guidelines relevant to the specific needs of your library. This will give staff a clear way to address issues such as when one patron might legitimately have a priority claim to a specific workstation over another, and when it would be appropriate to allow someone with a disability to reserve a computer for two hours instead of one.

· Libraries have sometimes seen “cost-effective” and “assistive technology” as being mutually incompatible. What’s the most important thing libraries can do to stretch their funds?

The best way — as with any service the library implements — is to find out and respond to the needs and preferences of the community. This can be done by conducting surveys and interviews with community members — patrons, of course, but also members of local organizations who provide services to people with disabilities, and other interested groups; in fact, developing an ongoing  partnership with these organizations can have a great deal of mutual benefit. Once you know what will be most relevant to your patrons, you can acquire and implement technology that will have the largest likelihood of being used regularly, rather than trying to guess what will work and ending up with equipment that just gets dusty.

Note that “cost-effective” doesn’t automatically equal “free.”  For example, there are many good assistive utilities already built into Windows and Macintosh operating systems, but even these have some cost.

At a minimum, they will probably require a discussion with IT staff to ensure that there is a way to provide access to them without compromising the integrity of security systems already on the computers. You’ll also need to check whether the assistive technologies you’re considering will work with your login system, databases, and mainstream applications. The book covers strategies for addressing these and other “hidden” issues.

· Once the technology is in place, how do you let patrons know it’s available?

You’ll want to use your usual channels, such as newsletters and Web sites, to reach not only your target audience, but also their friends, family members, and other supporters who can pass the word along. This is also a good example of why having partner organizations can help; these groups will have proven ways to reach their own memberships with your messages.

Before the patrons start coming, you also want to make sure your staff has had an appropriate level of training. They don’t need to know all the details of using the assistive technology, but they do need an overview of what the library has implemented and what it’s used for, along with an awareness of disability etiquette and how to refer people to patrons to services that the library can’t provide. The book includes several interviews with librarians about how they implemented assistive technology, and I’m particularly pleased with the one from the Ann Arbor District Library, where I had talked to several staff members at random, each of whom had obviously been well-trained in the assistive computer services that the library was newly providing.

· You’re maintaining a blog (at www.janevincent.com/iceact) to accompany the book. What’s the most exciting thing you’ve written about?

I’d have to say the Global Public Inclusive Infrastructure (GPII), which is working to create an entirely new model of assistive technology provision. Today, assistive technology in libraries is installed on individual computers, or maybe on a network; users often need to wait for specific computers to become available, and may then need to spend precious time reconfiguring settings to their preferences. In the future, with GPII, users will configure their preferences one time, and then by entering a code they can have their assistive technology come up fully configured to their needs. It will work from any Internet-connected device — not just computers, but also mobile devices, kiosks, and so on. I presented on GPII at the ALA conference in New Orleans, and was gratified to see the overwhelmingly positive response from librarians. The project’s website is www.gpii.org.

Feel free to contact Jane with your own questions—her email is jane [at] janevincent.com. Learn more about Implementing Cost-Effective Assistive Computer Technology: A How-To-Do-It Manual for Librarians® on the book’s Web page.

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