Genealogy and Preservation Instructive Experiences

The Beaufort District Collection provides instructive and enlightening experiences in our wheelhouse of  local history, Gullah culture, genealogy, archaeology, natural history and materials preservation. This week we are providing instructive experiences via two free BDC programs at two of the system branch libraries:  

FAMILY HISTORY DROP-IN

February 4, 2015 at 4 pm – 6 pm |BDC@ Lobeco Branch | Ages 12 – Adults

Charmaine will be on hand to answer questions about how to start uncovering your roots. Get some solid one-on-one genealogical advice.

EPHEM-ORIES: DIGITAL PRESERVATION HOBBYIST GROUP

Thursday, February 5 at 2pm - 4 pm  |BDC@ St. Helena Branch | Ages 12 – Adults

Learn some strategies to protect all those holiday family digital images for the future. Bring your questions (and your images/devices) to get good digital image preservation advice.

No need to register.  We'll handle questions one customer at a time.

New BDC-Led Digital Preservation Hobbyist Group for Family Treasures

As the Library system’s special local history collection and archives, we preserve materials in the Beaufort District Collection (BDC) each and every day. Our highest priority is to be good stewards of the cultural heritage materials entrusted to us for the community. Therefore we must be up-to-date on preservation thought, practices, and techniques.

One of the key components of a librarian's professional life is to guide others to information that helps them meet their personal goals. This requires professional librarians to learn new things as we adapt to new circumstances. Our cultural heritage, whether held by institutions or family members, now embraces digital formats and preservation of digital formats for access in the future is a growing concern and challenge.

Over the past decade, how we capture memories have changed. Think about your daily life.  Do you capture memories on film cameras?  Probably not so often as you capture the moments of your life via digital format.  Tens of millions of images are taken every day with cell phones, smart phones, tablets, web cams, digital cameras, etc., many of those relating to our personal lives and families, in effect making each one of us our own personal archivist.


According to "Perspective on Personal Digital Archiving" (2013) by the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program at the Library of Congress "Without some focused attention, any personal collection is at high risk of loss – and quick loss at that." Thus, preservation of digital assets, whether institutional or personal, is a concern for librarians, archivists, and family historians in the 21st century. The Library is positioning itself to extend its traditional role as a center for lifelong learning to include 21st century skills such as digital preservation. The Beaufort County Library's Board of Trustees approved the Library system's Extended Strategic Plan:

The community will embrace the library as a center for lifelong learning opportunities. The team members will become specialists in a specific literacy and have confidence in their ability to impart their knowledge.

(To download the PDF go to Library homepage > About Us tab > Extended Strategic Plan).

By default, more or less, digital preservation is to become my specific literacy to share with others. The newly formed BDC-led Digital Preservation Hobbyist Group at St. Helena Branch is intended to provide tools to help you - over the course of the next year or so - to :

* Better manage your personal collections;
* Better manage the accumulation of images, documents and duplicate copies;
* Better manage distribution;
* Move materials to new formats when needed;
* Make physical copies of key images.

If any of this sounds interesting to you, just drop in at St. Helena Branch on Thursday.

We can muddle through the 21st century challenges of digital preservation and management processes that ensure the long-term accessibility of digital information-  together. No need to register, plus it's free!

Make Plans To Attend These BDC@ The Branches Programs

Throughout the year, the Beaufort District Collection brings in authors and speakers who address local history, archaeology, Gullah culture, genealogy, natural history and preservation issues. Some programs are held on evenings and/or weekends at various locations within the library system to accommodate working families and middle and high school students. 

Next week, the evening of Thursday, August 28th, be sure to come to the presentation about the worst natural disaster to ever strike Beaufort County. 

 We tackle the topic of digital preservation on Thursday, September 4^th:

•  Do you keep family pictures on your cell phone, Instagram, or digital camera? 
• Are you taking steps now to preserve those images for the future?  
•  Join the Digital Preservation Hobbyist Group to learn about how to preserve digital family heirlooms. 
• This free BDC@ St. Helena Branch Library program is open to anyone over age 12 interested in making sure that digital graduation image survives to 2020.
• The Group meets at 2 pm. 
• Special focus: Creating useful metadata for your images - so you can easily find them! 

We are delighted to be involved in the Beaufort Book Club on Thursday, September 18^th. Teresa Bruce, author of The Other Mother, mined the journals and images of the Byrne Miller Collection of the Beaufort District Collection as both source and inspiration to provide context to the relationship she had with this extraordinary woman. I will bring along selected items from the Byrne Miller Collection to display. Together we will discuss the book and how special collection materials and archives can support writers during the Beaufort Branch Book Club meeting at 5:30 pm. Please note: The group will gather in the 2nd floor lobby just outside our Research Room.

Reminder: The Research Room is closed for lunch, Aug. 19 through Aug. 25th.  Visit us 10 am - Noon and 1 pm - 5pm during this period. Regular hours resume Tues., Aug. 26th. 

Privacy Week, May 1 - 7

Someone somewhere is always watching our every move but we can't always find out exactly who is doing the watching nor what they are watching for or why they are watching or what they do with the information gathered during the watching. Librarians maintain that information should go both ways or not go at all.  "Choose Privacy Week" is a new initiative that invites people into a national conversation about privacy rights in a digital age. The campaign gives individuals the resources to think critically and make more informed choices about their privacy. 

I touched briefly on the topic during the inaugural "Digital Preservation" class I taught on May 1st as part of the BDC "Preservation Week" blitz.  If you put private images on your computer, on Facebook, on Family Search, or in the cloud, are the images truly "private?" Do you still "own" the information?  What happens to your digital assets upon your death? Who can access your digital assets?  A family historian needs to think through these issues of digital privacy.  

How do you "Know What's Posted About You Online?" Try Googling yourself.  Did you find anything surprising?
 
Although "Choose Privacy Week" is still pretty much off the radar of the general public, it should not be. Libraries are uniquely positioned to highlight awareness regarding serious concerns about online privacy because of our strong traditions of intellectual freedom, respect for privacy, digital literacy, and civic engagement. As the Library works on Activity 4.4 "Position the library as a place that brings people together and facilitates civic discussion," of our Extended Strategic Plan don't be surprised if "Choose Privacy Week" gets a higher profile in 2015.

Digital Archaeology

As this is still Archaeology Month, I share a blog entry by Leslie Johnston from The Signal: Digital Preservation entitled "Digital Archaeology" dated 09/10/2013.  The Signal is one of the Library of Congress's premier blogs. The entry is rich with links - and thought-provoking - considering how many computing (smart) devices have been used in just that past several decades.

Digital Archaeology

09/10/2013 01:41 PM EDT

I was staring at a blank screen when my colleague David came into my office. I semi-jokingly asked him for a blog topic. “I have one for you,” he replied. “Content Archaeology. Discuss.” And with that he left my office. People know that I trained as an archaeologist and did fieldwork in multiple locations.  I [...]

How would you define "Digital Archaeology?" 

Everyone On! Libraries Play Essential Role in Connect2Compete Campaign

Recently announced:  A partnership among the Public Library Association, a division of the American Library Association, the Institute for Museum and Library Services, OCLC’s Web Junction, the Chief Officers of State Library Agencies, the Federal Communications Commission, and the non-profit Connect2Compete to provide access to broadband Internet services and digital literacy training for the 100 million Americans who do not have access from home. There is common agreement among the partners that libraries are essential to get “EveryoneOn” and competitive in the 21st century.  EveryoneOn is a public awareness effort designed to help all Americans access free digital literacy training in their libraries and community centers - a topic near and dear to the hearts and activities of librarians and public libraries across the country.    

On the national level, Susan Hildreth, Director of the Institute for Museum and Library Services reports that "Libraries are already stepping up to this challenge. Eighty-three percent of them offer informal training in digital literacy, helping people learn how to use computers, navigate the web, and find the best and most useful information. And 44 percent offer formal classes."

So how does our Beaufort County Library stack up against the national effort? We offer informal and formal training in digital literacy.  We help people learn how to use computers, navigate the web, and find the best and most useful information. According to the recent report of our assistant director, Jan O'Rourke, to our Library system's Board of Trustees regarding our system's progress towards meeting literacy related goals set in the 2011 - 2013 Strategic Plan, we have accomplished a great deal towards our goals:

GOAL 2

Make informed decisions by understanding how to find, evaluate, and use information in all formats. Beaufort County residents will have access to information in all formats and will acquire the skills needed to search for, locate, evaluate and effectively use information to meet their personal goals.

Continue and expand the “WorkStarts” initiative

ü As of December 2012, our WorkStarts presence on our website has been visited 6,713 times.

ü 78 job seeker labs have been offered

ü 158 one-on-one sessions have been held.

ü 353 classes of interest to job seekers have occurred (resume preparation, how to set up an e-mail account in order to apply online, etc.). These numbers, thus far, have exceeded our targets.

ü Additionally we have convened 2 breakfast information-sharing meetings with other entities involved in workforce development.

Continue to provide high speed internet to online information

ü Instruction on proprietary databases, as needed:  approximately 15.

ü Monthly classes on software applications and/or basic computing: 92 total.

The BUILD Team will stay abreast of new technologies and service innovation trends

ü The concepts of makerspaces in libraries, participatory librarianship, using iPADS as early literacy tools, promoting media literacy and transliteracy, using social media tools for programming, book discussions and forums are all ideas that are being explored.  A full report on this as well as what the library of the 21^st Century might look like will be available by spring.

Goal 3

Advance all forms of literacy for all ages. Beginning at birth, Beaufort County residents will have the programs and services that enable them to enter school ready to learn and, throughout life, residents will have the support they need to improve their literacy skills in order to meet their personal goals.

Obtain an early literacy grant to develop and implement a targeted early literacy service plan to pre-schoolers, families and caregivers

ü In 2011 we received a grant for $18,000 + from the Community Foundation of the LowCountry to create a training kit that included board books, resources and a DVD on best practices for providing early literacy tools for parents, guardians, and caregivers.

ü The program, WeeRead, debuted in the Hilton Head and Bluffton branches and will be expanded north of the Broad this year.

At the conclusion of 2012:

·         585 children have participated in some capacity (Summer Reading and/or Story times) along with 467 adults.

·         77 story times have been given.

·         We held 23 training sessions.

·         383 surveys indicated that parents, guardians and caregivers felt that the program was worthwhile.

Continue and expand involvement with the Born to Read Program with funding from the Friends

ü Although we continue to participate in this program we may face some difficulty in expanding the service as the Friends groups are experiencing reduced to support this program.

ü New card registrations increased from 45 in 2011 to 60 in 2012.

By the end of 2012, establish a homework help program through system-led research, development and implementation

ü In 2012 we received a Library Services and Technology Act grant for $2,500.00 that enabled us to hire a consultant to help us develop a model program. Ms. Suzy Lange provided a detailed report that included a recommendation to purchase the 24/7 live homework help product, Brainfuse. 

ü Brainfuse is now available on our website and usage is beginning to climb as of January 2013.

ü Pilot Homework Centers were opened in 2012 in St. Helena and Beaufort.  St. Helena’s program is active and providing homework help every Saturday.  Customer response to Beaufort’s Center was unsatisfactory and the center closed in November 2012.  Subsequent to the setting of this goal in 2011, the United Way created a Women’s Leadership Council that has recruited an impressive number of volunteer tutors to provide reading assistance in the early grades.  Additionally, Title 1 schools are able to provide free tutoring services to children eligible for the school lunch program.  Thus, we have suspended plans to establish homework centers south of the Broad as we feel we are duplicating services and our limited resources should be redirected as a result.

Partner with the Literacy Volunteers of the Lowcountry and other literacy organizations to provide tutoring space for ESL and other literacy volunteers

ü One of our reference managers is on the Board of the Literacy Volunteers of the Lowcountry.

ü Space is available at our branches for tutoring.

Work with the Literacy Volunteers of the LowCountry to establish an adult literacy collection in all branches

ü Our staff member, who is on the Literacy Volunteers of the Lowcountry Board, is assisting in developing recommendations for a core collection.  However, due to budget realities, we are going to pursue grant opportunities for funding of literacy collections.

To read the announcement from IMLS, click Everyone On! Libraries Play Essential Role in Connect2Compete Campaign.  

Jan O'Rourke, Assistant Director of the Beaufort County Library system, stands ready to answer any questions you might have about our current Strategic Plan and our plans for preparing another one to begin in 2014.  Contact: jorourke@bcgov.net; 843-255-6464.