Ok, wormholes is a little extreme, but I've been watching some back episodes of the TV show Sliders about traveling to parallel dimensions and whatnot. That's kind of like clicking around in new tabs, following links, and getting lost in the interwebs, right? This post addresses some accessibility concerns with the TJLP database LibraryThing records.
With our TJLP LibraryThing catalog records, we're creating a rich, interactive bibliographic information-session for users. The records that I've been dealing with describing the Wythe bequest are especially complex - filled with lots of data to tell the story of the book coming into Jefferson's library, its representation there, and then its possible dispersal to Congress or somewhere else. The records are all formatted in the same way, which hopefully prevents confusion. But with this amount of information on one record there are other variables that influence access and user-friendliness. LibraryThing is a social environment, and the catalog record reinforces this by linking to information resources - other catalog records, transcriptions, manuscript images, author pages, etc. The potential for getting lost down rabbit holes is great. So how best to account for that? In code to open in new tabs or windows? In help/user guides explaining system search and retrieval? Also, we can't account for users' personal browser settings affecting some of these actions. And do users know better/prefer to user their back arrows or close new tabs/windows?
We've tried to present a lot of useful and enriched information in an organized manner in these records. Retrieving and navigating that information likewise needs to be an organized, efficient process in order to successfully convey information in this environment. Interesting quandaries...
Friday, April 16, 2010
New TJLP Site
It's been an exciting couple of weeks for the Thomas Jefferson's Libraries Project at Jefferson Library. The Project has a new website home that recently went live on Monticello's server. This allows TJLP to grow and add content in new ways and generally become a richer experience for users. Until recently, TJLP database records were managed in the third-party content management system PubMan by dataformat.com. Database searches from the new site retrieve LibraryThing records, reflecting the recent efforts to migrate the Thomas Jefferson's Libraries Project database content there, which is largely what I've been contributing to at Jefferson Library. The new site helps explain the complexity of the Project to users, the reasons Jefferson Library is attempting to identify the books Thomas Jefferson owned in his personal libraries throughout his life, and various ways that users might navigate the site and LibraryThing in order to satisfy their information needs. The site will be growing as more content is added; likewise will the database continue to grow with records and be more useful to a variety of users. Read all about the Project.
Take a look around, and give us some feedback here. The folks at Jefferson Library are anxious to know what users think of the site!
Take a look around, and give us some feedback here. The folks at Jefferson Library are anxious to know what users think of the site!
Monday, March 29, 2010
Assumptions, Variables, general Perplexities
Recently I had the benefit of a helpful 'information literacy' session at Jefferson Library. This wasn't a scheduled regular library event or anything. I've been keeping notes of problems or roadblocks I encounter in my LibraryThing project - basically things that stump me. My supervisor and I went through these notes the other day and it was an illuminating ordeal. I got to see the process through her eyes, and it further solidified for me that the Thomas Jefferson's Libraries Project that I'm contributing to is complex and meaningful work. Also, it seemed that the records that stumped me did so for pretty good reason, and that was satisfying, even if still perplexing.
For questions tracing provenance and accounting for titles I saw some new or different resources at play: the 1840 Library of Congress catalogue and the 1873 Leavitt auction catalogue. With the LibraryThing records I'm working on - the Wythe bequest to Jefferson in 1806 - we're trying to show users an awful lot, and there are lots of variables. There's the fact/assumption that the book came from Wythe in 1806. We have the newly discovered Wythe list showing these titles in Jefferson's hand. Then, we want to show these titles appearing in Jefferson's "master" list of 1783, so I search for them there. When the title appears written the same way as on the Wythe list, and in darker ink (suggesting a late entry ca. 1806), this suggests that it's Wythe's copy. Then we want to see if that title was sold to Congress, so we check a resource reconstructing Jefferson's list of books sold to them in 1815. If it's there, and still in the same nomenclature and size (4to, 8vo, etc.), presumably this is Wythe's copy that ended up at Congress. Lastly, we want to describe the item itself. To do this we rely on E. Milicent Sowerby's five volume Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson (1952-59), which reconstructed TJ's library at Congress. Some of the works she described were not extant, having been destroyed in the library's 1851 fire or otherwise missing. If they do exist, we include a physical description in our LibraryThing record based on Sowerby's notes.
Whew! An interesting variable that often crops up is that Wythe's copy might duplicate one Jefferson already owned. TJ's 1783 master list entry for that title might be written over, rubbed out then written over, or have "2 copies" written out in the margin, or something to that effect. If that title appears at Congress, this complicates determining whether or not it was Wythe's copy Jefferson sold. Sometimes this plays out more easily: if Wythe's and TJ's copies are dissimilar in some way like publication or size. But sometimes it does not play out, and so we do what we can. Sometimes the title does not appear at Congress. Sometimes it appears but does not seem to be Wythe's entry - why? Sometimes it seems TJ kept one of two copies for himself, selling the other to Congress, but which one? We try to account for the titles on TJ's lists using the resources avaliable and determine what happened to them without making great assumptions.
Therein lies the rub. We're trying to make connections with these LibraryThing records, link lots of data together in meaningful and apparent ways. Sometimes it's hard to know how to straddle subjectivity and objectivity in that endeavor. This translates broadly in information management: in deciphering and disseminating access to recources we must be careful of our whims. I like it when these LT records present a clear story - Wythe bequethed this title to TJ in 1806; TJ sold it to Congress in 1815 where it still resides and looks like _this_. But I also like reminding myself and others that we can't know everything, and furthermore that we can't presume to know, and so some records reflect this.
For questions tracing provenance and accounting for titles I saw some new or different resources at play: the 1840 Library of Congress catalogue and the 1873 Leavitt auction catalogue. With the LibraryThing records I'm working on - the Wythe bequest to Jefferson in 1806 - we're trying to show users an awful lot, and there are lots of variables. There's the fact/assumption that the book came from Wythe in 1806. We have the newly discovered Wythe list showing these titles in Jefferson's hand. Then, we want to show these titles appearing in Jefferson's "master" list of 1783, so I search for them there. When the title appears written the same way as on the Wythe list, and in darker ink (suggesting a late entry ca. 1806), this suggests that it's Wythe's copy. Then we want to see if that title was sold to Congress, so we check a resource reconstructing Jefferson's list of books sold to them in 1815. If it's there, and still in the same nomenclature and size (4to, 8vo, etc.), presumably this is Wythe's copy that ended up at Congress. Lastly, we want to describe the item itself. To do this we rely on E. Milicent Sowerby's five volume Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson (1952-59), which reconstructed TJ's library at Congress. Some of the works she described were not extant, having been destroyed in the library's 1851 fire or otherwise missing. If they do exist, we include a physical description in our LibraryThing record based on Sowerby's notes.
Whew! An interesting variable that often crops up is that Wythe's copy might duplicate one Jefferson already owned. TJ's 1783 master list entry for that title might be written over, rubbed out then written over, or have "2 copies" written out in the margin, or something to that effect. If that title appears at Congress, this complicates determining whether or not it was Wythe's copy Jefferson sold. Sometimes this plays out more easily: if Wythe's and TJ's copies are dissimilar in some way like publication or size. But sometimes it does not play out, and so we do what we can. Sometimes the title does not appear at Congress. Sometimes it appears but does not seem to be Wythe's entry - why? Sometimes it seems TJ kept one of two copies for himself, selling the other to Congress, but which one? We try to account for the titles on TJ's lists using the resources avaliable and determine what happened to them without making great assumptions.
Therein lies the rub. We're trying to make connections with these LibraryThing records, link lots of data together in meaningful and apparent ways. Sometimes it's hard to know how to straddle subjectivity and objectivity in that endeavor. This translates broadly in information management: in deciphering and disseminating access to recources we must be careful of our whims. I like it when these LT records present a clear story - Wythe bequethed this title to TJ in 1806; TJ sold it to Congress in 1815 where it still resides and looks like _this_. But I also like reminding myself and others that we can't know everything, and furthermore that we can't presume to know, and so some records reflect this.
Standin' in the Reading Room
On March 18, I attended a Virginia Festival of the Book event held at Jefferson Library. The library's reading room was standing-room only to hear Boston Globe reporter Michael Kranish discuss his new book Flight from Monticello : Thomas Jefferson at war. The event was interesting to me for several reasons. First, Kranish was a delightful speaker. His talk touched on a few major points of the book illustrating Jefferson's westward retreat from Richmond and eventually Monticello during the Revolution. He also talked a bit about diaries and British Naval logs and other resources. As a library school student and from an intern's perspective, I was interested in the event for other reasons. It was fascinating to watch the library space quickly transform to accommodate the event and book signing afterward. I understand that Monticello's Thomas Jefferson Foundation is planning to build a conference center near the library which will better accommodate such large events. This probably has benefits and drawbacks for the library. This particular event was very crowded and it was hard to hear where I was standing in the back, and library work was obviously interrupted for the duration of the event. On the other hand, the event took place in the library's reading room, among the stacks, clearly illustrating the library's function in the scholarship being discussed. Furthering this point, Kranish had been a visiting research fellow at the International Center for Jefferson Studies, where Jefferson Library is housed, and had done much of his research for Flight from Monticello in the very reading room in which he spoke. He made these points to the crowd. The reading room remained set up for another event the next day when I wanted to check something in the stacks but couldn't because the large tables were still being stashed away; I didn't think it appropriate to crawl all over them... Moving such events to a more generic conference space might allow for more focused library events and disrupt staff work less, and create more events in general, but I hope that it does not separate in people's minds the library's resources and services from the wonderful work that goes on there.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Ex Libris...
This article about bookplates in the Yale Alumni Magazine was linked from Library Stuff recently. It's an interesting read, even if it gets a bit tough on ereaders toward the end (somebody has to, I suppose...). I rarely wrote in any of my many books growing up, and certainly wouldn't now. Working in a seconds/hurts book store for many years I saw lots of bookplates and inscriptions, and I see them here and there in yard sale and junk shop finds. On some level I suppose it's an interesting bit of metadata - these stamps instantly humanize an item, force you to realize its experiences prior to or outside of your own.
Why am I rambling about this? I'm consistently making bookplate notes in the LibraryThing records I'm creating for Jefferson Library - mostly about George Wythe's and the Library of Congress 1815 bookplates. Thomas Jefferson initialed his books' signatures, from what I understand usually at signatures I and T, for 'T'homas 'J'efferson (there being no 'J' in Latin). Interestingly, as I'm making my way through the 1806 Wythe bequest to Jefferson, very few books seem to be initialed by TJ. Some have posited that he did not have the time to initial the books while on leave from the presidency. My supervisor at Jefferson Library, Endrina, suggests that perhaps it was more out of deference to his mentor and law tutor that TJ opted not to initial the books he kept from Wythe. I like that theory. He kept only a fraction of the titles, and judging by his proclivity for list-making and note-taking that even I've picked up on in my short time interning at Jefferson Library, I find it hard to believe that Jefferson simply fell short of time to initial those books.
So anyway, do you adorn your favorite titles with 'Ex Libris ______', sign at the sigs, or, I suppose nowadays, drop a DOI (digital object identifier)?
Why am I rambling about this? I'm consistently making bookplate notes in the LibraryThing records I'm creating for Jefferson Library - mostly about George Wythe's and the Library of Congress 1815 bookplates. Thomas Jefferson initialed his books' signatures, from what I understand usually at signatures I and T, for 'T'homas 'J'efferson (there being no 'J' in Latin). Interestingly, as I'm making my way through the 1806 Wythe bequest to Jefferson, very few books seem to be initialed by TJ. Some have posited that he did not have the time to initial the books while on leave from the presidency. My supervisor at Jefferson Library, Endrina, suggests that perhaps it was more out of deference to his mentor and law tutor that TJ opted not to initial the books he kept from Wythe. I like that theory. He kept only a fraction of the titles, and judging by his proclivity for list-making and note-taking that even I've picked up on in my short time interning at Jefferson Library, I find it hard to believe that Jefferson simply fell short of time to initial those books.
So anyway, do you adorn your favorite titles with 'Ex Libris ______', sign at the sigs, or, I suppose nowadays, drop a DOI (digital object identifier)?
TJ & Readers' Advisory
Lately I've worked on some more book list Web pages similar1 to this one for Jefferson Library: book recommendations from Jefferson to John Garland Jefferson, 1790; William Munford, 1798; Samuel R. Demaree, 1809; and John Wyche, 1809. An interesting portrait of Jefferson-as-librarian emerges from this exercise. These individuals sought his advice on law titles and general good reading to better their community. On the latter matter TJ really shines in readers' advisory (RA). John Wyche writes TJ in March 1809 asking for advice on titles to aid the 'Westward Mill Library Society' in their desires to establish and develop a collection. Jefferson complies, suggesting titles in the categories of History, Natural Philosophy, Agriculture, and General; and TJ's list offers collection development foresight: it is long enough with enough titles in each category that the Society can pick and choose what they can find/afford to start add then build their collection over the years referencing the list. Pretty smart! (On several counts, as the Society wouldn't need to bug TJ again - presumably by the time they exhausted his list they'd have caught on to collection development; teach a man to fish...) In a May 19 1809 letter to Wyche, Jefferson has some interesting stuff to say about libraries:
How's that for advocacy? ALA should make t-shirts or something. We talk in library school about Franklin and Carnegie (disclosure: I haven't taken any history of libraries courses, just what I got in Intro, so maybe they know all about this) but it was fun to run across this tidbit in a TJ letter.
Jefferson's instructions to budding lawyers are a little less sentimental. He tells cousin John Garland Jefferson, "All that is necessary for a student is access to a library, and directions in what order the books are to be read."3 Or, you know, Get to it! Jefferson splits his recommended titles across three columns, the first to be read until noon, the second from noon to 2pm, and the third in the evening. This leaves the afternoon for exercise and recreation, which TJ deems "more necessary" than reading, "because health is worth more than learning."4 Interesting. But remember there's no rest for a weary body - after calisthenics it's back to 'Burke's George III' or some such by candlelight.
All of these recommended reading lists, and particularly TJ's quip to John Garland Jefferson, have me thinking about St. John's College and their Great Books program. I was accepted to St. John's and wanted to go but couldn't afford it, but thought reading Pythagoras and all that sounded like the bees knees. I think I'm glad my path winded its way, let's say. And looking over TJ's book lists, I'm not sure how quickly I want to leap into the 17 vol. 'King of Prussia's works'. On the other hand, he recommended this to John Wyche, it looks awesome, and I plan to read it when I get some time.
1 They're not live yet
2 Papers of Thomas Jefferson Retirement Series 1:205
3 Papers of Thomas Jefferson 16:480
4 Papers of Thomas Jefferson 16:481
I always hear with pleasure of institutions for the promotion of knolege among my countrymen. the people of every country are the only safe guardians of their own rights, and are the only instruments which can be used for their destruction. and certainly they would never consent to be so used were they not decieved. to avoid this they should be instructed to a certain degree. I have often thought that nothing would do more extensive good at small expence than the establishment of a small circulating library in every county to consist of a few well chosen books, to be lent to the people of the county under such regulations as would secure their safe return in due time.2
How's that for advocacy? ALA should make t-shirts or something. We talk in library school about Franklin and Carnegie (disclosure: I haven't taken any history of libraries courses, just what I got in Intro, so maybe they know all about this) but it was fun to run across this tidbit in a TJ letter.
Jefferson's instructions to budding lawyers are a little less sentimental. He tells cousin John Garland Jefferson, "All that is necessary for a student is access to a library, and directions in what order the books are to be read."3 Or, you know, Get to it! Jefferson splits his recommended titles across three columns, the first to be read until noon, the second from noon to 2pm, and the third in the evening. This leaves the afternoon for exercise and recreation, which TJ deems "more necessary" than reading, "because health is worth more than learning."4 Interesting. But remember there's no rest for a weary body - after calisthenics it's back to 'Burke's George III' or some such by candlelight.
All of these recommended reading lists, and particularly TJ's quip to John Garland Jefferson, have me thinking about St. John's College and their Great Books program. I was accepted to St. John's and wanted to go but couldn't afford it, but thought reading Pythagoras and all that sounded like the bees knees. I think I'm glad my path winded its way, let's say. And looking over TJ's book lists, I'm not sure how quickly I want to leap into the 17 vol. 'King of Prussia's works'. On the other hand, he recommended this to John Wyche, it looks awesome, and I plan to read it when I get some time.
1 They're not live yet
2 Papers of Thomas Jefferson Retirement Series 1:205
3 Papers of Thomas Jefferson 16:480
4 Papers of Thomas Jefferson 16:481
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
TJ Portals
I haven't talked much here about all that Monticello and Jefferson Library offers users remotely in addition to their many in-house offerings. Jefferson Library conveniently organizes this information on a page entitled Monticello's Online Resources. Some of my favorites so far are:
Podcasts Organized into three categories: International Center for Jefferson Studies Podcasts, Monticello Podcasts, and Speakers Forum. RSS them so you won't miss anything TJ! A recent addition to Monticello Podcasts is Alan Alda's talk from 1995 drawing connections between Jefferson and a Chinese scientist seeking to produce a high-yield strain of rice; it's delightful.
Thomas Jefferson Encyclopedia - This TJ wiki offers "Trustworthy information on Thomas Jefferson and his world by Monticello researchers and respected Jefferson scholars." Browse categories or search the wiki to discover interesting tidbits or trace primary source references. A reader here recently wondered about Jefferson's poultry: a search of 'poultry' on the wiki retrieves these references.
Monticello Explorer - Explore the plantation, house, gardens, and domestic life at Monticello via interactive maps, 3-D tours, and more.
Thomas Jefferson Portal - Jefferson Library's online catalog.
Family Letters Digital Archive - Full text searchable transcriptions of correspondence between Jefferson's immediate and extended family, many authored by women and providing insight into 19th century Virginia domestic life.
Take a look around, download some podcasts, enjoy!
Podcasts Organized into three categories: International Center for Jefferson Studies Podcasts, Monticello Podcasts, and Speakers Forum. RSS them so you won't miss anything TJ! A recent addition to Monticello Podcasts is Alan Alda's talk from 1995 drawing connections between Jefferson and a Chinese scientist seeking to produce a high-yield strain of rice; it's delightful.
Thomas Jefferson Encyclopedia - This TJ wiki offers "Trustworthy information on Thomas Jefferson and his world by Monticello researchers and respected Jefferson scholars." Browse categories or search the wiki to discover interesting tidbits or trace primary source references. A reader here recently wondered about Jefferson's poultry: a search of 'poultry' on the wiki retrieves these references.
Monticello Explorer - Explore the plantation, house, gardens, and domestic life at Monticello via interactive maps, 3-D tours, and more.
Thomas Jefferson Portal - Jefferson Library's online catalog.
Family Letters Digital Archive - Full text searchable transcriptions of correspondence between Jefferson's immediate and extended family, many authored by women and providing insight into 19th century Virginia domestic life.
Take a look around, download some podcasts, enjoy!
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