Major Scanning and Digitization Projects at the University of Minnesota

John T. Butler, Associate University Librarian for Data & Technology at the University of Minnesota, presented a seminar on the university’s involvement with two major scanning and digitization projects.

The first project involved the libraries of the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC), a consortium of the Big Ten member universities plus the University of Chicago. It provided Google with access to the libraries’ collections for digitization of items. Volumes from the member libraries’ collections were removed and shipped off-site to a location where each page was scanned. Items were selected based upon “collections of distinction.” For example, the University of Minnesota contributions included both local and Scandinavian works. The scanned items included those both inside and outside of copyright protections. The contribution from CIC libraries resulted in digitizing about 10 million volumes, but some items were rejected by Google based on their odd size or because they contained inserts.

The second project is the HathiTrust Digital Library. HathiTrust is an international community of 90 research libraries committed to the long-term preservation and availability of the cultural record. The files containing digitized versions of the items scanned from the CIC project that lie outside copyright protections were returned to the member libraries and were loaded onto HathiTrust’s site. Other HathiTrust members have added digitized records, which are online and publicly available.

Throughout his talk, Mr.Butler discussed some of the considerations that had to be resolved such as the (1) scanning project contract, (2) procedures for reviewing the digital files and comparing the images with the hard copies, and (3) standards used in the scanning project. Other interesting points included (1) how CIC and the HathiTrust fostered library cooperation and try to ensure long term access to both the digital and print versions and (2) the procedures for identifying items whose status under the copyright law were not initially known or are now outside copyright protections.

Link to the PowerPoint presentation: http://www.ncsl.org/Documents/lrl/HathiTrust-Butler-Summit-2014.pdf

Walk for Wellness & Bipartisan Bike Ride

Walk for Wellness
— by Betsy Haugen

The NCSL Summit Walk for Wellness on August 21 got off to a slow start due to rain and lightning, but ended on a positive note. Held just blocks away from the conference center and hotels, at lovely Loring Park, the ninth annual fun 5k walk/run drew around 25 hardy participants. The event was started by a coalition of legislative caucuses to offer an opportunity for exercise during a long week of meetings.

Volunteers at the Walk for Wellness

I worked alongside two NCSL staff persons handing out t-shirts, water, and snacks. Participants, including librarians Sabah (CA) and Jennifer (CT), were great sports and cheerfully braved the rain and resulting puddles. It was a fun way to start the day—despite the weather!

Bipartisan Bike Ride
—by Alyssa Novak

On Friday, I woke up at the crack of dawn and pedaled my green Nice Ride bike to the Minneapolis Convention Center. As I rode up in the early morning twilight, I saw a swarm of very enthusiastic NCSL attendees ready to embark on the 2014 Bipartisan Bike Ride.

Gearing up for the Bipartisan Bike Ride

The ride was hosted by BikeTexas, an organization that brought 150 bikes up from the Lone Star State to outfit our ride across Minneapolis.

After getting outfitted with the appropriate helmets and bikes, we fueled up on some breakfast snacks and got ready to hit the road.

Bicycle provided by BikeTexas

Our ride first went through downtown Minneapolis with the helpful escort of the Minneapolis Police Department. Near Target Field baseball stadium we jumped on the Cedar Lake trail and then connected to the Grand Rounds National Scenic Byway along the Mississippi River.

A view of the Stone Arch Bridge in Minneapolis by Paul VanDerWerf on flickr

The morning was cool and slightly overcast, perfect for enjoying a leisurely ride and viewing the great scenery along Minneapolis’ riverfront. At the Stone Arch Bridge we stopped to take a group picture, and then headed back toward the convention center to start our last day at the Legislative Summit.

The best part was the commemorative bike shirt that we got to take home!

Alyssa (MN) proudly displaying her NCSL 2014 Minneapolis Bike Shirt

Evening events

– by Elizabeth Lincoln

In addition to the legislative librarians’ dinner on Wednesday evening there were two other large evening gatherings that brought legislators and staff together from all fifty states.

Tuesday night’s reception was held in the Mill City Museum on the banks of the Mississippi.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of the many reception areas in the museum was in the mill ruins area.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday night’s event was held on Nicollet Island.   There were lots of Minnesota foods–including walleye cooked outdoors:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Minnesota’s favorite band, Soul Asylum, played:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Both large evening events utilized lots of Minnesota staff volunteers–including Library staff members Reed, Elizabeth, and Betsy–with enthusiastic Senate fiscal analyst Eric behind them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nicollet Island provides a great view of the city at night:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Polls, Politics and What Americans Really Think

—by David Schmidtke

On Thursday, I attended the General Session, “Polls, Politics and What Americans Really Think.” Neil Newhouse and Geoffrey Garin, each representing a different side of the political aisle, gave an interesting and humorous talk about political polling’s role in the last presidential election and what the polls say regarding the upcoming state elections. Polls indicate a deeply divided partisan electorate and a general unhappiness with elected leaders. While polls indicated indicate a certain political direction for the upcoming elections, Mr. Newhouse pointed out that nothing should be taken for granted. Campaigns can and do make a difference in both national and state elections. Regarding the 2012 election, Neil Newhouse quipped, that in retrospect, they realized that the votes of the unenthused voters count for as much as the enthused voters.

Afterwards, NCSL met with the speakers for a Q and A:

Tour of the Minnesota Legislative Reference Library (with a brief stop at the Minnesota Capitol)

– by Elizabeth Lincoln

The librarians took a bus from the Minneapolis Convention Center to the Minnesota Legislative Reference Library in St. Paul the afternoon of August 21.  The bus driver seemed to be as unfamiliar with the Twin Cities as the visitors–rather than taking a straight shot from one city to the other he took a detour through several Minneapolis suburbs!

I gave the librarians an overview of the highlights of our collection and the services we provide to legislators and legislative staff.  We knew our time at LRL would be short so the librarians prepared display boards featuring some of the things we thought fellow legislative librarians would find most interesting.

• the specialized databases library staff have developed such as the mandated reports database that allows state agencies to track mandated reports the Minnesota Legislature is expecting of them, the Library’s Minnesota Agencies database tracking the history of hundreds of task forces and agencies and key reports they’ve produced, databases tracking governors’ vetoes, etc.
• the specialized services the Library provides to legislators and staff
• highlights of our collection including our role as the state government document depository

I took a few of our guests over to the Capitol for a very quick peek at the Capitol.   Because the Capitol is under renovation we were unable to see the beautiful rotunda.  We were able to take a look at the Senate chamber through the gates.  Tim Johnson, of the House Chief Clerk’s office, graciously allowed us to get a closer view of the House chamber.  Eddie Weeks, Tennessee legislative librarian, enthusiastically served as the Speaker.

Dinner with Librarians

– by Elizabeth Lincoln

On Wednesday, many of the librarians gathered in Minneapolis for the Legislative Summit gathered at Spoonriver for dinner.  Many had walked a mile or so from the hotels to the location close to the Mississippi River, the Guthrie Theater, and the Mill City Museum so we were ready for an evening of good food and conversation.

Catherine (TX) and Jennifer (CT)

Sabah (CA), Peter (MN), and Tracey (MN)

Claire (HI), Carol (MN), and Julie (WI)

Christine (OK), Samantha (OK), and Betsy (MN)

Eddie (TN), David (MN), and Marget (MN)

Jeanne (CO) and Sonia (MT)

Andrew (MN) and Alyssa (MN)

Kristin (ID) and Mark (ID) debate dessert

 

 

Arts in Education & Workforce Luncheon

—by Alyssa Novak

On Wednesday I attended the Arts in Education & Workforce Luncheon. The luncheon featured the Turnaround Arts program, an initiative of the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities. The panelists included Minnesota Senator Richard Cohen, documentary filmmaker Rachel Goslins, principal of ReNEW Cultural Arts Academy Ron Gubitz, and cellist Yo-Yo Ma.

Turnaround Arts Panelists

Turnaround Arts focuses on the lowest 5% of schools in the country, which have little to no arts programs as part of the curriculum. Turnaround Arts incorporates fine arts across the school curriculum as a way of increasing student morale, engagement, and retention.

Program partners include many famous artists who serve as artists-in-residence at the turnaround schools.

Cellist Yo-Yo Ma serves as a Turnaround Artist in Boston-area Turnaround Arts schools. He commenced the presentation by demonstrating the power of music, performing the Prelude to Bach Cello Suite No. 3. Even in a conference room with poor acoustics, Ma’s sound was rich and mellifluous. It was truly an honor to be in the audience and hear him perform live from just a few feet away.

Rachel Goslins, the Executive Director of the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, described the high-poverty schools that the Turnaround Arts program pinpoints as dark, bleak places to be.

This was a point seconded by ReNEW Cultural Arts Academy principal, Ron Gubitz. Prior to becoming a part of Turnaround Arts, the school was the single lowest-performing in Louisiana. After Turnaround Arts, Gubitz said that people started referring to the school environment as “warm.”

The following video shows a little bit more about the Turnaround Arts program:

Turnaround Arts is delivering promising results so far. Goslins said that the program helps to reestablish lost trust between students and adults. Significant gains are being made in student and parent engagement, retention, and test scores.

Panelists urged lawmakers to consider arts programs as an essential tool in education reform and to increase funding for fine arts in education. Senator Richard Cohen shared with the audience an example of how Minnesota was able to accomplish ongoing funding for the arts through the Legacy Amendment to the state constitution, which sets aside a portion of the state sales tax for arts and cultural heritage programs.

LRL Business Meeting

–by Elizabeth Lincoln

The NCSL Legislative Research Librarians business meeting was held on Wednesday morning.  Our agenda was not too long but it included several important elements:

• NCSL LRL Chair Sabah Eltareb (CA) presented Eddie Weeks (TN) with the 2014 Legislative Staff Achievement Award.
• Elizabeth Lincoln (MN) presented the 2014 Notable Documents Award winners.  Quite a few winning authors were present to accept their award.
• Chair Sabah Eltareb (CA) became past-chair, Sonia Gavin (MT) became chair, and Catherine Wusterhausen (TX) became secretary.
• And, finally, bylaws changes were discussed!  What’s a meeting without bylaws changes?

Communicate like a Rock Star!

by Betsy Haugen

Wednesday afternoon’s Legislative Staff University session, Communicate like a Rock Star! was very well attended. Communication expert, Sari del la Motte, engaged attendees with her funny and practical advice on how to talk to someone.

One thing she said early on was to throw out the Golden Rule – don’t treat others the way YOU want to be treated, instead treat them they way THEY want to be treated. By paying attention to the following 4 key areas, you will know how others want to be treated.

Eye contact:
Making eye contact with someone generally means you are willing to engage with them. She had many tips on why you would use eye contact carefully.

Body language:
Speak your listener’s body language. Less eye contact and authoritative body language require one approach and more eye contact and approachable body language signal something completely different.

Voice pattern:
Recognizing whether the situation calls for an authoritative tone of voice, or one that signals you are approachable or in “relationship” mode can be the key to a healthy conversation.

Breathing:
The number one communication tip for rock stars is to breathe properly; most people need work with improving their technique.

My take-away from the presentation was to look at what you can get rid of when communicating (such as bias and inappropriate props) and focus on gesturing, location and tone of voice to make your message more powerful.

Lunch with Andrew Zimmern

—by Alyssa Novak

On Tuesday I attended the lunchtime seminar, Cooking Up Hunger Solutions: A Conversation with Andrew Zimmern of Bizarre Foods America.

Food served included an array of fresh raw vegetables (including jicama!) with hummus, Minnesota wild rice hotdish, and bison tacos.

Andrew Zimmern, the main speaker, is a Minnesota TV personality known for his series, Bizarre Foods, on the Travel Channel.  In the series, Zimmern travels the world eating foods that many Americans would probably deem revolting. During the talk, Zimmern opened up to the audience about his troubled past of alcohol and drug abuse, which led him to homelessness on the streets of New York City. After attending rehab at Hazelden, he decided to stay in Minnesota to rebuild his life.

Zimmern spoke about how he uses his show, Bizarre Foods, as a platform to inspire change. He hopes that by watching his series, viewers will see the common threads of humanity shared in the rituals that surround food. He also hopes that his extreme eating will broaden his viewers’ palates and get them to try foods they wouldn’t ordinarily eat.

Cooking Up Hunger Solutions with Andrew Zimmern

Zimmern believes that America’s food issues will be addressed by a social movement that comes from the ground up. He is a big believer in public-private partnerships and finding entrepreneurial solutions to problems, due in part to his experience working with students in the Lewis Institute at Babson College. Some of the ideas he proposed to lawmakers for addressing America’s hunger problem included the removal of red tape that prevents food from being salvaged and redistributed to those in need, and the installation of re-circulating aquaculture systems in schools as both a teaching tool and source for food.

After the session, I had the great honor of meeting Andrew Zimmern in person to get an autographed copy of his book, Andrew Zimmern’s Field Guide to Exceptionally Weird, Wild, and Wonderful Foods. I can’t wait to start cooking from it!

Alyssa (MN) talking with Andrew Zimmern about his food truck, AZ Canteen

Two Legislative Staff Sessions: What Do Legislators Need, and Do Patrons Know What You Can Do?

-by Tracey Van Haaften

On Tuesday afternoon. I attended back-to-back sessions for legislative staff. The first was “Legislators Roundtable: What We Need and Value From Staff,” during which Rep. Barbara W. Ballard, of Kansas, Sen. Curtis S. Bramble of Utah, Sen. Bryan B. King of Arkansas, and Rep. John M. Mizuno of Hawaii shared their thoughts, experiences, and suggestions about working with legislative staff. They all agreed they rely on their staff for facts, honesty, integrity, and professionalism, and that they couldn’t do their job without us. It was both encouraging and informative, and reminded me again how proud I am to serve the Minnesota Legislature as a Librarian.

My second session program was “Building a Brand for Legislative Staff.” Bryant Howe from the Utah Legislature, Steve Miller from the Wisconsin Legislature, and Catherine Wusterhausen from the Texas Legislature presented their ideas and experiences in branding their libraries, both in a design sense (creating a recognizable logo and style guide), and through establishing and building your library’s reputation. What do your patrons think of when they see your logo, when they hear your name? DO they think of you? Does your logo differentiate you from other offices? Does your entire staff know what your service goals are, and work to display them in every transaction? Are outreach and branding objectives built in performance evaluation? These and other questions were a great introduction to thinking about advertising and evaluating your library’s brand identity.

Panel on Election Recount Integrity

-by Peder Garnaas-Halvorson

On Tuesday I attended a session on election recount integrity. The panelists were Mark Halvorson (founder of Citizens for Election Integrity) and Jason Torchinsky (a lawyer who represents candidates in recounts), Minnesota Senator Katie Sieben was the moderator. The session addressed many issues concerning best practices for recounts, especially hand counting vs. machine counting, the importance of having a paper trail even with electronic polling stations, and the conditions necessary for a candidate to call for a recount or for an automatic recount to take place. They mentioned many factors that could change election results in a recount such as machine counting errors, the inclusion of absentee ballots that had erroneously been rejected, and even misplaced boxes of ballots that had not been counted. The panelists also discussed some Minnesota-specific laws and practices including the use of paper ballots and optical scanners, a .25% or less victory margin required for calling a statewide recount, mandatory hand counting of ballots in a recount, and the specifics of the recount in the 2008 U.S. Senate race between Al Franken and Norm Coleman. Halvorson and Torchinsky had some disagreements on best practices and polling methods, but both agreed that recounts are a complicated process that need to be taken seriously in order to establish citizens’ trust in election results.

A New Education Revolution

—by Alyssa Novak

On Tuesday afternoon I attended the NCSL General Session entitled, A New Education Revolution, with keynote speaker Sir Ken Robinson.

Sir Ken Robinson’s talk was preceded by a conference welcome from representatives of the Minnesota Legislature, Senate President Sandra Pappas and House Speaker Paul Thissen, and Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges, as well as a special video welcome message from Garrison Keillor of A Prairie Home Companion.

Minnesota Senate President Sandra Pappas and Minnesota House Speaker Paul Thissen welcoming NCSL Summit Attendees to Minnesota

Special video welcome message from Garrison Keillor

Sir Ken Robinson, an expert in creativity and education, is widely known for his TEDTalk, “Do schools kill creativity?”

Sir Ken Robinson during NCSL General Session

In his dry and humorous style, Robinson prodded the audience to consider how and why children grow out of creativity. He pointed out that children are quick to identify themselves as creative, whereas adults rarely do. He hypothesized that the structure of the current educational system may be a factor that contributes to this societal problem.

Robinson shared the following video with the audience as a prime example of how educational systems can unintentionally squash kids’ natural creativity:

Throughout the session, Robinson succeeded in having the entire audience in stitches, while simultaneously inspiring them to think critically about issues in today’s educational systems.

During the talk, Robinson also shamelessly plugged the latest edition of his book, Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative.

I will definitely be adding it to my long list of books to check out!

First Day – Check-In

-by Tracey Van Haaften

Checking in!

Today was my first day volunteering at my first ever NCSL Summit. It was a quiet day for checking in (I handed out lanyards and programs) but the attendees who did check in were from all over the world. I was able to meet and greet legislators and staff from Canada, Kenya, Australia, Germany, and South Africa (to name a few), as well as from states all across the U.S. I’m looking forward to tomorrow with volunteering, attending sessions, and Mill City in the plan. My feet aren’t so sure, but I think we’ll all be fine.  

Welcome to Minnesota!

Capitol scaffolding

Minnesota is the host state for this summer’s National Conference of State Legislature’s annual Legislative Summit being held next week.  Often the host state’s capitol building plays a leading role in the Summit’s events but Minnesota’s beautiful 109-year-old Capitol is undergoing a major renovation after over a century of hard use and won’t be part of the events.   

The staff of the Minnesota Legislative Reference Library are looking forward to hosting the Legislative Research Librarians staff section of NCSL.  NCSL librarians will be touring the  Library on August 21st.  The Library is located across the street in the State Office Building–a building that is not being renovated!

The State Office Building

Seven Library staff will be volunteering and attending the conference next week as well as staffing the Library.  We hope to post stories and pictures about the conference sessions and events as the week ahead unfolds.  Stay tuned!

Elizabeth Lincoln