This digital library focuses on beginner crafts, with more advanced projects included, for those interested in learning more about crafting. There are many topics to choose from under the broad category “Crafts”. We each selected a specific topic that was of great interest to us. Our digital library is categorized into five topics: Children's Crafts, Green Crafts, Knitting, Crocheting, and Quilting. By limiting our categories, we were able to add more resources on our chosen topic for greater information retrieval by prospective patrons.
Our group met every Thursday evening via Skype chat. Our group originally had five members, but we were reduced to four when one member dropped the class. Occasionally group members were not available because of technical problems with Skype or unexpected scheduling conflicts. A group member posted notes of our meetings on the group discussion board for those who missed the meeting and as a reminder of our objectives for the next week.
Regarding our choice of metadata format, we chose to catalog the basic book items according to AACR2 cataloging rules. We believed this would make for easy reading for our intended audience. Each book is linked to the WorldCat library, so that every searcher can locate the book at a nearby library. Patrons can also access WorldCat through a "Find this at a library near you" link located at the bottom of each book page. We also included links to on-line videos and websites for those who desire immediate information, learn visually, or simply do not have easy access to a library. Including books, videos, and websites, provides a variety of options for those seeking information on a specific craft.
Formatting our digital library was at times difficult. Wikispaces did not always allow for universal changes to take effect. When we attempted to edit a change, often the saved changes did not reflect the expected indentation, font, or paragraph spacing. However, after several attempts, we successfully created the desired changes or chose a different plan. Also somewhat frustrating was the administrator (or creator) of the wiki was the only one allowed to change the name of a page. It seemed superfluous to some of the group members, but our creator was more than willing to do so. To add a little pizazz and make use of some of the widgets available to us, we incorporated a few photos on the home page and imbedded some of the YouTube videos directly to the video link pages.
We ran into a technical problem with our library two days before the due date when one of our embedded videos and its corresponding link was taken down by the user, making for a dead-end link with no useful information. This reinforces the need for constant vigilance in maintaining any digital library or website by testing all links regularly to make sure they are still valid and linking up with the correct content.
Not all group members had digital cameras to take photos of the items to avoid copyright infringement. After consulting with our professor, we took images from universally accepted copyrighted websites, such as WorldCat.org, and librarything.com. All of the photos not taken by a group member have a caption citing where the image was derived and/or a link back to the original photo.
This digital library focuses on beginner crafts, with more advanced projects included, for those interested in learning more about crafting. There are many topics to choose from under the broad category “Crafts”. We each selected a specific topic that was of great interest to us. Our digital library is categorized into five topics: Children's Crafts, Green Crafts, Knitting, Crocheting, and Quilting. By limiting our categories, we were able to add more resources on our chosen topic for greater information retrieval by prospective patrons.
Our group met every Thursday evening via Skype chat. Our group originally had five members, but we were reduced to four when one member dropped the class. Occasionally group members were not available because of technical problems with Skype or unexpected scheduling conflicts. A group member posted notes of our meetings on the group discussion board for those who missed the meeting and as a reminder of our objectives for the next week.
Regarding our choice of metadata format, we chose to catalog the basic book items according to AACR2 cataloging rules. We believed this would make for easy reading for our intended audience. Each book is linked to the WorldCat library, so that every searcher can locate the book at a nearby library. Patrons can also access WorldCat through a "Find this at a library near you" link located at the bottom of each book page. We also included links to on-line videos and websites for those who desire immediate information, learn visually, or simply do not have easy access to a library. Including books, videos, and websites, provides a variety of options for those seeking information on a specific craft.
Formatting our digital library was at times difficult. Wikispaces did not always allow for universal changes to take effect. When we attempted to edit a change, often the saved changes did not reflect the expected indentation, font, or paragraph spacing. However, after several attempts, we successfully created the desired changes or chose a different plan. Also somewhat frustrating was the administrator (or creator) of the wiki was the only one allowed to change the name of a page. It seemed superfluous to some of the group members, but our creator was more than willing to do so. To add a little pizazz and make use of some of the widgets available to us, we incorporated a few photos on the home page and imbedded some of the YouTube videos directly to the video link pages.
We ran into a technical problem with our library two days before the due date when one of our embedded videos and its corresponding link was taken down by the user, making for a dead-end link with no useful information. This reinforces the need for constant vigilance in maintaining any digital library or website by testing all links regularly to make sure they are still valid and linking up with the correct content.
Not all group members had digital cameras to take photos of the items to avoid copyright infringement. After consulting with our professor, we took images from universally accepted copyrighted websites, such as WorldCat.org, and librarything.com. All of the photos not taken by a group member have a caption citing where the image was derived and/or a link back to the original photo.