A Funny Thing Happened on the Way

to Digital Commons

Colby’s Muddy DetourThrough WordPress

Putting the Pieces Together…

…required a journey through:Mud puddlesFallen treesPatches of sunlightMoments of song and laughter

The Travelers on Our Journey

• Wes McNairMuse

• Pat BurdickCollection Expert

• Erin RhodesScanning and Metadata Expert

• Mel RegnellTechno-Geek

• Jack D’Isidoro ‘10Student Slave

• Roy ReedImage Editor

How we Got into This Mess

In the First Place

Pat’s intro – defining the puzzles pieces

• Background: Wesley McNair Papers• Pat & Wes talking – poem cluster concept• Emphasis on teaching & understanding poetry

…continued

• What do we want to do?• Mel & Pat: We want dynamic display! (Aha

moment)• What can Digital Commons do?• Oh No! Digital Commons isn’t ready for us.• WordPress… Hmmm…

What a Mess, Indeed!

Entering the WordPress Woods

• What can we do in here?• Oh No! No dynamic display…• Tags & Categories vs Dublin Core

The Adventure

• Per Mel’s list…

Version 0.1Are You Serious?

• 1001 tags/categories • 2000+ objects/tasks• Initial objects per poem:• Audio• 3 notebook pages• 3 overlays• 3 transcripts• Published poem• 3 side-by-sides

Mud Puddles

The Metadata Conundrum(Erin)

Version 0.2Slash and Burn

• Reduction of the number of metadata records

• Creation of Object and Cluster templates

• Interface re-design

Version 0.3Patches of Sunlight

• Codification of functions of Posts vs. Pages

• Reduction of tags and categories

• Elimination of Side-by-Side objects

The Uphill Climb[aka “the long drive home”]

??

I’d like the next slide to say:

Look! The Clearing!Version 1.0

Version 0.4Look! The Clearing!

Pulling the Pieces Together

• Teaching vs. Digital Commons Clusters

• Elimination of Transcript objects

• Standardization of streamlined cluster template

The pieces pulled together…

Special Collections WordPress Site

42 Teaching Poem Clusters• 1 Audio• 1 Published Poem• 3 Notebook Pages• 3 Transcript Overlays• 1 Read & Listen display

5 Digital Commons Poem Clusters• 1 Audio• 1 Published Poem• 3 Notebook Pages• 3 Transcript Overlays• 1 Audio Metadata• 3 Metadata Notebook Pages• 3 Metadata Transcript Overlays• 1 Metadata Published Poem

42 Audio-Only Teaching Clusters

Now, If Only Digital Commons Could Do What WordPress Can

(Sort Of) Do…

• Comments on status of Digital Commons

Our Playlist

• …if we have one

For More Information Contact:

Pat BurdickColby College Special Collections

5150 Mayflower HillWaterville, Maine 04901

207 – 859 – 5150speccoll@colby.edu