Friday, October 22, 2010

DY volume (finally)

We finally now have a copy of the Dene-Yeniseian volume. I cataloged it as CA973K2010. Needs a spine label.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Dealing with backups of digital files for other organizations

Karen Linnell and Tana Finnestad stopped by today to bring updated digital files for backup from the C'ek'aedi Hwnax project. I transferred these onto the computer but also wanted to upload them to the server for preservation. To facilitate this I created a new, ad-hoc record for the entire set of files: AT-AHF-2010. You can view it at:

http://www.uaf.edu/anla/collections/search/resultDetail.xml?id=AT-AHF-2010

I then put the entire batch of files (150 MB) into a folder titled AT-AHF-2010 and put that into the "Online" folder.

Since I specified a value in the Restrictions field, these files will not actually be accessible to users, but the WILL be preserved.

Friday, October 15, 2010

Automatic synchronization of online files

Online files now synchronize automatically every night. Simply drop the files into the "Online" folder:
    D:\DigitalArchive\Online
and they will be uploaded automatically the next even. Files still need to be enclosed in a folder whose title is the same as the identifier of the item.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Comparative Athabaskan

I am working on a short pilot project with Digital Photo services in the Rasmussen Library to begin scanning the paper materials in the archive. To start I cataloged contributions to the Comparative Athabaskan holdings by M. Krauss. 5 boxes CA961K1961- CA961K1983 were delivered to the "scanner" this morning.

restrictions and digital files

It was pointed out at the Archive meeting yesterday that we need a way to restrict access to digital files. The current way of doing this is to upload them to the server but set the permissions of the file itself to "no access". But that's a bit clunky. So here's a better way.

I've modified the results display to only provide hyperlinks for digital files in cases where the "restrictions" field is empty. Also, the CD icon in the results display is only shown if the restrictions field is empty (unless logged in as an admin, in which case  a red !! displays after the CD icon). So now when we scan something which we don't want to make available online (e.g., Jim Kari's hand written Ahtna field notes), we can upload the files as usual to the server but put a note in the restrictions field "no public access to digital files"

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

ASNA materials

Slowly uploading ANSA materials which were sent to me by Reader Michael (see http://asna.ca/alaska). I'm entering these under the ANSA collection identifier. Using the Eskimo supplement catalog to find Identifiers. Note in many cases our materials include more than just the original Russian Orthodox documents (e.g., English translations), so our materials will still need to be scanned by DPS. See for example:

https://www.uaf.edu/anla/collections/search/resultDetail.xml?resource=1151

Data comments

The detailed results page (resultDetail.xml) now displays Data Comments when you are logged in as an administrator. This makes it easier to keep track of those comments without having to go into edit mode to see them. We should make it a practice to use the Data Comments field more often.

Catalog updates

I'm in the process of cleaning up a lot of catalog entries, doing things like adding Subject Languages and Linguistic Type. All values of "Subject" have been migrated to corresponding "LingType" values. LingType will now supersede Subject in the record entry and "Subject" can be ignored.

Made a few other improvements to the interface. The list of languages in the search page is now reduced to Alaskan langs. Once all resources are coded for language we will be able to use this to generate container lists by language rather than relying on the Identifier code. This is critical, because the ANLC numbers are not captured by 2-3 letter code. Also, some languages have more than one code (e.g., Alutiiq is both SU and AS).

Friday, October 1, 2010

Archive receives NSF grant for documents collection


The Archive was recently awarded a significant grant from the National Science Foundation to support development of digital access to over 10,000 documents in the collection. This project, entitled Digital Infrastructure for Alaskan and Neighboring Languages, (NSF #1003481), will create a digital repository providing access to the unique and world-renown collection of Native American language documentation housed at the Alaska Native Language Archive (ANLA) at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. The comprehensive scope of the ANLA collection is unparalleled among linguistic archives across the world. Approximately three quarters of the material consists of original archival manuscripts, including field notes of prominent scholars of Alaskan languages, including Knut Bergsland, Michael Krauss, James Kari, Jeff Leer, Irene Reed, and Eliza Jones. The collection also includes copies of items found elsewhere only in private hands or in obscure archives in Russia. Much of the collection has never been cataloged. The creation of a digital repository will enhance arctic research infrastructure by providing real-time digital access to archival documents for a broad range of researchers and Native peoples across Alaska, the arctic, and beyond, thereby providing the foundation for a new era of language and culture scholarship in the arctic.

Cataloging Published Books

We've been working with the Rasmuson Library on organizing and cataloging all of our published books. They will be searchable on Goldmine, but housed here at ANLA. Look in the shelves by the "Shift in Progress" signs in the Archive for books, or just ask me!

Archive database down 10/1

OIT plans to do some major repairs on the Archive db today. Please refrain from editing the db. We may loose access to the db for part of the day.