National Archives sign at Kew Gardens Station

National Archives sign at Kew Gardens Station

2011-09-08

Canadian Feature Film Database at Library and Archives Canada

The Library and Archives Canada has a Canadian Feature Film Database. It appears to have been online since at least May 02010. Here is the blurb from the start page for the database:
The Canadian Feature Film Database is based on the printed Index (Canadian Feature Film Index) begun in 1972.

The Database based on the Index:
  • compiles the principal credits of every Canadian feature film from 1913 to 2009
  • establishes a list of Canadian feature films from published information up to 2009
  • features currently over 4,300 films
Future updates:
addition of post-2009 films is planned for a future iteration of the database

2011-09-06

Day of Digital Archives, October 6, 02011

From the announcement on various mailing lists (2011 09 06) posted by Gretchen Gueguen, Digital Archivist, Digital Curation Services, University of Virginia Library:

The Day of Digital Archives is an initiative to raise awareness of digital archives among both users and managers. On this day, archivists, digital humanists, programmers, or anyone else creating, using, or managing digital archives are asked to devote some of their social media output (i.e. tweets, blog posts, youtube videos, etc.) to describing their work with digital archives. By collectively documenting what we do, we will be answering questions like: What are digital archives? Who uses them? How are they created and managed? Why are they important? This year’s Day of Digital Archives will be held on October 6 and entries will be gathered at the Day of Digital Archives blog.

What is meant by “digital archives” well, primarily archives, repositories, content management systems and other initiatives that collect or manage born-digital material. These initiatives don’t have to primarily collect born-digital materials…in fact they are more likely to only have some born-digital content as part of their mandate. Or, maybe they don’t really have a “mandate” at all…maybe someone will contribute their thoughts about managing their own personal digital content or social media presence. The thread ties the participants together is that they collect, manage, preserve, develop, use, think about or otherwise love born-digital content.

Do you create, manage, or use digital archives? Would you like to participate? Well then, drop me a line at gretchen[.]gueguen[@]gmail[.]com with your contact info and I’ll keep you up to date!

2011-09-01

"Memory failure detected" article, Times Higher Education

The Times Higher Education (THE) published an article online on September 1, 02011 about archiving the Web it called "Memory failure detected". The article is by ZoĆ« Corbyn. The article looks at the various Web archiving research projects and current Web archive systems and facilities.

"Searching for the Stars" (the real ones in the heavens) through Searcher magazine

My most recent article for Searcher magazine, "Searching for the Stars: Cosmic Views and Databases", made the cover of the September 2011 issue as you can see below and is available online (just select the hyperlinked article title in this sentence).
Searcher magazine cover, September 2011

2011-08-16

Call for papers for Social Media Conference on December 2, 02011

From the announcement posted to the WEB4LIB mailing list:


The new Texas Social Media Research Institute (TSMRI), located at Tarleton State University, will hold their first annual Social Media Conference at Tarleton State University on Friday, December 2, 2011.

This conference would consist of two tracks: a research presentation track as well as a training and development track. The conference planning committee is actively seeking papers, panels, and training workshops focused on, but not limited to the following topics:

* Facebook, Twitter, Linked In (How to Use the Technologies)
* Social Media in Business (Ideas for Entrepreneurs and Large Organizations)
* Social Media in Education
* Social Media in the Non-Profit Sector
* Social Media in Interpersonal and Intercultural Communication
* Practical Solutions for Social Media Problems
* Benefits and Disadvantages of Social Media in K-12 and Higher Education
* Social Media and Generational Communication
* Social Media and Information Sciences/Library Sciences
* Social Media and Mobile Applications and Devices

Additional Information:

Possible forms of submission include: panels (including roundtables and discussions), papers/abstracts, and training workshops.

Complete the conference submission form (http://www.tinyurl.com/SocialMediaConferenceCall/) and e-mail papers/panels to Dr. Jennifer T. Edwards (texassocialmediaresearch@gmail.com) no later than Friday, October 14, 2011.

If you have any questions, please contact the Texas Social Media Research Institute via e-mail (texassocialmediaresearch@gmail.com) via e-mail or telephone (254-307-8211).