Joon's Final Reflections

As this semester draws to a close, I would like to reflect on this final Digital Libraries project. I think my group members will agree that this project has been quite valuable. As a group, we were able to draw from a diverse pool of skill-sets and talents, delegating appropriate tasks and reconvening after each milestone. Perhaps most impressive was our ability to trouble-shoot. Thankfully, as graduate students we have an extensive network of information professionals with whom we can consult when our own resources have been exhausted. I hope my group members will also celebrate our success.

A last detail we decided to polish up was our tags. We all decided we would add a few tags to five items. I believe types of illnesses, region of TN and a number of other concepts were encompassed by these index terms.  We considered using Medical Subject Headings (MeSH terms) but decided since the people using this library were not necessarily medical professionals, that laymen’s terms would be more recognizable to the social justice community. The terms we decided on maximized the library’s usefulness and accessibility. Another finishing touch included picking an image to be showcased in the final site’s banner. I kicked around a few ideas with Clayton but in the end we decided to have that image rotate, in order to keep the site a little more dynamic.

If I had to critique the final site, I might alter the thumbnails of the portraits to better frame some of the subjects. Overall I think we had a clean simple interface though. I also thought our final presentation to the class was quite successful, with each of us creating our own individual slide, describing our delegated part and then touring classmates through the finished product. I think we each spoke for similar lengths of time and answered questions pretty effectively.

After listening to all the presentations for all the projects, I feel that I got a sense of just how diverse digital libraries can be. They are really a great way to reach all kinds of different people. From Appalachian musical instruments to graphic novels to social justice, digital librarians offer a trove of information to anyone who can cross the digital divide. I hope that librarians like Melanie and Bridger, who specialize in metadata practices, are valued by the institutions that house their work.