How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Automation My comments will be less about the metadata itself, but more about the processes and workflows that involve metadata creation and providing online access to content. Specifically, I’d like to review a few things we’ve done at the University of Kentucky Libraries to automate our workflows so faculty and staff can spend more time on work that requires their professional expertise. Sarah Dorpinghaus, Digital Archivist, University of Kentucky Libraries Ohio Valley Group of Technical Services Librarians 2014 Annual Conference

University of Kentucky manages the Kentucky Digital Library, the statewide digital library-host finding aids, digital images, video, audio build around 2011, before that we had...

Kentuckiana Digital Library migration to Kentucky Digital Library Two different systems, so the ingest package structure was different, would require significant amount of labor to prep these collections

At UK we are fortunate to have two permanent programmers and two grant-funded programmers. Their projects always seem to be (and they are!) really important, so I was intimidated to ask them for help. And as an archivist, I’m used to labor intensive projects. But I was venting one day about how I had to manually move a massive number of files, our lead programmer overheard me, and I got a mini-lecture that changed my view of programmers’ work….

Programmers are your friends Save time through automation (within reason) In short, programmers work with code to build programs that help you do your work more efficiently Everything that can should be reasonably automated-- 3 days of programmers time vs. 3 months of staff or student time should not spend time doing work that can be done by a computer

Programmers are your friends Save time through automation (within reason) Opportunity for creativity and contribution programmers generally enjoy challenging tasks and creating tools that help their co workers embraced programmer’s suggestions and started working with our programmers to make more efficient

Programmers are your friends Save time through automation (within reason) Opportunity for creativity and contribution Continual assessment of workflows and tasks to increase efficiency workflows should be continually assessed and revised to increase efficiency -- workflows are not static started building this into our imaging meeting

Programmers are your friends Save time through automation (within reason) Continual assessment of workflows and tasks to increase efficiency Opportunity for creativity and contribution Allows you to do your real job Allows you to do your real job

U Kentucky Examples Gossamer Sample tools created at UK DLS Gossamer: creates directory structures based on containers in EAD

2014m029 Collection accession number 2014m029_01 Box 1 2014m029_01_01 Box 1, Folder 1 2014m029_01_01_01 Box 1, Folder 1, Item 1 2014m02_01_01_02 Box 1, Folder 1, Item 2 2014m029_01_01_03 Box 1, Folder 1, Item 3 2014m029_01_02 Box 1, Folder 2 2014m029_01_02_01 Box 1, Folder 2, Item 1 2014m029_01_02_02 Box 1, Folder 2, Item 2 2014m029_02 Box 2 2014m029_02_01 Box 2, Folder 1 2014m029_02_01_01 Box 2, Folder 1, Item 1 2014m029_02_01_02 Box 2, Folder 1, Item 2 2014m029_02_01_03 Box 2, Folder 1, Item 3 2014m029_01_02 Box 2, Folder 2 2014m029_02_02_01 Box 2, Folder 2, Item 1 2014m029_02_02_02 Box 2, Folder 2, Item 2

Creates empty directory structure based on containers in EAD U Kentucky Examples Gossamer Creates empty directory structure based on containers in EAD Sample tools created at UK DLS Gossamer: creates directory structures based on containers in EAD saves time b/c imaging techs don’t have to build dir by hand eliminates human error find errors in FA

Creates empty directory structure based on containers in EAD U Kentucky Examples Gossamer Creates empty directory structure based on containers in EAD Abby Normal Allows quality control of digital objects and finding aids before going online Abby Normal: allows us to proof collections and “ok” them to go online Various other tweaks: directory names In progress: Metadata editor In progress: tool that builds directories around existing images

No programmers? Talk to your IT staff That’s all fine and good, but… not all of us have programmers on staff Seek out programmers elsewhere on campus Talk to your IT staff-- there are are a lot of tools out there they may know about and be able to help you implement

No programmers? Talk to your IT staff Search for existing tools Search online for existing tools- you can implement automation! (The ReName- renames files)

No programmers? Talk to your IT staff Search for existing tools Become your own programmer Become your own programmer-- regular expressions

No programmers? Talk to your IT staff Search for existing tools Become your own programmer Seek help on listservs Take it to the listservs: Code4Lib, DLF forums, SAA listservs-- you’re probably not the only person who has encountered a particular automation problem & listservs offer a culture of help and sharing

Final THoughts Identify the real issues and desired outcomes Organize your thoughts and notes about the problem so you can make sure the real issue is identified, and then have an idea of your desired outcome. Be careful about focusing too much on the means or tool rather than the outcome. National Distillers Corporation; packing department, women working on assembly line, 1944; Lafayette Studios photographs; UK Special Collections

Final THoughts Identify the real issues and desired outcomes It may have to be done by hand Sometimes you have to do it by hand, or it truly would be easier to do it by hand. Be aware when you spend over 30 minutes editing by hand, less if it’s something you do regularly. National Distillers Corporation; packing department, women working on assembly line, 1944; Lafayette Studios photographs; UK Special Collections

University of Kentucky Libraries Sarah Dorpinghaus University of Kentucky Libraries sarah.dorpinghaus@uky.edu Image credits http://thelittleredhen.typepad.com/.a/6a00e54efbe3a188330120a667013d970b-pi http://i40.tinypic.com/30tpeoo.jpg http://www.smashingmagazine.com/images/regular-expression-roundup/regex.gif http://code4lib.org/ http://www.diglib.org/ http://www2.archivists.org/ http://www.renewtheaters.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/peter-sellers-as-dr-strangelove.jpg http://kickofjoy.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/5-Soulful-Ways-To-Support-Your-Best-Friends.jpg http://gspence1173.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/dr-strangelove.jpg