International Database of Digital Humanities Projects

 

Summary Report of Conference Call

Monday December 18th, 2000

Present: Chuck Bearden, David Chesnutt, Patricia Dragon, David Green, Lorna Hughes, Amy Masciola, Christina Powell, Matt Stoeffler, John Unsworth


1. Review of database structure and current status of records.

a. We decided to further *amend* our list of Object Types:

  1. Collaborative Spaces

  2. *Numeric* Datasets

  3. Reference Tools

  4. Teaching Materials

  5. Software

  6. *Research Materials* (Editions, Collections in all media)

b. The STATUS field: We did decide to keep the "Complete" part of this field; but decided to change "Accessible" to "Available"

c. The CATALOGED field: we should ask for the OCLC record number, if there is one.

d. SOURCE: to answer the question of how to indicate the existence of born digital material we would use keywords in this field.

e. RIGHTS: we should make this a required field

2. Discussion of Guidelines for completion of records

Chuck reviewed the draft Guidelines for catalogers for completing records. The guidelines will be circulated again for comment. He saw the stages as: a. checking the information we have; b. confirming that information with the project director and gathering further information, using phone, email, fax; c. entering the additional information.

It was suggested that we prepare a simple form to send to project directors to help them prepare information for the database. A link to one or two exemplary completed records would also help.

3. Next Steps

We agreed that Chuck would circulate the draft guidelines; everyone would assist in commenting on them online and he would prepare a revised set by January 16. In the meantime, John Unsworth would complete a record on UVa's Valley in the Shadow project in our current database and Chris Powell and Pat Dragon would work on the record of the Michigan Middle English Compendium. We would then confer again by phone at the end of January with a view to starting the next phase, with Michigan and Rice catalogers by the end of January/early February.

Matt would give us the new url for the current database; David would update the NINCH Database project website.

4. Next Conference Call: