Browsing by Author "Hall, Nathan"

Now showing 1 - 20 of 30
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    3D Data Repository Features, Best Practices, and Implications for Preservation Models: Findings from a National Forum
    Hardesty, Juliet; Johnson, Jennifer; Wittenberg, Jamie; Hall, Nathan; Cook, Matt; Lischer-Katz, Zack; Xie, Zhiwu; McDonald, Robert H. (2020-07)
    This study identifies challenges and directions for 3D/VR repository standards and practices. As 3D technologies become more affordable and accessible, academic libraries need to implement workflows, standards, and practices that support the full lifecycle of 3D data. This study invited experts across several disciplines to analyze current national repository and preservation efforts. Outlined models provide frameworks to identify features, examine workflows, and determine implications of 3D data on current preservation models. Participants identified challenges for supporting 3D data, including intellectual property and fair use; providing repository system management beyond academic libraries; seeking guidance outside of academia for workflows to model.
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    Building Capacity for Library 3D and VR: Expert Perspectives on Strategic Directions for Libraries
    Hall, Nathan; Wittenberg, Jamie (Coalition for Networked Information, 2018-12-07)
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    Building Trustworthy Digital Community Archives at Virginia Tech
    Hall, Nathan; Kinnaman, Alex (2022-06-08)
    This presentation will outline our grant-funded research into building trust with smaller organizations in southwest Virginia by collaborating with stakeholders on curating non-custodial digital archives. Small regional institutions and organizations possess rich cultural heritage collections but lack robust digital infrastructure. This barrier inhibits broader access and use by researchers and the wider public. Larger institutions are able to digitize and provide access to such collections, though too often it occurs through physical acquisition, resulting in smaller institutions losing their unique materials. This presentation will describe our methods for building trust and infrastructure internally at Virginia Tech University Libraries and with cultural heritage institutions in southwest Virginia.
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    Challenges and Directions in 3D and VR DataCuration: Findings from a Nominal Group Study
    Hall, Nathan; Hardesty, Juliet; Lischer-Katz, Zack; Johnson, Jennifer; Cook, Matt; Ogier, Andrea; McDonald, Robert H. (International Journal of Data Curation, 2019-09-12)
    This study identifies challenges and promising directions in the curation of 3D data. 3D visualization shows great promise for a range of scholarly fields through interactive engagement with and analysis of spatially complex artifacts, spaces, and data. While the new affordability of emerging 3D capture technologies presents greater academic possibilities, academic libraries need more effective workflows, policies, standards, and practices to ensure that they can support the creation, discovery, access, preservation, and reproducibility of 3D data sets. This study uses nominal group technique with invited experts across several disciplines and sectors to identify common challenges in the creation and re-use of 3D data for the purpose of developing library strategy for supporting curation of 3D data. This article identifies staffing needs for 3D imaging; alignment with IT resources; the role of archivists in addressing unique challenges posed by these datasets; the importance of data annotation, metadata, and transparency for research integrity and reproducibility; and features for storage, access, and management to facilitate re-use by researchers and educators. Participants identified three main challenges for supporting 3D data that align with the strengths of libraries: 1) development of crosswalks and aggregation tools for discipline-specific metadata models, data dictionaries for 3D research, and aggregation tools for expanding discovery; 2) development of an open source viewer that supports streaming and annotation on archival formats of 3D models and makes archival master files accessible, while also serving derivative files based on user requirements; and 3) widespread of adoption of better documentation and technical metadata for image capture and modeling processes in order to support replicability of research, reproducibility of models, and transparency of scientific process.
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    Challenges and Strategies for Educational Virtual Reality: Results of an Expert-led Forum on 3D/VR Technologies Across Academic Institutions
    Hall, Nathan; Lischer-Katz, Zack; Cook, Matt; Hardesty, Juliet; Johnson, Jennifer; McDonald, Robert H.; Carlisle, Tara (Information Technology and Libraries, 2019-12-16)
    Virtual reality (VR) is a rich visualization and analytic platform that furthers the library’s mission of providing access to all forms of information and supporting pedagogy and scholarship across disciplines. Academic libraries are increasingly adopting VR technology for a variety of research and teaching purposes, which include providing enhanced access to digital collections, offering new research tools, and constructing new immersive learning environments for students. This trend suggests that positive technological innovation is flourishing in libraries, but there remains a lack of clear guidance in the library community on how to introduce these technologies in effective ways and make them sustainable within different types of institutions. In June 2018, the University of Oklahoma hosted the second of three forums on the use of 3D and VR for visualization and analysis in academic libraries, as part of the project Developing Library Strategy for 3D and Virtual Reality Collection Development and Reuse(LIB3DVR), funded by a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. This qualitative study invited experts from a range of disciplines and sectors to identify common challenges in the visualization and analysis of 3D data, and the management of VR programs, for the purpose of developing a national library strategy.
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    Creating a More Inclusive Future for Scholarly Communications
    Hall, Nathan; Maron, Nancy; Kennison, Rebecca; Shorish, Yasmeen; Malenfant, Kara (Electronic Publishing Conference, 2019-06-11)
    This paper reports findings from a study commissioned by the Association of College & Research Libraries to identify a new research agenda for scholarly communications and the research environment. The final report provides an overview of trends and practices and identifies and describes important questions where deeper inquiry is needed to accelerate the transition to more open, inclusive, and equitable systems of scholarship. This research agenda is informed by scholarly literature, as well as by advances in practice and the voices of historically underrepresented communities. The research involved structured engagement with the academic library community throughout the process, incorporated through project update webinars, expert interviews, focus groups, workshops, and an online survey. Over one thousand participants offered their thoughts and expertise to shape the research agenda. The themes that emerged include People, Content, and Systems, which each raised new research areas to explore. To further this new research agenda, ACRL is issuing research grants to investigate timely and substantial research questions, developing solutions that will move the community forward.
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    Creating the ACRL research agenda for scholarly communication: A move towards more equitable, open systems
    Hall, Nathan; Shorish, Yasmeen (College & Research Libraries News, 2019-09-09)
    ACRL considers the transition to more open and equitable systems of scholarship to be a core part of its Plan for Excellence. To meet this ambitious goal, the association’s Research and Scholarly Environment Committee (ReSEC) designs projects and work to meet a series of objectives. In the past, ACRL has seen the development of a research agenda as one way to successfully engage the community in its strategic efforts. Research agendas review an area of engagement, highlight work currently underway, and identify areas that require additional research to move the field forward.
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    Data Management in a Nutshell
    Pennington, Scott; Hall, Nathan (2014-02-26)
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    Developing a Financially Sustainable Business Model for Library Resources and Technical Services (LRTS), the Official Journal of ALCTS
    Shorish, Yasmeen; Arnold-Garza, Sara; Gong, Regina; Hall, Nathan (2013-06-19)
    The Board of Directors of the Association of Library Collections and Technical Services (ALCTS) tasked a sub-group of the American Library Association Emerging Leaders 2013 cohort with investigating different pricing and business models as well as the potential impact on membership of ceasing print production of the journal Library Resources & Technical Services (LRTS), and the impact of advertising on revenue. Based on its findings, the team drafted a report that will be presented to the LRTS Editorial Board and the ALCTS Board of Directors at ALA Annual 2013. This poster is a brief overview of the key points from the report.
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    Developing Library Strategy for 3D and Virtual Reality Collection Development and Reuse: An IMLS National Digital Platform Project
    Hall, Nathan; Hardesty, Juliet; Cook, Robert; McDonald, Robert H.; Lischer Katz, Zack; Wittenbert, Jaime; Carlisle, Tara; Johnson, Jennifer; Griffin, Julie; Xie, Zhiwu; Ogier, Andrea (2018)
    These are the preliminary and full proposals for an IMLS grant to develop a white paper (to be added here in late 2018) to host three national forums of invited experts to support library adoption of 3D and virtual reality (VR) services. The forums were hosted by Virginia Tech University Libraries, Indiana University Libraries, and the University of Oklahoma Libraries. Each forum covered a different 3D and VR theme: content creation and publishing, visualization and analysis, and repository practice and standards. Lower costs and greater computational power have made 3D and VR technologies financially realistic for a broad variety of institutions. Many academic libraries have developed archives for other forms of research data, but there is an absence of standards and best practices for producing, managing, and preserving 3D and VR content. This gap is an information management problem suited to the strengths of libraries and can benefit librarians and researchers alike across institutions.
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    Digital Collection Development Policy: From Documenting Content to Documenting Process
    Hall, Nathan; Alemneh, Daniel Gelaw; Phillips, Mark Edwards (University of North Texas Libraries, 2010)
    This poster discusses collection policies. Drawing from the experience of developing digital collections and a digital library infrastructure, the University of North Texas Libraries is developing a new collection policy specifically to meet the unique needs of digital collection building. This poster discusses new opportunities and challenges in digital life cycle managements in general.
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    Digital Libraries for Biodiversity and Natural History Collections
    Ruiz, Miguel; Kramer-Duffield, Jacob; Greenberg, Jane; Hall, Nathan (American Society for Information Science and Technology, 2010-10)
    This panel aims to discuss the importance of creating digital libraries for biodiversity and natural history collections, the state of the art in terms of standards, best practices and the challenges that natural history museums and herbaria face when trying to digitize their collections, and the creation and management of personal digital libraries for botanical learning.
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    DLA: Who We Are and What We Do
    McMillan, Gail; Gilbertson, Keith; Hall, Nathan; Lawrence, Anne S.; Weeks, Kimberli; Wills, D. Jane; Xie, Zhiwu (2012-05-24)
    In Service Day (ISD) 2012 presentation about the Digital Library and Archives (DLA).
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    Environmental Scan of Distributed Digital Preservation Services: A Collective Case Study
    Hall, Nathan; Boock, Michael (International Conference On Digital Preservation, 2017)
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    Environmental Scan of Distributed Digital Preservation Services: A Collective Case Study
    Hall, Nathan; Boock, Michael (International Conference on Digital Preservation, 2017-09-25)
    This paper uses a collective case study to reveal similarities and differences in the operations and service models of nine distributed digital preservation services. The study uncovers a wide range of organizations and technical variations among the nine services, but finds that they can be grouped into three basic service models.
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    Establishing Native Trees on Legacy Surface Mines
    Burger, James A.; Zipper, Carl E.; Angel, Patrick N.; Hall, Nathan; Skousen, Jeffrey G.; Barton, Christopher D.; Eggerud, Scott (Appalachian Regional Reforestation Initiative, 2013-11)
    More than one million acres have been surface mined for coal in Appalachia. Today, much of this land is unmanaged, unproductive, and covered with non-native plants. Establishing productive forests on such lands will aid restoration of ecosystem services provided by forests – services such as watershed protection, water quality enhancement, carbon storage and native wildlife habitat -- and will enable mined lands to produce valued products such as commercial timber. This Advisory describes practices for establishing native forest trees on lands that were surface mined for coal and reclaimed to meet legal standards, and where the mine operator no longer has any legal responsibilities (“legacy surface mines,” Photo 1). These lands often differ from their pre-mining condition with respect to topography, soils, water resource influences, and vegetation.
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    How to Build a 3D Imaging Program: An Overview of Technology, Skills, and Labor
    Scates Kettler, Hannah; Moore, Jennifer; Johnson, Jennifer; Rankins, Derek; Hall, Nathan (CLIR, 2017-10-24)
    3D imaging shows great promise for a range of scientific and humanistic fields. While lower costs and greater computational power have made 3D technologies financially realistic for a broader variety of institutions, there remains an absence of community standards and practices for producing, managing, and preserving 3D content. Librarians at four research universities will present their experiences staffing, funding, piloting, and launching 3D imaging programs at their institutions in order to demonstrate their approaches to production, management, preservation, and dissemination of 3D images. The discussion begins with the limitations and applicability of a 3D project which is influenced by technology and various stakeholders. Stakeholders that influence outcomes and processes of a 3D project include a principal investigator who initiates and participates in the development of a particular project, the technical service provider who creates and/or processes 3D data, the audience who dictates the product and impact of a 3D project, and funders and administrators who have sway over how the project is shaped. There are various methods to create digital 3D data, and program managers should know the benefits and limitations of each each. Examples include structured light scanning, photogrammetry, laser scanning, and LiDAR scanning. Understanding the desired outcome drives the choice in methodology, as each has its own strengths and limitations. This panel will go into detail about the opportunities and challenges that each technology affords. The hardware and software for creating and capturing 3D digital data are even more varied than the methods. Choosing the technology and hardware can be daunting and expensive. Setting up the environment and post-processing are both skill and time intensive. The skills required to apply each tool may vary. Potential limitations include time, expertise, funds available, and the envisioned user experience. These factors all have varying influence on the decisions regarding technology hardware and software. Access and discoverability is another area with a lack of standardization of practices across institutions engaged in 3D imaging. Repositories, such as Sketchfab, allow sharing of digital 3D models. There are also subject-based 3D focused repositories, such as Morphosource and subject based repositories that will accept 3D, such as tDAR. In many cases these data are openly shared. Some methods for displaying 3D digital data include embedding via html iframe into contentDM or WebGL / javascript libraries to display 3D online without plugins. Metadata greatly improves discoverability, but no common standard has emerged for 3D metadata, and the platforms mentioned here lack a number of essential preservation and discoverability criteria. Preservation is essential to maintaining the integrity of digital data. Preservation actions are taken to prevent loss and obsolescence for all kinds of data to ensure that data is in shape for long-term access and reuse. 3D data are particularly vulnerable to data loss, often by the nature of their creation. This creates a preservation challenge for the raw data, as well as other issues. This session will share lessons learned from each panelist and allow ample time for audience questions.
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    IMLS Community Catalyst Grant Community Forum Transcripts
    Hall, Nathan (2022-12-01)
    In support of the IMLS Grant "Community Development Model for Digital Community Archives" awarded to Virginia Tech in 2019, Virginia Tech university Libraries hosted four forum sessions for community organizations located in the greater Southwest Virginia to discuss a model for developing an equitable, community-developed archive. This was facilitated by the Institute for Engagement & Negotiation at the University of Virginia. The sessions were conducted remotely on Zoom and recorded. The four sessions included discussion on what the Southwest Virginia Digital Archive is and how it may serve the wider community; functional requirements community members may have in order to effectively display their content; the Memorandum of Agreement that would officially document the collaboration; and the development of a community advisory board to ensure ongoing support. This dataset includes four TXT files of transcriptions from each of the four sessions. The transcriptions have been cleaned and anonymized to protect the community participants. Participants agreed to have anonymized transcripts made public. Members of the Virginia Tech faculty and the Institute for Engagement & Negotiation staff are named to provide context. Additional grant information may be found at https://www.imls.gov/grants/awarded/lg-15-19-0137-19.
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    Impact of Administrative Burdens on Undocumented Youth Access to Higher Education and Benefits from In-State Resident Tuition
    Briceno Mosquera, Andrea (Virginia Tech, 2021-09-01)
    In the United States, some states and higher education institutions allow undocumented students to pay in-state resident tuition at public colleges and universities. Yet, when undocumented youth apply and seek to qualify for in-state tuition, they find bureaucratic procedures and rules that may discourage them from applying at all, delay, or hamper their access to higher education. The study explores how such bureaucratic requirements impose learning, compliance, and psychological burdens on undocumented youth. Building upon administrative burdens scholarship and using qualitative and quantitative analyses of admissions applications at the institutional level, undocumented students reports' of their experiences, and surveys of college admissions officers, this study examines the admissions requirements and other factors that may shape the applications of undocumented students to colleges in the states providing ISRT benefits for undocumented youth. The findings suggest that undocumented youth navigate multifaceted institutional contexts across and within states, including requirements and rules at different organizational levels and interactions with admissions officers whose discretion may facilitate or obstruct access. Variations in ISRT requirements reflect states' patterns of immigration, demographics, political (sub) cultures, narratives about the deservingness, organizational factors as well as the discretion that college personnel has in applying the requirements. Findings suggest that factors associated with residency, notarized affidavits, tax forms, and lack of clear information and guidance from college personnel substantially increase burdens when undocumented youth seek to benefit from ISRT. Certainly, when states, institutions, and admissions officers establish and shape ISRT requirements, they implicitly influence the sense of belonging and membership of undocumented applicants and mediate intergovernmental tension surrounding legalization and inclusion of this population in society.
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    The Information Literacy Gap in Scholarly Communications
    Hall, Nathan (Association of College and Research Libraries, 2015-03)
    In spite of the involvement of academic libraries in the Open Access movement, many university faculty have rather conservative attitudes towards scholarly communication. This paper attempts to identify the knowledge that forms these faculty attitudes by answering the research question, “What do faculty know and believe about scholarly communication and open access?” Faculty are a key stakeholder group for academic libraries and it is important to understand their attitudes and beliefs, especially since open access research is of strategic importance to research libraries and an increasingly important component in the ethos of librarianship. Ultimately, this demonstrates some of the ways faculty think and talk about scholarly communication and open access, and suggests how information literacy programs can more effectively engage with faculty around scholarly communication issues. Based on these findings, this paper makes recommendations on how to tailor scholarly communication programs to address the needs of faculty.