ArchivesSpace to Primo Pipeline: Harvesting Finding Aids for Discovery

WMU Libraries\u27 next step in making our archival collections more discoverable is to harvest finding aids from ArchivesSpace into our library\u27s discovery layer, Primo, appearing alongside print materials, electronic resources, and digital collections in a single search. This poster will provide details of the process: from setting the granularity of harvested description in ArchivesSpace to creating a pipe into Primo using the Open Archives Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH)

Students and Digital Projects at WMU: Working and Learning Together

Western Michigan University Libraries uses undergraduate and graduate students in many stages of their digital projects, from finding aid creation and translation, to scanning and editing digital images. Using the recent digitization and description of a WWI German soldier’s scrapbook, we will examine how students are incorporated into the overall workflow, often bringing needed skills to the project and gaining valuable hands-on experience with archival materials, scanning equipment and software, and metadata creation

From Luxury Liners to Aircraft Carriers: USS Wolverine and USS Sable

This thesis details the complex conversions of two Great Lakes passenger ships into flattop aircraft carriers in 1942 and 1943, and the subsequent training of thousands of pilots aboard the carriers. The entire US naval fleet in 1942 consisted of eight carriers-all of which were desperately needed to fight the Axis powers on the open oceans. To save time and materials, the Navy elected to convert existing ships rather than build new carriers. Lake carriers did not need massive hulls, armaments, elevators and cabins below deck for plane storage and personnel, but they did need realistic carrier operating conditions. The Great Lakes, especially Lake Michigan, offered wind and wave conditions resembling those found on the open oceans. Navy Pier, in Chicago, provided ideal docking, because it was close to Glenview Naval Air base by air and to Glenview's satellite airfields where the planes were fielded, and pilots were bunked and fed. Hence, the carriers, Navy Pier, and Glenview had a symbiotic relationship; they each needed the other to allow the group to achieve its fullest potential. In 1942, the Navy requisitioned two of the largest passenger ships on the Lakes, SS Seeandbee and SS Greater Buffalo. American Shipbuilding Company retrofitted the two ships at their firm's docks at Cleveland and Buffalo. SS Seeandbee's conversion into USS Wolverine was completed in four months, but retrofitting SS Greater Buffalo into USS Sable took five months longer because the Navy decided to experiment with steel, instead of wood, decking

Teaching Them How to Fish: Supporting Digital Collection Building Through Regional Partnerships

When asked what the barriers were to digitizing and sharing their unique collections online, many smaller cultural heritage institutions say a lack equipment, systems, and expertise. Our answer to that: mobile digitization lab, training, and digital collections hosting. Western Michigan University Libraries, in partnership with the Gilmore Car Museum and Richland Community Library, has been developing a model that aims to make digitization, metadata creation, and digital collection building possible for smaller-scale regional libraries and cultural heritage institutions. Supported by a LSTA grant though the Library of Michigan, and leveraging digital collection building expertise at WMU, this pilot project will allow these two institutions to digitize, describe, and share their materials with a larger audience. More importantly, the deployable service model and training materials will be shared and used to guide further partnerships, creating access to more of Southwest Michigan’s hidden collections

Re: Structuring, Organizing, Inventing, and Imagining Technical Services

Western Michigan University Libraries migrated to the cloud in 2015 with a new integrated library system (ILS) and discovery layer. In 2016, the Libraries began discussing a complete reorganization. This presentation will outline the changes that occurred in WMU\u27s Technical Services Department as a result of the ILS migration and new overall organizational structure in the Libraries, and how technical services faculty and staff have adapted and seized the opportunity to reinvent the department

Pipe Dreams: Harvesting Local Collections into Primo Using OAI-PMH

Achieve seamless discovery of materials by aggregating disparate data sources into a single discovery interface through the creation of pipes. We will present our process of selecting, curating, configuring, and harvesting from our institutional repository, digital collections, subject guides, and archival finding aids, in order to provide a streamlined user experience and increased discovery. This presentation will share our workflows, including mapping to Dublin Core, configuring the pipes, testing new resources in the Primo Sandbox, and then deploying in our Production instance