“No Competing Claims”: The Seizure, Abandonment, and Acquisition of the PATCO records

This article discusses the unorthodox manner in which the Southern Labor Archives, Georgia State University Library, received the records of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization. Also discussed is how having no financial support from the decertified union considerably slowed efforts to process the voluminous collection and make it accessible to researchers

Resource Leveling for a Mass Digitization Project

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to discuss the nature of the project management concept of resource leveling, particularly how it can be utilized for grant-funded mass digitization projects where time, cost and available resources – the elements of the project scope triangle – are in tension with each other to define the scope and quality of a project. Design/methodology/approach – This article presents a case study of resource leveling for a mass digitization project in an academic library. Details on the use of resource leveling through deconstructing activities, smoothing and alternative scheduling are described in relation to this project. Findings – Resource leveling techniques can assist digitization project managers to meet project milestones on time and within budget and may be particularly useful for digitization projects with limited budgets. Originality/value – As digitization projects become more universal for libraries and cultural heritage institutions, this original case study offers insights into applying no-cost project management techniques

The Digitizing of ’34

The Digitizing of ’34 documentary was created by staff at Georgia State University Library to share information about work on a National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) grant received in 2015. The grant funding provided professional digitization and transcription services for interviews created for The Uprising of ’34 (1995), a feature-length documentary that tells the story of the general textile strike across the south in the same year. While the interview was one-and-a-half hours in length, the interviews created for the documentary consist of over 200 hours of footage. The short documentary, an homage to the original documentary, provides information on the background of the strikes, difficulties accessing the collection, the success of the grant project, and outreach to communities where the strikes took place in 1934. A companion history of the collection provides further explanation of the collection and grant

Harnessing multiple data sources to good program planning for Rural US Veterans

ABSTRACT Objectives Identify geographic variations in health and healthcare among US Veterans living in rural areas and understand the relationships between social determinants of health and these variations. Approach Data from 11 data sources will be leveraged to create the US Veterans Rural Health Atlas and chart book (VeRHA) patterned after the Dartmouth Atlas, The VeHRA will provide an interactive map and chart book can be used to efficiently examine a wide range of factors related to health and healthcare of rural Veterans. The analyses will assess the relationships between socioeconomic, cultural and environmental factors and geographical variation in access, utilization, quality, satisfaction and outcomes. Semi-structured qualitative interviews will be used to elicit the perspective of Veterans not using VA care and to identify non-governmental organizations who provide care and support to US Veterans. The project will also identify community, state, and federal entities with which ORH could form strategic partnerships to improve health and healthcare for Rural Veterans. Initially, three maps will be created for Veterans who are not enrolled in care, those enrolled but not using care and those enrolled and using care. Areas where many Veterans live and use VA healthcare will be identified as “hot spots” while areas where Veterans live but do not use care will be identified as “cold spots”. Metrics for determining “hot and cold spots” will include measures of temporal and geographic access as well as measures of quality of care. We will first calculate raw rates for outcomes across geographic areas (census tract, county, and market/regions) Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis (ESDA) will be conducted by mapping the geographic distribution of key measures and then calculate the values of the local and global Moran’s I measures of spatial autocorrelation. The relationship between social determinants of health and geographical variation in access, needs, utilization, quality, satisfaction, and outcomes for rural Veterans will be assessed, focused primarily on the “cold spots” – areas of greatest need. Results The project is a work in progress with initial maps created showing the density of Veterans across the United States. More extensive results will be available for presentation. Conclusion This work demonstrates the value of using large data sets to guide development of policies and programs at a national level

Harnessing multiple data sources to good program planning for Rural US Veterans

ABSTRACT Objectives Identify geographic variations in health and healthcare among US Veterans living in rural areas and understand the relationships between social determinants of health and these variations. Approach Data from 11 data sources will be leveraged to create the US Veterans Rural Health Atlas and chart book (VeRHA) patterned after the Dartmouth Atlas, The VeHRA will provide an interactive map and chart book can be used to efficiently examine a wide range of factors related to health and healthcare of rural Veterans. The analyses will assess the relationships between socioeconomic, cultural and environmental factors and geographical variation in access, utilization, quality, satisfaction and outcomes. Semi-structured qualitative interviews will be used to elicit the perspective of Veterans not using VA care and to identify non-governmental organizations who provide care and support to US Veterans. The project will also identify community, state, and federal entities with which ORH could form strategic partnerships to improve health and healthcare for Rural Veterans. Initially, three maps will be created for Veterans who are not enrolled in care, those enrolled but not using care and those enrolled and using care. Areas where many Veterans live and use VA healthcare will be identified as “hot spots” while areas where Veterans live but do not use care will be identified as “cold spots”. Metrics for determining “hot and cold spots” will include measures of temporal and geographic access as well as measures of quality of care. We will first calculate raw rates for outcomes across geographic areas (census tract, county, and market/regions) Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis (ESDA) will be conducted by mapping the geographic distribution of key measures and then calculate the values of the local and global Moran’s I measures of spatial autocorrelation. The relationship between social determinants of health and geographical variation in access, needs, utilization, quality, satisfaction, and outcomes for rural Veterans will be assessed, focused primarily on the “cold spots” – areas of greatest need. Results The project is a work in progress with initial maps created showing the density of Veterans across the United States. More extensive results will be available for presentation. Conclusion This work demonstrates the value of using large data sets to guide development of policies and programs at a national level