Python for Archivists: Breaking Down Barriers Between Systems

[Excerpt] Working with a multitude of digital tools is now a core part of an archivist’s skillset. We work with collection management systems, digital asset management systems, public access systems, ticketing or request systems, local databases, general web applications, and systems built on smaller systems linked through application programming interfaces (APIs). Over the past years, more and more of these applications have evolved to meet a variety of archival processes. We no longer expect a single tool to solve all our needs and embraced the “separation of concerns” design principle that smaller, problem-specific and modular systems are more effective than large monolithic tools that try to do everything. All of this has made the lives of archivists easier and empowered us to make our collections more accessible to our users. Yet, this landscape can be difficult to manage. How do we get all of these systems that rely on different software and use data in different ways to talk to one another in ways that help, rather than hinder, our day to day tasks? How do we develop workflows that span these different tools while performing complex processes that are still compliant with archival theory and standards? How costly is it to maintain these relationships over time as our workflows evolve and grow? How do we make all these new methods simple and easy to learn for new professionals and keep archives from being even more esoteric

XQuery for Archivists: Understanding EAD Finding Aids as Data

[Excerpt] XQuery is a simple, yet powerful, scripting language designed to enable users without formal programming training to extract, transform, and manipulate XML data. Moreover, the language is an accepted standard and a W3C recommendation much like its sister standards, XML and XSLT. In other words, XQuery’s raison d’etre coincides perfectly with the needs of today’s archivists. What follows is a brief, pragmatic, overview of XQuery for archivists that will enable archivists with a keen understanding of XML, XPath, and EAD to begin experimenting with manipulating EAD data using XQuery

Investigation of Tantalum Wet Slug Capacitor Failures in the Apollo Telescope Mount Charger Battery Regulator Modules

This investigation describes the capacitor failures and to identify the cause of the failure mechanism. Early failures were thought to have happened because of age and/or abuse since the failed capacitors were dated 1967. It is shown that all 1967 capacitors were replaced with 1972 capacitors

XQuery for Archivists: Understanding EAD Finding Aids as Data

XML has long been an important tool for archivists. The addition of XQuery provides a simple and easy-to-learn tool to extract, transform, and manipulate the large amounts of XML data that archival repositories have committed resources to develop and maintain – particularly EAD finding aids. XQuery allows archivists to make use of that data. Furthermore, using XQuery to query EAD finding aids, rather than merely reformat them with XSLT, forces archivists to look at finding aids as data. This will provide better knowledge of how EAD may be used and further understanding of how finding aids may be better encoded. This article provides a simple how-to guide to get archivists to start experimenting with XQuery

Describing Web Archives: A Computer-Assisted Approach

Currently, web archives are challenging for users to discover and use. Many archives and libraries are actively collecting web archives, but description in this area has been dominated by bibliographic approaches, which do not connect web archives to existing description or contextual information, and have often resulted in format-based silos. This is primarily because web archiving tools such as Archive-It arrange materials by seeds and groups of seeds, which reflect the complex technical process of web crawling or web recording, and are often not very meaningful to users or helpful for discovery. This article makes the case for arranging and describing web archives in meaningful aggregates according to established standards—showing how archival practices allow archivists to arrange the diversity of web content according to their common forms and functions while empowering them to be creative with their time and thoughtful with their labor. It provides a path to exposing important provenance information to users and demonstrates an existing proof of concept. Finally, it outlines a possible integration between ArchivesSpace and Archive-It that is feasible to implement for many archives and would automate the repetitive parts of creating and updating description for new web crawls

The Historical Hazards of Finding Aids

Archivists have traditionally understood access through finding aids, assuming that—through creating them—they are effectively providing access to archival materials. This article is a history of finding aids in American archival practice that demonstrates how finding aids have negatively colored how archivists have understood access. It shows how finding aids were originally a compromise between resource constraints and the more familiar access that users expected, how a discourse centered on finding aids hindered the standardization of archival description as data, and how the characteristics of finding aids as tools framed and negatively impacted the Encoded Archival Description (EAD) standard. It questions whether finding aids are a productive or useful framework for understanding how archivists provide access to collections

Development of Project Management Application Suite for Improved Communication & Project Development

The purpose of this project was to provide the client with a project management solution that provided for better communication between ITS and the community, while providing a place for projects to be proposed and stored, ensuring projects are not lost. This goal was achieved through a process of determining the client\u27s business needs, examining their existing systems, preparing a formal project plan, and designing and implementing a solution. The result was a solution that provided the community a location to improve communication on project status on a 24x7 basis. Through the design of a custom project management solution, all of the client\u27s goals were achieved. The application worked with the client\u27s current security system; guaranteeing all community users are able to access the system, without requiring a new username/password. The application also provided users the ability to finish a project proposal over multiple sessions, for projects to be prioritized, and phases to be added to each project with the ability to assign each phase to a project manager and team. The project was a successful solution to the problems defined, with the success attributed to clearly defined goals. The project used commonly used internet technologies, which provided a solution easy to use and implement

A Proposed Evaluation Plan for Kaiser Permanente’s Diabetes Disease Management Program

DM is a serious and complex public health problem in the U.S. The CDC (2013) estimated that 25.8 million people, or 8.3% of the U.S. population, were suffering from DM in 2011. DM can significantly affect patient’s quality of life. Additionally, DM places a significant economic burden on the U.S. healthcare system. Over the past two decades, DMPs have emerged as a promising intervention to improve health outcomes for patients suffering from chronic conditions, such as DM, and to bend the cost curve. DMP’s aim is to improve communication and follow-up so that patients can better manage their chronic condition(s) to avoid costly hospital stays and emergency room visits (Fireman, Bartlett, & Selby, 2004). The Georgia region of Kaiser Permanente (KPGA) is a fully integrated health system that serves 260,000 members at 28 medical offices along with two specialty offices in the metropolitan Atlanta area. The Center for Care Partnership, the population care division of KPGA, administers a chronic disease management program (DMP), Healthy Solutions (HS). HS exists to improve and maintain the health of chronically ill KPGA members, including patients diagnosed with diabetes mellitus (DM), by providing health coaches via telephone who counsel members on their specific chronic disease and aid members in starting or maintaining a physician approved self-care management plan. In order to determine the impact HS has on KPGA members with DM, an evaluation plan was created to evaluate the impact HS has on members’ glycated hemoglobin (A1C), blood pressure, and emergency department (ED) utilization. This capstone thoroughly details the proposed evaluation plan created for HS by using Robert Milstein and Scott Wetterhall’s six-step framework for program evaluation. Additionally, further evaluation questions are suggested and discussed in order to provide a more complete picture of program performance to stakeholders

Python for Archivists: breaking down barriers between systems

Working with a multitude of digital tools is now a core part of an archivist’s skillset. We work with collection management systems, digital asset management systems, public access systems, ticketing or request systems, local databases, general web applications, and systems built on smaller systems linked through application programming interfaces (APIs). Over the past years, more and more of these applications have evolved to meet a variety of archival processes. We no longer expect a single tool to solve all our needs and embraced the “separation of concerns” design principle that smaller, problem-specific and modular systems are more effective than large monolithic tools that try to do everything. All of this has made the lives of archivists easier and empowered us to make our collections more accessible to our users

Terministic Screening and Conspiracy Theory in Political Communication: A Critical Analysis of Trump’s Rhetorical Ties to FAIR and Alex Jones Through “Invasion” Immigration Discourse

This study focuses on the political and social communicative implications that result from mirrored anti-LatinX immigration discourses from three different political entities: President Donald Trump, special-interest hate group the Federation for Immigration Reform (FAIR), and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. Through a critical communication lens, the author presents and discusses the influence of presidential communication, and its ability to contribute to and bolster xenophobic political undertones, creating a communicative environment that functions to empower and embolden proponents of racially based discrimination. Further, this study discusses the power presidential communication has to legitimize, normalize, and amplify the racist and xenophobic anti-LatinX discourses perpetuated by hate groups and conspiracy theorists, bringing fringe beliefs into the communicative mainstream