New Chair of TDL Metadata Working Group
Please join us in welcoming Amy Rushing, metadata librarian at the University of Texas at Austin, as the new chair of the TDL’s metadata working group! Amy will be leading the development of several metadata policies for the TDL’s electronic thesis and dissertation (ETD) repository, to describe rights, preservation, structure, and other topics.
Many thanks are due to Dr. William Moen of the University of North Texas, the out-going chair of the group. Under Bill’s leadership the group set out an ambitious program of projects, began development of a common metadata scheme for all TDL materials, and completed a mapping of ETD metadata between the Dublin Core and MODS schemas. We greatly appreciate his efforts!
Manakin Article Featured in Latest DSpace Newsletter
Scott Phillips, TDL research and development coordinator, was interviewed for an article in the January DSpace newsletter NewSpace. In the article Scott discusses Manakin, the customizable interface for DSpace developed by TDL staff at Texas A&M University. The interface, available for DSpace since version 1.4, was designed to adapt to many specific types of needs, users, and collections and is being used by many TDL member institutions to brand and shape their local repositories. To read the full article, please visit http://www.dspace.org/newsletter-newspace/NewSpace-January-2008.html.
Vireo Project Making Good Progress
Vireo, the common ETD submission and workflow system under development by the TDL, hit an important milestone at the end of December: project programmers completed the system’s initial development phase on schedule. January was spent running the system through vigorous tests and evaluating it for accessibility compliance, in preparation for the limited user trial which will run from February through May 2008 with selected students from Texas A&M University and the University of Texas at Austin. You’ll be sure to hear more about the system in upcoming months!
TDL Visits Houston – Galveston Area
TDL staff had a busy two days in Houston and Galveston at the end of January. On January 22, TDL co-directors Mark McFarland and John Leggett made their first visit to the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, where they met with Brett Kirkpatrick, Associate Vice President for Academic Research and Director of the Libraries. In the afternoon Mark and John visited Natalie Wiest and Steve Conway of TDL member institution Texas A&M University at Galveston, in order to discuss the TDL’s repository services.
The following day, the chairs of the four TDL working groups (ETD, Metadata, Preservation, and Repositories) met with TDL core staff at the University of Houston; the group focused on interactions among various TDL projects and planning for the spring. Meanwhile, the co-directors met with University of Houston CIO Dennis Fouty, library dean Dana Rooks, and John Lehner, assistant dean for library systems. Later that day Mark and John also stopped in at the Houston Academy of Medicine – Texas Medical Center Library to update library associate director Leah Krevit on recent TDL activities.