Hi everyone:
Here are the latest developments concerning 2CUL TSI. This report, along with previous updates, is also available in the Project Reports section of the TSI wiki.
1. The 2CUL TSI Mellon grant comes to an end December 31st and the TSI Steering Committee thanks everyone who worked with us over the past 3 years. TSI will continue after the grant as a "strategic alliance." Several initiatives in metadata and electronic resources will continue and the excellent working relationships that were formed will continue to shape collaborative projects in the future. A formal statement of the nature of our ongoing alliance appears on the TSI wiki and is also copied below.
The 2CUL Technical Services Strategic Alliance
With the conclusion of the integrative work accomplished with the support of the three-year TSI Mellon grant, we will mainstream the 2CUL technical services collaboration as a “strategic alliance,” beginning in January 2016. The goals of this alliance are:
- To work together on discrete projects and initiatives of mutual strategic interest, whenever collaboration is likely to lead to better overall quality, productivity, improvement of services, and/or fruitful innovation than working alone;
- To preserve, promote, and invoke the 2CUL brand in broader collaborative forums (e.g. Borrow Direct, LD4P, the Program for Cooperative Cataloging), in which the 2CUL alliance is likely to serve as a catalyst or provide us with increased leverage in negotiating and advancing mutual interests;
- To maintain a lightweight administrative infrastructure to foster and support the continuing alliance between our technical services operations, in conjunction with the broader 2CUL partnership.
The 2CUL Technical Services Joint Senior Managers Integration Network (JSMIN) will remain the steering body for the alliance. It will meet quarterly via WebEx and annually at either Columbia or Cornell, pending significant agendas.
The TSI functional working groups will remain nominally in place, although those teams not actively involved in 2CUL projects, initiatives, and other arrangements may consider themselves on hiatus until the need for their renewed participation in the partnership arises. The formation of ad hoc working groups and teams will be encouraged and supported, as they materialize. New staff will be included in new and existing working groups, as appropriate. Both the functional and ad hoc working groups will be accountable to JSMIN or to the appropriate technical services directors within JSMIN.
2. Cornell and Columbia will continue to work together on linked data projects under the umbrella of the proposed Linked Data for Production (LD4P) Mellon grant. LD4P is a collaboration between Columbia, Cornell, Harvard, the Library of Congress, Princeton and Stanford to begin the transition of technical services production workflows from MARC to linked open data. Cornell will be working on a BIBFRAME extension for rare original sound recordings from the Afrika Bambaataa collection and, in collaboration with the ACRL Rare Books and Manuscripts Section (RBMS), on a Rare Books Materials Ontology. Columbia will be using BIBFRAME to describe two and three dimensional art objects from the Art Properties collection. Columbia will also collaborate with the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. The 2CUL relationship comes into play because Columbia will be working in Cornell's VITRO instance and staff from both institutions will be sharing findings and expertise.
3. On December 4th, Sung Ok Kim, You Lee Chun and Professor Eun Shil Kim (a visiting scholar from Korea) came to Columbia to meet with Jim Cheng, Sarah Elman, Hee-sook Shin and Myongyee P. Jin (from Burke). The group discussed Korean processing and reviewed Columbia duplicate titles for addition to Cornell's collection.
4. Monica Espitia traveled to Cornell in early December to meet with her Cornell counter-part Deb Warfield and others.
5. Jim and Kate are writing a third and final article on 2CUL TSI.
As always, please feel free to direct questions or concerns to your supervisors or any member of the TSI Steering Committee: Adam Chandler, Kate Harcourt, Jim LeBlanc, Colleen Major, Chew Chiat Naun, or Robert Rendall.
– Jim and Kate