Volume 3, Issue 3
July 2006
NC ECHO
www.ncecho.org
State Library of North Carolina
Newsletter
From the Project Archivist
4640 Mail Service Center
Raleigh, NC 27699-4640 Online Collections and the K-12 Audience
Phone: (919) 807-7418 NC ECHO is committed to helping in the classroom. to the K-12 audience needs to
Editor: Hilary Perez the state’s school children ac- be deliberate. As computers
cess the treasures housed in In 1904, Horace Kephart, a natu- become more important in the
Inside this issue: North Carolina’s museums, li- ralist and student of wood lore, classroom, teachers are looking
braries, archives and historic moved to western North Carolina for ways to expose their students
sites. We have recently com- in search of a more simple life. to quality online content. Some-
pleted a seminar focusing on He noted that the remoteness of thing to keep in mind, seminar
Staff Notes 1 online collections and the K-12 the region and the difficulty of participants discovered, is that
audience. May 1-5, 2006, we passing through the terrain made teachers must be able to con-
held a seminar called “Back of many of the sites he visited seem nect the online collection they
From the Project Archivist 1, 2 Beyond: Portals to Our Mountain like “the back of beyond”. In his use in the classroom to the Stan-
Past” at the North Carolina Cen- newly adopted home, Kephart dard Course of Study for their
ter for the Advancement of studied the lives and culture of grade and subject. Teachers
Mark Your Calendars 2 Teaching also rarely have
(NCCAT) in Cul- time to develop
Metadata Matters 2, 3 lowhee, NC. This their own lesson
weeklong semi- plan for how to use
nar brought to- online collections
Spotlight 3 gether 10 cul- with their stu-
tural heritage dents. A website
NC ECHO Advisory Committee 4 professionals will be of far
and 8 teachers greater use if les-
from the public son plans that
schools. To- align with the Stan-
gether we looked dard Course of
at how resources Study are pro-
from museums, vided.
Staff Notes archives and
libraries can be NC ECHO partners
brought into the with LEARN NC, a
classroom and The Back Of Beyond: Portals to Our Mountain Past (May 1-5, 2006 at NCCAT) program of the
discussed the BackBack Of Beyond: Portals to Our Mountain Past (May 1-5, 2006 at NCCAT)
The Row: Kathy Bundy, Leslie Richardson, Tami Shaw, Jeff Futch, Karen Shaver, University of North
Jonathan Wade, Bob Boswell. Middle Row: TamiPast (May 1-5, 2006 at NCCAT)
Back Row: Kathy Bundy, Leslie Richardson, Rachel Dickens, Nanci Petrucelli,
Portals to Our Mountain Shaw, Jeff Futch, Karen Shaver,
unique needs of The Back Of Beyond: Knapp, Middle Row: RachelShaw, JeffNanci Petrucelli,
Jonathan Wade, Bob Boswell. Ramona Renfroe, Jann Brown. Front Karen Shaver, Carolina at Chapel
Sharon Wiley, Richard Leslie Richardson, Tami Dickens, Futch, Row: Nancy
Back Row: Kathy Bundy,
teachers and Harris, Jan Wyatt, Debbi Blake,RamonaWilliford,Jann Brown.Nanci Petrucelli,
Jonathan Wade, Bob Boswell. JoAnn Renfroe, Christy Earp.
Sharon Wiley, Richard Knapp, Middle Row: Rachel Dickens, Front Row: Nancy Hill School of Edu-
ways in which Sharon Wiley, Richard Knapp, JoAnn Renfroe, Christy Earp.
Harris, Jan Wyatt, Debbi Blake,RomonaWilliford, Jann Brown. Front Row: Nancy cation. This state-
cultural institu- Harris, Jan Wyatt, Debbi Blake, JoAnn Williford, Christy Earp. Not Pictured: wide network of
Monika Rhue, Ray Rose.
tions can meet educators is using
those needs in the online envi- the mountain people and the the power of the Internet to im-
ronment. This seminar revolved natural history of the mountain prove K-12 education in North
around Horace Kephart: Reveal- region. From this study came Carolina. LEARN NC can consult
ing an Enigma, a digital collec- Kephart’s book Our Southern with NC ECHO partner institu-
tion of archives and artifacts put Highlanders first published in tions to help tailor online collec-
online by Western Carolina Uni- 1913. You can learn more about tions to be most useful to the K-
NC ECHO welcomes our new versity in collaboration with the the Horace Kephart digital collec- 12 audience. LEARN NC’s web-
Project Assistant, Matt Vernon. Mountain Heritage Center. Semi- tion in the Spotlight section of site www.learnnc.org also has
Matt is starting the Public His- nar participants, both teachers this newsletter (p. 3). the most current version of the
tory Master’s Program at NC and cultural heritage profession- Standard Course of Study as well
State University. We are really als, used this fabulous web re- Participants at the Back of Be- as numerous lesson plans which
looking forward to working with source to examine the potential yond Seminar learned that mak-
him. for the use of online collections ing your online collections usable SEE K-12 SEMINAR, 2
Page 2
Metadata Matters
Mark Your This spring has been quiet in the instance, language is both de- Content Standard (DACS) are
Calendars! metadata world. The Library of scriptive and administrative. The both data content standards. If
Congress made a startling an- question is: do we repeat the we look at the title section of
- September, 2006 nouncement about the suspen- language information in those two these two as a comparison, it
sion of controlled series titles different pie slices or can we con- helps to demonstrate the way
Digitization Institute X
early in April, but other metadata ceptualize a more multidimen- that content standards work. In
NCCAT, Cullowhee, NC schemes have not experienced sional approach to metadata? bibliographic cataloging (AACR2),
(Check http://www.ncecho.org any revolutionary events quite The best way to approach these title formation is based upon tran-
for more information as it becomes like that. That said, I thought I’d issues is to delineate the purpose scription of the title as it appears
available.) take the opportunity to talk about of the metadata you are creating on the title page. There are sub-
a few ideas that I’ve had about and to consider the sequent rules for
- July 30—August 6, 2006 metadata recently: metadata pie aspects of that what constitutes
“[Metadata pie and
Society of American Archivists 2006 and standards types. These con- purpose. Most a title, what hap-
Washington, DC cepts are intertwined and can metadata stan- data standards types] pens if there is
help cultural heritage profession- dards include a provide new ways to no title page,
Stay Informed! Join the NC ECHO- als make metadata decisions variety of elements classify metadata con- and so on. In
Announce listserve to receive e-mail when they’re getting ready to that address more DACS, title is
announcements about upcoming events implement something new. than one of these cepts in order to make composed of
by NC ECHO and NC ECHO partner types. Understand- better choices...” four separate
institutions. To subscribe, e-mail Matt
Metadata Pie ing these differen- pieces of infor-
Vernon
(mvernon@library.dcr.state.nc.us).
Sounds like a great dish, but tiations in metadata purposes mation: the name of creator in
really it’s a new conceptual ap- helps you decipher the kind of director order, the nature of the
proach to thinking about the vari- information that needs to be in- materials (papers, records), a
ety of different metadata types cluded and the relationship that genre type if appropriate, and an
that you can keep about any ob- that information will have with optional topical unit. This results
ject (digital or physical). So what other elements in the standard. in titles such as “Louis Round
Digitization Institute IX do I mean by metadata pie? For instance, Dublin Core in- Wilson papers.”
Metadata pie refers to the full cludes both descriptive fields
June 5-9, 2006 amount of metadata that you can (title, creator, extent, etc.) and Data structure standards:
compile about any object. This structural fields (relation). Data structure standards provide
includes four over-all categories: the syntax or structure in which
descriptive, structural, adminis- Data standards types you place your content. Examples
trative, and analytical metadata. The other aspect of metadata of this include Machine Readable
Within each category there are that should be considered is the Cataloging (MARC) and Encoded
subcategories. For instance, different kinds of standards that Archival Description (EAD). These
administrative metadata includes are part of metadata. There are standards focus on the structure
information about Rights man- three kinds generally discussed. or encoding of metadata rather
agement, Technical specifica- These kinds compliment each than what belongs in particular
tions, preservation and condition other and help construct a full fields.
data, as well as mundane aspects metadata picture.
like physical location information. Data value standards:
Back Row: Amy Rudersdorf, Sara Descriptive metadata includes Data content standards: Data value standards regularize
McGough, Emily Gore, Hillary Dawkins, physical description, title, creator, Data content standards instruct the values for the content. This
Mandy Foss. Front Row: Kim Garmon,
John Mercer, Julie Thomas, Joe Bar- and so on. you on the way to express infor- includes controlled vocabularies
ricella, Linda Sparks, Jennifer Burns, mation about a particular ele- and standards such as ISO 8601
Ran Shaffner, Frank Thomson. Not While this appears to be a neat ment. For instance, Anglo- (date-time format) or ISO 639-2b
Pictured: Deb Schillo.
way to divide-up metadata types, American Cataloging Rules 2
it’s not as clear cut as that. For (AACR2) or Describing Archives: a SEE METADATA CONCEPTS, 3
K-12 Seminar, Continued
use online collections such the Horace Kephart: Revealing an Enigma digital collection.
Lesson plans for the Kephart collection are for grade 8, 11 and 12, language arts, social studies and US
history. Using the collection, students read selections from Our Southern Highlanders to achieve social
studies and English language arts objectives while developing an appreciation of the uniqueness of re-
gional speech patterns, the complexities of ethnographic encounters, and the need to interrogate pri-
mary sources carefully to identify potential biases and misinformation in them. (http://www.learnnc.org/
bestweb/kephart-wcu).
Ramona Renfroe, Rachel Dickens, Hilary
Visit the NC ECHO website or join our listserve to receive announcements about upcoming seminars for Perez and Monika Rhue work together on
online collections and the K-12 audience. Hilary Perez a lesson plan exercise.
Volume 3, Issue 3 Page 3
Spotlight
Hunter Library Special Collections and the Mountain Heritage Center Collaborate on Horace Kephart Website
About Horace Kephart Move to North Carolina About the Project
Born in East Salem, Pennsylvania In 1904, at the age of 42, In 2004, western North Carolina
in 1862, Horace Kephart went on Kephart arrived in western North celebrated the 100-year anniver-
to become a sary of Horace
leading liter- Kephart’s arrival
ary figure in in the region. As
early 20th an extension of
century North these events,
Carolina. Hunter Library’s
Special Collec-
Prior to mov- tions and the
ing to western Mountain Heri-
North Carolina tage Center
and becoming joined together to
a full-time create an online The “Turpin house” - one of Kephart’s
writer, exhibit of photographs featured in the website’s
Kephart es- Kephart’s life and virtual album.
tablished a works. Funding
career as a for the project featuring Kephart’s artifacts and
librarian. His came through a personal notes. Much like a mu-
cataloging Library Services seum gallery, these provide a
experience and Technology logical path through related items
gave him a Act (LSTA) grant to create a unique learning ex-
unique char- Horace Kephart is seen in this photo captioned “Bunk in Hall Cabin.” It appears in his scrap- managed by perience. Here visitors can dis-
acteristic of book album under the heading “Great Smoky Mts.” North Carolina cover Kephart, his writings, his
attention to Exploring Cultural belongings, and the people and
detail that he incorporated into Carolina to begin his life anew. Heritage Online (NC ECHO). places of early 20th century west-
his later writing and research. He He chose a simple lifestyle and ern North Carolina. Researchers
published his first book, Camping “nature-as-healer” approach. At As the project developed, it be- will find the searchable database
and Woodcraft, in 1906. the same time, he took an imme- came clear that Horace Kephart’s helpful for locating specific docu-
diate interest in the history and personal album would become a ments and artifacts related to a
culture of the people. He soon feature of given topic.
emerged as a recognized author- the exhibit,
ity on the cultural and natural providing a “The virtual album presents the Special
history of the region. Kephart unique
opportunity essence of Kephart’s vision, and is Collections
wrote hundreds of articles, but
became especially renowned for to recon- a tribute to the people and places at Hunter Library and
his work Our Southern Highland- struct virtu- he photographed.” the Moun-
ers, first published in 1913. ally the tain Heri-
Later he turned his writing skills scrapbook tage Cen-
Horace Kephart’s personal mica- towards the successful promotion album. ter invite you to enjoy this exhibit.
windowed lantern and framed of the Great Smoky Mountains George Frizzell
shaving mirror with case are National Park. Alongside the album, another
among the artifacts digitized for important component of the pro- http://www.wcu.edu/library/
display on the website.
ject is a series of exhibit pages digitalcoll/kephart/
Metadata Concepts, Continued
language codes. These and others are recommendations for NC ECHO community standards such as
NCEAD and NCDC guidelines. They provide the way to say the 4th of July in a consistent way for com-
puters to use that information in retrieval and manipulation. Update!
So why do these concepts matter in the everyday use of metadata and standards? The first allows you to Kathy Wisser’s e-mail address
pinpoint the goals and objectives of your metadata in order to match your needs with your data. The sec- has changed.
ond allows you to assess the purpose of particular standards in order to understand how they work to- Contact her at: kwisser@unc.edu.
gether rather than in conflict. Both provide new ways to classify metadata concepts in order to make
better choices about standards and systems for today’s project and tomorrow’s program.
Questions, comments, problems, or solutions regarding metadata? Contact me at: kwisser@unc.edu.
North Carolina ECHO, Exploring Cultural Heritage Online, is the World
Organ i zatio n Wide Web's doorway to the special collections of North Carolina's librar-
ies, archives, museums, and historic sites. Supported with federal Li-
brary Services and Technology Act (LSTA) funds made possible through
a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) admin-
istered by the State Library of North Carolina, a division of the Depart-
ment of Cultural Resources, this innovative project seeks to build a state-
wide framework for digitization in order to facilitate comprehensive ac-
Newsletter cess to the holdings of North Carolina’s cultural institutions.
NC ECHO Project Vision – All of North Carolina's cultural institutions
work together to make the state's unique cultural and historical resources
NC ECHO accessible for the education and enjoyment of people of all ages in the
www.ncecho.org state, the nation, and the world.
State Library of North Carolina
NC ECHO Project Purpose – The NC ECHO portal provides a single
4640 Mail Service Center point of entry for the citizens of North Carolina to the unique resources of
Phone: (919) 807-7422 North Carolina's cultural institutions in order to enhance education and
learning.
E-mail: ncecho@library.dcr.state.nc.us Criteria for Inclusion in the NC ECHO project – Any cultural institution
(library, archive, museum, historic site, or organization), which maintains
a permanent, non-living collection of unique materials held for research
and/or exhibit purposes and open for the use of the public will be sur-
NC ECHO Staff veyed. Denominational/associational collections will be surveyed, but
Hilary Perez, Project Archivist individual church collections will not. Art museums will be surveyed but
Matt Vernon, Project Assistant galleries will not. Zoos, arboreta, and parks will not be surveyed unless
as a part of their mission they hold collections as described above.
Katherine M. Wisser, Metadata Coordinator
Through a comprehensive needs assessment and opinion survey, site
visits, consultations, workshops, and grant programs, NC ECHO encour-
ages cooperation and collaboration among differing types of cultural
w w w. n c e c h o . o r g
institutions and among institutions of varying levels of technological and
professional expertise. It is NC ECHO’s belief that by working together
North Carolina’s cultural institutions can achieve greater successes and
can do more good than they can by working alone.
NC ECHO Advisory Committee
Chair State Library Staff Members
Kevin Cherry, Visiting Lecturer, College of Nooma Monika Rhue, Archivist / Archival Grant Pair, Assistant State Librarian
Education, Joyner Library, East Carolina Services Librarian, Inez Moore Parker Ar- for Information Technologies, State
University chives and Research Center, Johnson C. Library of North Carolina
Smith University
Members
Robert Busko, Director, Scotland County Druscie Simpson, Head of Information Tech-
Memorial Library nology, Division of Archives and History,
North Carolina Department of Cultural Re-
Steve Hensen, Director, Planning and Project sources
Development, Rare Book, Manuscript, and
Special Collections Library, Duke University Gerry Solomon, Assistant Section Chief,
Evaluation Services, North Carolina Depart-
Lynn Holdzkom, Assistant Curator, Head of ment of Public Instruction
Technical Services, Wilson Library, UNC-
CH Melissa Thibault, Director, Media Services,
Learn North Carolina
Martha Battle Jackson, Curator, North Caro-
lina State Historic Sites, North Carolina Ann Tippett, Executive Director, Schiele
Department of Cultural Resources Museum of Natural History
Kevin Cherry
Hal Keiner, University Archivist, Appala- Jonathan Wade, Fellow, North Carolina Chair,
chian State University Center for the Advancement of Teaching NC ECHO Advisory Committee;
Visiting Lecturer,
Dick Lankford, State Archivist, Division of Helen Wykle, Special Collections Librarian,
Archives and History, North Carolina Depart- D. H. Ramsey Library, University of North College of Education,
ment of Cultural Resources Carolina – Asheville Joyner Library, ECU