NDSA:Content WG February 1, 2012 Meeting Minutes

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NDSA Content Meeting Minutes

Wednesday, February 1, 2012 11:00 am ET

Restructuring of CWG

Cathy and Abbie provided an overview -- the Content group is 70 members strong. How best do we breakdown this large number into smaller groups? The present suggestion is to organize into smaller groups defined by topical areas. See: http://www.loc.gov/extranet/wiki/osi/ndiip/ndsa/index.php?title=Plan_for_2012 for the original plan; On-going conversations since then between Abbie, Cathy and Abbey Smith Rumsey pertaining to the reorganizing of the Content Working Group have been posted to the Wiki.

How to focus work of the sub-groups?

• Establishing value of the collection(s)

Abby Smith Rumsey suggested reading the Executive Summary of the Sustainable Economies for a Digital Planet. http://brtf.sdsc.edu/biblio/BRTF_Final_Report.pdf]

• Creating Content Case Studies for at-risk collections; How can these case studies be connected to work being done with the NDSA?

Cathy Hartman submitted an example of a case study: At Risk Content: Born Digital Newspapers. She asked for feedback once members had the opportunity to read the document.

• Recognizing at-risk status of a collection and educating pertinent partners of this condition
• Defining obstacles
• The suggestion is that each Content group establishes and create case studies for content in their areas of interest.

See this page for more information: http://www.loc.gov/extranet/wiki/osi/ndiip/ndsa/index.php?title=Content_Team_To-Dos

Content Groups & Case Studies The concept of linking a case study to a Content group was well-received. Individuals selecting a “topical” group is free to choose one based on a personal or an institutional interest or both. All groups would be tasked to identify at-risk data in their respective areas.

It was suggested that some individuals would have broader, non-disciplinary interests than identified by any one group. Final suggestion was that a group either be created or joined whose task would be to provide an overview of all the various groups, which would involve looking at synergies and linkages.

We talked about the groups, and how we might refine and regroup some. Suggestions that came out of the call for groups: Education group World & American history groups be combined Maps, Geospatial group be renamed “Geospatial” Humanities groups be combined “Overview” group be created - "Big Picture"

Cathy and Abbie encouraged members to sign-up for a group. It was suggested that the conversation be continued on the Wiki and at the next meeting about the size of the groups once people had a chance to join a group or groups. For instance, would energy be lost if a group was too small?

Working Group Facilitators

A facilitator or facilitators is needed for each group to act as point(s) of contact to the larger Content group. This person would not lead the group per se as far as the amount of work allotted, but rather act as organizer for the group as well as in an administrative role in reporting back the group’s activities. Abbie will create templates for the groups to use in carrying out these tasks (a sample is available here: http://www.loc.gov/extranet/wiki/osi/ndiip/ndsa/index.php?title=Government_Content_Team). Each team needs to determine who the facilitator(s) will be. More information here: http://www.loc.gov/extranet/wiki/osi/ndiip/ndsa/index.php?title=About_the_Content_Teams

Action Team Updates

No reports from Action Teams. Daniel sent an update via the listserv:

ALA presentation

Cathy mentioned an opportunity to present NDSA interests at ALA summer meeting (see http://www.alaannual.org/programs-meetings and the call agenda email for more details). No one on the call expressed any interest.

Next Meeting

It has been decided that the entire membership of the Content Group will meet quarterly for the rest of the year, but we will still hold next month’s Wednesday, March 7th meeting at its usual time, to be sure that the Content Teams are on track. After that we'll move to a quarterly call.

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