08.g.

APRIL 21, 2017

WEB MANAGER’S REPORT

BY KATIE BUEHNER

BOARD ACTION REQUIRED

The Web Manager recommends that MLA’s instance of LibGuides be offered to chapters as a platform for building regional meeting websites. Many chapters are already using local library LibGuide instances to build chapter meeting sites, or other simple website building tools. However, meeting sites can be difficult to archive when spread across various third-party websites. Using LibGuides for this content would make it simpler for MLA chapters/national to archive chapter meeting activities.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF ACTIVITIES

Conference presentations are becoming increasingly problematic to host in lists on the MLA Website. Open Access Editor Kathleen DeLaurenti recommended OCS, Open Journal Systems sister product used for managing conferences, to file conference presentation materials in a conference proceedings-style interface. The interface allows for indexing titles, authors, and adding index/subject terms. OCS will need to be installed on the MLA Site5 server and that should occur by the first week of May. Members of the Web Committee will be recruited to assist in migrating content from the MLA Website into OCS.

Live streaming in Orlando was a paid service this year. Thirty one people registered for live streaming at a cost of $15.00. VCube uploaded all videos to MLA’s Vimeo Channel in short order, and archive access was granted to conference attendees and live streaming participants by March 6, 2017. All videos will be password protected until late August.

As of April 15, there are 234 total views for the Orlando videos. The top five videos are:

  1. 32 views - Mas vale pájaroenmano que cienvolando = A Bird in the Hand is Worth Two in the Bush: the Challenges of Providing Access to Diverse Latin American Collections [85 minutes]
  2. 26 views - Plenary #2: Ontologies, BIBFRAME, and Linked Data for Performed Music: MLA's Role in It All [85 minutes]
  3. 24 views - Core Competencies for Music Librarians (CDS Town Hall) [85 minutes]
  4. 21 views - Copyright of Institutional Recordings [55 minutes]
  5. 18 views - It's Happening Now: Two developments using Music Ontologies [55 minutes]

As with last year, the cataloging videos are most popular. The presence of the CDS Town Hall is worth mentioning, which was a somewhat experimental swap for the traditionally offered Public Services Town Hall. The most watched Latin American session is the IAML Forum, with 17 views.

This is the first year MLA has actively captioned any conference videos. The organization is using a combination of services from 3PlayMedia and VCube. To date, Saturday’s sessions have been captioned, including one in Spanish. Michael Rogan assembled “cheat sheets” with names, terms, location, and other terms that have helped ensure the accuracy of the transcriptions. A brief skim through the results show that 3PlayMedia delivered good quality captioning. Happily, 3PlayMedia contains a Vimeo integration feature that made captioning very easy to implement. The Web Manager is hoping to launch a crowdsourced project to caption older conference videos over the summer using open source captioning tool Amara.

Several chapters expressed interest in migrating to YM this year. Migrations should start this summer, with the hope that sites can be completed before September and/or fall chapter meetings.

The Resource Sharing and Collection Development Committee launched their collection guides project on LibGuides, starting with HoumanBehzadi’s exemplary Persian Music guide. The Committee has a good system in place for submission of content and editorial review. LibGuides appears to be working as a system for delivering this content, and hopefully additional guides will be added in the coming year.