Wednesday July 27th 2011
8:32am Arrived in work.
8:37am Turned on the computer, checked my emails etc.
8:45am Split up my Day in the Life blog into days as it was getting a bit long. I didn't realise I did so much in a day!
9:00am Carried on with the Excel document listing the Newspapers published in the Great War.
9:20am Finished Excel document for now. So far over 290,000 pages of Newspapers were published in Wales between 1914 and 1918.
9:24am A few more audit papers brought back. I might as well put these into the Excel document first before doing anything else.
9:30am Right now to finish with the North Wales Times.
10:30am Tea Time
10:50am North Wales Times.
11:40am Finished the North Wales Times. I've received the last of my audit forms so going to finish the Excel form and see where we stand numbers wise.
12:18pm I've just finished putting together a short report about the number of Newspaper pages we own from the war years. And it's very close to 400,000 not bad for 4 years during war time I shouldn't think.
12:20pm LUNCH
13:00pm Uploading some newspaper CSVs to WOMBAT ready to be scanned. WOMBAT being the libraries Workflow Software where the CSVs my team have created are followable by the scanners making the scanning easier for them.
15:30pm Tea time
15:50pm Back to WOMBAT
16:18pm Finished with WOMBAT for today.
16:20pm Give my staff some instructions for the next few days as I'm going to be away. (5 day weekend! Go me! :D)
16:25pm Home time! :D
Showing posts with label Digitisation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Digitisation. Show all posts
Wednesday, 27 July 2011
Library Day in the Life: Round 7 Day 2
Tuesday 26th July 2011
8:15am Arrived at work
8:20am Computer on
8:25am Checked emails etc and found that I now had the right to Edit the Project page on PBWiki. So this blog has now been added to the project.
8:30am - 8:50am (ish) Not much work got done as a colleague came into the office to tell us about her engagement. To another colleague. The library is apparently a matchmaker extrodinaire if all the couples are anything to go by.
8:50am Thing 8 of cpd23. Not too bad as I already use Google Calendar sometimes.
9:04am Decided I'd have to leave Thing 9 of cpd23 until I'm at home as I need to download it. As a result I can't see it being very useful for work purposes. At least not at the National Library.
9:10am I met with my Line Manager to discuss a project that may be in the pipeline. As a result we need to audit the newspapers between 1914-1918 and find out (potentially) how many pages we have in the library.
9:20am I sent a member of staff off to Stack 3 to begin auditing the libraries newspapers between 1914 and 1918.
9:25am Rearranged a meeting to discuss IPR of journals for next week.
9:30am Started working on the Welsh Gazette.
10:00am Team Brief - Basically telling us about the changes that are happening due to money shortages and how staff members will be expected to turn their hands to many different tasks in the future instead of the one job. This went on for a while.
10:50am Tea time.
11:15am Tried to locate the journal Y Dysgedydd for the Reading Room there's a slip here for the year they want they must have not brought it back to us yet. Have tried phoning up the Reading Room to tell them but couldn't get an answer. I assume they'll phone back once they're less busy.
11:20am Back to the Welsh Gazette
11:30am Further discussion with the line manager about the audit. We have until Thursday to get it done.
11:40am Explained to two more members of staff what needed doing and sent them along to help. Hopefully we can get it done quickly.
11:45am Welsh Gazette
12:44pm Finished checking the CSVs for the Welsh Gazette, now to put it in order it's really not for some reason. :s At least I've deleted the surplus CSVs as I was going along.
12:51pm Whoo. Welsh Gazette in its proper order and ready to be uploaded to WOMBAT ready for scanning. I must remember to return the unneeded volumes to their proper homes out of the way.
12:55pm LUNCH
13:19pm Back in the office.
13:25pm Checking North Wales newspaper The North Wales Times for accuracy.
14:11pm There doesn't seem to be anything interesting in this newspaper so far, or at least nothing particularly eye-catching. How boring...
14:30pm Taking a quick break from The North Wales Times. My team are running out of Audit forms, so I ran (well strolled quickly) down to Repro to get some more. Hopefully 30 more should do the trick. They ARE double sided after all. If not I'll just have to make another trip to Repro.
14:42pm And on with the North Wales Times.
14:55pm It always amazes me how the newspapers went into mourning when someone important died. There are thick black bars between each column instead of the usual lines you see in the picture...
15:27pm Went to fetch a ring binder for my Audit forms. I'm going to begin an Excell document with the results in after tea. Then we'll have some kind of idea of how many newspapers we have in the library (or at least in Stack 3) published between 1914 and 1918.
15:30pm Tea Time
15:50pm Creating and filling in an Excell document.
5:00pm That's it I'm off home. So far there are over 80 weekly titles and 150,000 pages for the years 1914-1918. And the audit isn't even finished yet...
8:15am Arrived at work
8:20am Computer on
8:25am Checked emails etc and found that I now had the right to Edit the Project page on PBWiki. So this blog has now been added to the project.
8:30am - 8:50am (ish) Not much work got done as a colleague came into the office to tell us about her engagement. To another colleague. The library is apparently a matchmaker extrodinaire if all the couples are anything to go by.
8:50am Thing 8 of cpd23. Not too bad as I already use Google Calendar sometimes.
9:04am Decided I'd have to leave Thing 9 of cpd23 until I'm at home as I need to download it. As a result I can't see it being very useful for work purposes. At least not at the National Library.
9:10am I met with my Line Manager to discuss a project that may be in the pipeline. As a result we need to audit the newspapers between 1914-1918 and find out (potentially) how many pages we have in the library.
9:20am I sent a member of staff off to Stack 3 to begin auditing the libraries newspapers between 1914 and 1918.
9:25am Rearranged a meeting to discuss IPR of journals for next week.
9:30am Started working on the Welsh Gazette.
10:00am Team Brief - Basically telling us about the changes that are happening due to money shortages and how staff members will be expected to turn their hands to many different tasks in the future instead of the one job. This went on for a while.
10:50am Tea time.
11:15am Tried to locate the journal Y Dysgedydd for the Reading Room there's a slip here for the year they want they must have not brought it back to us yet. Have tried phoning up the Reading Room to tell them but couldn't get an answer. I assume they'll phone back once they're less busy.
11:20am Back to the Welsh Gazette
11:30am Further discussion with the line manager about the audit. We have until Thursday to get it done.
11:40am Explained to two more members of staff what needed doing and sent them along to help. Hopefully we can get it done quickly.
11:45am Welsh Gazette
12:44pm Finished checking the CSVs for the Welsh Gazette, now to put it in order it's really not for some reason. :s At least I've deleted the surplus CSVs as I was going along.
12:51pm Whoo. Welsh Gazette in its proper order and ready to be uploaded to WOMBAT ready for scanning. I must remember to return the unneeded volumes to their proper homes out of the way.
12:55pm LUNCH
13:19pm Back in the office.13:25pm Checking North Wales newspaper The North Wales Times for accuracy.
14:11pm There doesn't seem to be anything interesting in this newspaper so far, or at least nothing particularly eye-catching. How boring...
14:30pm Taking a quick break from The North Wales Times. My team are running out of Audit forms, so I ran (well strolled quickly) down to Repro to get some more. Hopefully 30 more should do the trick. They ARE double sided after all. If not I'll just have to make another trip to Repro.
14:42pm And on with the North Wales Times.
14:55pm It always amazes me how the newspapers went into mourning when someone important died. There are thick black bars between each column instead of the usual lines you see in the picture...
15:27pm Went to fetch a ring binder for my Audit forms. I'm going to begin an Excell document with the results in after tea. Then we'll have some kind of idea of how many newspapers we have in the library (or at least in Stack 3) published between 1914 and 1918.
15:30pm Tea Time
15:50pm Creating and filling in an Excell document.
5:00pm That's it I'm off home. So far there are over 80 weekly titles and 150,000 pages for the years 1914-1918. And the audit isn't even finished yet...
Monday, 25 July 2011
Library Day in the Life: Round 7 Day 1
Job: Senior Officer of Newspapers and Periodicals (Digitisation Project) at the National Library of Wales
I've heard about the "Library Day in the Life" Project before and after seeing it advertised around the internet recently decided to take part this year. I'm only going to be doing it for three days as I'm away at the end of the week and don't really think that it would be relevant to keep people up to date with my travels around Longleat Safari Park although if people are really interested for some strange reason I might. I'm not sure how interesting it will be for people but hey.
Monday 25th July 2011
8:25am Arrived at work and clocked in
8:30am Took the lift (yes I know lazy) to the fifth floor where the digitsation suite is situated.
8:35am Computer on, checking emails, sorting out what days I need off. (Thursday, Friday and Monday if you're interested)
8:40am Spoke to my line manager
8:50am Started checking "Cyfaill y Werin" Newspaper metadata for accuracy.
9:40am Went to catch up with the Project Manager
9:50am Started checking Welsh Gazette Newspapers for accuracy. There are more of these so it'll take longer (a lot longer)
10:30am Tea Time
10:50am Back to the Welsh Gazette
11:35am Distracted by an advert for free land out in Canada. I have a tendency to want to read what I see in these newspapers some of them are really interesting... Although this time it's only an advertisement!
11:43am Again distracted this time by an article about the beginnings of the National Library of Wales in the March 30th 1905 edition of the Welsh Gazette. There's a good illustration as well!
12:01pm Well there's something funny going on with the Welsh Gazette the years don't seem to be in the proper order. The CSV for 1906 for example is coming before the one for 1905. As the CSVs themselves seem to be correct think I'll carry on going through them and then rearrange them as they should be.
12:06pm Helped my opposite number on the scanning team (I'm on the metadata team) find a certain title in the database; Athraw (Llanidloes) there seem to be an awful lot of Athraw periodicals, the editors don't seem to have been very imaginative, many titles are repeated numerous times throughout the 1800s.
12:13pm Approved a request by one of my staff members to take the afternoon off using HR21 our Electronic Holidays form.
12:25pm - 12:50pm LUNCH
12:51pm Onwards with the Welsh Gazette
2:00pm - 3:30pm Scanning QA this involves a programme called WOMBAT (which is the libraries internal workflow system) and a program called scan scan which shows the image. I check various images (which the workflow programme picks for me) for accuracy. This isn't in a typical day for me. But as the metadata team have built up quite a buffer I am getting some experience on the scanning side of the team as the person who's usually responsible for doing the QA is off sick. Hopefully there won't be any problems.
3:36pm Tea time
3:50pm Back to the QA
4:10pm While doing the QA of The Public Library Journal, which was the Quarterly magazine of the Cardiff and Penarth Free Public Libraries and the Cardiff Museum. I came across this old proverb "Ni bydd doeth ni ddarlleno" on the title page. I've heard it before it means "He who does not read will not be wise" and just thought it was something that would be interesting to some people. I'd forgotten about it but now that I remember I may use it for my blog...
4:20pm Had a slight problem with the QA process so waiting for the person in charge of the scanning side of things to come and tell me what to do. Think I'll get back to my own problems with the Welsh Gazette in the meantime...
4:40pm Had my question on the QA answered. Apparently it does throw up funny questions on occasion.
4:50pm Logged off the QA computer. Yes it has a special computer for some reason.
5:00pm Logging off my own computer and heading home.
I've heard about the "Library Day in the Life" Project before and after seeing it advertised around the internet recently decided to take part this year. I'm only going to be doing it for three days as I'm away at the end of the week and don't really think that it would be relevant to keep people up to date with my travels around Longleat Safari Park although if people are really interested for some strange reason I might. I'm not sure how interesting it will be for people but hey.
Monday 25th July 2011
8:25am Arrived at work and clocked in8:30am Took the lift (yes I know lazy) to the fifth floor where the digitsation suite is situated.
8:35am Computer on, checking emails, sorting out what days I need off. (Thursday, Friday and Monday if you're interested)
8:40am Spoke to my line manager
8:50am Started checking "Cyfaill y Werin" Newspaper metadata for accuracy.
9:40am Went to catch up with the Project Manager
9:50am Started checking Welsh Gazette Newspapers for accuracy. There are more of these so it'll take longer (a lot longer)
10:30am Tea Time
10:50am Back to the Welsh Gazette
11:35am Distracted by an advert for free land out in Canada. I have a tendency to want to read what I see in these newspapers some of them are really interesting... Although this time it's only an advertisement!
 |
| Welsh Gazette: March 30th 1905 Edition |
12:01pm Well there's something funny going on with the Welsh Gazette the years don't seem to be in the proper order. The CSV for 1906 for example is coming before the one for 1905. As the CSVs themselves seem to be correct think I'll carry on going through them and then rearrange them as they should be.
12:06pm Helped my opposite number on the scanning team (I'm on the metadata team) find a certain title in the database; Athraw (Llanidloes) there seem to be an awful lot of Athraw periodicals, the editors don't seem to have been very imaginative, many titles are repeated numerous times throughout the 1800s.
12:13pm Approved a request by one of my staff members to take the afternoon off using HR21 our Electronic Holidays form.
12:25pm - 12:50pm LUNCH
12:51pm Onwards with the Welsh Gazette
2:00pm - 3:30pm Scanning QA this involves a programme called WOMBAT (which is the libraries internal workflow system) and a program called scan scan which shows the image. I check various images (which the workflow programme picks for me) for accuracy. This isn't in a typical day for me. But as the metadata team have built up quite a buffer I am getting some experience on the scanning side of the team as the person who's usually responsible for doing the QA is off sick. Hopefully there won't be any problems.
3:36pm Tea time
3:50pm Back to the QA
4:10pm While doing the QA of The Public Library Journal, which was the Quarterly magazine of the Cardiff and Penarth Free Public Libraries and the Cardiff Museum. I came across this old proverb "Ni bydd doeth ni ddarlleno" on the title page. I've heard it before it means "He who does not read will not be wise" and just thought it was something that would be interesting to some people. I'd forgotten about it but now that I remember I may use it for my blog...
4:20pm Had a slight problem with the QA process so waiting for the person in charge of the scanning side of things to come and tell me what to do. Think I'll get back to my own problems with the Welsh Gazette in the meantime...
4:40pm Had my question on the QA answered. Apparently it does throw up funny questions on occasion.
4:50pm Logged off the QA computer. Yes it has a special computer for some reason.
5:00pm Logging off my own computer and heading home.
Wednesday, 13 July 2011
Y Llyfrgell ar film
English at the bottom.
Dim ond nodyn cyflym i ddweud rhywbeth bach answyddogol am ddathliadau canmlwyddiant Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru. Nid canmlwyddiant y llyfrgell fel sefydliad neu hyd yn oed fel adeilad ond canmlwyddiant gosod y Gareg Sylfaen. Careg enfawr yn edrych mae'n rhaid dweud.
'Da beth dros i'r trydiau nesaf (yn cynnwys heddiw) mae'r llyfrgell yn dathlu gyda digwyddiadau yn y Drwm. Heddiw roedd yna rhai hen ffilmiau yn dangos y llyfrgell yn cael ei chwarae yn y Drwm. Fe es i ac eraill o staff y llyfrgell, ynghyd a'r cyhoedd i weld beth oedd "Y Llyfrgell ar ffilm" amdano. Gweld "patchwork" o hen ffilmiau gwnaethon ni, "patchwork" a oedd yn dangos hanes y llyfrgell, yr adeilad, y trysorau a'r staff.
Wrth wylio'r film fe wnes i sylwi ar faint mae pethau wedi mewid, does dim angen y "Card Catalogue" rhagor, 'na beth ma'r cyfrifiadur yn ei wneud. Does dim hyd yn oed rhaid i'r darllenwyr i ddod i'r llyfrgell mae 'na llawer o wybodaeth ar gael ar y wefan. Llawer o lawysgrifau a llyfrau pwysig ein hanes fel gwlad wedi ei ddigido ac ar gael i bawb yn y byd heb iddyn nhw orfod gadael ei cadair eistedd. A mae 'na mwy o wybodaeth yn mynd ar y wefan drwy'r amser, fydd yna 2 filiwn o dudalennau ychwanegol ar gael pan fydd y prosiect dwi'n gweithio ar wedi gorffen.
Ond mae hyn yn gadael y pwynt, beth o'n i'n meddwl dweud oedd er fod hyn i gyd wedi newid, er fod technoleg wedi neidio ymlaen dros i'r ganrif ddwethaf mae yna o hyd pethau sydd ddim yn newid. Mae'r llyfrgell o hyd yn gwarchod ac yn rhannu trysorau ein gwlad, hanes ein gwlad. Ac er fod llawer o bethau wedi newid dros i'r ganrif ddwethaf mae prif elfennau gwaith y llyfrgell wedi sefyll yr un peth. Rydym ni yma i warchod Hanes ein gwlad.
___________________________________________________________
Only a quick note to say something quickly and unofficially about the National Library of Wales's centenary celebrations. Not the centenary of the library as an institution or even as a building but of the laying of the foundation stone, which was prett massive I must say.
However over the course of the next three days (counting today) the library will be holding a series of events in the Drwm. Today there were a series of films from over the last century. Myself and some of my colleagues from the library, along with members of the public went along to see what the "Library on Film" was all about. What it was, was a "patchwork" of films all stitched together showing the history of the library, the building, the treasures and the staff.
While watching the film I was msing over how things have changed over the century. For example there's no need to use a card catalogue anymore, that's what computers are for. And then there is so much information on the web page that in many cases people don't have to come to the library building itself anymore. There is so much available on the website, the treasures of our country, manuscripts and books alike available all over the world, and people don't even have to leave their armchairs. All the time extra resources are being uploaded to the internet. The project I'm currently working on will contain an extra 2 million pages.
However this is besides the point. What I meant to say was that despite the fact that everything has changed so drastically, despite the giant leaps technology has taken over the last century many things remain the same. The library still protects and give access to our heritage, our treasures. despite everything the main aim of the library has stayed the same. We are here to protect out countries heritage.
Dim ond nodyn cyflym i ddweud rhywbeth bach answyddogol am ddathliadau canmlwyddiant Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru. Nid canmlwyddiant y llyfrgell fel sefydliad neu hyd yn oed fel adeilad ond canmlwyddiant gosod y Gareg Sylfaen. Careg enfawr yn edrych mae'n rhaid dweud.
'Da beth dros i'r trydiau nesaf (yn cynnwys heddiw) mae'r llyfrgell yn dathlu gyda digwyddiadau yn y Drwm. Heddiw roedd yna rhai hen ffilmiau yn dangos y llyfrgell yn cael ei chwarae yn y Drwm. Fe es i ac eraill o staff y llyfrgell, ynghyd a'r cyhoedd i weld beth oedd "Y Llyfrgell ar ffilm" amdano. Gweld "patchwork" o hen ffilmiau gwnaethon ni, "patchwork" a oedd yn dangos hanes y llyfrgell, yr adeilad, y trysorau a'r staff.
Wrth wylio'r film fe wnes i sylwi ar faint mae pethau wedi mewid, does dim angen y "Card Catalogue" rhagor, 'na beth ma'r cyfrifiadur yn ei wneud. Does dim hyd yn oed rhaid i'r darllenwyr i ddod i'r llyfrgell mae 'na llawer o wybodaeth ar gael ar y wefan. Llawer o lawysgrifau a llyfrau pwysig ein hanes fel gwlad wedi ei ddigido ac ar gael i bawb yn y byd heb iddyn nhw orfod gadael ei cadair eistedd. A mae 'na mwy o wybodaeth yn mynd ar y wefan drwy'r amser, fydd yna 2 filiwn o dudalennau ychwanegol ar gael pan fydd y prosiect dwi'n gweithio ar wedi gorffen.
Ond mae hyn yn gadael y pwynt, beth o'n i'n meddwl dweud oedd er fod hyn i gyd wedi newid, er fod technoleg wedi neidio ymlaen dros i'r ganrif ddwethaf mae yna o hyd pethau sydd ddim yn newid. Mae'r llyfrgell o hyd yn gwarchod ac yn rhannu trysorau ein gwlad, hanes ein gwlad. Ac er fod llawer o bethau wedi newid dros i'r ganrif ddwethaf mae prif elfennau gwaith y llyfrgell wedi sefyll yr un peth. Rydym ni yma i warchod Hanes ein gwlad.
___________________________________________________________
Only a quick note to say something quickly and unofficially about the National Library of Wales's centenary celebrations. Not the centenary of the library as an institution or even as a building but of the laying of the foundation stone, which was prett massive I must say.
However over the course of the next three days (counting today) the library will be holding a series of events in the Drwm. Today there were a series of films from over the last century. Myself and some of my colleagues from the library, along with members of the public went along to see what the "Library on Film" was all about. What it was, was a "patchwork" of films all stitched together showing the history of the library, the building, the treasures and the staff.
While watching the film I was msing over how things have changed over the century. For example there's no need to use a card catalogue anymore, that's what computers are for. And then there is so much information on the web page that in many cases people don't have to come to the library building itself anymore. There is so much available on the website, the treasures of our country, manuscripts and books alike available all over the world, and people don't even have to leave their armchairs. All the time extra resources are being uploaded to the internet. The project I'm currently working on will contain an extra 2 million pages.
However this is besides the point. What I meant to say was that despite the fact that everything has changed so drastically, despite the giant leaps technology has taken over the last century many things remain the same. The library still protects and give access to our heritage, our treasures. despite everything the main aim of the library has stayed the same. We are here to protect out countries heritage.
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