BW Guide2 Library Science Doku Wiki

This page is read only. You can view the source, but not change it. Ask your administrator if you think this is wrong.
2. Site Visit Report (20%): You are required to conduct a site visit to a facility that helps you understand the topics we have explored. This site visit is intended to ensure that you understand the processes/procedures that exist in the facility and the role that innovative information technology plays within the organization. The ethical compliance and detailed assignment requirements are available in the course Canvas Assignment section. You might need to schedule your visit two or three weeks earlier. 

Ethical Issues of Informatics; Technology & Human Values–Site Visit Report
 Submit Assignment
Due Jul 2 by 11:59pm  Points 20  Submitting a text entry box or a file upload
It is of utmost importance that you should always follow the organization and research ethical rules during your site visit for this assignment. 

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Purpose of the Site Visit: 
The purpose of the site visit is to investigate informatics applications and ethical issues within a library or an information organization. The second reason is to become familiar with the way the facility operates and how emerging technology can be used to assist the facility, as well as the human values of information technology. Lastly, this is an opportunity to meet and network with the informatics professionals that may be your next employer. 

Suggested Questions
  1)  Technology use

Can you describe the workflow/technology usage 5 yrs ago?
What technology is currently being used within the facility?
What future technology use is being planned?
  2) All Employees

How many employees are there?
How do you describe the technology skills of the employees?
What technology training programs are in place for employees?
  3)  All informatics Employees

How many informatics employees are there? What are their job titles?
How do you describe the technology skills of the informatics employees?
What technology training programs are in place for informatics employees?
  4)  Technology Specifics

Do they have a guideline for data repository within the organization?
Do they share data within the organization electronically?
Do they expect to share data outside of the organization?
 5)  Connectivity

How much technology do they have?
 Do they support themselves or outsource?
How much bandwidth to the office/facility?
Do they have any data security and ethical concerns and strategies?
   3.  Evaluation Question

Write a 3-4 page paper (double spaced 12 pt. font) about the role of emerging informatics or IT technology played in that organization, any ethical challenges/issues, and the human value associated with information technology application.

(You may conduct a SWOT analysisLinks to an external site. in this report)

   4.  You should include the following information: 

Name of Facility
Contact Person
Contact Information
Date of Visit
Answers to suggested questions 
Answers to EVALUATION questions following the visit 
   5. Paper Format 

A narrative summary of your visit including a question list of your interview/inquiry. If you like, the questions can be attached as an appendix. 

Clay County Archives and Historical Library Site Visit Report:
Technology and Human Values in A Non-Profit, Volunteer Organization

by Brian Whitmer | July 3, 2017 | 800xi
In the course of my professional career, I have worked for two software development companies and two large corporations - witnessing and interacting first-hand with programmers, developers, IT managers, and department heads to manage websites, databases, workflow automation, electronic documentation distribution, technical manuals, and resource selection & deployment.  Having seen and been involved on this side of informatics, I was more curious to explore the role of information technology at the level of a small, volunteer, donation-supported institution. To that end, I choose the Clay County Archives and Historical Library (CCAHL) located in Liberty, Missouri. I had previously visited the CCAHL as a patron and during the course of that visit sought permission to interview the Mr. Stuart Elliott who is the president of the CCAHL as well as the head of the standing Computer Committee which is responsible for information technology-related concerns. Permission was readily granted and prior to my interview, I conducted preliminary research on the organization by exploring their website and social media presence on Facebook as well as looking over my notes from my initial visit. The website is a bit dated in design but lots of practical information is present on the site and the Facebook page is actively managed with the weekly posting of new materials and photographs.
The CCAHL was founded in 1979 as the local archives for the courts of Clay County, Missouri, to collect and preserve the criminal and court records of the county. In its capacity as the local county archives, it has a collection of historical documents including government records including affidavits, birth/death records, census records, circuit court records, coroner’s inquests, county court records, tax lists, marriage returns, and naturalization records; land records including deeds, gazetteers, land abstracts, land grants, maps & atlases; and other materials including black history, cemetery/obituary notices, family histories, footprints in Clay, genealogies, newspapers, photographs, published volumes, school records, and scrapbooks. 
Until 1989, there were no computers or informatics infrastructure to speak of at the archives. This changed when a generous patron donated $1,000 towards the purchase of a computer system and software. At this point, Mr. Elliott enters the history of the archives. As an existing Clay County employee, he was consulted and drafted to set up the computer, build a database to allow indexing of the paper records contained in the archival collection, and teach staff how to use the system. Formally trained as a programmer, he was put in charge of the computer committee after he became a full-time volunteer and has been continuously in charge of informatics related issues for the archives for over 25 years - eventually becoming the institution's president. The story of informatics at the archives is quite literally the story of Stuart Elliott. Because this is largely the story of one person, I think it will be easiest to construct this narrative as a chronological account with interjections of relevant insights as warranted.
Starting from the foundations of a single workstation and database, over time the archives slowly adopted technology solutions as they could afford them including adding more computer workstations, a Microsoft Windows-based local area network with network storage and printing capabilities, a website, expanded database functionality using FileMaker Pro, and a large format document scanner. This mirrored the adoption of information technology into archival institutions nationwide. The creation of computerized indexing and finding aids was becoming expected practice along with the increasing patron expectation to find archival materials digitized and posted online on a searchable website. As information technology has continued to evolve and become even more pervasive, the Archives has added a content management system based on Joomla! to their website with the ability to conduct credit card transactions using a solution from PayPal along with deployment of a social media presence using Facebook. Scanning of large numbers of archival photographs and graphically-rich documents has recently forced the upgrade of network storage from 500GB to 3TB – backed-up daily with a mirrored drive array.  A newly acquired microfilm reader/scanner will put even more pressure to increase network storage capacity in the near future.
With a one person acting as the information manager, DBA, network administrator, webmaster, technical support, and training officer in an institution funded by donations, constrained by a volunteer workforce with a three-day workweek, and running older equipment and software, it is a testimony to Mr. Elliott’s ability to balance the many competing demands on his time that the archives is considerably more technologically advanced than similar archives in the region. This ad hoc management extends to the selection and deployment of technology solutions. Custom (i.e. costly) solutions are almost categorically ruled out with the exception of the operating system, database software and office suite – open source and free software are preferred. Joomla! powers the existing website as an example. And to further stretch the value of a dollar and save time, Techsoup is used to manage upgrades and software licenses as well as making available discounted software to non-profits from many commercial software companies including Adobe, Microsoft, Filemaker, Cisco, and Western Digital. Because much of the computer equipment is donated, older systems are kept in service wherever the can find a useful purpose and space. This also presents challenges in upgrades because older hardware may not be compatible with new versions of the software. 
Pragmatic management is very much the order of the day for any volunteer, donation-based organization to be successful. Relying on the goodwill and donations of the community to increase capabilities means that the human side of informatics is also important. That can range from providing solid training in the system use to volunteers, making more archival information available to patrons electronically, explaining the mission and needs of the archives to community leaders and influential citizens, providing advocacy through social media, and partnering with similar organizations to increase the value of collections by sharing data and standardizing technology solutions.
Examining the information needs of a donation-supported institution highlights just how important is the role open source software plays in making information technology more widely available. There is a nice ethical symmetry in having volunteer, non-profit institutions enabled to do more of their work and expand their missions by the efforts of volunteer programmers and developers of open source and free software as well as having technical support and training resources freely developed and delivered over the web.  This is part of what enables Mr. Elliott to be a one-person information technology department – when in need of troubleshooting help or training materials, he can find most of what he needs via the community of web users. One can only speculate what will be the effect of new free tools that will allow access to machine learning, artificial intelligence, and other big data-driven resources. Imagine the possibilities that may be enabled by access to advanced systems that could decipher and transcribe scans of handwritten documents, identify persons and relationships in old photographs using advanced facial recognition software, or auto-indexing systems that could use semantic processing to extract data from scanned documents. While informatics often seems to be most relevant to large for-profit corporations and complex academic/governmental institutions, it is clear from this site visit that its relevance for volunteer, donation-supported non-profits is significant as well.
 
Appendix A: The Human Value of Informatics
As with most institutions, archives have benefited in many ways from the deployment and development of information technology in their field of practice. Besides generally gains in productivity from the use of email, web-based services, and word processing technology, the creation of a digital database and index has made searching for in-house resources and collection materials much easier. Being able to manipulate a digital representation of the repository collection also means less handling of physical collection materials thus increasing their preservation lifetime and decreasing the likelihood of accidental damage through handling.
For potential patrons of the materials held in the archival collection, information technology has made it possible to find and remotely search for resources from anywhere in the world. As more and more of the collection is digitized, tagged and linked, the collection will continue to add value to scholarly endeavors, genealogical research, and mundane county records research like property disputes and legal discovery.
Digital preservation of historical records increases the chances that historical records will be preserved and available for years - and hopefully centuries to come. Information technology can safeguard the past and inform the future when judiciously deployed.



 
Appendix B: Answers to Site Visit Questions
 
1)	Site Visit Details:
a)	Facility Name: Clay County Archives and Historical Library, Liberty, Clay County, MO
b)	Contact Person: Mr. Stuart Elliott - stuart@claycountyarchives.org
c)	Date of Interview: Thursday, June 29, 2017

2)	Technology Use
a)	Description of workflow/technology usage in the past period: Windows workstations, FileMaker Pro Server database, large format document scanner, 1 Gigabit LAN, internet access and wi-fi, Microsoft Office, email
b)	Technology currently deployed within the facility: Windows workstations (Windows 10), FileMaker Pro Server database, large format document scanner, 1 Gigabit LAN, internet access and wi-fi, Microsoft Office, email, Microfilm reader/scanner, Facebook, Techsoup.com
c)	Future technology use being planned: update to Filemaker Pro Server, upgrade to network drive capacity, increased use of geocoding of archival records. They have three main technology goals: (1) digitize all materials, (2) digitally index all materials, (3) geocode all relevant records

3)	All Employees (Volunteers)
a)	How many volunteers: 30 volunteers
b)	What is their technical skill level: Skill levels vary drastically. Each volunteer brings as much or as little technology knowledge as they have acquired in their own lives. Skewing mostly to older, retired persons technology skills are not particularly deep and Mr. Elliott often fields questions and acts the on-site troubleshoot when issues arise.
c)	What training programs are in place: Volunteers are trained using by Mr. Elliott and other volunteers in a systematic program of cross training. New volunteers spend a fixed amount of time at different workstation station task learning the skills to perform the task and gaining greater insight into the workings of the many on-going projects of the archives.

4)	All Informatics Employees (Volunteers)
a)	How many informatics employees: One – Mr. Elliot. Job Title: President, chair of the computer committee
b)	Level of technical skill: Formally trained as a programmer at Park University, self-taught DBA, webmaster, training, network admin, and manager
c)	What training programs are in place: Uses online resources including YouTube, websites, and books. Some formal training programs are available via the State of Missouri.

5)	Technology Specifics
a)	Is there a guideline for data repository: The database housing the electronic index, digital photographs, and scanned documents is backed up daily via an automated script on a daily basis. Free cloud-based backup was used before it became pay subscription based.
b)	Is data shared within the organization electronically: Data is shared between networked workstations, email accounts, and via the Filemaker database. Access to the archives finding aid is internal access only.
c)	Is data shared outside the organization: Information is not shared remotely but this is due to lack of resources rather than institutional policy restrictions. For example, a project involving the Midwest Genealogical Center (MGC) required the use of their large format scanners for materials contained in CCAHL. The resulting digital files were then shared with MGC. Similar sharing arrangements are in place with the Clay County courts and local government.

6)	Connectivity
a)	How much technology is deployed: One Gigabit Ethernet local area network, wi-fi, internet hosting account, database server, Joomla!-based website, institutional Facebook account
b)	Are they self-supported or use outsourcing: With the exception of support issues going beyond Mr. Elliott’s capacities, they are a self-supported. Mr. Elliott is currently in the process of upgrading the on-site server which is undertaking on his own.
c)	What is the bandwidth to the facility: One Gigabit Ethernet local area network running Windows 10 and business class internet hosting solution.
d)	What data security and ethical concerns and strategies do the have: Regarding security, the database in only accessible from within the archives itself thus limiting data security issues to in-house concerns that a volunteer might (unlikely) sabotage the database. Financial information is not recorded during credit card transactions by using a PayPal solution which acts an intermediary between CCAHL and patrons – limiting liability for identity theft. Because the material made available in the archives is public domain information, ethical concerns would center more on the inclusion of archival records not being in the public domain. 
 



 

Appendix C: Simple SWOT Analysis
Strengths:
Unified information management, enthusiastic volunteers	Weaknesses:
Single informatics person (overly dependent on his skills, vulnerable to his loss)
Opportunities:
New technologies, free applications, mobile devices	Threats:
Donations diminish, free software development ends