Marshall Breeding
Report of the Library Technology Officer
October 2003
Vanderbilt Television News Archive
Off-air recording
- 118 Evening news programs were recorded and added to the collection
- 31 ABC Nightline programs added to the collection
- 2 other special broadcasts were recorded and added to the collection
Web server access
| 1,063 | new customers registered on the website |
| 125,630 | total entries in activity log |
| 17,720 | views of the home page |
| 6,257 | views of the search page |
| 7,243 | searches executed |
| 2,859 | Calenadars viewed |
| 18,868 | individual records viewed |
| 6,912 | program listings viewed |
Abstracting and Database Maintenance
- 2,292 new records were added to the TV-NewsSearch database bringing it to a total of 732,092 records.
- 152 programs were cataloged into the database
- 10,615 records modified.
Visitors
The Archive had a visitor from Yale University to view tapes on-site.
Loan Requests filled
- 44 orders processed in September 2003
- Compilation tapes were produced totaling 11.0 hours of content
- Duplications of programs were produced totaling 31.0 hours of content
View the Cumulative Table of Statistics for the Archive's activities.
Digitization Activities
Programs recorded digitally in October totalled 73.5 hours;
Steve Davis with the assistance of three work study students digitized 130.5 hours of retrospective CNN programming for a total of 204 total hours of digital content created for the month.
Library Technology Officer Activities
Marshall created, tested, and implemented a number of changes to the user interface of the TV-NewsSearch database. The new version of the software was put into production on October 17. Features of this version include:
- Search page uses a Tab format, with separate pages for:
- Basic Search
- Advanced Search
- Browse by Date (the "calendars" interface)
- Users can now order results in either forward or reverse chronological order
- A MyAccount section. This allows users to:
- View current account details
- View current orders
- Cancel an uncompleted order
- Update selected fields: e-mail, address, title, phone number
- Change Password
- The Customer Registration page has been revised. Instead of one long page, it now consists of three simpler pages. If the user is coming from a recognized IP address of a subscriber, that institution is automatically associated with the account.
- New statistics gathering capabilities have been added. The system will now accumulate counts of logins and searches for each subscribing institution.
- Users are now authenticated by IP as they enter TV-NewsSearch
- Those from IP addresses associated with VU or Subscribers will no longer be required to create a personal account unless they plan to initiate a videotape loan.
- Users that do not use a personal account will access the system transparently through a default guest account. This account will accumulate login and search statistics.
- A new database called tvnsubscribers has been created that manages information related to each subscribing institution, including IP address ranges.
Marshall also did further work on the deployment of the Streaming Video Delivery System for TV News. Some of the issues dealt with concern the structure of the software for the streaming application relative to the hardware server platform. After some consultation with RealNetworks, we determined that the optimal configuration would consiste of two unlimited versions of the Helix Univesal Server, rather than the more distributed approach previously considered. This new configuration option would offer the maximum bandwidth possible, be more manageable, and would avoid known problems related to the shared license feature available in previous versions of the streaming video application software. We have been planning all along to upgrade the existing 10mb/sec license of the Helix Universal Servier. Based on the new configuration design, we have received price quotations for the additional software licenses needed. The cost of the software will be taken from the budget center funded by the Archive's sponsors and the annual maintenance will be added to the Archive's operating budget.
Given the upcoming changes toward subscription-based access, the current users of TV-NewsSearch need to be notified. Marshall created a script to send an e-mail message to all of the individuals from academic institutions (other than Vanderbilt and the sponsors) describing the changes and suggesting that they contact their library to arrange a subscription.
Marshall also sent personal messages to each of the contacts at the sponsoring institutions giving them an update of the changes and requesting their IP addresses so that the they can be activated in the authentication system.
Following the various changes that were implemented in the TV-NewsSearch interface and video delivery system, Marshall did testing to verify that the system would work properly with a proxy server. Using our on EZProxy environment, the interface worked without any apparent problems.
In response to a need to be able to load large blocks of records into the electronic resoruces database, Marshall developed a Perl program for importing records. When records were loaded using the Windows client for DB/TextWorks, the online system was often unable to respond well. The new Perl program loads records gracefully, allowing sufficient time between each record update to avoid added a noticeable strain on the online system.
Now that Special Collections has begun work on their digitizing project, a few minor enhancements corrections, and refinements needed to be made to thier instance of the image management application.
Marshall wrote a letter of evaluation for the promotion review process of a librarian from another university.
Meetings and Committee work
Marshall attended demonstrations of the Ex Libris Metalib/SFX and the Endeavor ENCompass and LinkFinderPlus products.
Other meetings attended included Library Management Council, Digital Collections Committee, and the Library Service Awards. Two Archive staff, Skip Pfieffer and Russ Mason were recognized at the Library Service Awards reception for their many years of service.
Extra-curricular Activities
Marshall gave a presentation on OpenURL and Reference Linking at the NetSpeed 2003 conference in Edmonton, Alberta Canada.
Marshall's regular "Systems Librarian" was published in Computers in Libraries and he authored contributions to the December 2003 issue of Smart Libraries Newsletter published by the American Library Association.
An article that Marshall had authered earlier this year for Library Journal was reprinted in the October 2003 issue Spider: Pakistan's Internet Magazine Volume 5 Number 57, pp 47-50.