Description: This presentation discusses digital rights, media and practice. On the streets and in social media Occupy Wall Street captured the imagination of the United States and exposed tensions between the NYPD's policies of surveillance and our basic freedoms. It gave us an example of the deep power of voice residing in digital culture and the problems that arise when this voice is met with heavy governmental restrictions, many of them the result of preemptive information policies. As a photographer who has experienced deep transformations in her own practice because of digital technology, the author is curious of the ways in which digital photography is transforming and reflective of culture. The power of an image making populace can transform the balance of the status quo. In a context of power, mobility and changing landscapes, a new set of tools is enabling and exposing tensions of culture and rights. This presentation will explore the smart phone as a daily tool and an information weapon whose protection could be considered under the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, the Right to Bear Arms.

Description: This presentation discusses the Handbook of Texas. A program of the Texas State Historical Association (TSHA), the 'Handbook of Texas Online' is a multidisciplinary digital encyclopedia of Texas history, geography, and culture. It comprises more than 27,000 articles on people, places, events, historical themes, institutions, and a host of other topic categories. It began with TSHA Director Eugene C. Barker, who had proposed a biographical dictionary project in 1932. Historian Walter Prescott Webb became director in 1936 and enhanced Barker's idea to encompass "a combination dictionary, biography and encyclopedia." The first edition of the 'Handbook of Texas' appeared in 1952. A third volume supplement was published in 1977. Not long after the publication of the supplement, the board and staff undertook an even more ambitious idea, a new completely revised edition. In the July 1996 the 'New Handbook of Texas' was published in six volumes. Less than three years later, the Association officially released 'The Handbook of Texas Online' on February 15, 1999, offering it free to the public. Today 3 million individuals come to the TSHA website for a total of around 4 million visits and 10 million page views in the course of the year. The central challenge ...

Description: This presentation discusses the impact of digitizing resources. The Portal to Texas History℠ is a gateway to humanities collections within the digital library of the University of North Texas (UNT) Libraries. The Portal provides access to more than 190,000 digital objects, comprising over 2.6 million image files. The range of primary source materials includes maps, books, manuscripts, newspapers, diaries, photographs, and letters from the unique collections of Texas libraries, museums, archives, historical societies, genealogical societies, and private families. The Portal was launched in 2003 with collections from five content partners and currently includes materials from more than 190 partners. While increasing numbers of partners and assets are signs that making digitized resources Web-acessible is a desirable thing, digital libraries are increasingly expected to identify the impacts that have resulted from digitizing assets. In 2012, UNT Libraries began to investigate the impact of digitizing assets on two of the Portal's key stakeholder groups: content partner and users. An environmental scan identified seven possible impact categories: cultural, economic, educational, environmental, operational, political, and social. These categories served as the framework for data collection activities, which included five key informant interviews with content providers and surveys of both content partners (N = 58) ...

Description: This presentation discusses collection development and management issues. It describes considerations to keep in mind, suggestions and strategies, and ideas for successful digitization projects.

Description: This presentation discusses the University of North Texas Libraries' strategies for creating digital collections and services from datasets and born digital objects and serving users outside of formal education and research.