Publications, Workshops and Classes

Selected Recent Publications/Presentations

"XML Open Source Databases" A presentation at LITA, 2003. Norfolk, VA.A static version of the presentation without database interaction

Elizabeth Shaw. "Data or Document?: Migration of Descriptive Metadata for Manuscripts Between Data-Centric and Document-Centric Models" ACH/ALLC 2003 Athens, Georgia.

Panelist. "XML on a Budget", Presentation on the state of Xindice and eXist- 2 open source "native XML databases". Pittmark, the Pittsburgh Area XML/SGML Users' Group, Pittsburgh, PA. October, 2002.

Shaw, Elizabeth J. "Machine Manipulation and Retrieval of Encoded Archival Description: Pitfalls and Potentials in Using XML Emerging Standards and Tools", Paper presented at Society of American Archivists Annual Meeting, Birmingham, AL. August, 2002.

Shaw, Elizabeth J. "Rethinking EAD: Balancing Flexibility and Interoperabilty", The New Review for Information Networking (2001).

Shaw, Elizabeth J. "Building a digital library: a technology manager's point of view", The Journal of Academic Librarianship 26 (6) (2000) pp. 394-398.

Panelist. "What is EAD and how can it be used in Archives?" on the panel, "For the Record: Primary Resources and the Journalism Historian" at the Americian Journalism Historians' Association Annual Convention, Pittsburgh, PA. October, 2000.

Shaw, Elizabeth J."Designing Access and Delivery Systems: Thoughts on Making the Implicit Explicit." Paper presented at SAA Annual Meeting, Pittsburgh, PA. August, 1999.

Shaw, Elizabeth J. and Blumson, Sarr. "Making of America - Online Searching and Page Presentation at the University of Michigan". D_LIB Magazine July/August, 1997. http://www.dlib.org/dlib/july97/america/07shaw.html

Workshops

"Beyond the Static Finding Aid." A two day workshop co-taught with Bill Landis of the University of California, Irvine. Society of American Archivists Annual Meeting, Birmingham, AL. August, 2002.

"Digitizing Research Collections." A day long workshop at Educause 2000 and Educause 2002. October 2000, 2002.

"Digitizing Research Collections." Half-day workshop and keynote speech. Society of Ohio Archivists, Columbus, Ohio. April 2002.

"Implementing EAD", a half day workshop co -facilitated with David Ruddy of Cornell University at the Joint MAC/MARAC Meeting, Cleveland Ohio. October, 2000.

Classes Taught at University of Pittsburgh School of Information Sciences

Digitizing Research Collections for Access
Fall 2000, Summer 2001, Summer 2002

An introduction to the processes and skills necessary to digitize existing research materials in order to make them widely accessible via the internet. Students examine:

• the development of selection criteria,
• legal and ethical concerns,
• costs,
• emerging "best practices" and standards for data capture,
• management of a digitization project,
• system and user interface design,
• metadata collection and creation,
• preservation concerns, and
• the integration of digital projects into institutional goals and objectives.

Study culminates in group development of a final prototype project using a real research collection.

XML Applications: Structured Documents and Information Presentation
Spring 2001,Spring 2002

An introduction to and practical experience with the Extensible Markup Language (XML) and its associated standards including DTD/Schema, XSL, XSLT, XPath, XLink, XPointer, CSS and others. Practical exercises and a final project incorporate XML and associated applications.

Technologies for Information Management
Summer 2001, Fall 2001, Fall 2002

Provides an overview of the technical context in which information providers work. A review of basic computing technology and operating systems, basic understanding of networks, internet and web based mechanisms for information delivery, introduction to data formats(text, image and multimedia) and data modeling and the role of programming/scripting in information provision. Hands-on exercises through the semester culminate in an implementation of a simple web-accessible database. The purpose of the course is to provide increased understanding of the technical environment to non-technical librarians and information providers.

Digital Preservation
Spring 2001

Focused on digitally-born and digitally reformatted materials, students look at the problems, issues, and decision-making processes surrounding the preservation of digital information. The course examined issues surrounding the digitization of materials for preservation.