Zine Union Catalog Blog

While I did not get much work done this past weekend due to family commitments and lack of motivation because Jenna and I were in different states, I did have an opportunity to use some work time today on data cleaning. At NYU Libraries, where I work by day, there is a Community of Practice group that meets once a month to learn new skills in using OpenRefine, which is a “Java-based power tool that allows you to load data, understand it, clean it up, reconcile it, and augment it with data coming from the web. All from a web browser and the comfort and privacy of your own computer.” I have long suspected that this software would be very useful for ZineCat, so I am very excited that I got the opportunity to work in OpenRefine and also have an opportunity for monthly meetings and check ins as I learn this tool and use it to work on ZineCat. 

So we got the go ahead to submit our final paper as a zine for the capstone!  Yippee!! We were even told that it would be a wonderful first addition to the MADH program, but were also cautioned to not take on too much work.  Zines are a lot of work, but it does make the most sense for our project and furthermore, Jenna and I both like making zines, so it seems like the perfect medium to communicate the accomplishments of our work in grad school on the Zine Union Catalog.  If anyone reading this wants to suggest content for the zine, please read this 12 hours / week post that goes into some detail about what we are considering for inclusion in the final capstone zine and comment there…or contact us at zinecatproject@gmail.com 

In other update news, Jenna and our Openflows consultant were hard at work over the last week to create, adjust, and readjust the maps for ABC No Rio and Carnegie Library!  I should take a moment to acknowledge that our MAP is indeed a map that allows for us to direct the Collective Access system to map metadata from a spreadsheet filled with lots of information about the zine collections into the appropriate fields within the Collective Access system, but it also stands for Metadata Application Profile.  It’s also sometimes called a Crosswalk. The DPLA has a bit to say about the MAPs used for their system.  Collective Access also provides information for understanding their Data Importer (as CA calls it).