KORA-2.0.0-beta is now available on Sourceforge at http://sourceforge.net/projects/kora/

From the release notes…

KORA-2.0.0-beta is the next major release of KORA. It includes multiple improvements and bug fixes, which are listed in the change log. Those upgrading from a previous version should make sure they read and follow the upgrade instructions. Those installing KORA for the first time can follow the standard install instructions. The README also contains the specific extra step(s) for updating.

New/Updated Features:

*A new geolocation control has been included. This allows a user to input a Google Maps API key into KORA and then choose controls from a scheme to use as query material to return the geographic location. This control is still in beta.

*koraSearch.php has been updated. The search functionality in this file used to retrieve data from KORA had major performance issues as logical operations in queries grew, specifically with AND operations. The updated search algorithm uses PHP for union and intersection operations instead of MySQL which has effectively fixed any performance issues. OR operations were not nearly as slow as the number of clauses were increased, but improvement was also seen in this category.

*An general purpose XML importer has been added, allowing users to upload XML files and then choose how the XML schema is translated into an existing KORA scheme. Files can also be uploaded using a zip file along with the XML file – the XML file must have a XML tag that relates to what file belongs with that record. More documentation on the XML importer will be available with the 2.0.0 production release.

*OAI-PMH framework added. KORA now has the beginning of an OAI-PHM data exchange interface implemented. Final touches need to be added, but programmers should be able to use the existing code for creating services for others to use at current time. More documentation will be available when the feature is fully implemented, planned for KORA-2.1.0.

*A timestamp has been added to each record. This was added for the OAI-PMH code specifically, but does allow the user to see the last time the record was updated. The timestamp is not editable by users.

A team of researchers at Michigan State University will pursue advanced computational techniques to explore humanities themes related to the authorship of large collections of cultural heritage materials, namely 15th century manuscripts, 17th and 18th century maps, and 19th and 20th century quilts.   Awardees are Dean Rehberger and Wayne Dyksen, Michigan State University, NEH; Peter Bajcsy, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, NSF; Peter Ainsworth, University of Sheffield, JISC. Additional Key Participants is The Alliance for American Quilts.

The Digging into Data Challenge is an international grant competition sponsored by four leading research agencies, the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) from the United Kingdom, the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF), from the United States, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), from Canada.  Applicants were asked to answer the question: “What do you do with a million books?”

Press Releases About the Launch of Digging into Data Challenge (January 2009)

JISC, NEH, NSF, SSHRC

Press Releases about Awardees (December 2009)

JISC, NEH, NSF, SSHRC

Speech by NEH Chairman Jim Leach at DiD awards ceremony.

The Quilt Index, quiltindex.org, the world’s foremost online resource for images and metadata about historic and contemporary quilts, has just launched its website upgrade.

Thanks to funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the site now provides access to records for over 47,000 quilts (up from around 20,000).  New contributors funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities Expansion grant and/or by the contributors themselves are:

• Hawaiian Quilt Research Project
• Louisiana Regional Folklife Program
• Minnesota Quilt Project
• New England Quilt Museum/MassQuilts
• The Heritage Quilt Project of New Jersey at Rutgers University Libraries/ Special Collections and University Archives
• North Carolina Museum of History
• Rhode Island Quilt Documentation Project at University of Rhode Island
• West Virginia Heritage Quilt Search, Inc.
• Wyoming Quilt Project, Inc.

You can read about all of the Quilt Index’s contributors at http://www.quiltindex.org/contributors.php.

The expanded site also features a new design and navigation, as well as zoom and comparison tools funded by an Institute for Museum and Library Services National Leadership Grant.

IMLS funding along with a generous grant from the Salser Family Foundation made possible another compelling component of the expansion: the Signature Quilt Project (SQP), http://www.quiltindex.org/sqpgalleries.php.  The SQP provided an opportunity to pilot the public submission of privately owned quilts.

Visit the new and improved Quilt Index today at www.quiltindex.org!

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The Quilt Index is a joint project of The Alliance for American Quilts, MATRIX: Center for Humane Arts, Letters and Social Sciences Online, and the Michigan State University Museum.

Africa Past and Present, the podcast about history, culture, and politics in Africa and the diaspora, is featured on today’s AHA blog. Produced by Matrix and hosted by MSU faculty members Peter Alegi and Peter Limb, Africa Past and Present highlights interesting and significant people, ideas, and discussions in African Studies from a wide range of disciplines and perspectives.

The project team for a new digital curation planning initiative at Michigan State University includes two MATRIX senior staff members: Lisa Schmidt, electronic records archivist at MATRIX and digital preservation analyst for the University Archives & Historical Collections (UAHC), serves as project manager for the initiative, and MATRIX digital librarian Catherine Foley is also part of the project team.

The Michigan State University Digital Curation Planning Project is a collaboration led by the UAHC with the MSU Libraries and MATRIX, and supported by the Office of the Vice Provost of Libraries, Computing and Technology. Anticipated project outcomes include a digital curation plan and guidelines to ensure trustworthy preservation, management, and stewardship of the university’s digital assets and intellectual property. The project team includes MSU archivists, librarians, IT specialists, and digital content managers.

For more information on the MSU Digital Curation Planning Project, visit http://msudcp.archives.msu.edu.

Africa Past and Present is hosted by Michigan State University historians Peter Alegi and Peter Limb and produced by Matrix.

In this 31st episode, part 2 (of 3) in a series on African Diasporas, hosts Peter Alegi and Peter Limb discuss Dr. Robert Vinson’s (History, College of William and Mary) work on the spread of Garveyism in South Africa and its political and cultural impact. Vinson joins the discussion and explains how black men and women in the 1920s and 30s appropriated Garvey’s ideas of racial pride, pan-Africanism, and modernity to sustain themselves and to propel South Africa’s struggle for freedom.

In August the MATRIX/History Department Africa Past and Present podcast, co-hosted by Peter Alegi and Peter Limb, set new records for unique visitors and for total number of visits in a single month. With four months left (and six more shows) in 2009, download stats are already nearly double the downloads from all of 2008. Thanks for listening!

On August 25, Lisa Schmidt, electronic records archivist at MATRIX, attended an e-forum presented by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Great Lakes Region and the State of Michigan at the Michigan Library and Historical Center in Lansing. Keynote speaker Kenneth Thibodeau, Ph.D.. director of the Electronic Records Archives (ERA) at NARA discussed challenges, lessons learned, opportunities and next steps for the ERA program. ERA is NARA’s strategic initiative to preserve and provide long-term access to the uniquely valuable electronic records of the US. Government, and to transition government-wide management of the lifecycle of all records into the realm of e-government. NARA representatives also presented on the agency’s e-records scheduling initiative and its e-records toolkit. In addition, Debra Gearhart, director of Michigan’s State Records Center, provided an overview of the state’s centralized document management system initiative.

Lisa Schmidt, electronic records archivist at MATRIX, participated in the Society of American Archivists (SAA) annual meeting in Austin, Texas, August 12-15. As part of the standing room only session “Building Sustainable Preservation Environments for Born-Digital Records: Three Case Studies,” Ms. Schmidt delivered a presentation entitled “A Sustainable Preservation Plan: The H-Net E-Mail Lists.” The presentation described the results of Schmidt’s research on the preservation of the H-Net e-mail lists, a project funded by NHPRC.

Held jointly with the Council of State Archivists and themed “Sustainable Archives,” the conference offered attendees opportunities in educational sessions, workshops, repository tours, section and roundtable meetings, special SAA business, social events, and networking. SAA is North America’s oldest and largest national archival professional association.

The Women in Science website is a new digital media archive that uses KORA, MATRIX’s digital repository application, to deliver text access to the written works of several women scientists, including the works of the marquise Du Châtelet, and biographies written by leading historians of science.

The website is available through the participation and support of the MSU Department of History, the MSU Lyman Briggs College, and the MSU Libraries.

To visit the Women in Science website, visit http://womeninscience.history.msu.edu/

To learn about KORA, visit http://www2.matrix.msu.edu/kora/