About the Collections
The Dogs of Wisconsin Libraries collection as of July of 2008 is one collection with five categories.
The categories are as follows:
- The Dogs of Wisconsin Libraries—This is the main category and consists of solo images of dogs who live with librarians or other library workers. Unless your dog is in the Memoriam category, they will need to be added here first before being added to the Dogs and Their Animal Families or Dogs Read! Category.
- Dogs and Their Animal Families—This collection contains photographs of dogs with other animals in their households.
- Dogs READ!—This is a fun collection
of dogs photographed with their favorite books
and can include their people.
- Dogs in Memoriam—This is a category of dogs who are warmly remembered by librarians and other library workers who have shared their lives. Dogs in the Memoriam category can be added to this category only, but there is more leeway with the photograph, and the photo can include a photo of you with your dog, your dog reading a book, or another choice.
- Dog Fellows—This category is a bit loose, and you might need to be able to tell a good story to get your dog in the collection via this route. Here are some examples of dogs that might be allowed in the collection.
- You are a librarian/library employee who has moved out of Wisconsin, but your dog lived in the state (and may or may not have been in the collection at one time in the not so distant past.
- You have a grand dog who stays at your place more than a few times a year.
- You have had a break up with a partner and you share custody of a dog.
Questions?
Please contact Kirsten Houtman at khoutman@wils.wisc.edu or call 608.265.2728
How This Collection Came to Be
This collection was created using
a digital content management tool named CONTENTdm. CONTENTdm
was developed by staff at the University of Washington,
led by Greg Zick, a professor of electrical engineering. This
content management tool can be used to manage all
kinds of digital content, from photographs (which
you see in this collection) to audio and video. CONTENTdm
is a product of DiMeMa (Digital Media Management)
and is under license to OCLC.
As part of my job at WiLS, I visit libraries. My husband and I have dogs,
and at some point, I started asking librarians for photographs of their dogs.
Since I was meeting with a lot of catalogers (notorious cat people), I didn't
collect as many as I had hoped, but eventually I had about 50 photographs
of dogs pinned up on the wall in my office.
Since CONTENTdm seemed like such an easy way to manage a digital collection,
I started entertaining the idea of using it to make a Dogs of Wisconsin
Libraries project. In December of 2004, I posted an online survey and sent
it to people who had expressed interest in having their dog or dogs included
in the project, and word spread. The collection debuted in April of 2005
and since November of 2005, people have been able to add their own dogs
and metadata via the web. For information on adding dogs, email Kirsten
Houtman at khoutman@wils.wisc.edu or
visit our website at www.wils.wisc.edu.
Thank You!
I owe a debt to a number of people for their contribution. I
would like to thank WiLS' own Sheila Zillner who converted all of the photographs
in the original collection to consistent 150 dpi images. She also assisted
me with the design of the project, as well as using her incredible skills
to make the actual interface work. I would like to
thank Kathy Schneider, WiLS Director and my boss,
for her support for this rather odd project. Thanks
to Ann Pollock for allowing her dog Sonja to be our
cover dog. I would like to thank students in the
WiLS office, Trish Benishek and Rene Tasso. Thanks
also to Debbie Cardinal who pushed me to get going
on the project by adding cats soon after I created
it. Lastly, I'd like to heartily thank every one
of you who took the time to fill out the survey and
send me photographs of their dogs. This project would
not exist without your thoughtful contributions.
And, thanks to dogs, who enrich our lives so much!
Kirsten Houtman
Cataloging Skills.
Cataloging was not my best subject in library school. The
metadata is not perfect in this project and undoubtedly
will never be. Please enjoy the pictures anyway!
Other Collections Here:
You may notice that there are photographs of elephants, trees and grasses in this project. We currently have a total of seven separate projects on this one CONTENTdm site.
Because of that, when doing a browse or a search,
you may suddenly end up with photographs of
elephants in Tanzania or Debbie Cardinal in a hat
with a mosquito net. Bypass the extraneous pictures
by going to "Search the Collection"
and choose which collections you wish to search.
How to Search the Collections:
We have made one page of "Featured Searches" that you can try. If you click on the title of the
collection, you will end up in a browse page of all of the dogs in the main collection. If you go to "Search Collections", you will be taken to
an advanced CONTENTdm screen where you will be able to choose which collections you want to search
at the bottom of the screen.
FAQ
- I work in a Wisconsin library and would like
to have my dog included in this project. How
would I get my dog added to the collection?
Our hosted version of CONTENTdm was upgraded in August of 2005. With
this upgrade comes the ability for people to add their own dogs to the
project via the web. I would love to have your dog in the project! For
more information, go to WiLS web site at www.wils.wisc.edu/train/contdm.
- Is there a limit to how many dogs can be included
in this project?
Yes. We have a hosted version of CONTENTdm
which allows us to have a collection of up to 500
items which we all share in the WiLS office. If
the "dogs" collection grows out of this space, we
may choose to discuss expanding our license.
- I would like to change or add information to the description
of my dog. Am I able to do this?
Yes. Please use the web form to submit updated information about your
dog, or send Kirsten an email (khoutman@wils.wisc.edu) with
the changes that you want made and/or the information that you would like
to see added.
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