text:
using System;
using System.Reflection;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.IO;

using Internal.Reflection.Core;
using Internal.Runtime.TypeLoader;
using Internal.Runtime.Augments;

using System.Reflection.Runtime.General;

using System.Reflection.PortableExecutable;
using System.Reflection.Metadata;
using System.Collections.Immutable;

namespace Internal.Reflection.Execution
{
    //=============================================================================================================================
    // The assembly resolution policy for Project N's emulation of "classic reflection."
    //
    // The policy is very simple: the only assemblies that can be "loaded" are those that are statically linked into the running
    // native process. There is no support for probing for assemblies in directories, user-supplied files, GACs, NICs or any
    // other repository.
    //=============================================================================================================================
    public sealed partial class AssemblyBinderImplementation : AssemblyBinder
    {
        /// Abstraction to hold PE data for an ECMA module
        private class PEInfo
        {
            public PEInfo(RuntimeAssemblyName name, MetadataReader reader, PEReader pe)
            {
                Name = name;
                Reader = reader;
                PE = pe;
            }

            public readonly RuntimeAssemblyName Name;
            public readonly MetadataReader Reader;
            public readonly PEReader PE;
        }

        private static LowLevelList<PEInfo> s_ecmaLoadedAssemblies = new LowLevelList<PEInfo>();

        partial void BindEcmaByteArray(byte[] rawAssembly, byte[] rawSymbolStore, ref AssemblyBindResult bindResult, ref Exception exception, ref bool? result)
        {
            // 1. Load byte[] into immutable array for use by PEReader/MetadataReader
            ImmutableArray<byte> assemblyData = ImmutableArray.Create(rawAssembly);
            PEReader pe = new PEReader(assemblyData);
            MetadataReader reader = pe.GetMetadataReader();

            // 2. Create AssemblyName from MetadataReader
            RuntimeAssemblyName runtimeAssemblyName = reader.GetAssemblyDefinition().ToRuntimeAssemblyName(reader).CanonicalizePublicKeyToken();

            lock(s_ecmaLoadedAssemblies)
            {
                // 3. Attempt to bind to already loaded assembly
                if (Bind(runtimeAssemblyName, out bindResult, out exception))
                {
                    result = true;
                    return;
                }
                exception = null;

                // 4. If that fails, then add newly created metareader to global cache of byte array loaded modules
                PEInfo peinfo = new PEInfo(runtimeAssemblyName, reader, pe);

                s_ecmaLoadedAssemblies.Add(peinfo);
                ModuleList moduleList = ModuleList.Instance;
                ModuleInfo newModuleInfo = new EcmaModuleInfo(moduleList.SystemModule.Handle, pe, reader);
                moduleList.RegisterModule(newModuleInfo);

                // 5. Then try to load by name again. This load should always succeed
                if (Bind(runtimeAssemblyName, out bindResult, out exception))
                {
                    result = true;
                    return;
                }

                result = false;
                Debug.Assert(exception != null); // We must have an error on load. At this time this could happen due to ambiguous name matching
            }
        }

        partial void BindEcmaAssemblyName(RuntimeAssemblyName refName, ref AssemblyBindResult result, ref Exception exception, ref Exception preferredException, ref bool foundMatch)
        {
            lock(s_ecmaLoadedAssemblies)
            {
                for (int i = 0; i < s_ecmaLoadedAssemblies.Count; i++)
                {
                    PEInfo info = s_ecmaLoadedAssemblies[i];
                    if (AssemblyNameMatches(refName, info.Name, ref preferredException))
                    {
                        if (foundMatch)
                        {
                            exception = new AmbiguousMatchException();
                            return;
                        }

                        result.EcmaMetadataReader = info.Reader;
                        foundMatch = result.EcmaMetadataReader != null;

                        // For failed matches, we will never be able to succeed, so return now
                        if (!foundMatch)
                            return;
                    }
                }

                if (!foundMatch)
                {
                    try
                    {
                        // Not found in already loaded list, attempt to source assembly from disk
                        foreach (string filePath in FilePathsForAssembly(refName))
                        {
                            FileStream ownedFileStream = null;
                            PEReader ownedPEReader = null;
                            try
                            {
                                if (!RuntimeAugments.FileExists(filePath))
                                    continue;

                                try
                                {
                                    ownedFileStream = new FileStream(filePath, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read, FileShare.Read);
                                }
                                catch (System.IO.IOException)
                                {
                                    // Failure to open a file is not fundamentally an assembly load error, but it does indicate this file cannot be used
                                    continue;
                                }

                                ownedPEReader = new PEReader(ownedFileStream);
                                // FileStream ownership transferred to ownedPEReader
                                ownedFileStream = null;

                                if (!ownedPEReader.HasMetadata)
                                    continue;

                                MetadataReader reader = ownedPEReader.GetMetadataReader();
                                // Create AssemblyName from MetadataReader
                                RuntimeAssemblyName runtimeAssemblyName = reader.GetAssemblyDefinition().ToRuntimeAssemblyName(reader).CanonicalizePublicKeyToken();

                                // If assembly name doesn't match, it isn't the one we're looking for. Continue to look for more assemblies
                                if (!AssemblyNameMatches(refName, runtimeAssemblyName, ref preferredException))
                                    continue;

                                // This is the one we are looking for, add it to the list of loaded assemblies
                                PEInfo peinfo = new PEInfo(runtimeAssemblyName, reader, ownedPEReader);

                                s_ecmaLoadedAssemblies.Add(peinfo);

                                // At this point the PE reader is no longer owned by this code, but is owned by the s_ecmaLoadedAssemblies list
                                PEReader pe = ownedPEReader;
                                ownedPEReader = null;

                                ModuleList moduleList = ModuleList.Instance;
                                ModuleInfo newModuleInfo = new EcmaModuleInfo(moduleList.SystemModule.Handle, pe, reader);
                                moduleList.RegisterModule(newModuleInfo);

                                foundMatch = true;
                                result.EcmaMetadataReader = peinfo.Reader;
                                break;
                            }
                            finally
                            {
                                if (ownedFileStream != null)
                                    ownedFileStream.Dispose();

                                if (ownedPEReader != null)
                                    ownedPEReader.Dispose();
                            }
                        }
                    }
                    catch (System.IO.IOException)
                    { }
                    catch (System.ArgumentException)
                    { }
                    catch (System.BadImageFormatException badImageFormat)
                    {
                        exception = badImageFormat;
                    }

                    // Cache missed lookups
                    if (!foundMatch)
                    {
                        PEInfo peinfo = new PEInfo(refName, null, null);
                        s_ecmaLoadedAssemblies.Add(peinfo);
                    }
                }
            }
        }

        public IEnumerable<string> FilePathsForAssembly(RuntimeAssemblyName refName)
        {
            // Check for illegal characters in file name
            if (refName.Name.IndexOfAny(Path.GetInvalidFileNameChars()) != -1)
                yield break;

            // Implement simple probing for assembly in application base directory and culture specific directory
            string probingDirectory = AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory;
            string cultureQualifiedDirectory = probingDirectory;

            if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(refName.CultureName))
            {
                cultureQualifiedDirectory = Path.Combine(probingDirectory, refName.CultureName);
            }
            else
            {
                // Loading non-resource dlls not yet supported
                yield break;
            }

            // Attach assembly name
            yield return Path.Combine(cultureQualifiedDirectory, refName.Name + ".dll");
        }

        partial void InsertEcmaLoadedAssemblies(List<AssemblyBindResult> loadedAssemblies)
        {
            lock (s_ecmaLoadedAssemblies)
            {
                for (int i = 0; i < s_ecmaLoadedAssemblies.Count; i++)
                {
                    PEInfo info = s_ecmaLoadedAssemblies[i];
                    if (info.Reader == null)
                        continue;

                    AssemblyBindResult result = default(AssemblyBindResult);
                    result.EcmaMetadataReader = info.Reader;
                    loadedAssemblies.Add(result);
                }
            }
        }
    }
}


The objective of this paper is to explore the nexus that links education, the production of knowledge and the prospect of socio-economic growth and development seen as a measure of progress. The argument is placed against the backdrop of the global public goods debate. The role of the state and in particular of the European Union policies in boosting education across Europe and beyond is emphasized. The challenges, opportunities and contentious issues relevant to the processes of education, knowledge production, and their impact on public policy are emphasized.
Anna Visvizi, Ph.D. is an associate professor at DEREE – The American College of Greece in Athens and a post-doc research fellow at the Institute of East-Central Europe (IEŚW, Lublin/Poland).


text:
On Intrepid, Faust Renews Campaign Pitch to New York Alumni, Donors
By Matthew Q. Clarida and Theodore R. Delwiche, Crimson Staff Writers May 15, 2014
NEW YORK—Stories above a tranquil Hudson River, about 600 supporters of the University gathered here Wednesday night on the decommissioned aircraft carrier Intrepid to celebrate the progress made so far in the University's ongoing capital campaign and to hear a rallying cry for future support from University President Drew G. Faust.
The gathering, called "Your Harvard: New York City," attracted a spectrum of tri-state area Harvard affiliates, including some of the University's most influential donors and alumni, as well as a small cohort of protesters.
University President Drew G. Faust provides the keynote speech at the Your Harvard: New York event organized by the Harvard Alumni Association on the USS Intrepid in New York City.
Photo: Matthew Q. Clarida
The event came on the heels of Faust's announcement in March that the Harvard Campaign, the University's first fundraising drive since 1999, had already raised $3.7 billion of its $6.5 billion goal. Addressing the crowd assembled below the flight deck of the historic carrier, Faust did not update that number but did say that $430 million had been raised so far for financial aid.
"By making Harvard more open and accessible, we are better able to draw a new generation of leaders from the widest possible pool," Faust said. "Sustaining this commitment will depend on support raised through this campaign, and I am happy to report that we have raised $430 million so far, thanks in considerable part to Ken Griffin's transformative gift earlier this year. This is a great start."
Faust crafted her address around the story of Charles Devens '32, a serviceman on the Intrepid who earned a Bronze Star for his leadership during an attack on the carrier in 1944.
"Like so many Harvard men and women before and after him, he led," she said of Devens.
As she spoke broadly of leadership, Faust ticked off the top priorities of the capital campaign, including the renewal of the undergraduate Houses, investments in teaching, learning, and research, and the relocation of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences to Allston.
"By the time we close this campaign, hundreds of thousands of square feet of new campus space will be taking shape across the Charles," Faust said. "And we can imagine Harvard, by its 400th anniversary, less as a constellation of separate precincts and more as a unified campus with a river running through it."
The event was an intricate production orchestrated by the Harvard Alumni Association, whose president, Catherine A. Gellert '93, convened the program, and whose outgoing executive director, John "Jack" P. Reardon '60, sat near Faust and Provost Alan M. Garber '76 in the front row. Six members of the Radcliffe Pitches, an all female a capella group, serenaded alumni and guests as they made their way to rows of neatly arranged seats, each bearing a sleek white package of cheese, grapes, and other snacks
"I think it's amazing, because to get all the alumni together, [to get] 700 people in New York is just another huge celebration of our community and how fun it is," said Mitchell L. Dong '75, who attended with his two daughters.
Paul J. Finnegan '75, a co-chair of the campaign and a member of the Harvard Corporation, said the turnout was an indicator of the progress the campaign has made so far.
"It's an extraordinary turnout in the middle of the week. I think it's reflective of the excitement about the campaign and what's going on at the University," he said. "There is terrific momentum, and I think this is one example of it."
Cass R. Sunstein '75 moderates a panel at the Your Harvard: New York event organized by the Harvard Alumni Association on the USS Intrepid in New York City Wednesday.
Before Faust's remarks, Canadian author and public servant Chrystia A. Freeland '90 led Harvard Law School professor Cass R. Sunstein '75 and Economics professor Sendhil Mullainathan in a panel on public policy and decision making. During the panel, Sunstein, a former official in the administration of President Barack Obama, spoke about his popular idea of liberal paternalism and nudging. Mullainathan discussed intellectual "bandwidth" and how professional and financial concerns can have an effect on intelligence. He drew a chorus of laughter from the crowd and the panel when he explained how, by the same theory, people can lose IQ points when they diet.
Read more in University News
Faust Accepts Task Force's Call for Increased Sexual Assault Resources, Prevention Education
HAA Alumni Drew Faust Capital Campaign Front Feature University News News Front Feature

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


On August 7, 2013, a Silver Alert was issued for 84-year-old Eldridge Gene Stirling. Stirling went missing in Harrisburg, Arkansas and was later found safe 150 miles away in Corinth, Mississippi.
Authorities have canceled a Sliver Alert for 84-year-old Eldridge Gene Stirling after he was located at a convenience store, according to Harrisburg Police Chief Gary Hefner.
The Harrisburg resident was found safe at a convenience store in Corinth, Mississippi.
Corinth is about two and half hours away from Harrisburg.
According to Arkansas State Police, Stirling went missing from Harrisburg around 10:30 a.m.
A Silver Alert was then issued by Arkansas State Police on Wednesday night.


A small fishing port and light industrial town situated in the Pays de Caux, some 21 miles (34 km) northeast of Dieppe at the junction of the D 940, the D 78 and the D 1015 roads. The mouth of the Bresle river meets the English Channel here, in between the high (110 metres) chalk cliffs and the pebbly beach. Le Tréport is also a sea-side resort and home to a casino.
The British World War I soldier Arthur Bullock, who was stationed in Le Tréport after the Armistice, was captivated by the town, nestling at the bottom of cliffs which could be ascended by 365 steps or by a cliff railway. Bullock recorded in his memoir, 'The sea floor must have been covered by multicoloured sands, for on a clear day, looking from the cliffs straight down into the sea, it seemed that one was looking at a vast abstract canvas of blues, yellows, reds and greens'. While staying there, Bullock also painted a study of a French fisher girl with a basket on her back.
The current mayor of Le Tréport is Laurent Jacques of the PCF political party. He became 1st vice-mayor following the 2014 municipal elections (2014-2020). He took over as mayor in January 2016 upon the demise of his predecessor Alain Longuent (PCF).
The remains of an eleventh-century abbey.
The chapel of St. Julien.
The new funicular, built in 1907-08, and restored in 2006, linking the town with the cliff-tops.
The church of St. Jacques, dating from the fourteenth century.
Paul Paray, conductor, was born here in 1886.
The three towns of Le Tréport, Eu and Mers-les-Bains are known locally as the Three sisters.
Le Tréport was used as the location for the 2014 French police thriller Witnesses ("Les témoins"). The series, which was written by Hervé Hadmar and Marc Herpoux, starred Thierry Lhermitte and Marie Dompnier. Its style and tempo have been compared to Scandinavian noir such as Wallander, The Bridge and The Killing.
^ "Take the funicular railway in Le Tréport and enjoy the view - Seine Maritime Tourism". Seine-maritime-tourisme.com. Retrieved 2017-05-04.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Le Tréport.


'Grow Your Tenner' Award winners announced!
We are thrilled to announce the launch of a new partnership programme with the FSI, NCVO, Sported, and the Small Charities Coalition. Local charities and community groups that are members of these organisations are now able to claim their first year membership of Localgiving for free. This offer is initially running until the end of 2016. This collaboration will give thousands of local groups across the UK the opportunity to benefit from regular match funding campaigns, fundraising skills training and digital resources at zero cost. Those groups that join up before October 18th will be able to take part in our upcoming national match fund campaign, Grow Your Tenner. In 2015, Grow Your Tenner raised £631,245 for 899 local charities and is set to be even bigger this year. Our partners are equally enthusiastic about the opportunity that this collaboration presents to their members: Amber Shotton, Head of Membership and Learning at The FSI has said: "Localgiving is a fantastic resource for small, local charities and we at the FSI are delighted to offer our members free membership with Localgiving. This gives access to match fund initiatives like the Grow Your Tenner campaign as well as resources and support with online fundraising." Kathryn Berry, Head of Member Services for Sported said: "The opportunity that Localgiving provides for community organisations is fantastic! Sported members have accessed a huge amount of funding through Localgiving already, enabling them to strengthen their organisations and offer more opportunities for disadvantaged young people to get involved in sport for development activities. To be able to offer free memberships to all our members is invaluable and something that we hope that they will take up." Felicity Christensen, Communications & Events Manager at Small Charities Coalition said: "We are delighted to be partnering with Localgiving to reach more small charities across the UK and provide them with training that will strengthen their fundraising activity. It's fantastic that our members will be able to benefit from free Localgiving membership and all the opportunities that this will afford them." Gillen Knight, Head of Marketing & Membership at NCVO said: "These are tight times for small and local charities, so we are very pleased to support this new partnership. NCVO provides a whole package of support to our members and it's great to be able to give them even more so they can really develop their digital fundraising skills to help them make a bigger difference." If you are a member of the FSI, Small Charities Coalition, Sported or NCVO then why not become a member today!
Weston Charity Award Applications are now OPEN!
Weston Award winners will receive £6,500 unrestricted grant funding alongside business mentoring support from capacity building charity Pilotlight. The purpose of the award is to support ambitious charities personally and financially so you can achieve your goals.
For more information or to apply for the Weston Charity Awards 2017, please visit www.westoncharityawards.org.
Applications close on Friday 13 January 2017.
Over the summer, we sent out a survey to representatives from local charities and community groups asking for their viewpoints on the current issues affecting their organisations. Our aim was to gather perspectives from as many different cause areas, locations and types of group as possible, so as to gain an extensive overview of the local voluntary sector in the UK. Report findings Today, to coincide with the launch of Grow Your Tenner, we have released the findings of this study in our first Local Charity and Community Group Sustainability Report. Its results will help to better inform the work Localgiving does to support its members and advocate for local charities and community groups. Our hope is that it will also serve as a catalyst to inspire other key stakeholders across society to engage with the sector and work together to tackle the problems it faces. The report showcases some of the fantastic attributes that local voluntary organisations share, which make them such valuable assets to the communities they serve. However, it also serves to highlight some of the pressing issues facing many groups around the country. Whilst an increase in demand for services shows no sign of slowing, many organisations are left struggling to cover core costs and unable to plan for the future. At the same time, many feel much of the general public are unaware of their work, making it all the more difficult to build connections with new supporters. Grow Your Tenner This is where initiatives like Grow Your Tenner come in. Our hope is that this year's campaign will help to further raise awareness and support for the sector, whilst also enabling groups to develop practical fundraising skills and build lasting connections with new supporters. Over the past three years we have seen some amazing results and heard some incredible stories from groups taking part. Now in it's fourth year, we hope that Grow Your Tenner 2015 will engage more new people with the work of the local voluntary sector and serve as a beacon for our future plans to support these vital organisations and their work. How you can get involved: Double your donation Click here to find a local charity and donate now. We'll match your donation pound-for-pound by up to £10. Or, choose to set up a monthly donation and we'll match it by up to £10 a month for the first 3 months. Register your organisation If you're a local charity or community group that is not currently a member of Localgiving, there's still plenty of time to take part in this year's Grow Your Tenner and benefit from up to £10,000 of match funding. Simply click here to join us now. We'll aim to get you online and accepting donations within 1 working day of receiving your completed documents, with many groups up and running the same day! For more information about Grow Your Tenner, including FAQs, please click here.


Everyone assumes snowbird got it easy in the warmer parts of North America. But do they, really?
I have always wondered what the draw was for those snowbirds who spend the winter in warmer climates like Arizona, New Mexico and California. I couldn't understand what would be interesting after five months in the same place. What did they do ALL day?
Well, I got a chance to see for myself. The first morning that I awoke in Mesa, Arizona at a trailer park resort, I was astonished to see how active all of these "seniors" were. They were out there playing tennis early in the morning (6 a.m.), getting ready to go hiking, biking, going to the gym or yoga. I felt like a slug, unfit, white from no sun all winter and embarrassed because I figured I was younger than they were! And there I was just thinking about getting up. The crack of dawn is apparently the time to get up and get going.
All that aside, it didn't take long to get into the swing of the snowbird lifestyle. These huge trailer park resorts are everywhere. They take up acres and acres of prime desert real estate and each has a lot of amenities. There are thousands of Canadians being more active there than they probably are at home. Cruising bicycles with baskets for shopping at the grocery store, and no helmets if not on the real roads. They walk and if they can't do that they ride in a golf cart. They just don't sit still – at least not for very long.
The resort I was at had something for everyone. There were studios for any art form you might like to learn. There were billards leagues and baseball leagues, tennis tournaments and something called pickleball. Apparently that is the fastest growing sport out there, kind of a cross between badminton and tennis. For others it was outdoor shuffleboard, horseshoes (not a busy place) and the pool. There was even a putting green for those who might want to practice their short games before venturing into the hot afternoon sun for a round of golf. No lie, 99 degrees in the shade for days on end. I must have been lucky, it was the hottest March on record in Mesa, Arizona, and I went golfing.
Happy hour seems to be the common bond between friends. There seemed to be one every second night and if it wasn't a happy hour it was a potluck or birthday dinner or a meal in a nearby restaurant. Not to worry about drinking and driving, they used the bus to get to places they couldn't cycle or walk to.
No one was concerned about the latest clothing or shoes or hairstyles. Living in the desert is about comfort. Flip flops and hiking boots seemed to be the preferred footwear. The hiking boots were important as those cacti have pretty sharp needles and no one wants to step on a scorpion while desert hiking and sightseeing.
The women seemed to like those visor things and the more fashionable could pile their hair around and look like professional tennis players and get away with wearing something short.
No one cares, they're all older and they do what they want. Most though are young at heart. They are happy to enjoy this place where the sun shines every day.
But, like in any small town, there are those who grumble. Someone was swimming laps and splashed another person. Call security. Someone was shouting directions to people they didn't know playing pickleball. Someone gets time out from the pickleball courts for a month. Others just don't like change. Noisy parties are tolerated but only until 11 p.m. at the latest. There are bylaws and they are enforced most often by the residents themselves.
When you get a generation of people who have been active in business their whole life, it's pretty hard to let go of control. Sometimes that's all they have left as health and freedom decline. Tolerance is an activity.
Personally, I'd go back there. I get it. I understand these places are small communities and come complete with small town characters and attitudes.
Am I ready to be a snowbird? Perhaps not just yet, but I can migrate south once a year and test it out. After all, it is my age bracket that is nest building for the future.
Pirjo Raits is the editor of the Sooke News Mirror and recently spent vacation time in Arizona with the snowbirds.


text:
Home News Ad in China 'Victim-Blames' Woman in Makeup Being Followed By Masked Man
Ad in China 'Victim-Blames' Woman in Makeup Being Followed By Masked Man
A company in China has pulled an advertisement for its makeup removal wipes after receiving backlash for allegedly promoting victim-blaming, CNN reports.
Controversial video: In the Purcotton advertisement, a masked man stalks a woman as she walks through a dark alley at night. The woman removes her makeup with wipes and faces her horrified would-be attacker, scaring him away.
The advertisement sparked outrage online, with many calling it "disgusting."
China Women's News took to social media to criticize the advertisement's message of "demonizing the victim."
"(It is) full of prejudice, malice, and ignorance. Women are consumers and not consumer goods. It is inevitable that 'creative' advertisements that insult women will be criticized by the public," the post read.
There have also been calls to boycott the company's products.
"You use what scares women the most for an advertisement, which is beyond comprehension and unacceptable," a Weibo user wrote.
Response to the backlash: Purcotton initially defended the advertisement as a creative way to promote the "cleaning function of the product," but eventually apologized and took down the video on Jan. 8 after boycott threats built traction.
Purcotton, which has more than 240 stores in China, cannot afford to lose its estimated 20 million customers.
"We have set up a team to hold people to account for the problem and, in the meantime, we will improve content production and the review process to prevent similar incidents from happening again," noted a recent company statement.
A second apology letter was posted to Purcotton's Weibo account on Monday.
Feature Image via Blagag
victim-blaming
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In hopes of improving people's digestion, food scientists at the National University of Singapore (NUS) have created coffee…


Global Lift Commercial Series C-375 pool lift (formally known as the C-350) is ADA complaint. The C-375 pool lift is commercial grade construction, stainless steel with a powder coat finish. Lift capacity - 350 lbs. The C-375 pool lift can be used with spas or pools. The lift has a lifetime structural warranty and includes a battery charging station. Retrofit or Tri-Point Anchoring system. Please specify.
** Commercial Series C-370 Lifts internal seat (patent pending) leveling assures that the seat remains level throughout the lowering lifting of the user. The internal linkage provides a stationary unit to become a fully portable unit with simple installation.


Numbers tell a story. And if 64 percent of Samoa's population, which is just below 200,000 people, are aged 35 years and younger, we obviously have a country that is predominantly young at heart.
It's not necessarily a bad thing. While it might have disadvantages politically, socially, economically and culturally, there are also many advantages.
Now they say you can't teach an old dog new tricks. But with the young ones you can. Which is why we say it is great that the majority of Samoa's population are relatively young.
You see, with the problems we see all around Samoa today, you can't help but get the feeling that some of it is caused by a tired and worn out leadership who have perhaps run their course.
Maybe it's time for a break, who knows?
Don't get us wrong, we say this with the utmost respect for our leaders who have pioneered and paved the way for the country we enjoy today – warts and all.
They were called and have served their callings well. Thank you.
But we need to remember that everyone has an assignment and with every assignment there is a start and a finish date. There is a time to begin and a time to finish.
You see we go through seasons and periods in life and it requires an open mind to new things. It also requires us to learn from the past, reassess and refocus so we can adapt and adjust where we need to.
And just because a season ends, it doesn't necessarily mean it is a bad thing. It doesn't mean we have done such a bad job that the season has ended.
No a season ends because a new season is about to begin. And that's what makes life exciting; it makes the journey worth taking.
It's the anxiety of moving forward into the unknown, discovering ourselves, what we are capable of and where our limitations are that makes the journey exhilarating. It's when we fail and get up again. Only then we can say with certainty that we have grown.
Think of a baby and how many times he tumbles and falls before he starts walking and eventually sprinting. Such is our journey of learning and finding ourselves.
Getting back to the young people and Samoa's youthful population, there is much potential and much to be achieved.
The fact is if we mean what we say when we refer to the youth as the future of this nation, you have to agree with us that the time to prepare them is now. Not tomorrow or ten years from now.
If you want to shape their thinking; you've got to catch them young or else forget about it.
Folks, we live in a very challenging time. One that is defined by so many uncertainties. There is bloody violence everywhere; wars and strife. There is endless bloodshed; crime has skyrocketed to uncontrollable proportions. Economically, socially, environmentally and spiritually, the world is going through a rough time where it feels like everything is being shaken. What all these point to is a worrying and uncertain future, one that will inevitably be inherited by the youth of today.
As part of it, youths from organisations, government ministries and other partners have been talking about ways to reduce violence against children, women and men. They have also been making pledges for a safer Samoa.
Well, according to the United Nations, young people's inclusion in the peace and security agenda is the key to building and sustaining peace.
"The process of social inclusion for youth, including participation in decision-making as well as access to quality education, health care and basic services promotes their role as active contributors to society and affords young people with opportunities to reach their potential and achieve their goals," the United Nations believe.
Closer to home, the Ministry of Women, Community and Social Development has been driving the message that recognising and mobilising youth is crucial to the development of families, villages and the nation.
Now let's get back to the question we asked earlier: What hope is there?
There is hope. It is found in our faith which should not be determined by what we see but by continuing to work hard, chip away knowing that there will be a better tomorrow. How do we prepare our young people for a better tomorrow?
Start at home. Every child has a home. That is the solid foundation upon which we need to build our hopes for tomorrow.
Have an enjoyable long weekend Samoa, God bless!


Australians eat an average of five to six kilograms of chocolate per person every year. That sounds like a lot! Should we be eating one type more than another?
Dark chocolate. Dark chocolate has the most cocoa at about 70% or higher. At higher concentrations of cocao this gives the chocolate more anti oxidant and anti inflammatory benefits from the flavanol compounds. It has approximately 548 calories per 100 grams & 41% fat, 36% carbohydrate and 8% protein.
Milk chocolate. Milk chocolate has around 12% milk and the cocoa content is about 10% too. This means there are not many antioxidant benefits. It has about 540 calories per 100 grams & 30% fat, 59% carbohydrates and 8% protein.
White chocolate. White chocolate does not have cocoa solids rather it contains cocoa butter. There is no caffeine and no antioxidants. It has about 545 calories per 100 grams and 34% fat, 58% carbohydrates and 8% protein.
Carob. Carob has a chocolate like flavour. It is made from the starchy pods of a carob tree. Cocoa has a bitter taste therefore a person may prefer carob if they do not like the bitterness of cocoa. It has no caffeine and it does not have the antioxidants you get from cocoa. It has about 590 calories per 100 grams & 43% fat, 42% carbohydrates and 9% protein.
Sugar free chocolate. The sugar is replaced with stevia however the taste is different. The calorie saving you get with this chocolate may not be worth the poorer taste quality. It may have you reaching for more as you do not quite get that chocolate fix. It has 470 calories per 100 grams & 43% fat, 54% carbohydrates and 7% protein.
My choice is definitely the dark chocolate, in small amounts. Chocolate makes us feel good and that is a part of a balanced healthy lifestyle. I choose to eat 1 to 2 squares per day and I am satisfied with that. It satisfies my cravings and it works for me. When we deprive ourselves cravings tend to build up and it is then that we can lose our sense of control when we do have it.
Some people often tell me when they buy chocolate they eat the whole family size block, they have no will power. Remember what you are after is the taste and feel good factor. Chocolate is not meant to fill you up, that's what your whole foods are for. When I'm tempted to over eat, I ask myself, how will I feel afterwards? Common things that come to mind are things like bloated, tired, fat, dehydrated and upset. I don't want to feel like that and I'm sure you don't either. Next time you're tempted to eat it all, remind yourself how you will feel afterwards too. Is it really worth all that? If you really like your chocolate and feel you can never stop at just 2 squares, buy single servings. It may be annoying having to go to the shop each time you want chocolate, but it may help you break the chocolate binge urges and you'll feel better for it.
Enjoy your chocolate, quality over quantity!


We know emergencies can happen at any time, and without notice. This can be a stressful period for you and your pet, but we want to help make the process easier on you. We always have a vet on call for after hours emergencies.
Animal House is open late, for those that need care outside of their regular clinic's hours.
If you require emergency care for your pet, please call (931) 645-7757. We will do our best to assist you in dealing with the emergency.


For the last month, I have been using doTERRA Frankincense oil on my students during savasana, and the effects have been palpable. Everyone walks out feeling more relaxed than usual, and it's generated a great deal of interest in essential oils from my students. Frankincense is like the "gateway oil." It's so unique, so special, so powerful - it's effects are felt almost instantly, and stay with you every time you get a hint of it's fragrance throughout the day.
Khalil Gibran said it best: "Frankincense...though fashioned of dreams...is food for your soul."
Trouble is, as we use it pretty liberally at home too, I'm going through my Frankincense really quickly. And as expected, given it's all around specialness, it's an expensive oil, even at the super generous doTERRA wholesale prices. And this mama is on a budget.
So I was trying to sort out a way to extend the life of my supply, without depriving my students of it's potent and powerful qualities. And I started thinking - Lavender is also a delightful oil to aid in relaxation. And while it might not be as "exotic" as Frankincense, it's effects are just as powerful.
But what do I do...should I mix the two and just do a straight blend? Should I alternate each week? Or is there a better option?
Well, with a little reminder from high school biology and I came up with my answer - use both, together but separately.
The left side of the brain is the center of cognitive reasoning, logical thinking, and all around smarts. But that also means it's a hotspot for stress, overthinking and obsessive thoughts. Lavender would do wonders there!
While the right side of the brain is the home of creativity, imagination, intuition and holistic thought. Frankincense would be just the ticket to inspire us towards our most open-minded selves.
So with my students comfortably resting in savasana, I went to each of them with a drop of lavender on my left thumb,* and a drop of frankincense on my right. Starting at the third eye, right in between the eyebrows, I swept my thumbs across their foreheads, along the browline to the temples, then back again and up and over the crown of the head - touching on both the 6th (intuition) and the 7th (divine light) chakras. And wow, what a bliss followed! In fact, I let them out a little late because I didn't have the heart to rush the savasana and final meditation. Not with a combo like that in the air and on the mind.
So come to class and give it a try. And tell me I'm wrong in my promise of absolute bliss...at least for a moment. Because sometimes, a moment is all we need.


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40+ WONDERS 3RD ANNUAL 2017 CALENDAR LAUNCH PARTY
LAUNCH PARTY OVERVIEW
The 40+ Wonders 3rd Annual 2017 Calendar, "I Dare To Be…", is to celebrate the inner and outer beauty of women 40 years old and older. The models in the calendar are our everyday women who are positive influencers of society, entrepreneurs, and/or career driven. The images reflect each woman's personal "DARE." It sends a compelling message that life is WONDERFUL after 40 and you can "DARE" to be anything you want to be no matter what your age is. This empowering calendar project was created to empower women all over the world to speak, breathe, and walk in confidence that "40+ is Wonderful!" This event will be full of surprises from the entertainment to the introduction of our 2017 calendar models. Full proceeds from the silent auction and partial proceeds from the calendar sales will go directly to the Carrie Steele-Pitts Home, Inc., a residential care program for foster children ages 12-24 years old.
Skyy Wonders, Founder of 40+ Wonders, 40+ Wonders 2017 Calendar Model, Inspirational Motivator, Radio Show Host of Unmuted: Your Voice Matters, blogger, Photographer, Image catalyst, Philanthropist, and proud mother. She is legally named Carla Daniel and was born August 2, 1970 in Pittsburgh, PA. She graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with a B.A. in Liberal Studies and continued her education at Bauder College where she received her degree in Fashion Merchandising. After 40 years on this earth, Skyy was able to overcome the effects of her negative childhood environments, adult relationships, and domestic violence. Concerned by the number of women she encountered, struggling with similar issues, Skyy wanted to create a platform that would uplift, motivate, encourage, and empower women 40 years of age and older. This platform, 40+ Wonders, started in 2014 and has been touching lives all over. Skyy believes with God you can accomplish and conquer anything. Always believe in yourself and speak positive words in the air you speak. "I'M 40+ AND I AM WONDERFUL!"
THE 40+ WONDERS 2017 CALENDAR MODELS
Neema Ali, owner of Kreating New Faces, LLC, was born in Washington DC. In her 40's she's now a seasoned entrepreneur, educator, motivational speaker, leader, health & wellness consultant and brand ambassador with Wakaya Perfection. Neema, as a Top Professional Celebrity Makeup/Hairstylist, is very diverse and experienced in her career including runway, television and movies. In 2015, Neema was recognized in Washington DC and received the Black Wall Street Award and The Entrepreneur in Business Award from Furyis Style Entertainment.
Vegan Chef, Emilia Bryant known as "Emmy Wu," is the owner of The House of Vegannatti. She is a Self- Relationship Coach focused in wellness and self-improvement. She is the author of the book "Beyond The Mirror," and upcoming books "The House of Vegannatti Food Mantra Guide 101" and "Not My Size." Her goal is to awaken the minds, "stop being married to your food and marry your life!"
Pamela Carroll, 57 wonderful years young, was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. She currently lives with her partner and two boys. She has been a personal trainer for 38 years! The first 18 years she trained the rich and famous in New York and San Francisco. For the past 18 years, she has been a personal trainer (Health & Physical Education Teacher) to elementary school children, and now middle school teenagers. She is the CEO of Rose Stevens Group LLC, a budding natural products company.
Gwendolyn Faye is a poet, designer, and entrepreneur who lives to inspire. She does that with her own brand of inspirational, spoken word poetry that leads you through a personal, yet universal, experience of and quest for love in its many forms. She is the publisher of her first collection of poetry, "The Fine Art of Caring," the "Mystery Solved" poetic devotional, and the "Let Me Explain" album, its poetic soundtrack.
Brandi Hunter is a graduate of the University of Georgia, where she was a member of the women's basketball team which won two SEC Championships (96', 97') and twice adorned Final Four honors (95', 96'). She is a member of the Atlanta Board of Realtors distinguished, "Multi- Million Dollar Club." She is in the top 5% of production for agents in the highly successful Keller Williams Buckhead office. She has created a unique niche by becoming the go-to Realtor for NFL and NBA athletes, distinguished professionals, and for Atlanta's high profile entertainers and Reality TV stars.
Keah C. Jones is a proud wife and mother of two boys. As a small business CEO, she is totally invested in making the communities in her home town of Philadelphia, PA better. Her company, ONE BETTER, LLC, rehabilitates blighted properties and creates opportunities for homeownership in an effort to restore community pride in underserved areas. Keah is passionate about leading her life positively on purpose.
Joscynthia Mason is one of the most requested stylists in the industry. With over 18 years of experience, she was voted "Women In Business Champion of South Carolina." She has worked with top designers and makeup artists in major runway shows as artistic director of fashion events. She brings the passion and flair of the beauty industry to life as a platform artist with KIRK PRODUCTS. She is also a Master Stylist at Purple Door Salon in Atlanta Georgia.
Suzanne Nelson, 44 years old, was born in Kingston, Jamaica and later moved to The Bahamas. She is a wife and mother of 3 wonderful children and 2 dogs. She has been a financial benefits pre-verifier for Resurgens Orthopedic for 7 years and also the owner of Chicdezignz Boutique LLC. Suzanne is also a Breast Cancer survivor who is reaching women every month through her newsletter to remind them to do their "Self Examination." Suzanne Nelson also volunteers at the Genesis shelter to help women and children in need.
Janet Ponder, is an up and coming Fashion Designer that lives in Atlanta, GA. Janet would love to design for women of all sizes. Janet started out doing Home Decor, and it's still her passion, but two years ago decided to start designing and teaching girls how to sew. Janet's biggest fan is her husband Keith of 13 years. She's a mother of one, and grandmother of two. Janet would love to give back to the lost art of sewing. Janet believes having the knowledge to sew is an amazing gift.
Valencia Walker was born Sept 22, 1971 to Earnest and Louise Brokenborough. She knew at the tender age of 9 that she wanted to model after career day at her school. Valencia has been modeling now for over 20 years and calls herself Atlanta's Runway Diva because she is one of the most sought after models in Atlanta! Inspired by being in her forties, Valencia models with teens and twenty somethings on a regular basis. Her ultimate goal is to model overseas.
Jennifer Williams is a proud mother and manager of three amazing and successful children. She has been a MASTER celebrity hair stylist and artistic director of Team Salon Pennae for 22 years. Team Salon Pennae hairstyles, fashion, and make up have graced the stages and pages of Grammy, BET, and Trumpet awards, as well as Ebony, Essence, and Upscale magazines. Jenny has worked with major networks such as Bravo, WE TV, and BET.
CLICK HERE for tickets!


text:
GRACELIN BASKARAN: Governments need to learn how to support people impoverished by environmental challenges
Roosevelt's New Deal in the Dust Bowl thick of the Great Depression is an approach worth examining
Researchers say KwaZulu-Natal will see more tropical cyclones
Severe tropical cyclones made landfall on the east coast of SA in the past, and under projected climate change conditions, the phenomenon could arise in the future
Vodacom shareholders approve expansion in Egypt
Vodacom says the acquisition of Vodafone Egypt, the market leader in the country, will accelerate its medium-term operating profit growth potential into double digits
Speed makes Proteas' Shabnim Ismail tick
From being the world's quickest female bowler to her choice in cars, SA's spearhead loves life in the fast lane
Life / Motoring
Porsche sets new sales record in 2021
More than 300,000 Porsches found new owners worldwide, with sales of the electric Taycan more than doubling
12 January 2022 - 16:09 Denis Droppa
The Macan was Porsche's most popular model in a record sales year. Picturre: SUPPLIED
Porsche set a new sales record in 2021, delivering 301,915 vehicles worldwide for an 11% increase over 2020.
The Stuttgart-based sports car manufacturer's previous sales record was 280,000 vehicles in 2019.
Every global sales region contributed, with the largest increases recorded on the North American continent, while China continues to be the largest single market for Porsche.
"Despite the challenges posed by the semi-conductor shortage and the disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic we have been working hard to enable more customers than ever before to fulfil their dream of owning a Porsche," says sales and marketing executive Detlev von Platen.
"Demand remains high and our order books are looking very robust, so we start 2022 full of momentum and confidence in all regions of the world."
The brand's most popular models were again its SUVs, led by 88,362 sales of the Macan midsized SUV, followed by the Cayenne large SUV with 83,071 units.
Sales of the all-electric Porsche Taycan more than doubled to 41,296 units compared to the previous year.
The sports car icon, the 911, also achieved a record year with 38,464 deliveries. The Panamera sold 30,220 units, and the 718 Boxster and 718 Cayman found 20,502 customers.
Porsche increased its deliveries in all sales regions worldwide. Growth was especially strong in the US, with 22% more vehicles sold (70,025 units) than in the previous year.
Across the Americas, Porsche made 84,657 deliveries, also representing an increase of 22%. China remains the largest single market for the sports car manufacturer and recorded an 8% sales increase to 95,671 vehicles.
There were 131,098 deliveries in the Asia-Pacific, Africa and Middle East region, 8% more than in 2020. Porsche sold 1,001 cars in SA last year, a 12.9% drop from 1,149 the year before.
Sales in Europe were 9% higher at 28,565 units, where the high rate of electric sports cars was of particular note with about 40% being either plug-in hybrids or all-electric cars.
"The overall result is very promising and shows the strategy to further electrify our fleet is working and is in line with demand and the preferences of our customers," said Von Platen.
Porsche debuts four new models at LA Auto Show
These include the Cayman GT4 RS and a Clubsport spin-off, Taycan GTS and a third body style Taycan Sport Turismo
Hybrids help lift Bentley to sales record in 2021
The luxury British brand delivered 14,659 cars in 2021 for growth of 31% on the previous record year in 2020
Rolls-Royce sales soar to record high in 2021
The luxury brand sold 5,586 vehicles last year, the largest number in its 117-year history
Vehicle licence discs can now be renewed at Pick ...
The CityBug is SA's smallest and most affordable ...
BIG READ: Fencing against the needle — how ...
Motorists will be able to renew licence discs ...
These were SA's best-selling vehicles in December


UWM alums Steven Moses and Jaimi Patterson opened their second performance of Rooftop Dance Thursday evening with an impressive lineup of intense and imaginative works.
East view from the Kenilworth Building 6th floor. Danielle McClune photo.
After the storms pushed out over Lake Michigan, lightning continued to flare over Milwaukee. Nice view from the sixth floor of UWM's Kenilworth building — not bad, MKE, not bad.
Inside, Rooftop Dance matched the scenery's electric quiet Thursday night, as UWM dance alums Steven Moses and Jaimi Patterson put on a show. Repeated performances are set for 8 and 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, June 28-29. (I'm curious about the difference between 8 p.m. sunlight versus 10 p.m. darkness—Thursday's start was 9 p.m., precisely after sundown beyond the panoramic windows on the building's east wall).
In Moses' And Then We Try Again, the folksy yet slightly off-kilter music of alt J drives dancers Libby Faye Schmitz, Kao Zhong Xiong and Hilary Anderson across the space. As those three settle downstage right, Jaimi Patterson and José Luis inch into the dance from upstage left. They quickly become the heart-stopping stars of the piece, in movements that express both the torment and ease of lovers. As they intertwine downstage left, the music cuts out. Xiong begins to sing "You Are My Sunshine," lyrically and sincerely. The sentiment turns on its head a moment later, as Xiong, Luis and Patterson take up unison karate-style jabs and kicks as Xiong shouts the song in angry staccato.
In a breathtaking moment near the end, Patterson falls lightly backward and Luis swoops in seemingly from nowhere. He lifts her with an effortless swing of his head into her shoulder blades, like when a cat nudges its head against you, the body following through in a relaxed coil.
Javier Marchan Ramos dances his own Before The First to industrial soundscapes over piano on this program. Ramos contrasts fluid, conventional steps with herky-jerky, alien moves connected by subtle transitions. In such moments, the piece teeters on the edge of the mechanical, and the music promotes that impression. But Ramos never turns robotic. He plots, reaches, maps the floor in front of him with open palms. He remains entirely human.
Anderson and Schmitz dance Anderson's Come Full Circle. The girls move somewhat aggressively to Eddie Vedder's "Guaranteed," music he wrote for the film Into The Wild. The music is instrumental and soothing — at first. Then we hear a distorted version, perhaps played backwards, before it repeats in original form. Though the music changes in tone, the dancing does not — it remains doggedly rough and full of effort.
Patterson and Moses rehearse "Armistice" on June 21. Madeline Pieschel photo for TCD.
I would say it fits the distorted track best, but that's what makes the bookends of the piece so darn interesting. Anderson and Schmitz move rapidly and often grab at each other's limbs. They're never far apart, and often seem to be all bent elbows and knees. They utilize every level, from floor work to full standing extension, and rarely slow down. Even when they're entirely intertwined, they never seem quite engaged with each other. Just stuck together.
Patterson set her Rebel Red on Brenna Marlin. Tubes of lipstick line Marlin's path; she spends the first five minutes or so in place, tracing an unopened lipstick over her body. She also crouches down and franticly zags it in front of her, as if writing on an invisible wall. She wiggles her torso every so often. It's not really enough.
Moses and Patterson swoop in, fly all over the space and create a deep sense of urgency in Gerald Casel's Armistice, the energetic stand-out of the evening. Composer Tim Russell, playing live next to the dance floor, contributed big, irregular drum beats of crucial importance.
Libby Faye Schmitz (left) and Hilary Anderson in Andersonb's "Come Full Circle." Madeline Pieschel photo for TCD.
At first there's a bit of disjointed, ragdoll motion, with the dancers separated. Then they transition into a series of complex lifts. They tangle into each other, shove the other away, tug back. Everyday motions creep in: the way you put your hand under your chin in boredom, check your watch, wipe your mouth. These moments bring flashes of quiet to an otherwise intense piece. Patterson and Moses are sharp and angular, yet sweet. They contemplate each other with a sense of trust and calm, even during frenzied movement.
Lighting plays a role in Mauriah Donegan Kraker's High Plain, which Kraker dances with Luis. Soft yellow light envelops the stage, invoking a sunset (or indeed, a high plain). It opens with Luis bathing his arms and head in a wash basin—the first prop of the evening. It's a nice moment. Kraker soon joins him; they take their time. They contemplate, reach, always on the edge of something. High Plains feels a lot like exaltation to me…lots of sweeping arm movements, hands held up high in prayer. A certain knowingness permeates this dance.
Concert Information: 8 and 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, June 28-29, 6th Floor of UWM's Kenilworth Square East building, at Prospect and Keniworth. Tickets: General $20 | Artist Student $15, at the Rooftop website and at the door.


text:
All posts by Maggie Dickson
Behind the Scenes, Technology, Uncategorized
Sustainability Planning for a Better Tomorrow
February 15, 2019 Maggie Dickson
In March of last year I wrote about efforts of the Resource Discovery Systems and Strategies team (RDSS, previously called the Discovery Strategy Team) to map Duke University Libraries' discovery system environment in a visual way. As part of this project we created supporting documentation for each system that appeared in a visualization, including identifying functional and technical owners as well as links to supporting documentation. Gathering this information wasn't as straightforward as it ideally should have been, however. When attempting to identify ownership, for example, we were often asked questions like, "what IS a functional owner, anyway?", or told "I guess I'm the owner… I don't know who else it would be". And for many systems, local documentation was outdated, distributed across platforms, or simply nonexistent.
As a quick glance through the Networked Discovery Systems document will evince, we work with a LOT of different systems here at DUL, supporting a great breadth of processes and workflows. And we've been steadily adding to the list of systems we support every year, without necessarily articulating how we will manage the ever-growing list. This has led to situations of benign neglect, confusion as to roles and responsibilities and, in a few cases, we've hung onto systems for too long because we hadn't defined a plan for responsible decommission.
So, to promote the healthier management of our Networked Discovery Systems, the RDSS team developed a set of best practices for sustainability planning. Originally we framed this document as best practices for maintenance planning, but in conversations with other groups in the Libraries, we realized that this didn't quite capture our intention. While maintenance planning is often considered from a technical standpoint, we wanted to convey that the responsible management of our systems involves stakeholders beyond just those in ITS, to include the perspective and engagement of non-technical staff. So, we landed on the term sustainability, which we hope captures the full lifecycle of a system in our suite of tools, from implementation, through maintenance, to sunsetting, when necessary.
The best practices are fairly short, intended to be a high-level guide rather than overly prescriptive, recognizing that every system has unique needs. Each section of the framework is described, and key terms are defined. Functional and technical ownership are described, including the types of activities that may attend each role, and we acknowledge that ownership responsibilities may be jointly accomplished by groups or teams of stakeholders. We lay out the following suggested framework for developing a sustainability plan, which we define as "a living document that addresses the major components of a system's life cycle":
Governance:
Sunsetting
Interestingly, and perhaps tellingly, many of the conversations we had about the framework ended up focusing on the last part – sunsetting. How to responsibly decommission or sunset a system in a methodical, process-oriented way is something we haven't really tackled yet, but we're not alone in this, and the topic is one that is garnering some attention in project management circles.
So far, the best practices have been used to create a sustainability plan for one of our systems, Dukespace, and the feedback was positive. We hope that these guidelines will facilitate the work we do to sustain our system, and in so doing lead to better communication and understanding throughout the organization. And we didn't forget to create a sustainability plan for the best practices themselves – the RDSS team has committed to reviewing and updating it at least annually!
Digital Collections, Duke Digital Repository, Uncategorized
Metadata for Homiletics: Enhancing the Duke Chapel Recordings Digital Collection
September 28, 2018 Maggie Dickson
In 2016, after we launched the first iteration of the Duke Chapel Recordings Digital Collection in the Duke Digital Repository (DDR), we began a collaborative project between Digital Collections and Curation Services, University Archives, and the Duke Divinity School to enhance the metadata. The original metadata was fairly basic and allowed users to identify individual written, audio, and video sermons based on speaker, date, title, and format. All good stuff, but it didn't allow for discovery based on the intellectual content of the sermons themselves. So, it was decided that, at the same time Divinity School staff listened to and corrected machine-generated transcripts for each sermon, they would also capture information that is useful from a homiletic perspective.
At the very beginning of the project, the Divinity School convened two focus groups of preachers from a variety of denominations and backgrounds to ask them how they would like to be able to discover and use a digital collection of sermons. These groups developed a set of terms/categories based on which they would like to be able to identify sermons. From there I worked with the project team to begin thinking about what kinds of fields they would want to capture, and determine whether or how those fields could map to the existing metadata application profile that we use in the DDR.
It quickly became clear that this project was going to require the creation of new metadata fields in the DDR application. I try to be really judicious about creating new fields (because otherwise, you end up doing this), but in this case, I felt that the need was justified: homiletic metadata is fairly specialized, and given Duke's commitment to this collecting area, making adjustments to accommodate it seemed more than reasonable. Since I always like to work with best practices, I attempted to identify any extant metadata schemas that might already exist for working with biblical metadata. I felt pretty confident that I would find one, considering that the Bible is actually one of the oldest books out there. While I did find some resources, they were pretty old (think last-updated-in-2006), and all of them were oriented towards marking up actual Biblical texts, rather than the encoding of metadata about those texts.
Screen capture of the OSIS (Open Scripture Information Standard) in the Wayback Machine.
With no established standards to work with, we set about determining what the fields should be, using the practice of homiletics itself as a guide. We also developed a workflow for the capturing of this metadata, using a google spreadsheet with conditional formatting and pre-developed drop-down lists to control and facilitate data entry. And starting from the set of terms/categories developed during the focus groups, we came up with a normalized set of Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) for staff to choose from or add to, as needs arose.
Example of subject headings applied to a sermon, available at https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r41r6nf5b
Working with LCSH was in itself a challenge, as it required us to navigate the tension between the need to use a standardized set of headings while also include concepts that weren't themselves well represented in the vocabulary. In some cases we diverged from LCSH in the interest of using terms that would be familiar, expected, and recognizable to practitioners of homiletics. One example of this is the term 'Community', which has a particular meaning in a Biblical context, but which, were we to have used the LCSH term 'Communities', loses its intent.
We rolled out the new metadata properties and values in early August so they could be available for use by attendees at the international homiletics conference, Societas Homiletica, which was held at Duke University August 3-8, 2018. Now, users of the digital collection can facet and browse by: Liturgical Calendar, Biblical Book, Chapter and Verse, and Subject. We've also added curated abstracts, and key quotations from the sermons, which are free-text searchable.
New facets!
The enhanced metadata makes for a much more meaningful experience using the Duke Chapel Recordings, and future plans involve the inclusion of sermon transcripts, as well as the development of a complimentary website, maintained by the Duke Divinity School, to provide even more information about the speakers and their sermons. With these enrichments, we are well on our way to having an unparalleled free and open resource for the study of homiletics, and hopefully, in so doing, we will facilitate the discovery and study of preachers whose voices have traditionally been underheard.
dukechapelmetadata
Behind the Scenes, Technology
Mapping Duke University Libraries' Discovery System Environment
March 18, 2018 Maggie Dickson	1 Comment
Just over one year ago, Duke University Library's Web Experience team charged a new subgroup – the Discovery Strategy Team – with "providing cohesion for the Libraries' discovery environment and facilitate discussion and activity across the units responsible for the various systems and policies that support discovery for DUL users". Jacquie Samples, head of the Metadata and Discovery Strategy Department in our Technical Services Unit, and I teamed up to co-chair the group, and we were excited to take on this critical work along with 8 of our colleagues from across the libraries.
Our first task was one that had long been recognized as a need by many people throughout the library – to create an up-to-date visualization of the systems that underpin DUL's discovery environment, including the data sources, data flows, connections, and technical/functional ownership for each of these systems. Our goal was not to depict an ideal discovery landscape but rather to depict things as they are now (ideal could come later).
Before we could create a visualization of these systems and how they interacted, however, we realized we needed to identify what they were! This part of the process involved creating a giant laundry list of all of systems in the form of a google spreadsheet, so we could work on it collaboratively and iteratively. This spreadsheet became the foundation of the document we eventually produced, containing contextual information about the systems including:
Name(s) of the system
Description/Notes
Links to documentation
Technical & functional owners
Once we had our list of systems to work from, we began the process of visualizing how they work here at DUL. Each meeting of the team involved doing a lot of drawing on the whiteboard as we hashed out how a given system works – how staff & other systems interact with it, whether processes are automated or not, frequency of those processes, among other attributes. At the end of these meetings we would have a messy whiteboard drawing like this one:
We were very lucky to have the talented (and patient!) developer and designer Michael Daul on the team for this project, and his role was to take our whiteboard drawings and turn them into beautiful, legible visualizations using Lucidchart:
Once we had created visualizations that represented all of the systems in our spreadsheet, and shared them with stakeholders for feedback, we (ahem, Michael) compiled them into an interactive PDF using Adobe InDesign. We originally had high hopes of creating a super cool interactive and zoomable website where you could move in and out to create dynamic views of the visualizations, but ultimately realized this wouldn't be easily updatable or sustainable. So, PDF it is, which may not be the fanciest of vehicles but is certainly easily consumed.
We've titled our document "Networked Discovery Systems at DUL", and it contains two main sections: the visualizations that graphically depict the systems, and documentation derived from the spreadsheet we created to provide more information and context for each system. Users can click from a high-level view of the discovery system universe to documentation pages, to granular views of particular 'constellations' of systems. Anyone interested in checking it out can download it from this link.
We've identified a number of potential use cases for this documentation, and hope that others will surface:
New staff orientation
Systems transparency
Improved communication
We're going to keep iterating and updating the PDF as our discovery environment shifts and changes, and hope that having this documentation will help us to identify areas for improvement and get us closer to achieving that ideal discovery environment.
Metadata Year-in-Review
December 8, 2017 Maggie Dickson
As 2017 comes to a close and we gear up for the new year, I've spent some time reflecting on the past twelve months. Because we set ambitious goals and are usually looking forward, not back, we can often feel defeated by all the work we haven't gotten done. So I was pleasantly surprised when my perusal of the past year's metadata work surfaced a good deal of impressive work. Here are a few of the highlights:
Development and Dissemination of the DDR MAP
Perhaps our biggest achievement of the year was the development of the DDR's very first formally documented metadata application profile, the DDR MAP. A metadata application profile defines the metadata elements and properties your system uses, documenting predicates, obligations & requirements, and input guidelines. Having a documented and shared metadata application profile promotes healthy metadata practices and facilitates communication.
In addition to the generalized DDR MAP, we also developed a Research Data Metadata Profile and a Digital Collections Metadata Profile for those specific collecting areas.
Rights Management Metadata
It's been written about on this blog a couple of times already (here and here) but I think it bears repeating: this year we rolled out a new rights management metadata strategy that employs the application of either a Creative Commons or RightsStatement.org URI to all DDR resources, as well as the option of applying an additional free text rights note to provide context:
We feel great about finally being able to communicate the rights statuses of DDR resources in a clear and consistent way to our end-users (and ourselves!).
Programmatic Linking to Catalog Records
Sometimes a resource in the DDR also has a record in the library catalog, and sometimes that record contains description that is either not easily accommodated by the DDR MAP, or it is not desirable to include it in the repository metadata record for a particular reason. It wasn't in the cards to develop a synchronization or feed of the MARC metadata, but we were able to implement a solution wherein we store the identifier for the catalog record on the resource in the repository, and then use that identifier to construct and display a link back to the catalog record.
And Lots of Other Cool Stuff
There were a lot of other cool metadata developments this year, including building out our ability to represent relationships between related items in the DDR, developing policies regarding the storage and display of identifiers, and a fancy new structural metadata solution for representing the hierarchical structure of born digital archives. We also got to work on some amazing new and revamped digital collections!
Radio Haiti Archive
William Gedney Photographs
Early Manuscripts collection
Of course, we are setting ambitious goals for the coming year as well – plans to upgrade our current Dspace repository, DukeSpace, and implement the new RT2 connector to Elements, will involve substantial metadata work, and the current project to build a Hyrax-based repository for research data presents and opportunity for us to revisit and improve our Research Data Metadata Profile. And ideally we will be able to make some real headway tackling the problem of identity management – leveraging unique identifiers for people (ORCIDs, for example), rather than relying on name strings, which is inherently error prone.
And there is a whole slew of interesting metadata work for the Digital Collections program slated for 2018 , including adding enhanced homiletic metadata to the Duke Chapel Recordings digital collection.
Conferences, Projects, Uncategorized
The Inaugural TRLN Institute – an Experiment in Consortial Collaboration
August 18, 2017 Maggie Dickson	1 Comment
In June of this year I was fortunate to have participated in the inaugural TRLN Institute. Modeled as a sort of Scholarly Communication Institute for TRLN (Triangle Research Libraries Network, a consortium located in the Triangle region of North Carolina), the Institute provided space (the magnificent Hunt Library on North Carolina State University's campus), time (three full days), and food (Breakfast! Lunch! Coffee!) for groups of 4-6 people from member libraries to get together to exclusively focus on developing innovative solutions to shared problems. Not only was it productive, it was truly delightful to spend time with colleagues from member institutions who, although we are geographically close, don't get together often enough.
Six projects were chosen from a pool of applicants who proposed topics around this year's theme of Scholarly Communication:
Supporting Scholarly Communications in Libraries through Project Management Best Practices
Locating Research Data in an Age of Open Access
Clarifying Rights and Maximizing Reuse with RightsStatements.org
Building a Research Data Community of Practice in NC
Building the 21st Century Researcher Brand
Scholarship in the Sandbox: Showcasing Student Works
You can read descriptions of the projects as well as group membership here.
The 2017 TRLN Institute participants and organizers, a happy bunch.
Having this much dedicated and unencumbered time to thoughtfully and intentionally address a problem area with colleagues was invaluable. And the open schedule allowed groups to be flexible as their ideas and expectations changed throughout the course of the three-day program. My own group – Clarifying Rights and Maximizing Reuse with RightsStatements.org – was originally focused on developing practices for the application and representation of RightsStatements.org statements for TRLN libraries' online digitized collections. Through talking as a group, however, we realized early on that some of the stickiest issues regarding the implementation of a new rights management strategy involves the work an institution has to do to identify appropriate staff to do the work, allocate resources, plan, and document the process.
So, we pivoted! Instead of developing a decision matrix for applying the RS.org statements in digital collections (which is what we originally thought our output would be), we instead spent our time drafting a report – a roadmap of sorts – that describes the following important components when implementing RightsStatements.org:
roles and responsibilities (including questions that a person in a role would need to ask)
necessary planning and documentation
technical decisions
example implementations (including steps taken and staff involved – perhaps the most useful section of the report)
This week, we put the finishing touches on our report: TRLN Rights Statements Report – A Roadmap for Implementing RightsStatements.org Statements (yep, yet another google doc). We're excited to get feedback from the community, as well as hear about how other institutions are handling rights management metadata, especially as it relates to upstream archival information management. This is an area rife for future exploration!
I'd say that the first TRLN Institute was a success. I can't imagine my group having self-organized and produced a document in just over a month without having first had three days to work together in the same space and unencumbered by other responsibilities. I think other groups have found valuable traction via the Institute as well, which will result in more collaborative efforts. I look forward to seeing what future TRLN Institute produce – this is definitely a model to continue!
rights managementtrln
Behind the Scenes, Duke Digital Repository, User Experience
Rights Management and the Duke Digital Repository
March 10, 2017 Maggie Dickson
Last spring, we were awfully excited to see the DPLA/Europeana release of RightStatements.org, a suite of standardized rights statements for describing the copyright and re-use status of digital resources. We have never had a comprehensive approach towards rights management for the Duke Digital Repository, but with the release of RightsStatements.org, we now feel we are equipped to wrestle that beast.
Managing and communicating rights statuses for digital collections has long been a challenge for us. The DDR currently allows for the application and display of Creative Commons licenses, which can be used for situations where the copyright holders themselves can assert the rights statuses for their own resources. RightsStatements.org fills a giant gap for us, in that it allow us to assign machine-readable rights to repository resources for which we know something about the rights status but do not hold the copyrights for. Additionally, these statements accommodate for the often fluid and ambiguous nature of copyrights for cultural heritage materials.
So, it's been nearly a year since the statements were published, and during that time a community best practice has started to develop. The approach we have decided on for rights management in the Duke Digital Repository follows this emerging best practice, and involves using one field – Dublin Core Rights, as that is the metadata standard our repository uses – to store either a Creative Commons or RightsStatements.org URI, and nothing but that URI, and another field – a local property which we are calling 'Rights Note' – to store free text contextual information relating to the rights status of the resource (as long as it's not in conflict with rights statement applied). Having machine-processable rights statuses means we will have a much better rights management strategy (we don't currently have a way to report on the rights status of repository materials), as well as the ability to clearly communicate to users what they can and cannot do with resources they find.
Now that we've got a strategy for doing rights management, however, we need to develop a strategy for implementing it. We'll tackle the low-hanging fruit first – collections that have a single, identifiable creator or for which the date ranges put them into the public domain – and then move on to the trickier stuff – for example, collections representing multiple or unidentified creators. Digital collections of archival materials present especially difficult challenges, as the the repository 'itemness' is frequently at the folder-level, meaning that the 'item', in these cases, might contain works by multiple creators of varying rights statuses (think of a folder of correspondence, for example).
The good news is, there are a lot of smart people working on addressing these challenges. Laura Capell and Elliott Williams of the University of Miami published a helpful poster, Assigning Rights Statements to Legacy Digital Collections describing the the decision matrix they developed to help them apply rights statements to their digital collections, and as I was writing this blog post, the Society of American Archivists circulated their Guide to Implementing Rights Statements from RightsStatements.org (nice timing, SAA!). I'm hoping to find some good nuggets of wisdom in its pages. We feel especially well-positioned to tackle rights management here at Duke, as Dave Hansen, who was deeply involved in the development of RightsStatements.org, joined us as our Director of Copyright and Scholarly Communications last year. We'd love to hear from other organizations as they develop their own local implementations – we know we're not in this alone!
metadatarights management
The Politics of Our Labor
November 18, 2016 Maggie Dickson
I always appreciate the bird's-eye view of the work I do gained by attending national conferences, and often come away with novel ideas on how to solve old problems and colleagues to reach out to when I encounter new ones. So I was anticipating as much when I left home for the airport last week to attend the 2016 DLF Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
And that is indeed the experience I had, but in addition to gaining new ideas and new friends, the keynote for the conference challenged me to think deeply about the broader context in which we as librarians and information professionals do our work, who we do that work for, and whether or not we are living up to the values of inclusivity and accessibility that I hold dear.
The keynote speaker was Stacie Williams, a librarian/archivist who talked about the politics of labor in our communities, both specific to libraries and archives and beyond. She posited that all labor is local, and focused on the caregiving work that, so often performed by women and minorities in under- or unpaid positions, is the "beam underpinning this entire system of labor as we know it … and yet it remains the most invisible part of what makes our economy run". In order to value ourselves and our work, we need to value all of the labor upon which our society is based. And she asked us to think of the work we do as librarians and archivists – the services we provide – as a form of caregiving to our own communities. She also posited that the information work in which we are engaged has followed the late capitalism trend of an anti-care ethos, and implored us to examine our own institutional practices, asking questions such as:
Do we engage in digitization projects where work was performed by at-will workers with no benefits or unpaid interns, or outsourced to prison workers?
Are we physically situated on university campuses that are inaccessible to our local community, either by way of location or prohibitive expense?
Have we undergone extreme cuts to our workforces, hindering our ability to provide services?
Do our hiring practices replicate systems that reward racial/gender class standards?
Do we build positions into grants that don't pay living wages?
Williams asked us to interrogate the ways in which our labor practices are problematic and to center library work in the care ethics necessary "to reflect the standards of access and equality that we say we hold in this profession". As a metadata specialist who spends a large chunk of her time working to create description for cultural heritage materials, this statement was especially resonant: "Few things are more liberatory than being able to tell your own story and history and have control and stewardship over your cultural narrative". This is a tension I am especially aware of – describing resources for discovery and access in ways that honor and reflect the voices and self-identity of original creators or subjects.
The following days were of course filled with interesting and useful panels and presentations, working lunches, and meetups with new and old colleagues. But the keynote, along with the context of the national election, infused the rest of the conference with a spirit of thoughtfulness and openness toward engaging in a deep exploration of our labor practices and relationships to the communities of people we serve. It has given me a lot to think about, and I'm grateful to the DLF Forum planners for bringing this level of discourse to the annual conference.
Behind the Scenes, Digital Collections, Technology
Tools for Metadata Remediation
August 12, 2016 Maggie Dickson
Last fall, I wrote about how we were embarking on a large-scale remediation of our digital collections metadata in preparation for migrating those collections to the Duke Digital Repository. I started remediation at the beginning of this calendar year, and it's been at times a slow-going but ultimately pretty satisfying experience. I'm always interested in hearing about how other people working with metadata actually do their work, so I thought I would share some of the tools and techniques I have been using to conduct this project.
First things first: documentation
The metadata task group charged with this work undertook a broad review and analysis of our data, and created a giant google spreadsheet containing all of the fields currently in use in our collections to document the following:
What collections used the field?
Was usage consistent within/across collections?
What kinds of values were used? Controlled vocabularies or free text?
How many unique values?
Based on this analysis, the group made recommendations for remediation of fields and values, which were documented in the spreadsheet as well.
OpenRefine
I often compose little love notes in my head to OpenRefine, because my life would be much harder without it in that I would have to harass my lovely developer colleagues for a lot more help. OpenRefine is a powerful tool for analyzing and remediating messy data, and allows me to get a whole lot done without having to do much scripting. It was really useful for doing the initial review and analysis: here's a screen shot of how I could use the facets to, for example, limit by the Dublin Core contributor property, see which fields are mapped to contributor, which collections use contributor fields, and what the array of values looks like.
The facet feature is also great for performing batch level operations like changing field names and editing values. The cluster and edit feature has been really useful for normalizing values so that they will function well as facetable fields in the user interface. OpenRefine also allows for bulk transformations using regular expressions, so I can make changes based on patterns, rather than specific strings. Eventually I want to take advantage of it's ability to reconcile data against external sources, too, but it will be more effective if we get through the cleaning process first.
TextWrangler
For some of the more complex transformations I've found it is easier and faster to use regular expressions in a text editor – I've been using Text Wrangler, which is free and very handy. Here's an example of one of the regular expressions I used when converting date values to the Extended Date Time Format, which we've covered on this blog here and here, and, um, here (what can I say? We love EDTF):
Ruby Scripting
And in a few cases, like where I've needed to swap out a lot of individual values with other ones, I've had to dip my toes into Ruby scripting. I've done some self educating on Ruby via Duke's access to Lynda.com courses, but I mostly have benefited from the very kind and patient developer on our task group. I also want to make a shout out to RailsBridge, which is an organization dedicated to making tech more diverse by teaching free workshops on Rails and Ruby for underrepresented groups of people in tech. I attended a full day Ruby on Rails workshop organized by RailsBridge Triangle here in Raleigh N.C . and found it to be really approachable and informative, and would encourage anyone interested in building out her/his tech skills to look for local opportunities.
Duke Digital RepositorymetadataThe Migration
Our Guiding Lights
May 6, 2016 Maggie Dickson
Back in the fall, we convened a Metadata Task Group (which I chair) charged, in part, with defining, overseeing, and performing the work necessary to remediate Duke University Libraries' digital collections metadata in preparation for migration from our old technical platform to the Duke Digital Repository. This involved an intensive analysis and review of our existing metadata field usage, and documentation of that analysis as well as recommendations for remediation. Before we truly engaged with this work, however, we defined a set of guiding principles to provide ourselves with a context for completing our tasks.
The first guiding principle we defined was that of Fitness for Purpose. As applied to metadata work, fitness for purpose entails that metadata be appropriate for user and system needs, both now and, in as much as it can be predetermined, in the future. This is an overarching principle which informs subsequent guiding principles. It seems like a pretty basic concept, but I think it is all too easy to lose sight of who will be using the collections we create metadata for (which is a difficult question to answer anyways), and of course, it's always important to ensure that the metadata specifications take into account the technical environment in which it will live.
Our next guiding principle is Broad Applicability. Over the past 20 years, digital collections at Duke were developed often in an ad hoc way, each digital collection's metadata specifications being created in a somewhat isolated fashion. Now that we have a dedicated staff person (me!) to take a comprehensive look at metadata practices at DUL, we are very interested in developing guidelines and specifications that can be applied broadly, across a variety of collections and materials. This is especially important considering the breadth and variety of collections that will live together in the Duke Digital Repository.
Along with Broad Applicability, Broad Shareability is equally important. With the formation of metadata aggregators such as the Digital Public Library of America, the possibilities for sharing our metadata and thus our resources broadly is much greater than in the past, and therefore metadata must be remediated, created, and mapped to widely used standards in ways that allow for clear, meaningful sharing. As much as possible, we are aligning our metadata practices with the DPLA's Metadata Application Profile.
And, of course, our guiding principles wouldn't be complete without a nod toward the future: our last principle is that we be Forward-Thinking. Change is a constant when working with metadata/digital resources, and so we must do our best to develop recommendations and guidelines that allow for this eventuality, e.g., adopting standards and practices that have the greatest staying power and allow for the adoption of new technologies. Specifically, we should be aware of linked data technologies and make recommendations that are linked-data aware and/or ready.
At the outset of this project it had felt a little bit like, "well, duh", to develop these broad guiding principles, but at 6+ months in, I am really glad we took the time to define them – I have referred back to them periodically as we tackle each task in our charge, and find them helpful not just when communicating outside our group but as a way to provide a sort of intellectual context internally as well.
metadataTripod3
It's Date Night Here at Digital Projects and Production Services
January 29, 2016 Maggie Dickson	1 Comment
Now, I know last week's Bitstreams post about metadata and date encoding left you wanting to know more about Duke Digital Collections date metadata, the Extended Date Time Format, and how we are planning to apply it. Well, don't you worry – I'm going to talk about it now in scintillating detail.
As Cory talked about last week, we have a lot of inconsistent, "squishy" date metadata in use in our digital collections, squishy both in terms of what those dates mean and how they are represented. This is a problem when you want to do fun stuff with your dates, like create facets and visualizations, or, um, retrieve reliably comprehensive search results when looking for everything from a time period. So we're beginning the process of normalizing all of that data, but as we're talking about special collections materials, date squishiness is not an uncommon occurrence, it is inherent to the materials, and we need to be able to represent it programmatically.
There are 12,146 unique date values present in our digital collections metadata, and these values range from very machine-processable – "January 1, 1936" or "1971-1972", – to a lot less so – "[ca. late 1880s]" or "[1950s] Nov. 22]", along with a plethora of values all meaning the same thing – "n.d.", "None", "undated", "Unknown", etc (along with one inscrutable instance of the word "Philadelphia"). In order to begin the process of normalizing the data, we identified the main patterns those dates took, and came up with a list of 38 rough patterns into which all but 178 values fell. Next we took a stab at converting those patterns to EDTF. The following represents the great bulk of our data:
Pattern EDTF Display Example
yyyy yyyy 1910
yyyy-yyyy; yyyy/yyyy yyyy/yyyy 1910-1913
mm/dd/yy; yyyy Mon. dd; yyyy-mm-dd; dd-Mon-yy yyyy-mm-dd January 1, 1910
yyyy Mon. dd? yyyy-mm-dd? January 1, 1910?
yyyy Mon dd-dd yyyy-mm-dd/yyyy-mm-dd January 1, 1910 to January 3, 1910
yyyy-mm; yyyy Mon.; yyyy/mm yyyy-mm January 1910
yyyy Mon.? yyyy-mm? January 1910?
ca. yyyy; circa yyyy yyyy~ Circa 1910
yyyy?; [yyyy?] yyyy? 1910?
[yyyy/yyyy?] yyyy?/yyyy? 1910 to 1913?
yyyy or yyyy [yyyy,yyyy] 1910 or 1913
yyyx; yyy?; yyy_?; yyy?; [yyy-] yyyu 191x
yyyys yyyx 1910s
circa yyyy-yyyy; yyyy-yyyy and n.d. yyyy~/yyyy~ Circa 1910 to 1913
As you can see above, the specification accommodated most of the patterns we identified, but when we tried to encode more nuanced dates, we discovered that couldn't quite take the encoding as far as we wanted.
For example, one pattern that shows up in our metadata frequently looks like this:
Circa 1940s-1950s
A decade encoded in EDTF looks like this:
194x (for 1940s)
and we can encode a circa date like this:
1940~ (for circa 1940)
But we can't combine the two formats – the following is not a valid EDTF date:
194x~ (for circa 1940s)
Ideally, the specification would allow us to create an encoded date that looked like the above date, as well as this:
194x~/195x~ (for circa 1940s to 1950s)
We can work around this deficiency by stripping 'circa' from the date ranges and using the 'unspecified' encoding:
194u/195u (which we can translate to display as: 1940s to 1950s)
But this approach isn't ideal, as it is inconsistent with our other usage of the format and isn't technically 'correct', either. Happily, the EDTF specification is open for modification and proposals for modifications are still being taken. A quick glance at the listserv archives indicates that we're not the only people trying to encode this kind of squishiness.
In the meantime, we can keep ourselves busy with cleaning up, normalizing, and converting the great bulk of our date metadata, as well as dealing with those 178 outliers individually. We still feel good about using EDTF – it's a LOT better than our current date situation, and has some good room for improvement, as well. Pretty solid for a first date, I'd say.
Notes from the Duke University Libraries Digital Projects Team
Welcome to Bitstreams!
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Be sure to also visit Duke Digital Collections.
New Duke Libraries catalog to go live January 16
Enter the Vortex
A collaborative approach to developing a new Duke Libraries catalog
DDR-RD: Previewing DUL's new platform for research data
Open, Flip, Scan, Close: Observations from The Duke Chronicle Collection Project
Announcing Multispectral Imaging Service, version 1
Two Office 365 Tips to Aid Productivity
Celebrating a New Duke Digital Collections Milestone with Section A
Looking Ahead to MorphoSource 2.0
U-matic for the People
Congratulations and farewell to Mike Adamo
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