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CRRA Update August 2010

CRRA Update AUGUST 2010

We are pleased to announce that St. Joseph’s University’s (Philadelphia) Francis A. Drexel Library, under the leadership of Evelyn Minick, is the newest and twelfth member of the CRRA. St. Joseph’s brings a host of resources to the CRRA, including the Jesuitica Collection.

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Where in the world is the CRRA?

Pat and I are in the process of mapping the locations of CRRA members, below:


View CRRA Members in a larger map

Harvesting, updating, and re-indexing

This posting describes the automated process I am currently using to harvest, update, and re-index the MARC records of the "Catholic Portal".

Step #1 - Make a list

Librarians love lists, and I am no exception. The process begins with a list (databases) of CRRA members who have MARC metadata to share. Each item in the list includes the following fields:

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Making your content available

Pat Lawton and I created this (updated) outline -- a recipe -- for getting CRRA member metadata records into the "Catholic Portal." It is also available as a PDF document designed for printing.

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Web 2.0 features

After tweaking with VUFind's configuration files, our "sandbox" implementation of the "Catholic Portal" now supports many (if not all) of VUFind's Web 2.0 features -- faceted browse, favorites, cover art, reviews, author blurbs, etc. Please give them a whirl. Create an account for yourself and add some items to your Favorites.

NTS ("note to self"), the account creation process did not work until I changed the value of RewriteBase in my httpd.conf file from /vufind to /.

Help wanted

Help wanted. Is there anybody out there in CRRA Land who can help me customize the look & feel of our "Catholic Portal"?

For better or for worse, people increasingly rank their likes or dislikes of a website based on it's graphic design. Certainly, usability, functionality, and completeness are very important qualities but so are aesthetics.

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VUFind (version 1.0.1)

I have installed VUFind (version 1.0.1) on our development server, and the address is http://vufind.library.nd.edu/.

At the present time you won't find very much there except our indexed metadata records -- about 60,000 of them. The next steps are to edit some of the underlying configurations to enable bits of functionality (call number displays, cover art, user reviews, etc.) The bigger issues to be resolved include: 1) giving our implementation the CRRA look & feel, and 2) indexing did-level data found in EAD files. More on these things later.

CRRA Update July 2010

CRRA Update JULY 2010

  • Highlights from the June 29, 2010 CRRA All-Members Meeting at Georgetown
  • Next steps
  • Member News
  • Might be of interest ...
  • Mark your calendars ... For two upcoming CRRA Gatherings January 6, 2011 (San Diego) and March 29, 2011 (Philadelphia)

Highlights from the June 29, 2010 CRRA All-Members Meeting at Georgetown

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CRRA Update June 2010 - Highlight June All-Members Meeting

CRRA Update JUNE 2010

Welcome to a Special Edition of the CRRA Monthly Update, highlighting the June All-Members meeting

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CRRA Update May 2010

CRRA Update MAY 2010

Please mark your calendars! CRRA ALL MEMBERS MEETING Tuesday, June 29, 2010

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CRRA Update February 2010

CRRA Update FEBRUARY 2010

CRRA ALL MEMBERS MEETING June 29, 2010

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CRRA Update January 2010

CRRA Update January 2010 

CRRA Digital Access and Collections committee members, under the leadership of Tom Leonhardt and Bob O’Neill, met to draft recommendations for the Board regarding member expectations for metadata in the Catholic portal. The Board extends their sincere congratulations and thanks to all committee members for a job well done! The Board will use these recommendations to develop a policy for current and future CRRA member institutions to ensure that portal metadata is dynamic and growing.

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CRRA December 2009 Update

Following is the CRRA update of activities during the month of December, 2009.  This update includes news about:

  • CLIR grant announcements
  • Focus group data analysis
  • The CRRA website
  • Kim Kelley
  • Steve Connaghan
  • Upcoming events

Enjoy and Happy New Year!

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CRRA Update November 2009

Following is the CRRA Update for November, 2009.  This update includes:

-    CRRA member news

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CRRA Update October 2009

Following is the update of CRRA activities and news during the month of October, 2009. This update includes:

-News about CRRA members
-An update on the focus groups at member institutions
- Notes from the Digital Access Committee meeting
- Future happenings
- Suggested readings



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CRRA Update September 2009

To help keep you informed of the CRRA’s activities, I would like to introduce the first installment of the “CRRA Update.”  CRRA Updates will be distributed monthly to all CRRA members and posted here, for your viewing pleasure.  Enjoy!

Please send suggestions for future updates to Pat Lawton at [email protected]. Thank you!

Seven Simple Steps to Making Your Content Available in the CRRA Portal

This is an outline – a recipe – for getting your metadata records into the "Catholic Portal."

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CLIR pre-proposal approved

Good news!

Together, the CRRA, Catholic University of America, Marquette University, and St. Catherine University libraries submitted a pre-proposal for CLIR’s “Cataloging Special Hidden Collections and Archives” grant program. Our pre-proposal was accepted! We may now submit a final proposal, due Sept. 4.

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Hello world!

Welcome to the Catholic Research Resources Alliance (CRRA) blog!

We are a collaborative effort initiated by eight  Catholic colleges and universities to share their resources electronically with librarians, archivists, researchers, scholars, and the general public interested in the Catholic experience.

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