NH Digital Newspaper Project Needs Your Help

Newspapers Coming Off Press (LC photo)

The NH Digital Newspaper Project has put together a survey to gather information about digitized newspaper collections across the state of New Hampshire, including those held by libraries, academic institutions, historical societies, and other cultural organizations. This survey is designed to gather information about digitized newspaper collections across the state of New Hampshire. The data you provide will be shared with Library of Congress National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP), in order to enhance and improve access to New Hampshire papers beyond those already digitized for the NDNP.

For the purposes of this survey we define digitized newspaper collections as free-access, online newspapers (both historical and currently published) that have been digitized from paper copies or issued as electronic editions of print newspapers. This primarily means historic issues, although PDFs of current print editions, if they are freely available to the public, can also be included. Born-digital content (news sites, e.g. washingtonpost.com) which may or may not be representative of print content, should NOT be included in the survey.

In the Fall we plan to conduct a separate survey to identify paper and microfilm holdings of NH newspapers.

 This survey will remain open until Sunday, August 18, 2024. We would like to have this survey completed only ONCE by any one NH organization.

 About the New Hampshire Digital Newspaper Project

The New Hampshire Digital Newspaper Project (NHDNP) is a National Endowment for the Humanities funded effort to select, digitize, and make publicly available historic New Hampshire newspapers under the auspices of the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP). The NDNP is a long-term partnership between the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress to develop a free, searchable database of U.S. Newspapers from all states and territories. The NHDNP is a public-private collaboration between partner institutions through the state of New Hampshire: Dartmouth College, New Hampshire State Library, New Hampshire Historical Society, and University of New Hampshire. This coalition is dedicated to responsible stewardship of the state’s cultural heritage and making it open access and freely accessible to all.

Questions about this survey should be directed to Mary Russell, NH State Library (mary.a.russell@dncr.nh.gov) or Toben Traver, Dartmouth College (toben@dartmouth.edu).

 Complete the survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/NHnewsDIGITAL24

If you don't have a digital newspaper collection and want to let us know that, you can complete the survey in about 1 minute--we included "we don't have any" answer options.  

Update on the Series Keeper Survey

There have been quite a few responses already to the Series Keeper Start-up Survey! To give those of you who have not have filled it out yet an idea of how the project is taking shape  I want to share this list of the series that have been mentioned so far. When the survey closes there will be a full compilation with links to details on each series--this is just a sneak peek at basic data. 

There were some responses that were not as useful as they could have been. I want to share those so that hopefully future responses can be easier for us to work with:

• "Any Series by Cassandra Clare" -- there are a LOT of these, please be specific about the series you want/are offering to keep.
• "Any James Patterson series" --again, we need specifics, there are 40+ of these series and unless you are offering to keep all of them (which seems unlikely) we need to know which one you want to claim. The willingness to be flexible is appreciated, but logistically it complicates things for us if you don't indicate a specific series.
  
• "Cirque du Freak by Darren Shan" -- this is specific, but it is unclear -- it could be the 12 volume manga series, or it could be any of several series of novels by Darren Shan set in the Cirque du Freak world. 

Here are the specific series mentioned so far:

• #1 Ladies Detective Agency, Alexander McCall Smith
• Alex Delaware, Johnathan Kellerman
• Alpha and Omega (Mercy Thompson), Patricia Briggs
• Alphabet Series, Sue Grafton
• Aubrey Maturin,    Patrick O'Brien
• Blossom Street,    Debbie Macomber
• Bregdan Chronicles, Ginny Dye
• Bruno: Chief of Police Series, Martin Walker
• Cork O'Connor, William Kent Krueger
• Court of Thorns and Roses, Sarah J Maas
• Crescent City Series, Sarah J Maas
• Flavia de Luce, Alan Bradley
• Gaslight mysteries (Sarah Brandt/Frank Malloy),    Victoria Thompson
• Hamish McBeth, M.C. Beaton
• Harry Bosch, Michael Connelly
• Holly Barker, Stuart Woods
• Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins
• In Death series, J.D. Robb
• Infernal Devices, Cassandra Clare
• Inspector Gamache/3 Pines, Louise Penny
• Jack Reacher, Lee/Andrew Child
• Joe Gunther series, Archer Mayor
• Joe Pickett, CJ Box
• Maisie Dobbs, Jacqueline Winspear
• MARCH graphic novel series, John Lewis and co.
• Meg Langslowe, Donna Andrews
• Mystery Collection (Black Leatherbound Book Set), Agatha Christie
• Nodd's Ridge, Tabitha King
• Outlander, Diana Gabaldon
• Ruth Galloway series, Elly Griffiths
• Sharpe series, Bernard Cornwell
• Stephanie Plum, Janet Evanovich
• Stone Barrington, Stuart Woods
• Teddy Fay, Stuart Woods
• The Tea Shop Mysteries, Laura Childs
• Throne of Glass, Sarah J Maas
• Warrior Cats, Erin Hunter
• Will Lee, Stuart Woods
• Witcher, Andrzej Sapkowski
• Women's Murder Club, James Patterson

The Series Keeper Project

Image by Freepik

I am very pleased to be launching Series Keeper, a new voluntary project for NHAIS ILL System participating libraries! Several NH librarians helped Mindy Atwood and I put this project together and their help and advice is greatly appreciated.

It is evident that it is impossible for one library to be self-sufficient. Sharing of library resources is essential for adequate and effective library service. The purpose of the Series Keeper Program is to help alleviate space concerns in member libraries while keeping some older and complete series available to library patrons via the NHAIS interlibrary loan system.

In the same way that our ILL agreement attempts to ensure that not only the larger libraries are burdened with the majority of ILL requests, the Series Keeper program will attempt to recruit a variety of sizes of libraries to participate. Each library has their own unique collections and readers, so the program should capitalize on and promote that uniqueness.

A Series Keeper member library is a library that elects to keep a complete series of a particular author and publicize that fact to other member libraries, so these materials may be loaned via the NHAIS ILL system.

A book series, for the purposes of this project, is more than two books with the same main character/s, set in approximately the same venue, with a chronology and all published under the name of the same author or authors.

Initially this project will include only adult and young adult fiction series (any genre). Holdings may be in regular print, large print, or any combination.  Audio cd versions are also encouraged if the keeper library maintains a physical audio-book collection.   In the future the project may be expanded to include additional reading levels and series types (nonfiction, graphic novels, etc.) if everything goes smoothly with the initial launch and there is interest from libraries in these additional series types.

Each library that participates in the NHAIS ILL system may choose to be a Series Keeper library. The director of a Series Keeper library will be asked to sign an agreement committing their library to the project and containing the specific terms (listed below). A renewal agreement will be sent out periodically by the NHSL (not more than annually or, when there is a change of library director), asking the library to recommit to keeping their chosen series.

Responsibility for management of the Series Keeper Program will be part of the NHAIS ILL System and as such will be coordinated by the NH State Library.  The NHSL will maintain a webpage, based on the signed agreements received, that provides information about which libraries commit to which author’s series/materials with current contact information, a wish list of series in need of a home, and information on how to be a Series Keeper. The success of this program will rely on continued upkeep of these lists which will depend upon both NHSL and Series Keeper libraries.

Keeping a Series:

•  At the launch of the project (that's now!) NH libraries will be asked to complete an online survey to generate a list of series to be kept. This list of series will be published on the project webpage listing the libraries that have volunteered (as part of the survey) to host specific series and listing those that were suggested and need keepers. After the initial launch, libraries will be able to join the project by contacting the NHAIS Help Desk. Libraries that have the capacity to do so are welcome to host more than one series.
  
  
• For very popular and prolific authors, several libraries may be hosts. This will ensure that one library is not exclusively providing all of the author’s materials.
  
  
• Participating libraries agree to maintain the series by purchasing replacements in the event an item is lost or damaged. Libraries are encouraged to solicit donated copies first from other libraries in the state through the Yard sale NHAIS listserv.
  
  
• If a participating library no longer wishes to be the keeper of a particular series they are expected to notify NHAIS Services of this decision BEFORE discarding any of the books in the kept series. NHAIS will work with the library to find a new home, hopefully a new Series Keeper, for the volumes they are discarding from the kept series.

NH libraries are invited to complete the Series Keeper Start-Up Survey at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SeriesKeeper2024 The survey will remain open until Sunday August 18, 2024. After that we will close sign-ups while we set up the initial group of responding libraries. Once things are up and running we will be able to add new libraries to the project.

Feedback sought on enhancements to statistics reports

Auto-Graphics is currently surveying customers, including NHAIS, about which enhancements to statistics reports they'd find most useful in SHAREit. The enhancements ranked highest will get top priority for development. NHAIS ILL users are welcome to say whether any of 7 proposed enhancements would be useful to them via an online survey. Multiple responses from a single library are welcome. Responses will be accepted through the end of the day on Sunday, November 19. New Hampshire's ranking of proposed developments will be considered with votes from other states and provinces to determine which changes are likely to be developed.

If you want a refresher on how to get Statistics on your ILL usage before you answer the questions about potential changes check out the video Using ILL Statistics.

NHAIS ILL is Working Pretty Well

There were 212 complete responses from NHAIS ILL participants to our recent survey about how NHAIS ILL is working for NH libraries and the results show that overall the system is working well.

For those responding "Find SOME" they reported they go to the NHAIS-ILL listserv or to OCLC to try to fill the request for items they couldn't find.

In cases where only SOME requests are filled the only pattern observed was "This usually happens when only one library is listed per record. Multiple records of the same item with one library listed for each."

For libraries that reported being able to fill only SOME requests, half of them reported that this was because the requested items were too new; the remainder were because the items were in use or because of issues with the accuracy or physical availability of their holdings. 

The final question in the survey was about the need for additional training. The majority of respondents (86%) felt that no additional training was needed. We will be addressing the comments about specific training needs in another blog post later this week.

Thank you to everyone who completed our survey!

Survey Deadline Thursday

Our survey to find out how things are going with NHAIS ILL will close this Thursday, April 22. If you are the person at your library who actually uses the system to place and fill ILL requests and haven't answered the survey yet, please take a few minutes to do so at

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/NHAISillusers2021 

Thanks!

We will be sharing the results on early May.

How is NHAIS ILL Working at Your Library?

October 8, 2020 was technically the one-year anniversary of the launch of the current NHAIS ILL System. Because of the pandemic February 2021 marked twelve months of using the system for New Hampshire libraries. This seems like a good point to take stock of how the system is working for us.

We have put together a short (anonymous) survey to give us a sense of how things are going. We would appreciate it if whoever at your library actually uses the system to place and fill ILL requests would take a few minutes to complete the survey at

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/NHAISillusers2021 

The survey will remain open until Thursday, April 22.

We Need Some Info to Help Us Plan

The NHSL is working on figuring out how and when we can safely resume van delivery and ILL service. In order to do this we need some information from NH's libraries. 
We have put together a SHORT survey to gather the data we need to help with our planning process.

Please complete the survey by the end of your work day on Monday, August 3, 2020. 

We will be closing the survey and compiling the data on Tuesday morning (8/4). 

The survey is at
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ILLreadiness2020

If you want a preview of the questions before you fill out the survey we created a PDF version you can use for reference. 

Libraries Respond: COVID-19 Survey

Please Respond by May 18, 2020

The Public Library Association (PLA) is seeking a new round of feedback about the work of libraries as they respond to the COVID-19 crisis, releasing a survey and requesting feedback by 11:59 p.m. CDT, Monday, May 18, 2020. Please complete the survey by clicking on the following link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/libraries-respond-to-covid-19-may-2020.

 

PLA and its ALA partners know that libraries across the United States are taking unprecedented steps to answer the needs of their communities, and this survey will help build a better understanding of those efforts. PLA and its ALA partners will use the results to advocate on behalf of libraries at the national level, communicate aggregated results with the public and media, create content and professional development opportunities to address library staff needs, and share some raw, anonymized data elements with state-level staff and library support organizations for their own advocacy needs.

 

Additional information about the survey: All library types are encouraged to respond. We are surveying at the library administrative entity level and are not collecting outlet/branch data. Financial-related data will only be used in aggregate and not shared in raw data format. Any raw data that is shared with states or other library support organizations outside of ALA will be anonymized. The survey should take about 15 minutes to complete and all completed respondents will be automatically entered to win one of ten $30 gift certificates to the ALA Store.

 

Special thanks to the Colorado State Library’s Library Research Service and the Institute of Museum and Library Services, Public Library Data Alliance partners, Association of Research Libraries, and the Academic Library Trends & Statistics Survey Editorial Board.

For updates on PLA and ALA’s handling of the COVID-19 crisis, visit PLA Resources on COVID-19 and ALA Pandemic Preparedness Resources for Libraries.

COVID-19 staffing survey results

I wanted to say thank you to the 163 libraries that completed the survey sent out by the State Library on the effects COVID-19 has had on staffing at NH libraries as of 5/4/2020.  A summary of the results is available online.

Please let me know if you have any additional questions or concerns about the survey and the summary.

Sincerely,

Tim Rohe

Reference Librarian/State Data Coordinator

New Hampshire State Library

603-271-2060

Timothy.Rohe@dncr.nh.gov