Margery Sly is the Director of Special Collections at Temple University Libraries. Before Temple, she worked at Presbyterian Historical Society (PHS), where she served as the Deputy Executive Director.
ABA: In a few sentences, tell us what you’ll be presenting at ABA.
Margery Sly: Staff from Temple Libraries and Computer Services are working as a team to find a way to provide streaming video of our archival WPVI news footage to researchers in our reading room. It’s a work in progress with potentially interesting uses of Ensemble and Drupal and a variety of technical and other challenges including how to use existing WPVI log books to provide access to the content.
ABA: What do you hope audiences will get from your talk?
MS: They should learn about options for providing digitized video content to users. Plus they’ll have the opportunity to suggest enhancements!
ABA: Which of the following do you prefer: “an archive” or “an archives”?
MS: “Archives”—why allow Microsoft Office Spell Check and the uninformed masses the opportunity to truncate and change the meaning of a core term for our profession that has been happily used for decades?
ABA: On a scale from 1 – 10, (10 being hardest) how easy would it be for other archivists to implement the project you’re presenting here?
MS: If you have the infrastructure, maybe a 5?
ABA: And now your extra-special BONUS question: What are your thoughts on the use of “archive” as a verb?
MS: Not a fan–see 3 above. However, I will acknowledge that ‘verbification’ has long with been with us and is one way language evolves.
ABA: Thanks for talking to us, Margery! Looking forward to hearing more from you on the 28th!
