Catholic Research Resources Alliance meeting

The Catholic Research Resources Alliance (CRRA) had an All-Members Meeting on March 30 at St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia. Ade Bethune Collection curator, Deborah Kloiber, was one of approximately 30 people attending--it was the largest CRRA meeting to date. The morning session was devoted to two aspects of growing the "Catholic Portal" to make it more useful to researchers.

• The "recipe" for adding records of rare, unique, and uncommon materials to the Portal, and for updating them as necessary
• Discussion about digitization so researchers could find, read, and use the materials online directly in the Portal

Attendees feel these two items are the highest priority for moving the Catholic Portal forward.

In the afternoon, focus was given to how the Portal works. Several member libraries will be doing usability studies between now and the end of the year, testing the functions and ease of use of the Portal. There should be time after each study to make recommended improvements before the next study is done. This allows for continuous improvement.

No items from the Ade Bethune Collection are in the Portal yet--the first finding aids should be added later this year or early in the summer. But the Portal does contain materials related to Bethune and her work from other libraries. And approximately 74 other items from the St. Kate's Library have been added.