Building digitalcollectionsworkshop
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This document provides an overview of the Wisconsin Heritage Online (WHO) program and guidance for libraries, archives, and museums on building digital collections. WHO helps organizations across Wisconsin digitize and share local histories online. The document discusses planning a digital project, including defining goals, audiences, budgets, and digital preservation strategies. It also offers practical tips on selecting materials, scanning, adding metadata, and promoting completed digital collections.
Building digitalcollectionsworkshop
- 1. BUILDING DIGITAL COLLECTIONS E M I LY P F O T E N H A U E R P R O G R A M M A N A G E R , W I S C O N S I N H E R I TA G E O N L I N E E P F O T E N H A U E R @ W I L S .W I S C . E D U
- 2. TODAY’S AGENDA • Introductions • Tell us about yourself • Wisconsin Heritage Online— who are we and what do we do? • Planning a digital project • Defining goals • Determining audience and stakeholders • Budget and funding • Digital preservation • Putting your plan into action • Selecting materials • Scanning • Metadata • Promoting your project • Wrap-up and final thoughts Waterford Public Library/University of Wisconsin Digital Collections
- 3. WHAT IS WHO? • Wisconsin Heritage Online helps Wisconsin libraries, archives, historical societies and museums digitize and share online the unique histories of their communities and our state. • Sponsored by Wisconsin Library Services (WiLS) • Supported by a grant from the Nicholas Family Foundation • Other core partners: Milwaukee Public Library, Wisconsin Historical Society and University of Wisconsin-Madison • 68 members from across Wisconsin, including local historical societies, museums, academic libraries, public libraries, and special libraries, contribute annual Eager Free Public Library/University of Wisconsin Digital Collections membership dues
- 4. WHAT DO WE DO? • Bring resources together. • The wisconsinheritage.org website is a free one-stop search portal for more than 120,000 digital resources from Wisconsin collections, including photos, postcards, maps, yearbooks, scrapbooks, letters, diaries, oral histories, artifacts and much more. • Provide training and support. • Members receive hands-on, in- person training in all the steps involved in building a digital collection. • Host collections. • Database software and server space are available to organizations without the resources to develop and host their own. Iowa County Historical Society
- 5. WHAT DO YOU MEAN, DIGITIZE? • Selecting materials • Reformatting materials (scanning or photographing) • Adding metadata (descriptive information) • Making available online • Storing and maintaining digital files and data (digital preservation) Wisconsin Historical Society
- 6. PLANNING A DIGITAL PROJECT • Identifying your goals • Identifying your stakeholders, partners and audience • Budget • Funding • Planning for digital preservation New Berlin Historical Society
- 7. IDENTIFYING GOALS: WHY DIGITIZE? • Go where your audience is • Reach new audiences • Improve access to “invisible” materials • Protect fragile or heavily used materials • Learn more about your collections • Contribute to our collective knowledge South Wood County Historical Museum
- 8. POTENTIAL AUDIENCES • Local residents • Students and teachers • Genealogists • Specialists (Civil War re- enactors, railroad buffs) • Academic researchers • Curious Wisconsinites • Everyone! College of Menominee Nation
- 9. STAKEHOLDERS AND PARTNERS • Board • Staff and/or volunteers • Local experts • Community members • Chamber of Commerce • Local government • Students • Other organizations in your community/county/regio n McMillan Memorial Library, Wisconsin Rapids • Who else?
- 10. POTENTIAL PROJECT COSTS • Flatbed scanner • Outsourcing imaging to a commercial vendor • Digital camera and related equipment • Internet access • Storage for digital files • Archival storage supplies • Be sure to budget for TIME and SPACE Merrill Historical Society
- 11. FUNDING • Grants • Historical societies: WI Council for Local History mini-grants • Public libraries: LSTA Digitization of Local Resources grants (Dep’t of Public Instruction) • Donations • In-kind contributions • Tech support • Equipment use • Biggest expense is TIME • Paid staff time • “Free” volunteer time • Students/interns Ripon College
- 12. DIGITAL PRESERVATION • Definition from the Library of Congress: • The active management of digital content over time to ensure ongoing access. • Two threats to digital content: • Obsolescence • Physical damage • Digital preservation is not simply file storage/backups. • Good practices now (preservation file formats, consistent file naming, thorough metadata) help ensure future access. Beloit College
- 13. DIGITAL PRESERVATION QUICK TIPS • Save more than one copy of each file • On more than one type of storage media • In more than one location • Document what, where, when • Spot-check annually • Migrate as necessary Wetherby Cranberry Library
- 14. STORAGE OPTIONS • Cloud storage service • Google Drive • Amazon • DuraCloud • Local network • RAID device • External hard drive • Archival quality (gold) CDs or DVDs Take into account potential future storage needs. Villa Terrace Decorative Arts Museum
- 15. PHYSICAL PRESERVATION • Don’t compromise collections care in order to digitize • A digital project can be an ideal time to assess collection conditions and rehouse materials • Resources for collections care: • Wisconsin Historical Society Field Services staff • Wisconsin Archives Mentoring Service • National Park Service Conserve-O-Grams Richland County History Room
- 16. TIPS FROM OTHER DIGITIZERS • If I could do it all over again, I would: • Tackle a smaller group of materials at first • Make sure two people started the project at the same time so we could help each other • Start with a clearer plan • Take the time to sort and research the physical collection before digitizing • Have firm deadlines to help me stay on track Langlade County Historical Society
- 17. PUTTING YOUR PLAN INTO ACTION • Digital imaging • Scanning photographs • Scanning texts • Object photography • File naming • Metadata • What is it? • Basic elements • Where does it go? Milwaukee Public Library
- 18. SELECTING MATERIALS • Photographs • Postcards • Letters • Diaries • Scrapbooks • Yearbooks • Newspaper clippings • City directories • Local histories • Magazines • Pamphlets • Maps • Artifacts/3-D objects • Oral histories • Sound recordings Appleton Public Library • Video recordings
- 19. SELECTING MATERIALS Y/N This item is rare or unique to our collection. Y/N This item holds a particular significance in our community. Y/N This item is frequently requested by our patrons/visitors. Y/N This item or very similar items are not found anywhere else on the Internet. Y/N There is enough accurate information available about the item to add useful context for our audience (for example, we know or can find out names of people, locations, dates). Y/N We have the appropriate equipment to create an accurate, high-quality digital copy of this item (for example, item is not too large to fit on scanner). Y/N This item is in stable condition and will not be damaged by scanning or other handling. Neville Public Museum of Brown County
- 20. CONSIDERING COPYRIGHT • Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer • Owning a physical item does not necessarily mean you hold the copyright to that item • Public domain = no longer under copyright. In the US in 2012 that means the item was: • published before 1923 –OR– • Unpublished; creator died before 1942 –OR– • Unpublished; unknown creator; made before 1892 UW-Milwaukee Libraries
- 21. CONSIDERING COPYRIGHT • Works under copyright, copyright holder is known: • Contact copyright holder IN WRITING to request permission to make available online • Works presumed to be under copyright; copyright holder is unknown or cannot be located • Due diligence has been made to identify and locate copyright holder • Be prepared to remove item from digital collection if Three Lakes Historical Society challenged
- 22. DIGITAL IMAGING • Goals of imaging: • Create a digital representation that’s faithful to the original item • Create the highest quality image file you can achieve with available resources • Scan once—don’t expect to return to re-digitize UW-Madison Archives
- 23. SCANNING PHOTOGRAPHS • Scan all photographs in 24- bit color, even if image is black and white • Scanning resolution (ppi) depends on size of original item • Longest side of item longer than 7” = 300ppi • Shorter than 7” = 600ppi • Save two copies of each scan: • High resolution TIFF (20- 40MB) for archiving and printing • Lower resolution JPEG (1-5MB) UW-La Crosse for online collection, email, easy access
- 24. TIP: USE YOUR HISTOGRAM • A histogram is a graph that shows the distribution of dark and light pixels in a digital image • Using the Histogram function improves the accuracy/fidelity of your scan • Do a preview scan • In advanced/professional/custom mode, select the Histogram function • Move the left and right sliders to each end point of the histogram • Do not move the sliders INTO the histogram • Scan the image
- 25. TIP: LEAVE A BORDER AROUND IMAGE
- 26. SCANNING DOCUMENTS • Handwritten texts • Scan in 24-bit color to retain character of original • 300-400ppi is generally sufficient • If feasible, create a transcription • Use care when unfolding papers or handling tightly bound volumes Wisconsin Historical Society
- 27. SCANNING DOCUMENTS • Printed texts • Scan in 8-bit grayscale or 24-bit color • 300ppi is generally sufficient • Use OCR (Optical Character Recognition) software to make the text computer- searchable • May be provided with your scanner software • ABBYY Fine Reader • Adobe Acrobat • OCR is never 100% L. E. Phillips Memorial Library, Eau Claire accurate, but that’s ok
- 28. NAMING YOUR FILES • Use only lower case letters, numbers, and dashes or underscores • Don’t use spaces or punctuation • Use leading zeroes for consecutive numbering. For example, a multi-page letter could have file names mac001.tif, mac002.tif, mac003.tif, etc. • Tie your file names to existing catalog numbers if possible • Document any file naming conventions you develop • Examples: • Photograph with accession # 2011.32.1 = 201132001.tif –OR– 2011_32_001.tif • Series of images by photographer John Smith = smith001.tif, smith002.tif, smith003.tif • Not so good: Glassplate16039 Auto repair in basement 025.tif
- 29. METADATA: WHAT IS IT? • Information about stuff • Technical metadata = information about the digital file (size, type, etc.) • Descriptive metadata = information about the content of the item (what are we looking at?) • Lets users find what they’re looking for • Organized, standardized, consistent, searchable Grant County Historical Society
- 30. METADATA ELEMENTS Field Name Sample Data Title DiVall barber shop Creator F. C. Bartle Date 09/12/1925 OR 1920-1930 Materials Photographs Subjects Barbers; Barbershops Description Ralph DiVall (left) and Edwin T. Baltes (right) shave two men seated in barber chairs. According to a family history on file at the Society, DiVall operated this barber shop from the 1920s until his retirement on July 1, 1966. Location Middleton, Dane County, Wisconsin Middleton Area Historical Society Collection DiVall Family Rights statement This material may be protected by copyright law. The user is responsible for all issues of copyright. Identifier 2006.01.12 File name 2006_01_12.jpg
- 31. ASSIGNING TITLES • Descriptive and unique • Capitalize first word and proper names • Not so good: • Woman and man • Woman and man, trees • Good: • Woman, man and child in apple orchard • Ida and Peter Swartz with son James in apple orchard, New Berlin Historical Society Wausau
- 32. ASSIGNING SUBJECT HEADINGS • Subject headings are terms or phrases assigned to an item to facilitate searching and filtering a collection. Consistent use of subject headings can help link related content in your collection and across disparate collections. • A controlled vocabulary is a standardized, pre-determined list of subject headings. • Some examples of controlled vocabularies: • Thesaurus for Graphic Materials • Library of Congress Subject Headings • Getty Art and Architecture Thesaurus • Nomenclature 3.0 Mineral Point Historical Society
- 33. ASSIGNING SUBJECT HEADINGS • Generate your own “tags,” then search for approved terms. Look at similar items for examples. • Copy terms exactly (most terms are plural). • Consider the following categories of subject headings to simplify term selection: • People (Age/Gender; Occupation; Ethnicity)--WHO • Building or environment--WHERE • Activities or events—WHAT • There is no one right answer! New Berlin Historical Society • Agriculture, Farmers, Trees
- 34. SHARING CONTENT ONLINE • Software solutions compatible with the WHO portal—must be OAI-PMH-compliant • CONTENTdm (hosted by Milwaukee Public Library) • ResCarta • Omeka.net (Gold, Platinum plans) • Not directly compatible with WHO (but can be moved to a compatible option) • PastPerfect Online • Omeka.net (Basic, Plus, Silver plans) • File Maker Pro • Microsoft Access Wisconsin Folksong Collection, UW-Madison • Excel spreadsheet
- 35. You and WHO: Once a month, WHO “harvests” your metadata and images from How Wisconsin Heritage Online CONTENTdm into the works with local collections wisconsinheritage.org web portal YOU send your low-resolution images WHO uploads your metadata and metadata spreadsheets to WHO in and low-resolution images to a batches (first batch = 20 server provided by Milwaukee items, subsequent batches = 50+) Public Library, using CONTENTdm database software YOU reformat YOU create catalog YOU share your digital your original records (metadata) using collection with your users in materials (scan or the spreadsheets and two ways: photograph) guidelines we provide --your custom CONTENTdm collection (your content only) --the WHO portal, wisconsinheritage.org YOU store your (content from across the high-resolution state) images
- 36. ENCOURAGING USE OF YOUR COLLECTIONS • Google is not enough • Organizations are moving away from “if you build it, they will come” approach • Bring your content to your audience—find them where they already are • Let them look behind the curtain and see projects in progress, warts and all • Participatory archives concept—shared authority, community Milwaukee Public Library engagement
- 37. WHO PROMOTIONAL EFFORTS • Quarterly email newsletter • Facebook • facebook.com/wisconsin heritage • Twitter • twitter.com/wiheritage • Tumblr • wiscohisto.tumblr.com Rock County Historical Society
- 38. LOCAL PROMOTIONAL EFFORTS • Add introduction/background information on your own website • http://www.newberlinhistoricalsociety.org • Highlight an item of the day/week/month • https://www.facebook.com/lacrosse. history • Host an opening event • Whitefish Bay Public Library • College of Menominee Nation • Host a slide show or exhibition • South Wood County Historical Museum • Mineral Point Historical Society • Press release to local media • What else? South Wood County Historical Museum
- 39. WHAT NEXT? Interested in participating in Wisconsin Heritage Online? • Submit a Request for Consultation. Provide us with some basic information and we’ll be in touch to help you plan a project. • Become a member. Annual membership dues are $50. • Schedule a training session. We provide on-site, customized training to help get your project up and running. Marquette University
- 40. THANK YOU! E M I LY P F O T E N H A U E R P R O G R A M M A N A G E R , W I S C O N S I N H E R I TA G E O N L I N E E P F O T E N H A U E R @ W I L S .W I S C . E D U