2007 Best Practices Exchange: Digitization Programs

At the 2007 Best Practices Exchange, I had the pleasure of presenting in a session with Betty Jones from the Government Printing Office. Both of our presentations discussed the establishment of a Program for digitized government publications and documents. I offer brief summaries of both presentations below:

How to Support State Agency Digitization Efforts
I offered my vision for a joint digitization program between the State Library and State Archives of North Carolina. This program would involve assisting and supporting North Carolina state agencies in their efforts to digitize government documents and publications.

For a more in-depth description of my vision, I encourage you to view my presentation which is available at: http://www.bpexchange.org/2007/materials/bpe2007digitization.ppt

Digitization of a Large and Disperse Collection: Legacy Publications Held in Federal Depository Libraries
Betty Jones from the GPO described the challenges of developing a project plan for the digitization of an historical collection of Federal publications when none of those publications were maintained in-house. The GPO does not keep any of the government documents they distribute; in order to create a digitized collection, they had to solicit the aid of Federal Depository Libraries throughout the country.

1) The Joint Committee on Printing (JCP) authorized a pilot test for the GPO to experiment with the feasibility of digitization.

2) First, the GPO contacted Federal Depository Libraries and asked for original federal documents to scan and keep permanently. If the Depository Library needed back their copy of the document, they could loan it to the GPO with the understanding that there was no set time-table for its return.

3) The GPO has digitized 2,000 titles as part of the pilot test. They are awaiting approval to take this beyond the testing phase.

4) Currently, there is an agreement being drafted between the GPO, the Library of Congress, and NARA to ensure that none of these institutions are digitizing the same titles and therefore unnecessarily duplicating effort.

To view a list of digitized Federal Documents Collections, visit: http://www.gpoaccess.gov/legacy/registry/

2007 Best Practices Exchange: Digitization Hardware

I attended Emily Gore's presentation on the Purchase of Digitization Hardware at the 2007 Best Practices Exchange.

Factors Impacting Your Hardware Choice
Before you buy any hardware, Emily stressed the importance of knowing the following:

~ What formats/materials are you digitizing?

~ Is it a high-use collection? If so, how long can it be inaccessible to walk-in patrons while it's being digitized?

~ Do you have the necessary resources in-house to complete the digitization project or would it be better to outsource it?

Characteristics of a Good Flatbed Scanner
~ The scanner must be able to scan true optical dpi not interpolated

~ Good color depth

~ ICC color profiles allowing for true color scanning

~ Scanner is specifically designed for high production and not home use

~ The connection should be: firewire, usb2, scsi, or ethernet

~ The computer hooked up to the scanner should have lots of RAM and working hard drive space

~ The software packaged with the scanner should be easy to use

~ When you purchase a flatbed scanner, buy a QUALITY product

Example: Kodak IQSmart family of scanners

Overhead Scanners:
~ Used for large format or fragile materials

~ Typically capable of 600 true optical dpi, but can scan at a higher dpi with multiple CCDs

~ Some have the automatic page turning functionality

Example:
Zeutschel's overhead book scanners

Digital Cameras:
~ Often used for video tours, 360 degree tours, or 3-dimensional objects

Example:
Either a Canon or a Nikon SLR camera.

Scanback Cameras:
~ A camera with a scanner CCD attached to it allowing for scanner quality images from a camera

~ The Scanback is often used in conjunction with a vacuum table which uses a vacuum rather than glass to press the item flat to the scanning table

Example:
BetterLight Digital Scanning Cameras

Roller Scanners:
~ For flat and large format materials up to 54" wide

~ Slide document into sleeve, put it on a conveyor belt, and it rolls through the machine as it scans

~ This scanner has multiple CCDs for multiple scans which are then stitched together to generate one large image

Outsourcing:
~ Outsourcing can be expensive but still may be cheaper than the equipment and the staff time/money spent in-house on scanning

~ For institutions that can't risk sending their collections off-site, some vendors will scan in-house

~ If you're trying to build a Digitization Program, it is worthwhile to do scanning in-house so that you're building knowledge and skills among the staff

~ Depending on the project, a hybrid approach can be adopted. Some collections can be scanned in-house while others are outsourced.

And Finally...
Emily recommended reading the ANSI standards related to scanners to ensure that any scanner purchased meets ANSI requirements.

The Marriage of Digitization and Web 2.0

My blog is called "Digitization Diva", so I figured that it's about time I start talking digitization!!

When I attended the DigCCurr conference in Chapel Hill last month, I attended a presentation given by Elizabeth Yakel of the University of Michigan. She spoke about the "Polar Bear Expedition Digital Collections" which is a digitization project with Web 2.0 functionality.

This presentation piqued my interest and led me to wonder how many other sites have popped up recently that use digitized assets to build an online community. Here are my findings:

Polar Bear Expedition Collection (University of Michigan): This collection allows registered users to post comments about the digitized images, engage in virtual reference right on the site, and also has an Amazon-like functionality that reads "researchers who have viewed this item also viewed..." You can read more about the Polar Bear Expedition collection by reading Elizabeth Yakel's paper from DigCCurr, and reading her article in the May/June issue of D-Lib.

Maine Memory Network (Maine Historical Society): Allows registered users to comment on any digitized asset in the collection.

Walker Art Center: Offers blogs, podcasts, e-mail reminders, webcasts, and RSS feeds as part of their digital collections. To learn more about the site's functionality, read this blog post from Digitization 101.

Digital Collections (University of Washington): UW has started to integrate their digital collections into Wikipedia articles. Their experiment has resulted in a statistically significant increase in the usage of their digital collections. To read more about this innovative use of Web 2.0 to increase access, read this article in the May/Junes issue of D-Lib.

The Diary of Samuel Pepys: Offers RSS feeds for new content, and also allows registered users to annotate each diary entry to give readers more historical and biographical context about Samuel Pepys.

Everglades Digital Library (Florida International University): Allows registered users to rate resources. These ratings allow the site to automatically generate a list of "recommended resources" for the user. Registered users can also comment on resources.

Ohio Memory (Ohio Historical Society): Allows registered users to create their own customized scrapbook of digitized images. A user can add images to their scrapbook, write up descriptions about the image, and then openly share the scrapbook, so that others can benefit from it. To see a list of scrapbooks created by users, click here.