building digital collections: planning and creating

L O C A L H I S T O R Y & H I S T O R I C P R E S E R V A T I O N C O N F E R E N C EO C T O B E R 1 1 , 2 0 1 3

BUILDING DIGITAL COLLECTIONSPART 1: PLANNING AND CREATING

Supported by WHRAB

TODAY’S AGENDA

• Introductions• Selecting materials• Selection criteria• Setting priorities• Copyright considerations• Cost considerations

• Digitizing collections• Choosing a scanner• Formats and standards• When NOT to scan yourself

• Metadata• What is metadata?• Assigning titles and subject headings• Organizing and naming files

• Wrap-up and final thoughtsWaterford Public Library/University of

Wisconsin Digital Collections

INTRODUCTIONS

• We are…• Sarah Grimm, Electronic

Records Archivist, Wisconsin Historical Society

• Emily Pfotenhauer, Recollection Wisconsin Program Manager, WiLS

• You are…• What organization do you

represent? • What digital projects are you

currently working on or thinking about? Eager Free Public Library/University of

Wisconsin Digital Collections

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

DEFINING A DIGITAL COLLECTION

• A good digital collection…• Is publicly accessible• Is searchable - Includes keywords and other descriptive

information (metadata) so users can find what they’re looking for• Uses software that is sustainable (will be around for a long time)

and interoperable (can be migrated or shared)• Remains true to the original materials• Respects intellectual property rights

• A digital collection is not…• An inventory• An online exhibit/gallery/slideshow

BEFORE YOU EVEN START…..

• Don’t scan a mess! Take the time to assess and organize your originals first.

• A digital project can be an ideal time to evaluate collection conditions and rehouse materials as needed.

• Resources for collections care and organization:• Wisconsin Historical Society

Field Services staff• Wisconsin Archives Mentoring

Service• National Park Service Conserve-

O-GramsRichland County History Room

SELECTING FOR DIGITIZATION

Postal workers sorting mail, 1955Wisconsin Historical Society WHi-36392

TYPES OF MATERIALS

• Photographs• Postcards• Letters• Diaries• Scrapbooks• Yearbooks• Newspaper clippings• City directories• Local histories• Magazines• Pamphlets• Maps• Artifacts/3-D objects• Oral histories• Sound recordings• Video recordings• Other?

Appleton Public Library

DEVELOPING SELECTION CRITERIA

When developing a selection policy, consider…• Your organization’s mission statement and collecting policies• Appeal and interest (is this of value to researchers? To other

audiences?)• Uniqueness of materials (is this the only source or does it also

exist elsewhere? Avoid duplication)• Focusing on a specific subject, theme or creator• Manageability – tackle a project of appropriate size and scope

SETTING PRIORITIES

Ask yourself which materials are…• most significant to your

organization?• most extensive?• most requested/used?• easiest?• oldest?• newest?• at risk?

Neville Public Museum of Brown County

SELECTION – YES OR NO

• This item is rare or unique to our collection.• This item is frequently requested by our patrons/visitors.• This item or very similar items are not found anywhere else on the Internet.• 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).

• 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), or funding to outsource if needed.

• This item is in stable condition and will not be damaged by scanning or other handling.

• This item is in the public domain or we have secured permission from the rights holder to make it available online.

CONSIDERING COPYRIGHT

• Disclaimer: We are not lawyers.

• 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 2013 that means the item was:• Published before 1923 –OR–• Unpublished; creator died before

1943 –OR–• Unpublished; unknown creator;

made before 1893UW-Milwaukee Libraries

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 challenged.

Three Lakes Historical Society

SAMPLE COPYRIGHT STATEMENTS

• For an item presumed to be in the public domain: This item is in the public domain. There are no known restrictions on the use of this digital resource. Contact [your institution] to purchase a high-resolution version of this image.

• For an item under copyright; copyright holder has granted permission to put online:This image has been made available with permission of the copyright holder and has been provided here for educational purposes only. Commercial use is prohibited without permission. Contact [your institution] for information regarding permissions and reproductions.

• For an item in which copyright status is undetermined:This material may be protected by copyright law. The user is responsible for all issues of copyright. Contact [your institution] for information regarding permissions and reproductions.

COPYRIGHT TOOLS - DEMO

• Public Domain Sherpa: Public Domain Calculator• http://www.publicdomainsherpa.com/calculator.html

• Copyright Advisory Network• Copyright Slider: http

://librarycopyright.net/resources/digitalslider/ • Copyright Genie: http

://librarycopyright.net/resources/genie/

POTENTIAL PROJECT COSTS

• Scanner• Outsourcing imaging to a

commercial vendor• Digital camera and related

equipment• Internet access• Storage for digital files• Software for online access• Archival storage supplies• Be sure to budget for TIME

and SPACE

Merrill Historical Society

FUNDING

• Grants• Historical societies: WI Council

for Local History mini-grants• Public libraries: LSTA Digitization

of Local Resources grants (Dep’t of Public Instruction)

• Local corporations or foundations

• In-kind contributions• Tech support• Equipment use

• Biggest expense is TIME• Paid staff time• “Free” volunteer time• Students/interns

Ripon College

CREATING DIGITAL IMAGES

Computer center, 1972St. Norbert College

DIGITAL IMAGING

• Goals of imaging:• Create a digital

representation that’s faithful to the original item

• Create the highest quality image you can with available resources

• Anticipate multiple uses (online, print publication, exhibit, etc.)

• Scan once—don’t expect to return to re-digitize

UW-Madison Archives

CHOOSING A SCANNER

• Some features to look for:• Transparency unit

--for scanning slides and negatives• Size of scanning bed• Image editing software

--many new scanners come with Photoshop Elements• Compatible with your computer’s operating system• Is your computer fast enough to process large image files?

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) for online collection, email, social media

UW-La Crosse

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

TIP: PLACE IMAGES CAREFULLY

Leave a border on all four sides OR crop all four sides evenly.

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

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% accurate,

but that’s ok L. E. Phillips Memorial Library, Eau Claire

WORKING WITH PRINTED TEXT? OCR!

• OCR = Optical Character Recognition• Software that makes printed text computer-readable and fully

searchable

• Very valuable when scanning books, yearbooks, city directories, newspaper clippings, etc.

• A couple of options…• ABBYY Finereader ($100-$170)• Adobe Acrobat ($45 through techsoup.org)

WHEN NOT TO SCAN IT YOURSELF

• Look to a vendor for scanning…• Oversized materials

--maps, blueprints, etc.• Fragile books or scrapbooks

--bindings can be damaged by laying flat to scan• Anything with flaking, cracked or otherwise fragile surface• Microfilm

--newspapers

• Potential vendors• Northern Micrographics, La Crosse• A/E Graphics, Milwaukee• Wisconsin Historical Society (for microfilm)

METADATA

Syl carving his name in tree, 1902Wisconsin Historical Society WHi-69022

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?)

• Helps users find what they’re looking for

• Organized, standardized, consistent, searchable

Grant County Historical Society

SAMPLE METADATA

Field Name Sample Data

Title DiVall barber shop, Middleton, 1925

Subjects Barbers; Barbershops

Type Still image

Format image/tiff

Rights statement This material may be protected by copyright law. The user is responsible for all issues of copyright.

File name 2006_01_12.tif

Submitter Middleton Area Historical Society

Date digitized 2013-04-05

Middleton Area Historical Society

SAMPLE METADATA

Field Name Sample Data

Creator Bartle, F. C.

Date Created 1925-09-12 OR 1920-1930

Materials Photographs

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

Collection DiVall Family Collection

Identifier 2006.01.12

Middleton Area Historical Society

PHOTOGRAPHS – ASSIGNING TITLES

The photograph may already have a title.

EXISTING TITLES

If the photograph contains a title or caption, transcribe it exactly.

Birds-eye-view, No. 4, 1908, Barneveld, Wis.

WHAT MAKES A GOOD TITLE?

If the photo does not already have a title, you’ll need to create one.A useful title is…• Descriptive and specific • Brief• Follows specific formatting rules• Capitalize first word and proper names (people, places, institutions) • Don’t start with “A” or “The”• Period not needed at the end

SUBJECT, LOCATION, DATE

Person, object, building, etc.

City OR township OR county

Year or date range

BASIC FORMULA FOR CREATING TITLES

Only include an element IF KNOWN

PEOPLE & PORTRAITS

• Identify the person’s name (first name, last name)

• Identify the location to the most specific level possible (City OR Township OR County)• do not include state

• Identify the date (Specific year? Date range?)

Albert Townsend, Clintonville, 1927(SUBJECT, LOCATION, DATE)

PEOPLE & PORTRAITS

• Identify…Who? Where? When?• Women• Children• Babies• Carriages/strollers• Stores/shops• Boardwalk• Marathon County• 1890-1899

Women and children with babies in carriages, Manitowoc County, 1890-1899

(SUBJECT, LOCATION, DATE)

BUILDINGS AND CITYSCAPES

• Identify the name of the street or view• Identify the location (City OR Township OR County)

• Identify the date (Year? Date range?)

100 block of South Main Street, Fort Atkinson, 1940-1949

(SUBJECT, LOCATION, DATE)

SUBJECT, ACTIVITY, LOCATION, DATE

Person, object, building, etc.

City OR township OR county

Year or date range

EXPANDED FORMULA FOR CREATING TITLES

Action or event

Only include an element IF KNOWN

Identify…Who? What are they doing? Where? When? • Tailor and customer

• Measuring

• Two Rivers

• Date unknown – 20th century

ACTIVITIES AND EVENTS

Tailor measuring man in suit, Two Rivers(SUBJECT, ACTIVITY, DATE)

ACTIVITIES AND EVENTS

Identify…Who? What are they doing? Where and when?

• Circus elephant• Trainer• Woman on swing• Evansville• 1940-1949

Trainer with circus elephant holding woman on swing, Evansville, 1940-1949

(SUBJECT, ACTIVITY, LOCATION, DATE)

EXERCISE - ASSIGNING TITLES

Work in small groups to assign a title to a historic photograph.

Remember the basic title formulas:• SUBJECT, LOCATION, DATE• SUBJECT, ACTIVITY, LOCATION, DATE

ASSIGNING SUBJECT HEADINGS

• Subject headings are terms or phrases assigned to an item to facilitate searching and browsing a collection.

• Consistent use of subject headings helps link related content in your collection and across disparate collections.

CONTROLLED VOCABULARIES

• A controlled vocabulary is a standardized, pre-determined list of subject headings.

• Some examples of controlled vocabularies:• Library of Congress Thesaurus

for Graphic Materials

• Library of Congress Subject Headings

• Getty Art and Architecture Thesaurus

• Nomenclature 3.0 New Berlin Historical Society

TIPS FOR ASSIGNING SUBJECT HEADINGS

• Consider the following elements to help select terms:• WHO? People - age, gender, occupation, ethnicity• WHERE? Building or other setting• WHAT? Activities or events

• Always copy terms exactly from the controlled vocabulary.• Think of your own “tags,” then search the controlled

vocabulary list for correct terms. • How did others do it? Look at similar photos for

examples/ideas.• Aim for 1-5 terms.• There is no one right answer!

SAMPLE SUBJECT HEADINGS

SAMPLE SUBJECT HEADINGS

Railroads; Railroad stations; Carts & wagons

SAMPLE SUBJECT HEADINGS

SAMPLE SUBJECT HEADINGS

Students; Music education; Youth orchestras

EXERCISE – ASSIGNING SUBJECTS

Work in small groups to assign subject headings to a historic photograph (choose a maximum of 5 terms).

Select terms from the short list extracted from the Library of Congress Thesaurus for Graphic Materials. The full version of this controlled vocabulary is available online: http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/tgm1/

FILE NAMING AND ORGANIZATION

Sixty Years of Quality Canning by the Lakeside Packing Company, ca. 1947. Manitowoc Public Library/ University of Wisconsin Digital Collections

WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?

• To create organizational standards• To help you find it again• To prevent accidental overwriting• To eliminate (minimize) duplication of files

Train Wreck Image ID: WHi-2011

FILE NAMING

• Keep folder / document titles short and descriptive

• Use only lower case letters, numbers, and dashes or underscores

• Don’t use spaces or punctuation

• Don’t use special characters in your file/folder titles (^”<>|?\ / : @’* &.) (Just because you CAN doesn’t mean you SHOULD…..)

Typing at Dickinson Secretarial SchoolImage ID: WHi-19562

FILE NAMING

• Date your documents consistently• yyyymmdd_brieftitle.xxx

• 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

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

RESOURCES

• State Library of North Carolina – • Web

http://www.archive.org/details/WhyFileNamingIsImportanthttp://www.archive.org/details/HowToChangeAFileNamehttp://www.archive.org/details/WhatNotToDoWhenNamingFileshttp://www.archive.org/details/WhatToDoWhenNamingFiles

• YouTube http://digitalpreservation.ncdcr.gov/tutorials.html

FILE ORGANIZATION AND MANAGEMENT

• Centralize your files• Minimize your layers• Leave breadcrumbs

(AKA “READ ME”)• Determine what you

don’t know

IH General Office Mail RoomImage ID: WHi-12016

WHAT NOT TO KEEP?

• Backups/copies/drafts• Supplementary files that

provide no additional long-term value• Corrupted files• Same item – different

file formats• Items that don’t fit your

organization’s purposeBoy on Curb near Trash PileImage ID: WHi-57208

DOCUMENT YOUR DECISIONS….

Sinclair Lewis TypingImage ID: WHi-51874

WRAPPING UP – FINAL THOUGHTS

Commencement, 1978UW-Madison Archives

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

NEXT STEPS/TO DO LIST

• Review collections and set priorities for digitization.• Consider developing a written selection policy.• Determine the copyright status of any materials you

plan to share online and secure permissions from copyright holders if materials are not in public domain.• Acquire scanning equipment or make other plans for

conversion.• Familiarize yourself with good, useful metadata by

looking at other online collections.• Develop a file naming convention document.

THANK YOU!

• Sarah Grimm, Wisconsin Historical Societysarah.grimm@wisconsinhistory.org

608-261-1008

• Emily Pfotenhauer, WiLSemily@wils.org608-616-9756

• Slides and handouts available at http://recollectionwisconsin.org/localhistory2013

South Wood County Historical Museum