besser, frm oac, 4/17/00 1 oac as an example of special collections digitization: the collection,...

Besser, frm OAC, 4/17/00 1

OAC as an example of Special Collections Digitization: the

Collection, the Institution, Scholarship, Interoperability, Longevity

Howard Besser

UCLA School of Education & Information

http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/~howard


Topics

• MOA2 & OAC Background• More pieces of OAC

– CDL Best Practices

– Access to online Finding Aids

• Broader Implications of OAC and similar projects– utility of image browsing

– Digitization means new audiences

– New users’ lack of familiarity with Finding Aids

– searching across finding aids

• More general issues of digital projects


EAD and Finding Aids

• Finding Aids: Detailed Collection Description– Finding aids are the inventories, registers, indexes or guides to

historical or other primary source collections held by archives and manuscripts repositories, libraries and museums. They provide intellectual and physical access and control.

• Encoded Archival Description (EAD)– Standard for archival finding aids in the form of a Standard

Generalized Markup Language Document Type Definition (SGML DTD)

– Supported by the Society of American Archivists (SAA) and the Library of Congress (LC)


DLF Metadata for Interoperability Testbed:

the MOA II Project• R & D

• Building Towards Distributed Repositories

• Transportation, 1869-1900

• Testbed Project

• Best Practices

• Intellectual, structural, and administrative metadata


MOA II Participant Collections

• UC Berkeley

• Cornell

• NYPL

• Penn State

• Stanford


MOA II Classes of Objects

• Continuous Tone Photos

• Photo Albums

• Diaries, journals, letterpress books

• Ledgers

• Correspondence


MOA II Metadata

• Administrative Metadata

• Structural Metadata

• Raw, seared, cooked


MOA II Behaviors

• Navigation

• Display/Print


MOAII Service Model

• Service Layer

• Tools Layer

• Digital Object Layer


Masters vs. Derivatives


Berkeley Architecture

BerkeleyLongevity

Server

BerkeleyDeliveryServer

OtherDeliveryServer

OtherDeliveryServer

OtherDeliveryServer

User

User

User

User


Best Practices (long)

• Think about users (and potential users), uses, and type of material/collection

• Scan at the highest quality tht does not exceed the likely potential users/uses/material

• Do not let today’s delivery limitations influence your scanning file sizes; understand the difference between digital masters and derivative files used for delivery

• Many documents which appear to be bitonal actually are better represented with greyscale scans

• Include color bar and ruler in the scan

• Use objective measurements to determine scanner settings (do NOT attempt to make the image good on your particular monitor or use image processing to color correct)

• Don’t use lossy compression• Store in a common (standardized)

file format• Capture as much metadata as is

reasonably possiple (including metadata about the scanning process itself)


MOA2 Access

OPAC Finding AidsList

Collectn levelrecord

Finding Aid

DigitalObjects


MOA2: Administrative Metadata

• Information about where the various pieces/versions of the object reside

• Information to view the digital object

• Information about the scanning process


MOA2: Structural Metadatathat which is relevant to presentation of the digital

object to the user

• metadata defining the "object”: a book, a diary, a photo album

• metadata defining the “sub-objects”: pages (physical) or chapters and subheads (intellectual)


Why are you Managing this Information?^

Organizational mission & typeUsersUses


Utility of Image Browsing^

• [[http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/CalHeritage/]]– http://www.oac.cdlib.org:28008/dynaweb/ead/calher/bully/

@Generic__BookTextView/146;hf=0#X

• implications of Image Browsing for Cataloging


Digitization meansNew Audiences

• more access for more people

• outreach to new groups

• but new groups have different usability requirements– different user interfaces

– different vocabulary

– new methods of navigation

• we already have enough differences btwn different institution types (& even within the same type)– MESL results

– Organization & indexing reflects the biases of the original intent when records were formed


Proposed EAD enhancements for diverse groups (Anne Gilliland-Swetland)

• Subject searching

• Name searching

• Geographic location searching

• Physical form or genre searching

• Bottom-up searching


New Users^

• Don’t understand Finding Aids

• Expect DB-type access rather than hierarchical context

• [[http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/impact/s99/cal-heritage.html]]


Dealing with one aspect of‘New User’ requirements^

• Searching across Finding Aids– [[http://www.oac.cdlib.org:28008/dynaweb/ead/calher/

@Generic__CollectionView;hf=0?DwebQuery=ferry

– http://www.oac.cdlib.org:28008/dynaweb/ead/calher/cook/@Generic__BookView;hf=0?DwebQuery=ferry&DwebSearchAll=1

– http://www.oac.cdlib.org:28008/dynaweb/ead/calher/cook/@Generic__BookTextView/620;hf=0?DwebQuery=ferry&DwebSearchAll=1#X

– http://www.oac.cdlib.org:28008/dynaweb/ead/calher/cook/@Generic__BookTextView/7526;hf=0?DwebQuery=ferry&DwebSearchAll=1#X]]


More general issues of Digital Projects-

• Implications for the Collection

• Implications for the Institution

• Implications for Scholarship & Interoperability– Digital libraries– Metadata

• Longevity Issues


Implications for the Collection

• We’re already familiar with Reformatting

• Advantages & Disadvantages of Digitization-

• Protection-

• Unauthorized Use-


Broad Advantages & Disadvantages of Digitization

• Advantages• good PR

• show off collection

• let people see items without having to needlessly pull them

• Disadvantages• Can look like Edutainment

• Can commodify the works and make the repository look like it sold prestige to the highest bidder

• Authenticity called into question

• Decontextualization

• Representational problems-


Problems withHow Works are Represented

• once a digital work is on the WWW, anyone can physically copy it and use it as they see fit

• often items are seen outside their context

• for images: using the normal method of mounting images on the WWW, the credit line often becomes separated from the image


Don’t advocate strong copyright or protection for the wrong reasons

• the people who find your content valuable are mostly your traditional audiences

• barriers before use will inhibit positive uses of your material

• threat of pursuit after misuse can effectively deter commercial misuse

• you can prevent commercial misuse without strong protection or copyright


Instead of fearing lost income, worry about Unauthorized Use

• Elimination of credit or attribution line (particularly for images)

• Someone else implying ownership

• Maintaining the Integrity of the Work


Protection Methods^

• Encrypting or encapsulating the digital file

• Marking the digital image with ownership (visible or not)– [[http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/impact/Fall95/Papers-projects/Projects/

Trowbridge/labels.html]]

• Image quality– Onscreen quality is far lower than printed quality

– [[http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/impact/Fall95/Papers-projects/Projects/Trowbridge/resolution.html]]


Effect on the Institution

• Creating/Maintaining a WWW site• Wear and tear on the original• Handling external requests for Special Collection

material• Increase or decrease in requests to see originals?• New Audiences• Implications on the Institution’s Public Image


Scholarship and Interoperability

• Why Digital Libraries need standards for interoperability

• Metadata concerns


One Final Question:Who will collect the digital works of today that should become the Special

Collections of tomorrow?

• web sites• zines• electronic journals• listserve and email discussions• drafts of works that later become famous


More Information

• http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/impact/Fall95/special-collectns.html

• http://sunsite.Berkeley.EDU/moa2/

• http://sunsite.Berkeley.EDU/Longevity

• http://sunsite.Berkeley.EDU/Imaging/Databases/

• http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/impact/Fall95/Papers-projects/Projects/Trowbridge/labels.html

• http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/impact/Fall95/Papers-projects/Projects/Trowbridge/resolution.html

• http://www.oac.cdlib.edu/

• http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/~howard/

• http://lcweb.loc.gov/ead/

besser, frm oac, 4/17/00 1 oac as an example of special collections digitization: the collection,...

Documents

frm oac

administrative metadata

cooked slide

broader implications

archival finding aids

delivery server user

topics moa2 oac background

online finding