michigan pioneer & history collections

37
The “Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collections”: A Case Study in Digitization Michael Unsworth Humanities Librarian MSU Libraries [email protected]

Upload: maira-bundza

Post on 26-May-2015

1.162 views

Category:

Education


1 download

DESCRIPTION

Author: Michael E. UnsworthMichigan State University

TRANSCRIPT

Page 1: Michigan Pioneer & History Collections

The “Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collections”: A Case Study in Digitization

Michael UnsworthHumanities Librarian

MSU Libraries [email protected]

Page 2: Michigan Pioneer & History Collections

GENESIS:Library Instruction Session

Page 3: Michigan Pioneer & History Collections

WHY SHOULD WE CARE"The content of this forty volume history

series, though uneven in quality, includes valuable material. Every teacher of Michigan history will testify to its usefulness. Even the less scholarly contributions constitute important evidence of what a generation of pioneers regarded as significant in their history."

Lewis G. Vander Velde, "The Michigan Historical Commission: 1913-1963," Michigan History Vol. 48, no. 2 (June 1964): 98.

Page 4: Michigan Pioneer & History Collections

EXAMPLE:J.A. Giradin, “Slavery in Detroit,” Pioneer

Collections Vol. 1 (1877): 415:

“In ancient times the city of Detroit and vicinity had slaves among its inhabitants. The old citizens generally purchased them from marauding bands of Indians, who had captured the negro slaves in their war depredations on plantations…

“Everyone lived in arcadian simplicity and contentment. The negro was satisfied with his position, and rendered valuable service to his master…”

Page 5: Michigan Pioneer & History Collections

ANOTHER EXAMPLE:F.M. Holloway, “Hillsdale County from

1829 to 1836 Inclusive,” Pioneer Collections Vol. 1 (1877): 180-181:

“…and Mr. Stevens went with it [the proposed name of Litchfield] to Detroit, and by the free use of liquid, and other arrangements, prevailed on the Legislature to adopt that name.”

Page 6: Michigan Pioneer & History Collections

WHY DIGITIZE?

• Scattered runs• 54 repositories:

OCLC; 20+ with full runs

• Publishing inconsistencies

• Poor quality paper

• Loss of other materials

Page 7: Michigan Pioneer & History Collections

WHY DIGITIZE? FROM THE MSUL CIRCULATION DEPT.:

“This item is sufficiently overdue that it is not likely to be returned in a timely fashion. (The borrower who has it has been billed for its replacement) You may request this material via interlibrary loan (ILL):

Pioneer collections : report of the Pioneer Society of the State of Michigan, together with reports of county, town, and district pioneer societies Lansing? Mich. : The Society], 1877-1888 MSU MAIN LIBRARY F561 .M47 v.9 1886”

Also checked out at MSUL: Vols. 1, 10-12; 15-18, 40 & Index for Vols 1-15

Page 8: Michigan Pioneer & History Collections

DIGITIZERS• American Memory (Library of Congress;

digitized for the “Pioneering the Upper Midwest: Books from Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, ca. 1820-1910”)

• Google Book Search • Internet Archive Texts Collection is a

"collection is open to the community for the contribution of any type of text," many were scanned by Microsoft's "Live Search Books" during 2006-2008.

• University of Michigan Digital Library

Page 9: Michigan Pioneer & History Collections

PUBLICATION HISTORY

• 1876-1886 (Vols. 1- 9): Pioneer Collections. Lansing : Pioneer Society of the State of Michigan & Pioneer and Historical Society of the State of Michigan (PHSSM) .

• 1886-1912 (Vols. 10-38): Historical Collections. Lansing : PHSSM & Michigan Pioneer and Historical Society.

• 1915-1929 (Vols. 39-40): Michigan Historical Collections. Lansing : Michigan Historical Commission.

Reprints/2nd ed. for Vols. 1-21 published 1900-13.

Page 10: Michigan Pioneer & History Collections

Michigan Historical Collections CAREFULL!!!

Page 11: Michigan Pioneer & History Collections
Page 12: Michigan Pioneer & History Collections

VARIANT TITLES

• Historical Collections And Researches [1ST ed.] Vol. 37 (1909,1910)

• Collections of the Pioneer Society of the State of Michigan… [2nd ed. or Reprint] Vol. 06 (1907) - Vol. 08 (1907) .

• Collections: Report Of The Pioneer Society Of The State Of Michigan… [2nd ed. or Reprint] Vol. 09 (1908)

Page 13: Michigan Pioneer & History Collections

CAUTION!!!It never had the title of Michigan Pioneer

and Historical Collections, but it’s been commonly used to describe the entire collection.

Page 14: Michigan Pioneer & History Collections

BIBLIOGRAPHICTREATMENT FOR 1st EDITION

Successive Entry• Pioneer collections (1877). Vol. 1-

9 (1876-1886) OCLC #8597825 • Historical collections (Michigan

Pioneer and Historical Society : 1888). Vol. 10-38 (1886-1912) OCLC #8069520

• Michigan Historical Collections. Vol. 39-40 (1915-1929) OCLC #8597926

Page 15: Michigan Pioneer & History Collections

Bibliographic Treatment for 1st Ed.Latest Entry; OCLC #1757295

Page 16: Michigan Pioneer & History Collections

ANALYSIS

Page 17: Michigan Pioneer & History Collections

Analysis

1.The set’s numerous titles and issuing bodies complicate any system of bibliographic control. It is inherently messy.

Page 18: Michigan Pioneer & History Collections

Analysis

2. Not all volumes digitized:

• 1st. Ed.: 39 of 40 vol. were done Vol. 9 was not digitized by any project

• 2nd. Ed.: just 13 of 21 vol. were done

Page 19: Michigan Pioneer & History Collections

Analysis3. Indexing:

• Each volume has its own index

• Society-created cumulative indexes were digitized

• Most indexes created by outside groups have not been digitized

Page 20: Michigan Pioneer & History Collections

Analysis4. No project treated it as a serial or collection:• No “one stop” listing• Can’t search authors or subjects across all

volumes, as in:

ERGO

Page 21: Michigan Pioneer & History Collections

Analysis5. Digitization has:• Increased “distribution” of

individual volumes• Provided access to content

with:– Volume & cumulated

indexes– Keyword searching only

within each volume

Page 22: Michigan Pioneer & History Collections

SOLUTIONS/COPING MECHANISMS

Page 23: Michigan Pioneer & History Collections

Digitizer CompilationJSTOR

Page 24: Michigan Pioneer & History Collections

Contributor Compilation:U. of Toronto

Page 25: Michigan Pioneer & History Collections

Contributor Compilation:856 fields in MARC records

Page 26: Michigan Pioneer & History Collections

Outsider Compilation #1http://guides.lib.msu.edu/

page.phtml?page_id=2159

Page 27: Michigan Pioneer & History Collections

Outside Compilation #1

Page 28: Michigan Pioneer & History Collections

Outside Compilation #3

Page 29: Michigan Pioneer & History Collections

Selective Indexing

Page 30: Michigan Pioneer & History Collections

Selective Indexing

Page 31: Michigan Pioneer & History Collections

Selective Indexing

Page 32: Michigan Pioneer & History Collections

Selective Indexing

Page 33: Michigan Pioneer & History Collections

COMPREHENSIVE INDEXING PROJECT

Requires $$$$

Page 34: Michigan Pioneer & History Collections

CONCLUSIONS

Page 35: Michigan Pioneer & History Collections

1. Three of the mass digitization projects took no or minimum effort to study bibliographic records to insure that all access points were available. Only the Internet Archive provided all author and title permutations.

Page 36: Michigan Pioneer & History Collections

2. “Genus Librarianus” is still needed, but needs time & resources to stay abreast of developments. Then can s/he react to techno projects and make sense of them using knowledge of the print and online worlds.

Page 37: Michigan Pioneer & History Collections

END

http://libdata.lib.msu.edu/login.phtml