Techniques for Successful Management of a Lare-scale Newspaper Digitization Project with Outsourced Digitization

Large-scale digitization of historical materials is on the rise thanks to all grants available for cultural heritage institutions. Often the awarded institutions/professionals don\u27t have detailed plans how to organize the work so all available resources are effectively used, all grant deadlines are met and the deliverables are of excellent quality. Project management skills are vital for successful large-scale digitization projects. This poster session will use the case study of the Nevada’s National Digital Newspaper Project to introduce tips proven to work. The poster is aimed at awardees/project managers seeking to learn how to successfully manage large-scale digitization projects using limited human resources and external digitization vendors to complete the work within the time-frame. Attendees will learn techniques for effective collaboration, increased productivity and outstanding final product deliverables. Some techniques that will be detailed include: team selection, setting goals/benchmarks with vendors, engaging stakeholders, iterative workflow development, work segmentation, time management, scheduling, risk management, and gathering statistics for decision-making and assessment

Digitization, Donor Relations, and Undergraduate Instruction

Collection development archivists know that building a partnership with a potential donor may take years, occasionally decades. From the perspective of a donor, contributing unique materials to an archival repository – a local historical society, academic archives, or a research library – can be an emotionally complicated process. A donor must have acquired a degree of separation from the material, but also have a deep sense of trust in the repository soliciting the records. Often, the initial contribution to a repository consists of records void of sentimental or financial value. As the relationship between a donor and a repository strengthens, donors (hopefully) begin contributing more noteworthy and revealing materials, including personal correspondence, diaries, and photographs. This scenario is routine not only with the acquisition of personal papers, but the records of businesses, membership organizations, and all other kinds of archival records

An Overview of Planning and Implementing Large-Scale Digitization

This document outlines the steps and considerations for planning and implementing a large-scale digitization project. This document was given to the participants who attended the Nevada Statewide Large-Scale Digitization Workshop on May 18, 2018 held at UNLV Libraries

An Anniversary Opportunity: Digitization of Student Yearbooks

Anniversary celebrations provide archivists and librarians with many unique opportunities to build public support for their programs. Archivists, in particular, are expected to be a resource for such events. Handled adroitly, anniversary programming can offset the “dusty shelf” stereotype that frustrates many professionals. Moreover, resource allocators planning an anniversary are likely to look to their archives for ideas and special projects, initiatives that may result in additional financial and staffing resources. Describing the positive public relations value of anniversaries, archivist Tim Ericson has gone so far as to suggest “The Archivist\u27s First Law of Outreach”: Human beings are unable to resist celebrating any anniversary divisible by twenty-five

Semi-DHCAL software developments: Digitization and Display

GRPC Semi-Digital HCAL is a solid option for the PFA oriented calorimetry of the International Linear Collider. Together with the hardware, the software developments is progressing steadily. The stauts and plans for the GRPC SDHCAL software development are presented, as well the first order digitization module for the GRPC and the display program DRUID (Display Root module Used for ILD) have been introduced.Comment: Proceeding of LCWS 2010, Beijin

Bulgarian Folk Songs in a Digital Library

The paper presents the main results of an ongoing project aimed at the development of technologies for digitization of Bulgarian folk music and building a heterogeneous digital library with Bulgarian folk songs presented with their music, notes and text. An initial digitization and preservation of the Bulgarian cultural heritage starts by means of digitization and insertion into the library of over 1000 songs that were recorded and written down during the 60s and 70s of XX century. Also we present a full text search engine in a collection of lyrics (text of songs) and coded notes (symbolic melody). Some perspectives for future projects are also discussed

Strategies for Implementing a Mass Digitization Program

[Excerpt] In 2007, OCLC published the report Shifting Gears: Gearing Up to Get Into the Flow to bring to the forefront a much needed conversation about digitization of archival collections, and access to the rich content accessible only through paper or other analog formats. The authors emphasized that any successful large digitization program would focus on access and quantity. They challenged archivists to rethink policies, procedures, and technologies that either slowed the process of mass digitization, or were unfriendly to the implementation of a rapid capture program. Recent articles, blog posts, and columns demonstrate that we as a profession continue to grapple with ways to implement digitization programs that are both sustainable and efficient. The strategies offered in this paper highlight a practical program for the mass digitization of organizational archival records using a rapid capture process that is replicable regardless of the size or resources of the repository. It will review the establishment of a rapid capture workflow at the University of Minnesota Archives; provide details on how it functions, including equipment information, scanner settings, and workflow procedures; explain the selection process for scanning; describe how it has helped to create inreach opportunities; and finally, examine how it has changed not only daily operations, but the perspective on what it means to provide broad access to the collections

Access and Preservation in Archival Mass Digitization Projects

[Excerpt] In 2014, the Dalhousie University Archives began its first archival mass digitization project with the Elisabeth Mann Borgese fonds. The successful completion of this project required the project team to address both broad and specific technical and intellectual challenges, from rights management in an online access environment to the durability of the equipment used. To best understand the challenges faced, there will first be a brief introduction to the fonds and project goals of balancing preservation and access before moving on to a discussion of these challenges in further detail, and finally, concluding with a discussion of some considerations, best practices, and lessons learned from this project