E M I LY P F O T E N H A U E RP R O G R A M M A N A G E R , W I S C O N S I N H E R I TA G E O N L I N EE P F O T E N H A U E R @ W I L S .W I S C . E D U

BUILDING DIGITAL COLLECTIONS

TODAY’S AGENDA

• Introductions• Tell us about yourself• Wisconsin Heritage Online—

who are we and what do we do?

• Planning a digital project• Defining goals• Determining audience and

stakeholders• Budget and funding• Digital preservation

• Putting your plan into action• Selecting materials• Scanning• Metadata• Promoting your project

• Wrap-up and final thoughts

Waterford Public Library/University of Wisconsin Digital Collections

WHAT IS WHO?

• Wisconsin Heritage Online helps Wisconsin libraries, archives, historical societies and museums digitize and share online the unique histories of their communities and our state.

• Sponsored by Wisconsin Library Services (WiLS)

• Supported by a grant from the Nicholas Family Foundation

• Other core partners: Milwaukee Public Library, Wisconsin Historical Society and University of Wisconsin-Madison

• 68 members from across Wisconsin, including local historical societies, museums, academic libraries, public libraries, and special libraries, contribute annual membership dues

Eager Free Public Library/University of Wisconsin Digital Collections

WHAT DO WE DO?

• Bring resources together.

• The wisconsinheritage.org website is a free one-stop search portal for more than 120,000 digital resources from Wisconsin collections, including photos, postcards, maps, yearbooks, scrapbooks, letters, diaries, oral histories, artifacts and much more.

• Provide training and support.

• Members receive hands-on, in-person training in all the steps involved in building a digital collection.

• Host collections.

• Database software and server space are available to organizations without the resources to develop and host their own.

Iowa County Historical Society

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

PLANNING A DIGITAL PROJECT

• Identifying your goals• Identifying your

stakeholders, partners and audience• Budget• Funding• Planning for digital

preservation

New Berlin Historical Society

IDENTIFYING GOALS: WHY DIGITIZE?

• Go where your audience is• Reach new audiences• Improve access to

“invisible” materials• Protect fragile or heavily

used materials• Learn more about your

collections• Contribute to our

collective knowledgeSouth Wood County Historical Museum

POTENTIAL AUDIENCES

• Local residents• Students and teachers• Genealogists• Specialists (Civil War re-

enactors, railroad buffs)• Academic researchers• Curious Wisconsinites• Everyone!

College of Menominee Nation

STAKEHOLDERS AND PARTNERS

• Board• Staff and/or volunteers• Local experts• Community members• Chamber of Commerce• Local government• Students• Other organizations in

your community/county/region• Who else? McMillan Memorial Library, Wisconsin Rapids

POTENTIAL PROJECT COSTS

• Flatbed scanner• Outsourcing imaging to a

commercial vendor• Digital camera and related

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

TIME and SPACEMerrill 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)

• Donations• In-kind contributions• Tech support• Equipment use

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

Ripon College

DIGITAL PRESERVATION

• Definition from the Library of Congress:• The active management of digital

content over time to ensure ongoing access.

• Two threats to digital content:• Obsolescence• Physical damage

• Digital preservation is not simply file storage/backups.

• Good practices now (preservation file formats, consistent file naming, thorough metadata) help ensure future access. Beloit College

DIGITAL PRESERVATION QUICK TIPS

• Save more than one copy of each file• On more than one type

of storage media• In more than one

location• Document what, where,

when • Spot-check annually• Migrate as necessary Wetherby Cranberry Library

STORAGE OPTIONS

• Cloud storage service • Google Drive• Amazon• DuraCloud

• Local network • RAID device• External hard drive• Archival quality (gold)

CDs or DVDsTake into account potential future storage needs.

Villa Terrace Decorative Arts Museum

PHYSICAL PRESERVATION

• Don’t compromise collections care in order to digitize

• A digital project can be an ideal time to assess collection conditions and rehouse materials

• Resources for collections care:• Wisconsin Historical Society Field

Services staff• Wisconsin Archives Mentoring

Service• National Park Service Conserve-

O-GramsRichland County History Room

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

PUTTING YOUR PLAN INTO ACTION

• Digital imaging• Scanning photographs• Scanning texts• Object photography• File naming

• Metadata• What is it?• Basic elements• Where does it go?

Milwaukee Public Library

SELECTING 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

Appleton Public Library

SELECTING MATERIALS

Y/N This item is rare or unique to ourcollection.

Y/N This item holds a particular significance in our community.Y/N This item is frequently requested by our patrons/visitors.Y/N This item or very similar items are notfound anywhere else on the Internet.Y/N There is enough accurate informationavailable about the item to add useful context for

our audience (for example, we know or can find out names of people, locations, dates).Y/N 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).Y/N This item is in stable condition and will

not be damaged by scanning or otherhandling.

Neville Public Museum of Brown County

CONSIDERING COPYRIGHT

• Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer• 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 2012 that means the item was:• published before 1923 –OR–• Unpublished; creator died

before 1942 –OR–• Unpublished; unknown

creator; made before 1892UW-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

DIGITAL IMAGING

• Goals of imaging:• Create a digital

representation that’s faithful to the original item• Create the highest quality

image file you can achieve with available resources• Scan once—don’t expect

to return to re-digitizeUW-Madison Archives

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, easy access

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: LEAVE A BORDER AROUND IMAGE

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

NAMING YOUR FILES

• Use only lower case letters, numbers, and dashes or underscores• Don’t use spaces or punctuation• 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• Document any file naming conventions you develop• 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

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?)• Lets users find what they’re

looking for• Organized, standardized,

consistent, searchableGrant County Historical Society

METADATA ELEMENTS

Field Name Sample Data

Title DiVall barber shop

Creator F. C. Bartle

Date 09/12/1925 OR 1920-1930

Materials Photographs

Subjects Barbers; Barbershops

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

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

Identifier 2006.01.12

File name 2006_01_12.jpg

Middleton Area Historical Society

ASSIGNING TITLES

• Descriptive and unique• Capitalize first word and

proper names• Not so good:• Woman and man• Woman and man, trees

• Good:• Woman, man and child in

apple orchard• Ida and Peter Swartz with son

James in apple orchard, Wausau

New Berlin Historical Society

ASSIGNING SUBJECT HEADINGS

• Subject headings are terms or phrases assigned to an item to facilitate searching and filtering a collection. Consistent use of subject headings can help link related content in your collection and across disparate collections.

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

• Some examples of controlled vocabularies:• Thesaurus for Graphic Materials

• Library of Congress Subject Headings

• Getty Art and Architecture Thesaurus

• Nomenclature 3.0

Mineral Point Historical Society

ASSIGNING SUBJECT HEADINGS

• Generate your own “tags,” then search for approved terms. Look at similar items for examples.

• Copy terms exactly (most terms are plural).

• Consider the following categories of subject headings to simplify term selection:• People (Age/Gender; Occupation;

Ethnicity)--WHO• Building or environment--WHERE• Activities or events—WHAT

• There is no one right answer!• Agriculture, Farmers, Trees

New Berlin Historical Society

SHARING CONTENT ONLINE

• Software solutions compatible with the WHO portal—must be OAI-PMH-compliant• CONTENTdm (hosted by Milwaukee

Public Library)• ResCarta• Omeka.net (Gold, Platinum plans)

• Not directly compatible with WHO (but can be moved to a compatible option)• PastPerfect Online• Omeka.net (Basic, Plus, Silver plans)• File Maker Pro• Microsoft Access• Excel spreadsheet

Wisconsin Folksong Collection, UW-Madison

YOU reformat your original materials (scan or photograph)

YOU create catalog records (metadata) using the spreadsheets and guidelines we provide

WHO uploads your metadata and low-resolution images to a server provided by Milwaukee Public Library, using CONTENTdm database software

YOU share your digital collection with your users in two ways:--your custom CONTENTdm collection (your content only)--the WHO portal, wisconsinheritage.org (content from across the state)

Once a month, WHO “harvests” your metadata and images from CONTENTdm into the wisconsinheritage.org web portal

YOU store your high-resolution images

You and WHO:How Wisconsin Heritage Online

works with local collections

YOU send your low-resolution images and metadata spreadsheets to WHO in batches (first batch = 20 items, subsequent batches = 50+)

ENCOURAGING USE OF YOUR COLLECTIONS

• Google is not enough• Organizations are moving

away from “if you build it, they will come” approach

• Bring your content to your audience—find them where they already are

• Let them look behind the curtain and see projects in progress, warts and all

• Participatory archives concept—shared authority, community engagement Milwaukee Public Library

WHO PROMOTIONAL EFFORTS

• Quarterly email newsletter• Facebook• facebook.com/

wisconsinheritage

• Twitter• twitter.com/wiheritage

• Tumblr• wiscohisto.tumblr.com

Rock County Historical Society

LOCAL PROMOTIONAL EFFORTS

• Add introduction/background information on your own website• http://www.newberlinhistoricalsociety.org

• Highlight an item of the day/week/month• https://www.facebook.com/

lacrosse.history

• Host an opening event• Whitefish Bay Public Library• College of Menominee Nation

• Host a slide show or exhibition• South Wood County Historical Museum• Mineral Point Historical Society

• Press release to local media• What else? South Wood County Historical Museum

WHAT NEXT?

Interested in participating in Wisconsin Heritage Online?

• Submit a Request for Consultation.Provide us with some basic information and we’ll be in touch to help you plan a project.

• Become a member.Annual membership dues are $50.

• Schedule a training session.We provide on-site, customized training to help get your project up and running.

Marquette University

E M I LY P F O T E N H A U E RP R O G R A M M A N A G E R , W I S C O N S I N H E R I TA G E O N L I N EE P F O T E N H A U E R @ W I L S .W I S C . E D U

THANK YOU!