Digitization 101

In this blog post from the Smithsonian Institution Archives, Emily Niekrasz gives Marguerite Roby (Photo Archivist), Jessica Scott (Digital Imaging Technician), Kira Sobers (Digital Media Coordinator), and Heidi Stover (Reference Photo Archivist) an opportunity to explain "just how much work goes into the digitization process."  The four answer questions including:

What are the key steps in the journey of a single reference request from staff or a researcher to a digital asset appearing on our website?

and:

How hard is researching the rights and reproduction limits of a photograph or record?

At the end of the article are related resources from the Smithsonian.

With our increased reliance on digital resources, this is indeed a good time to remember the importance of digitization! Thank you, Smithsonian!

The year 2019 is coming to a close. Every year seems busy and often too busy. While I think of things I want to blog about, frequently I find I don't have time to do the posts.  I hope that might change at some point in 2020.  For now, here is a rambling look back at 2019 with some new thought thrown in.

Digitization

I have not spent much time this year thinking about digitization outside of the ALA Annual Conference (post). However, I have colleagues who report occasionally about their continued digitization efforts and I am pleased at the progress they are making. With moves towards augmented reality (AR), it is likely that our digitized material is and will be integrated into some of them. What is augmented reality? According to Wikipedia:

Augmented reality (AR) is an interactive experience of a real-world environment where the objects that reside in the real world are enhanced by computer-generated perceptual information, sometimes across multiple sensory modalities, including visual, auditory, haptic, somatosensory and olfactory. AR can be defined as a system that fulfills three basic features: a combination of real and virtual worlds, real-time interaction, and accurate 3D registration of virtual and real objects.

Actually, a quick search shows that there are already historical sites using augmented reality, such as James Monroe's Highland in Virginia. Are they including digitized materials? That I cannot tell, but I hope they are.

The other area, related to digitization, worth noting is the need to provide more digital materials to support online education.  That includes ideas like controlled digital lending, which was also a topic at ALA (post).  This is an area where our needs are moving quickly. We need to have the correct laws, licensing, guidelines, etc., to support this trend.

Copyright

Rather than looking back, I want to look forward. January 1, 2020 will mark the second New Year's Day in a row where copyrighted works will enter the public domain due to their age.  In celebration, Lifehacker has published These 1924 Copyrighted Works Enter the Public Domain in 2020.

More information on Public Domain Day can be found in Wikipedia.

Onondaga County Public Library

Over two year ago, I joined the Board of Trustees for the Onondaga County Public Library (OCPL) System. Quoting our website:

OCPL is one of 23 public library systems chartered by the Board of Regents of the State of New York. It operates the Central Library, nine Syracuse city branches and two satellite libraries, and 21 independent libraries in suburban Onondaga County.

These libraries serve a county population of 461,809. Within the City of Syracuse (population 142,749), the library users include 30.5% of the population, who lived below the poverty line in 2018.  One of the services OCPL has expanded this year, with funding released by our County Executive, is technology backpacks which can be borrowed for people to use at home (or elsewhere).  Each tech backpack includes:

• Chromebook and charger
• Verizon hotspot and charger
• Quick start guide for using the equipment

These have been deployed across the county based on concentrations of poverty.

Among the other good news at OCPL is that we have a new executive director coming in January 2020.  Christian Zabriskie is well-known in some circles for his work in Queens and Yonkers (NY), as well as co-founding Urban Librarians Unite (ULU). In 2012, Christian was named a Library Journal Mover and Shaker. Recently, he and Lauren Comito, his ULU co-founder, were named Library Journal's Librarian(s) of the Year 2020.

My personal OCPL good news is that I am becoming Board president in January.  This will put all of my library knowledge, and ability to get work done through others, to the test and I'm looking forward to it!

Poverty and Libraries

Our public libraries are for everyone, including people with all different abilities and backgrounds.  They are most important to those in marginalized communities, whatever "marginalized" may mean in that context. The question every public library should be asking is what it can do to be of service in those communities. Once asked, then the library needs to talk with members of that community to figure out the answers. The library should not jump to conclusions, because that could mean that the library is doing what it deems to be correct, rather than what the community needs.

Many groups are focused on serving the poor in our communities and there are some specifically focused on raising up the voices of the poor. The Poor People's Campaign, started by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., is one of those groups that is working across the U.S.  If you are a public librarian, what groups are working with those in your community who are living in poverty? Who is advocating for the poor?  What civic engagement activities can you and your library do to make a positive change in your community, in regards to poverty?

There are other issues in our communities: the opioid crisis, racism, homelessness (and home insecurity), the perpetually unemployed, etc.  These issues may have been glossed over by your news media, but they tore at your community in 2019. What can your library do to help?

Gig Work

One of the things that is happening around us is the increased amount of "gig work" that is occurring. Gig work can be defined as, "...income-earning activities outside of traditional, long-term employer-employee relationships."  Gig work impacts how we use technology and information.  It is impacts how space is used in our communities, including our libraries which offer space for people to work and meet, as well as access to technology.

This year, I heard Dr. Steve Sawyer give a talk about his research in progress related to gig work.  What stood out to me was the infrastructure - hidden to me - that has been created to support knowledge workers, who do not have a corporate office.  For a growing number of people, there is no office waiting for them in a corporate office building. Rather they are given the "flexibility" to work from home or at another location which suits them.  Sawyer noted that corporations used to provide offices, technology, and support, but now workers must acquire those things themselves (to varying degrees). Yes, a business may provide some tech support, for example, but because the person is not located where the support is, the person may need to do most of the tech support themselves.

There are a growing number of coworking spaces in our communities. You might not know about them, because you're not looking for them. If you've heard about one, you likely thought it was an aberration, but it's not and we're beyond the trend phase of this. If you know nothing about this, this article from ChargeSpot will be helpful.

If you are working in a library, how is your library supporting gig workers? Think about knowledge workers and those in other parts of the gig economy, like Uber and Lyft drivers. If there are coworking spaces in your community, are you interacting with them? Do they see the library as a resource?

Steve Sawyer is interested in specific aspects of the gig economy, which is not what I took away from his talk! (Sorry, Steve.) A paper of Steve's, with three collaborators, is available on ResearchGate.  That paper is, "Platformic Management, Boundary Resources for Gig Work, and Worker Autonomy." I know that he has other writings on this topic, which you can find through various databases.

T is for Training

I'm mentioning this, because I rarely do on this blog. In 2008, Maurice Coleman started a twice monthly podcast called T is for Training. The podcast is focused primarily on training (in and outside of libraries) and technology, although we focus on other issues.  I've been involved in T is for Training since its start.  It has changed over the years, because nothing can stay exactly the same. Who is involved has changed as well as, in 2019, when we record. We've also become closer colleagues and friends. There is nothing like a twice-monthly hour-long conversation to help create a close community!

T is for Training episodes are available on a variety of different podcast platforms. The website includes information on when we record as well as show notes. There aren't transcripts of the episodes, which means this podcast is not fully accessible. The show notes do capture the topics discussed and often a long list of resources mentioned.

The Best Tool of the Year

I've written before about the bullet journal method of staying organized and focused. This method grew into the most important tool for me this year.  With the number of committees I've been on, etc., my bullet journal has become by trusty companion. Yes, better than the previous work journals that I have kept. In a increasingly digital work, I think it is telling that the best tool for me remains paper.

And so this is my year in review!  I hope 2019 has had some bright spots for you.  May 2020 bring you the opportunities you have been working towards!

Happy New Year!

This appeared in my email the day before Thanksgiving. Even though you may be on holiday, I want you to see this when you return!  This Dec. 4 webinar panel includes Henry Raine, from the New-York Historical Society, and two people from Backstage Library Works.  Register is open for this webinar, which will run from 1:00-2:00 p.m. ET.

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The photographic collection documenting 50 years of subway construction in New York City is a trove of 20th century visual history. As one of the most frequently requested collections at the New-York Historical Society Museum and Library, these photos were a prime candidate for digitization and metadata enhancement.

Backstage Library Works presents:
Digitization of the New-York Historical Society
Subway Construction Photograph Collection

In this webinar, Henry Raine from the New-York Historical Society joins Annemarie Hartzell and Casey Cheney from Backstage to walk you through the collaborative process of creating digital images and adding geodata to facilitate improved search and access within the collection.

Among the 701 exhibitors at the ALA Annual Conference were several digitization vendors; however, I only took photos of two of the booths.  Interestingly, there is no way to search the exhibitor list on the ALA website to locate all of the digitization vendors. (Trust me, I tried.)  With that as a introduction...

What stood out to me?

First, I continue to be pleased that digitization vendors such as SMA, DLSG, Backstage Library Works, and others continue to exhibit at library conferences.  For some in our industry, digitization is still "new" (even though it isn't). So having a presence and being willing to talk about the technology and its uses is important for those thinking about digitization for the first time (or thinking about digitization in a new way).

Second, the technology is changing.  Scanners are getting bigger.  Complete systems are available for use by library patrons.  Digitizing is being integrated with systems to help students study and help community members create their own works (e.g., photo albums).

By the way, if you have not looked at digitization equipment in a while, don't make decisions based on your old knowledge.  While no one is screaming this from a mountaintop, you should know that these vendors are continuing to develop their technology and systems. They are not standing still.

Third, speaking of complete systems, DLSG offers the Knowledge Information Center, which allows patrons to scan materials and have the output in several different formats, including searchable PDF, JPEG, MS Word, KIC Study System, and others.  These complete systems allow users (patrons, students) to control what they digitize and how they are going to access the material.  While I've mentioned DLSG,  I'm sure other vendors are offering similar technology.

Fourth, what vendors display at conferences isn't always what they have available on their websites.  DLSG had two interesting publications at their booth:

• Digitization Technologies for Public Libraries
• Digitization Technologies for Academic Libraries 

While I cannot find these publications on the Internet, these seem to be similar (but not the same) to some of DLSG's online content, such as this about using KIC in K-12 education.  This is a reminder that if you're interested in a company or technology, it can be good to pick up material from their booths, even if you don't talk to anyone.  What you pick up may be a unique and helpful marketing piece.

I should note that I skimmed the 701 exhibitors, rather than taking a deep dive into any particular area.  I did not have as much unstructured time as I would have liked, and so did not really spend as much time in the exhibit hall as I likely should have. The time I had was spent getting a feel for the entire exhibit hall, going to a couple specific meetings, talking to library colleagues, and resting my feet.  (Thanks to those companies that had seating available that could be used without feeling that a marketing pitch was eminent.)

Photos

Below is a photo of the SMA booth, which contained large format scanners. There are also three photos of the DLSG Knowledge Information Center (KIC) booth, which was massive.

In the past, I have referenced the OCLC report Shifting Gears, which was published in 2007 (Notes from NSLS' Digitization Symposium and The death of high fidelity?). That was an important report to me.  Last week, I was looking through the reports OCLC has published and found an updated version, published in 2017.  If you are involved in digitization, consider reading it, bookmarking it, and/or keeping it. You will not be sorry.

As received in email.

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Between 1998-2000, I worked on a digitization demonstration project in Fairport, NY on women's suffrage.  The web site for Winning the Vote has changed since then, but it does still exist. What also still exists are the lessons I learned, and there is one that I want to talk about in a new context.

Then...

For each suffragist profiled, we had a biography written.  As the project manager, I reviewed everything before it went online, including the biographies. As an African American, the biography of Frederick Douglass caused me to ask questions. The acceptable words used to describe an African American have changed drastically since the 1800s. While it is possible to write about Douglass without using any of them, what words should be used to describe his second wife, who was not a woman of color?  We all knew that detail needed to be stated, but what would be the correct words? I spent a long time asking people of their opinion.  I even asked the question on a couple email discussion lists. I didn't feel as if I received good answers and my choice - European American - was not yet a term that was widely used (and it still isn't).  Thankfully, our project historian located text of Douglass talking about his second wife and that text is how we talked about her.  He said:

No man, perhaps, had ever more offended popular prejudice than I had then lately done. I had married a wife. People who had remained silent over the unlawful relations of white slave masters with their colored slave women loudly condemned me for marrying a wife a few shades lighter than myself. They would have had no objection to my marrying a person much darker in complexion than myself, but to marry one much lighter, and of the complexion of my father rather than of that of my mother, was, in the popular eye, a shocking offense, and one for which I was to be ostracized by white and black alike. (Douglass, Life and Times… p. 534.)

Now...

Many weeks ago, I participated in a webinar where the first two speakers started their presentations by placing themselves in a theoretical or cultural context.  When it became my turn, I quickly did the same, although I had not planned on doing so. At this point, I don't remember what I said about myself, but it likely included that I come from a corporate background and that I'm originally from south-central Pennsylvania (and yes that does matter).  I believe the other two women included in their descriptions the theories they use for their mental models.

A few weeks ago, I was at a training session where we were asked to provide our preferred pronouns when we introduced ourselves.  This was not my first encounter with the need to do this, but the first time that one person's preferred pronouns (they/them/their) caused a bit of angst among a couple of the participants.

When we look at historical figures - those who are no longer living - we often have to put them in context, because they did not do that for themselves. Most did not publicly state what words they wanted used when describing them.  Nor did they state the framework they used when thinking about an issue.  We use whatever information we can find to try to build that context, knowing that it could be quite flawed.  A good example of this is Eleanor Roosevelt's relationship with two of her female friends.  People guess and speculate, but Roosevelt left nothing behind to put those friendships in a context, which answers the questions we have.

While we were fortunate with Winning the Vote to find text of Douglass talking about his second wife, we really don't know what words he or she (Helen Pitts Douglass) used to describe her ethnicity.  Now, however, we have an opportunity to build the context for a living individual whom we are adding to a repository (e.g., The History Makers).  What might we capture in text or metadata?  The first thoughts that come to my mind are:

• How the person prefers to be addressed. This would include pronouns as well as  honorifics.  I think of Mrs. Medgar Evers (Myrlie Evers-Williams) who has spoken publicly on what it means to her when someone she does not know calls her first name.
• Better information on the person's ethnicity.  With more people having their DNA tested, we should capture more than the category the person fits into for the Census.  Personally, my ethnicity is more complicated that I thought, based on my DNA results, yet I identify out of habit as being African American.
• The words and phrases the person uses to describe himself/herself/themselves.  This might be how the person describes their work or personal life.  For example - and thinking of a family member - is the person an architect, artist, professor, or all three?
• The person's gender, gender identity, and sexual orientation. While a person might not want to have this shared publicly, I would hope that the person would understand its usefulness, in terms of context, in the future.  I think of David Bowie, how he lived his life, and then the speculations which occurred after his death.
• Information on what influenced the person.  This could be where the person grew up, what tradition the person was trained in, or something else.

Yes, that would be work and, yes, that would be helpful.  In 100 years, when the words we use to describe people have changed again, knowing how someone described themselves would solve a headache that I know will occur.

By the way, perhaps we each should get this started by writing this information for ourselves and placing it somewhere were it can be found (online or offline).

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The photo is of a Carte de visite showing Frederick Douglass. This work is the collection of St. John Fisher College, Lavery Library.

I am passing along what I received in email.

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DIGITAL DIRECTIONS: Fundamentals of Creating and Managing Digital Collections
October 15-16, 2018
Commerce Club - Atlanta, Georgia

Guided by a faculty of national experts, join colleagues from institutions large and small for two days of instruction on best practices and practical strategies for the creation, curation, and use of digital collections. Network with colleagues who have similar challenges, interact with faculty one-on-one, and gain a comprehensive introduction to digitization and digital preservation. 

Are you just getting started with a digital project? Trying to bring several digital projects together into a cohesive digital preservation program? Or are you well into a digital collections project and need a refresher on the latest standards and best practices?

The Digital Directions conference is geared toward professionals working with digital collections at archives, libraries, museums, historical organizations, tribal organizations, government agencies, business and special libraries and archives, and other organizations that steward digital collections. Discounted student rate is available.

More information is available on the NEDCC web site.  Note that the conference agenda is coming soon.

Continuing with highlighting books from Rowman & Littlefield, an exhibitor at the ALISE 2018 conference, next up...

In 2016, Joy Perrin (Texas Tech University) released the book Digitizing Flat Media: Principles and Practices. According to the publisher:

Here is a concise guide to the nuts and bolts of converting flat media (books, papers, maps, posters, slides, micro formats, etc) into digital files. It provides librarians and archivists with the practical knowledge to understand the process and decision making in the digitization of flat media. Instead of having to learn by trial and error, they will get a well-rounded education of the practical aspects of digitization and have a better understanding of their options. This is the stuff they don’t teach you in school.

This book is available in both hard and soft covers, as well as in an ebook edition.

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FTC Disclaimer: Digitization 101 is an Amazon affiliate and receives a small commission if you purchase a product or service from an Digitization 101 Amazon link.

This week, I'm going to highlight four books from Rowman & Littlefield, an exhibitor at the ALISE 2018 conference.  First up...

This month (March 2018), the third edition of the book Preserving Digital Materials by Dr. Ross Harvey  (RMIT University) and Jaye Weatherburn (University of Melbourne) will be released.  According to the publisher:

This is a concise handbook and reference for a wide range of stakeholders who need to understand how preservation works in the digital world. It notes the increasing importance of the role of new stakeholders and the general public in digital preservation. It can be used as both a textbook for teaching digital preservation and as a guide for the many stakeholders who engage in digital preservation. Its synthesis of current information, research, and perspectives about digital preservation from a wide range of sources across many areas of practice makes it of interest to all who are concerned with digital preservation. It will be of use to preservation administrators and managers, who want a professional reference text, information professionals, who wish to reflect on the issues that digital preservation raises in their professional practice, and students in the field of digital preservation.

This book is available in both hard and soft covers, as well as in an ebook edition.

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FTC Disclaimer: Digitization 101 is an Amazon affiliate and receives a small commission if you purchase a product or service from an Digitization 101 Amazon link.

This is a  worth reading story about a Tlingit Killer Whale Hat and it is replica.  I don't want to give away any of the details, but it is interesting to read about the use of the replica.  This video provide use visuals about the digitization process.

When we place content online, either through digitization or the creation of new digital works, we have no idea how people will use it.  Yes, we know how we want them to use it, but we don't always know how people really use it. 

Do they consume the content in the order we expect?

Do they listen, watch or read the entire piece?

Do they follow the links or resources which we provide?

This summer, I recorded all of the video lectures which will be used in my class this fall.  After the lectures were created, I had to then watch them all in order to check their quality.  And I did what I frequently do when I listen to podcasts, I changed the speed to 1.5 or 2x normal.  Yes, even I am understandable if you listen to me at twice my normal speaking speed!

Everyone who creates content makes an assumption about its use.  While my assumption in recording the lectures was that students would watch them at their normal speed, I proved to myself that my assumption didn't need to be true. 

I actually don't like hour long podcasts, but what it I realized that I'm going to listen to it in half the time?  I have yet to ingrain my 1.5 reality into how I select what to listen to.  If I did, I'd recognize that those long podcasts really aren't that long and I would begin to consume a broader range of content.

What are your assumptions as you create digital content?  As a consumer of content, what are you doing which might alter your assumptions? Could altering your assumptions expand your horizons?

Through this article in Nature, about an extensive program in Venice (Italy), we can see a wonderful use of digitization and machine learning.

[Frédéric Kaplan] has an ambition to capture well over 1,000 years of records in dynamic digital form, encompassing the glorious era of the Most Serene Republic of Venice. The project, which he calls the Venice Time Machine, will scan documents including maps, monographs, manuscripts and sheet music. It promises not only to open up reams of hidden history to scholars, but also to enable the researchers to search and cross-reference the information, thanks to advances in machine-learning technologies.

If you're not interested in reading the article, then watch this short video (2.5 minutes).


Thanks to both Chad Harper and David Vampola for sharing this article with me.  

1940 Census publicity photo

We - the global we - are digitizing our history, including birth, death, marriage, census and other records for a vast number of people.  Ancestry.com looks at these records and uses OCR and algorithms to make sense of them.  However, there are problems.  Records from the late 1800s and early 1900s are handwritten, which can make them difficult to interpret.  Using the information about the age of the person at the census leads to a guess about the year that person was born, and the guess has a 50% chance of being correct.  Then there is the problem of names and if the name is correct. 100 years ago, people knew who each other were and didn't care if the name was misspelled, or if the name was just wrong.  However, now all of these potential errors are causing problems.

We cannot go through every line of data that is being digitized, compare it to other data, and then correct it.  While the data would be more accurate, the process would be too time-consuming and costly.  Ancestry.com (and I'm sure other sites) allow people to compile information and make corrections on their "copy."  This is a wonderful solution, if the person knows the data is wrong, but what if the person has no idea?

This topic came to mind because I'm researching my family tree and the data isn't always close to being accurate. Thankfully, I know enough about the family tree to be able to make intelligence decisions about the data I'm using (or so I hope).  But I cannot go in and correct what I know is blatantly wrong and that is frustrating.

If you are digitizing material today and making it available, or even archiving born digital materials:

• How do you know that the information is accurate?  
• What do you need to tell people about the data, which might help them understand its potential lack of accuracy?  
• Can you build-in a feedback mechanism that would allow people to provide corrections?

Site of Steinway Hall, W. 57th

Yes, I know people are thinking about this.  I also know that people are creating systems that do allow for user-generated comments, descriptions, and tagging.  People are also doing this on the Internet in places like Flickr.  You see this, for example, with the historic photos that have been uploaded by the Library of Congress.  If you check the photo on the right, you'll see interesting and useful comments. Can we do more of this?

Christopher Kenneally recently did an interview Brad Turner, the Benetech Vice President, who is overseeing the company’s Global Literacy Program.  Benetech's mission is to help people with print disabilities and other learning challenges have access to materials in an accessible format.  Turner notes that 3% and 5% of the general population need material in an accessible format, which translates into millions of people in the U.S. and worldwide.

I found this conversation to be quite interesting. First, it interested me because because I had not heard of Benetech before. Second, I know how important meeting the accessibility needs of our community is.  Acquiring material for your library does not automatically mean that everyone in your community can use it.  The person may not be able to use the material's native format.  Third, I know that this work has become easier because content can be placed in a digital format or is being created in a digital format.   In fact, Benetech was founded by someone interested in pattern recognition, which is the foundation of OCR.

If you're interested in accessibility or how a rocket scientist got involved in making print accessible, then I hope you will listen to or read the interview. This 15-minute interview is available as audio and text on the Beyond the Book website.

The Reading Room is an open access scholarly publication focused on special collections.  Its second issue contains an article by April M. Hathcock entitled, "From Dusty Boxes to Data Bytes Acquiring Rights to Special Collections in the Digital Age."  This is remains a topic that people are digging into because there is still so much to be digitized and made accessible.  If you're one of those focused on it, this article may be for you.  Abstract:

Acquiring the rights to special collections material is of increasing importance as special collections are increasingly being digitized and placed online. Greater access to materials can lead to greater risk of copyright infringement, but for materials being acquired currently, it is possible to reduce the risk by acquiring  rights at the point of accession. At New York University, key stakeholders  addressed these issues by creating a framework for special collections acquisitions agreements that covers common circumstances surrounding the transfer of intellectual rights to special collections material, specifically with an eye to the possible digitization and placement of the material online.

My recent class development activities and teaching have been tripping over articles and documents worth remembering.  Although this is a few years old, it is worth knowing that it exists. In this  2011 OCLC report, Ricky Erway wrote:

So in an extremely casual survey, we asked some of our colleagues in libraries, archives, and museums to identify initiatives where non-book digitization was being done “at scale.” We didn’t define “at scale,” because we thought we’d know it when we saw it. It wasn’t always so easy. We heard from lots of places: some with minor achievements, others making a big difference. We selected a few of the latter stories to share with you here. Each one starts with a picture of the equipment in use at the site along with a sample from the collection being digitized.

There are nine stories from nine organizations. I appreciate that the stories include the names of vendors used.

The Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse, NY is known for its world-class ceramic collection.  Items from that collection have been digitized so they are can be reviewed while rotating them.  This Madonna by Waylande Desantis Gregory is a good example of the work.  When they're ready, I hope they publish an article (or two) about this work because this will be of interest to many others.

Syracuse University's Belfer Audio Archives has been producing Sound Beat for several years and perhaps you've heard these 90-second segments on your radio station.  All of the recordings used are in the Belfer Sound Archive, from speeches to music to the sounds of nature.  Each episode give a quick overview or history and a portion of the recording.  It's possible to subscribe (free) the Sound Beat recordings and receive the new one each day.  You can also add Sound Beat to your web site through a widget.

Sound Beat makes the past available through audio.  I can imagine someone wanting to connect these sound bites to other digitized content to make a media rich experience. 

Jeanne Drewes has written a thoughtful article in American Libraries magazine entitled "Saving At-Risk Audiovisual Materials." Yes, digitization is mentioned.