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On May 27th Lynn, Megan and Giz met in the ITC Screening Room at 10am for a Mass Digitization Collaborative Information Session by Lyrasis. Laurie Gemmill the Lyrasis Digital Services Program Manager was the speaker. After a quick test of the webinar tools, Laurie Gemmill wanted to get a feel for everyone’s location, so we marked our location on a map.
Palinet established this collaborative about a year ago to assist members with digitization needs. Recently members asked for help with the specific digitization work. Reached out to the Sloan Foundation and committed to do 60,000 books or 20,000,000 pages, includes books, serials, etc. They are also looking to expand this digitization to oversize books, and other media like video and audio.
Laurie Gemmill began with an explanation of the program. On her first day there were over a hundred messages asking for assistance thanks to an announcement of the Sloan Foundation grant. Began with some mini-pilots at a variety of institutions like the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh and Penn State. Over a dozen mini-pilots were held. Pilot experiences were positive despite the variety of goals across the institutions. The benefits as seen by the pilot participants included: centralized coordination, visibility, ease of startup and billing, collaborative collection development, sustainability, digitization and OCR, metadata, and digital files and preservation.
The service includes: digitization, including OCR and quality control, hosting and preservation of files, project coordination, selection assistance, a quote based on # of volumes (not pages) and a one time cost. The Sloan Foundation grant helps by subsidizing costs, bigger projects get bigger discounts.
The overall process begins with a request for a quote, sign the quote, and have an orientation. Then materials are selected, copyright and metadata are the main criteria. Items are shipped, digitized and returned. The digitization centers are all over, but the ones in our close proximity are at Princeton Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne and Allen County Public Library: Fort Wayne, Indiana and Historic Barrow Mansion: Jersey City, New Jersey. Staff turn each page by hand before lowering glass platen and digital cameras shoot from above, both left and right simultaneously.
To see books contributed by Lyrasis members visit http://www.archive.org/details.php?identifier=lyrasis
Items are digitized literally cover to cover. Flip book and Flip book beta let users page through the book. Full text comes from OCR. The “all files” options shows users a complete list of the file types available. Master files are JPEG 2000 files.
Microfilm is still done at San Francisco center. It will be rolled out to other centers once the process is optimized.
Items are digitized at dpi relative to size, 300-600 dpi range:
•14.2″x 9.4″= 300 dpi
•10.6″x 7″= 400 dpi
•8.5″x 5.5″= 500 dpi
-overall size limit: 14.5″tall x 9.7″page width
-can do fold outs
Books are digitized in entirety “cover to cover” including blank pages. Books are scanned in full color. Microfilm is scanned as grayscale.
FAQS:
•How will our materials be handled?
-Staff experienced with fragile material
-Can accommodate specific handling requirements
•Will we get copies of images?
-Yes.Once digitized, files are available to download
•Can we link to materials?
-Yes. Feel free to update catalog records; links are permanent
Collaborative Members:
•Bloomsburg University
•Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh
•Curtis Institute of Music
•Duquesne University
•Elizabethtown College
•Free Library of Philadelphia
•GoucherCollege
•Independence Seaport Museum
•Institute for Advanced Study
•Lancaster County Historical Society
•Lycoming College
•New Jersey State Library
•Paterson Free Public Library
•Pennsylvania College of Technology
•Penn State University
•Philadelphia Museum of Art
•Rutgers University
•St. Mary’s College of Maryland
•University of Maryland
-Baltimore
-College Park
-School of Law
•University of Pennsylvania
•University of Pittsburgh
•University of Scranton
•Villanova University
•West Chester University
•West Virginia University
How to Participate:
•Go to Lyrasis website
-View MDC info
-Sign up for info session
-Request a quote
•http://www.lyrasis.org/Products-and-Services/Digital-Services.aspx
•Contact Laurie Gemmill
-Laurie.Gemmill@lyrasis.org
-800.233.3401 x 1291
-Sign up for listserv
1 Comment on ‘LYRASIS Mass Digitization Collaborative Information Session-ASERL’
Sounds like libraries are establishing a better paradigm and approach for these projects. It seemed like in the early years, they were all over the place. Interesting-thanks Giz!