Preservation. Nara. Virtual Museum Collections, 19th Century Style. Our digital age is not the discoverer of scanning technology, though it is in the process of discovering how to do mass scanning, at least of flat objects. On a recent visit to the Victoria and Albert Museum in London (one of our Partners), Jennifer Schaffner and I discussed the museum’s digitisation plans with Doug Dodds, Head of Central Services. These are ambitious: they intend to digitise all 750k objects from their Prints and Drawings Study Room collection over the next few years. They have already digitised the first 2,500, and are working systematically, with an intention not simply to ‘cherry-pick’ the obvious items for digitisation. Doug was however keen to show us that the V&A has been in the virtual collection business for a long time – and a particular heyday occurred in the late 19th century. Related posts:
Digitization on the Cheap - Tennant: Digital Libraries - Blog on. Toward Digitizing All Forms of Documentation. Abstract Large-scale book scanning projects are delivering unprecedented access to the majority of library holdings by giving users unparalleled access to vast collections of books. However, these efforts have focused on typical bound books, which leaves many forms of documentation out of the digitization framework. We present techniques that we have developed to digitize numerous other forms of documentation, including deteriorated manuscripts and photography. These technologies are engineered in conjunction with budgetary and physical constraints often placed on digitization projects. Introduction Recent large-scale document digitization initiatives have created new modes of access to modern library collections with the development of new hardware and software technologies. After a brief overview of the current progress that large-scale digitization initiatives are making, we will address particular issues that arise when scanning damaged and/or deteriorating works.
Google Book Search. On the Virtues of Preexisting Material: A Manifesto :: absent ma. That hold and rest. The clavicle is the first bone to begin ossifying and the last to finish: a long bone, hard, and without marrow. A small bolt that fastens you limb to body: either of two curvings attaching breastbone to shoulders rounded, thrown back. Part of the pectoral girdle, that embracing trap, where fins derived before arms. Rising above it the stalk of your neck, and below it sits your first rib. All the time I have spent my cheek against the clavicle of my lover, and even if there is a need in the bone to be near bone. No record of this. Only skin covers this bone so easily surveyed by finger and tongue, and on slender frames also by eye.
SAA2008: Revealing Archival Collections at the Web’s Surface (Se. The official title of Session 102 was We’re Not the Destination, We’re the Journey: Revealing Archival Collections at the Web’s Surface. If you attended this session or don’t want to read through the details, you can skip to the end and just read my thoughts on this session.
California Digital Library The first presentation was by Lena Zentall of the California Digital Library (CDL). I believe it was titled something like “Untitled <snappy name here>”. Start with a box -> described by finding aids -> digital copies of finding aids put on line and cherry picked individual items are digitized to be featured online. Two Audiences, Two Sites CDL has taken a new approach. Online Archive of California (OAC): presents both finding aids and digitized primary sources and targets archivists, historians & researchersCalisphere – only takes primary sources (for now) and targets k-12 teachers, lifelong learners, and undergraduates Collections can have home in several places. 3 Approaches Pros of Web 2.0.
Blowing the Doors Off the Archive - Tennant: Digital Libraries - A role for ‘Libraries of the Future’ in the UK: d. Richard Ovenden, the next 10 years in special col. Our friends at UC Berkeley reminded me that I was going to blog about the talk that Richard Ovenden (Keeper of Special Collections at the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford) gave for the CURL Research Support Task Force.
I did not attend the talk, but my colleagues Jennifer and John did. Perhaps they can fill in with their own impressions in another post. My comments are based on this fine writeup from the Archives Hub Blog. I write this as a follow up to my posting on Fran Blouin’s talk. Interesting points: The role of special collections going forward: Ovenden sounded a positive note about the future of special collections.
We’ve heard this before: when all that’s non-unique has been digitized or is easily sharable, what will increasingly define library collections is the unique and rare materials. The EBBO effect: as materials are digitized and made available (even under a license as with Early English Books Online) how does this impact collecting practices? Related posts: Burning Books, Libraries, and Archives. If one is searching for a good explanation about why the Internet should not be considered the replacement for libraries, you don’t need to look beyond Mark Y.
Herring’s Fool’s Gold: Why the Internet Is No Substitute for a Library (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Co., Inc., 2007). Herring, an academic librarian, grew this book from a request by his boss to develop counterpoints to arguments mustered against the building or expanding of libraries that argued that the riches of the Web negated such enterprises. Herring pulls together every bit of evidence of any use in demonstrating why and how libraries and the Web are different. It is an interesting argument, and one that every information professional and student preparing for a career in the information professions ought to read and reflect upon (but this should be done critically). Herring’s book is not criticism about the Web, but rather it is an argument about the perception of the Web.