Keeping the Faith and Sharing it too

The Biblical Recorder Digitization Project

Vicki Johnson & Rebecca Petersen

A River Runs Through It- 1992

"They were Methodists, a denomination my father referred to as

Baptists who could read."

History of The Biblical Recorder

• Started in 1833

• Founded by Thomas Meredith, a pastor in New Bern, NC

• The Biblical Recorder documents many themes and trends including:

• the preoccupations, ideals and controversies that characterized NC Baptist life over a century and a half

• prominent attitudes and opinions expressed through editorial columns and letters to the editor

• the development of churches throughout NC

• the development of Baptist schools and colleges throughout the South

• examples of advertising and products that were available during the Civil War

• changes in attitudes and the political views of Baptists in NC and the United States over the decades

• the history of Baptist benevolence work

• the experiences of missionaries in China, Africa and Southeast Asia

History of the Baptist Collection at Wake Forest

• Wake Forest College founded in 1834

• ZSR Library's NC Baptist Historical Collection is the official repository for NC Baptist churches and institutions

• We hold one of the most complete runs of The Biblical Recorder, and it is the most highly used collection in the archives

• Other Baptist Archives:

Mercer University, GA

Richmond University, VA

Furman University, SC

Permission from the Publishers

• Editor and Board members of The Biblical Recorder voted on permission

• They granted permission for digitization

• The editor wrote a letter to include with the grant proposal

Grant Funding, Outsourcing, and Hosting

• Dream of keyword search-ability and online access

• Demand for online access of high use collection

• Not enough people, money or time to do it on our own

• Applied for IMLS Grant

• Outsourced digitization to Olive from existing microfilm reels

• Digitized 1834-1970

• Olive worked to digitize materials and get online at their hosted site

Unexpected Challenges

• Quality, availability, and access to microfilm

• Unbinding of originals

Mad Rush to Get BRs to Montreal

Unbinding

Challenges

Challenges

• Planning and execution of grant was not fluid

• The distance and locations that the microfilm and paper copies had to travel

• Time-the grant had to be completed by a certain time

• Turnover in personnel as well as varied work flows and styles

Olive to host the materials on Remote Server

• Olive will hosto Frees up server space for ZSRo Limits our controlo Any changes have to be made through Olive

• Analytics unavailable

• Ongoing maintenance (for a fee)

http://recorder.zsr.wfu.edu

Benefits!!

• Users benefit

• Do not have to search paper copies or microfilm

• Online patron access

• Keyword searching

• Frees up spaceo Sending paper copies (up to 1970) to off-site

Paper Copies to Off-Site

Questions?

Please email Vicki Johnson johnsokv@wfu.edu

or Rebecca Petersen petersrb@wfu.edu

AND, check out The Biblical Recorder site

http://recorder.zsr.wfu.edu