Prioritizing and processing for CONTENTdm...The Story of the University Photograph Collection…my first month at work •The Notebook Hundreds of pages of corrections relating to

Prioritizing and processing for CONTENTdm: How digitization is influencing archival arrangement and description

David Gwynn, Kathelene McCarty Smith, and Jennifer MotszkoThe University of North Carolina at Greensboro

CONTENTdm Users Group Meeting | Nashville 6 August 2015

ABOUT US

UNCG digital collections


Priority focus areas:

• UNCG history

• Women’s history

• Performing arts

• Local and regional

history


• http://libcdm1.uncg.edu/

• Over 350,000 digital images/pages online

• DPLA: 31,077 items

• WorldCat: 29,039 items

• Currently 3.5 FTE plus students

http://libcdm1.uncg.edu/

Special Collections/Archives

• Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives

• http://library.uncg.edu/info/depts/scua/

• Areas:

– University Archives

– Manuscript Collections

– Special Collections

– Rare Books

• Currently 12 FTE, plus students/volunteers

http://library.uncg.edu/info/depts/scua/

INTRODUCTION

Today’s Agenda

• Introduction

• The photo collection

• Manuscript collections

• Conclusion and questions

WARNING: We will be asking for feedback and

discussion at the end!

Some questions

• Who drives processing and digitization

priorities?

– Digitization/IT librarians?

– Archivists/special collections librarians?

– Grants? Donors?

• Who sets the timetable?

• Who pays for it?

• Is processing even necessary? Create access

now even if it might be reprocessed later?

EARLY DIGITIZATION EFFORTS AT UNCG

Beyond Books and Buildings

• Circa 2003

• LSTA-funded

• Curated “boutique” project

• Documents related to the

founding of UNCG

• Static HTML

Women Vets/Civil Rights Greensboro

• Home-grown CMS

using ASP.net

• Highly curated

• Artificial “series”

designations that did

not correspond to the

physical collections

Others

• Hansen Performing Arts

Collection

• American Publishers Trade

Bindings

• Assorted flickr projects

Overriding themes

• Curated “boutique” digitization

• No overall collection development plan

• No attempt to replicate the experience of

“browsing” physical collections

• No real relationship between digital and physical

collections

• No context

2009-2010

Staff changes

• Jennifer Motszko,

Manuscripts Archivist (2008)

• David Gwynn,

Digital Projects Coordinator (2009)

• Kathelene McCarty Smith,

Digital projects and Photo Archivist (2010)

CONTENTdm arrives

• Two collections ca. 2008

• Became default platform for new collections in

2009

• Allowed us to deploy new collections very

quickly

CONTENTdm concerns

• CONTENTdm wants a hierarchy or at least a

logical system of organization and a numbering

scheme

• Licensing issues affects number of items and

display

Mass digitization begins

• Thinking of collections differently

• How to make the structure of digital collections

match the structure of physical collections

• Contemplating folder level display rather than

item level (MPLP for digital collections)

• Dealing with unprocessed collections

CONTENTdm workflow solutions

• Compound objects to represent folder structure

• Level of description

• How to provide context within digital collections

• How to deal with undigitized items

• What to do with collections that were already in

the pipeline

THE STORY OF THE PHOTOGRAPH COLLECTION

The Story of the University Photograph Collection…a little background

• Hundreds of photographs

relating to exterior and

interiors of extant and non-

extant campus buildings

were borrowed from the

University Archives,

scanned, and uploaded

into CONTENTdm


• The photographs

were given erroneous

UA numbers that were

not related to their

physical equivalents


• Metadata was created

based on sometimes

incorrect information

found on the back of

photos or “memory”

• All buildings were given

the name of the current

building

The Story of the University Photograph Collection…my first month at work

• The Notebook Hundreds of pages of corrections relating to contentDM

metadata (David received one too)

• The Meeting

A meeting involving David, me, and our department heads

• The Realization The collection would have to be processed immediately to

correlate the digital with the physical items

It would be my job to do so

I was the new photo archivist

Why Campus Buildings and Grounds?

Photograph Collection: Campus Buildings and Grounds




Photo Collection: As Kathelene Found It

• Artificial collection

• Dates ranged from 1892-

2008

• Arranged alphabetically

• Includes prints, slides,

negatives, and digital

photos

Photo Collection: As Kathelene Found It

• Unprocessed, no collection/folder

numbers or series assigned

• Processing not a priority

• Many duplicates

• Some material in folders were not

photographs

• Buildings organized by current name

Photo Collection: As David Found It

• CONTENTdm

“experiment”

• No documented process

• Inconsistent metadata

• No relationship to the

physical collection

Photo Collection: As David Found It

• No distinction between

slides, prints, and

negatives

• Random scans, multiple

projects, multiple server

locations

• “Folder? File?” What’s in

a name?

Overall challenges and issues

• No team plan between

archives and library IT

department – including

item selection, non-print

formats, or workflow

Overall challenges and issues

• No structure to establish

context across formats

• Inaccurate and incomplete

metadata/numerous

duplicates and copies

• Arbitrary UA number

assignments

Metadata Issues

Reclaiming the Project

Implementing a strategy for reclaiming the

project:

• Designated as an official digital project

• Interdepartmental project team assembled

• Collaborative workflow and communication plan

developed

• Created master metadata document and

controlled vocabulary

First Steps

Master metadata document and controlled

vocabulary:

• Detailed research on each campus building

• Controlled vocabulary for CONTENTdm based

on current (or final) building name

Reprocessing the Print Collection

• Began to process the

collection

Prioritized Buildings,

Grounds, and Views

series

Assigned UA numbers to all

photographs

Correspond print copy to its

digital equivalent

Verified metadata

Reprocessing the Print Collection

Created series:

• Academic Units, Departments, and University Offices

• Athletics and Sports

• Buildings, Grounds, and Views

• Campus Live

• Concerts, Plays, and Productions

• Events

• Groups, Associations, and Clubs

• Objects

• Portraits and Biographical Images

Going forward

• Collaboration and communication are key!

• Benefits of working together

Whose project was it, anyway?

• IT-driven – Archives were forced to set priorities on IT’s timetable

• No collaborative input or communication with archives

• “Our stuff, your platform”

So what comes first? Setting priorities

THE PHOTO COLLECTION AND BEYOND…

So how did we handle it?


Digital collection “matches” physical collection.

– Basically a metadata issue

– Added new folder structure to metadata.

– Used standardized building descriptions in

one field and individual photo descriptions in

another.


• Opted not to use

compound objects

for Buildings and

Grounds photos.

• Also considered

(and decided

against) building

static pages for

buildings.

Description of individual photo:

Building/folder-level description:

Going forward

Campus life photos

• Ultimately still went with item-

level descriptions after some

experimenting

• Eliminated compound objects

Going forward

• Campus events and other collections:

– Reprocessing in progress

– Will be doing only folder-level description and

presenting folders as compound objects

– May go as far as doing individual photo titles if

merited

Manuscript collections

• Upgraded CONTENTdm license

• Increased funding, staffing, and support

• Increased demand for digitization of entire

collections


McIver records

• 140000 items from microfilm

• Issues with original

processing

• Realized that in some cases,

collections that were

processed under old best

practices did not work well

archivally OR digitally.


Watson and Jarrell: Big issue was context

• “Blank” items for undigitized folders

• Bracket titles

• These were generally static collections without

a lot of motion

ANNA GOVE COLLECTION

Dr. Anna Maria Gove

Dr. Anna Gove Papers

Anna Gove Collection: As Jen Found It

• Two separate Manuscript collections

Anna Gove Collection: As Jen Found It

• Textiles removed

• Photographs organized by place, event,

affiliation

• Correspondence divided by recipient

• Loose items in boxes

• No original order

What we did

• Low hanging fruit first – Correspondence

• Digitized with metadata at the folder level

• Issues?

– Additional materials

– Items not in the collection

EVER ONWARD…

Anna Gove in CONTENTdm

• We’re still in the middle; it’s a bit of a moving

target

• Making metadata changes to keep up with

reprocessing

Anna Gove in CONTENTdm

• Problem of adding new items and nodes to

existing compound objects

• When is it OK to harvest?

LESSONS AND QUESTIONS

Lessons learned

• Don’t be afraid to start.

• Don’t be afraid to fix it/change your plan.

• Don’t keep going when it’s wrong.

• Think twice about digitizing unprocessed

collections.

• Communicate and understand each other’s

languages.

Questions for discussion

• How much of a priority is reprocessing for

digitization?

• Is reprocessing even necessary?

• Should we create access now even if it might be

reprocessed later?


How should we deal with collections that are still

growing?


Who sets the timetable? Who pays for it?


Who has oversight/quality control?

• What if students/temps are involved?

• How do we correct old processing/metadata

mistakes?


Who drives processing and digitization priorities?

• Digitziation/IT librarians?

• Archivists?

• Grants (shopping in our collections)?

• Donors?

• Timing: Workflow/events/anniversaries?

Contact, etc.

David Gwynn: [email protected] McCarty Smith: [email protected] Motszko: [email protected]

Collections:http://libcdm1.uncg.edu/

Blog:http://http://uncgdigital.blogspot.com/

Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/uncgdigital

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

http://libcdm1.uncg.edu/

http://http/uncgdigital.blogspot.com/

https://www.facebook.com/uncgdigital