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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
UNCG digital collections
Priority focus areas:
• UNCG history
• Women’s history
• Performing arts
• Local and regional
history
UNCG digital collections
• 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
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
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 Story of the University Photograph Collection…a little background
• The photographs
were given erroneous
UA numbers that were
not related to their
physical equivalents
The Story of the University Photograph Collection…a little background
• 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
Photograph Collection: Campus Buildings and Grounds
Photograph Collection: 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?
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.
So how did we handle it?
• 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
Manuscript 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.
Manuscript collections
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?
Questions for discussion
How should we deal with collections that are still
growing?
Questions for discussion
Who sets the timetable? Who pays for it?
Questions for discussion
Who has oversight/quality control?
• What if students/temps are involved?
• How do we correct old processing/metadata
mistakes?
Questions for discussion
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
