One Scanning Project Experience

In the textbook for the Digital Collections course there was a chapter about scanning. While reading this chapter I was reminded of a project I worked on while working in a bank in Colorado. I worked for the bank in the Deposit Support Service department which was charged with providing support to not only external customers but also internal staff. My specific job dealt with organizing and maintaining the banks active deposit account documents. Initially part of my job was to fax signature cards to tellers to verify account holder signatures. This was a very time consuming and inefficient system.

Over time the bank decided that it was time to incorporate a digitized image of each signature card into the account software to allow the tellers to simply click a button and view the card. So of course I was the one that they assigned the task of organizing and scanning the thousands of individual signature cards. As is often the case the bank wanted to do this with as little actual cost as possible so I was given this task to complete with an old one sheet at a time scanner that had been in some tech room closest for years. Each day I would come to work and spend hours sitting at that scanner feeding in signature cards (which were of varying size and condition). I would have to evaluate each image to ensure it was readable and that it was tagged with the correct account number. I worked diligently for almost three months without making much headway (this was a mid-sized state bank with thousands of depositors and accounts). Finally, my bosses were able to convince upper management that outsourcing the scanning to a company with better equipment would be worth it so I was given some help with the backlog of cards. However, after the scanning project was completed there was still a lot of cleanup required because the scanning company had not ensured that the images were scanned in order or that the correct account numbers were assigned to the image. Months after we launched the service to our tellers I was still getting calls because the wrong image was assigned, the image was upside down, or there was no image at all.

From this experience I came to the realization that this type of project is very time consuming and requires a lot of hard work to accomplish. Even with a scanning company using their professional quality scanners the work goes slowly and the end result can be less than expected. When visiting the digital collections of great libraries, achieves, and museums it may be easy to forget that someone has to take the time to digitize, organize, and maintain the collection.

Digitizing 101

While trying to decide on an idea for my project for Digital Collections I decided to explore a little more about digitizing and some of things I should be aware of before creating an actual collection.  I began by doing some research using the Library Literature databases. While searching I came across the article Digitizing 101 by K. Matthew Dames and Jill Hurst-Wahl.  The article is very brief and written in a very fairly simple straight forward language and was a very good place for me to begin my brainstorming.  Much of the article deals with copyright and obtaining permission to digitize (Which is a whole other post or even class in itself) but the article also provides a basic overview of issues to consider before beginning a digitizing project. These issues can be summarized by the seven questions that the authors suggest you address before beginning (Dames and Hurst-Wahl 2007, 3):

1. What materials should be digitized and why?

2. How will the materials be digitized?

3. Who is the collections audience?

4. How will the digitized material be accessed?

5. How will the materials be maintained and managed?

6. What processes need to be put into place to insure long term access?

7. What methods will be used to make users aware of the materials?

For me these questions highlighted and helped me to focus my thoughts of the collection that I hope to propose and possibly one day build.  One thing that really stood out to me is the necessity of a need and use for the collection. Sure it is fun to try and be on the cutting edge of innovation by digitizing your entire library collection or business records but is there really a need to do that.  It is much easier to answer the questions above and justify the collection if there is a clear need or use for the materials to be available digitally.

Source:

Dames, K.Matthew, and Jill Hurst-Wahl. 2007.  Digitizing 101. Library Journal. Winter: 2-4.

Favorite Digital Collections

Here is a list of my 3 favorite digital collections.  To me these three collections highlight what I think collections should do: to provide access to a large amount of information and to allow access to information that may not be easily accessible to people in other areas of the world.

American Memory Collection at the Library of Congress

Probably my favorite collection available on the Internet is the American Memory digital collection provided by the Library of Congress. This collection provides a wealth of knowledge about American History from a proven source of knowledge, The Library of Congress. One of the main reasons I find this collection useful and interesting is the amount of information available. Over 9 million different pieces of information dealing with United States history are available. Individual items include maps, manuscripts, photographs, sound, and video recordings provided by a number of public and private collections. It would be very hard to find another source that provides as much information as this resource. Another thing that appeals to me is the ease of access that can be found in the various search options. A user can search by using either a basic or an advanced search feature. If this does not appeal to the user then a browsing option is available by topic. One of my favorite things is to just browse a topic such as “cities and towns” for interesting historical photographs. A user might come across an event they never knew occurred or place they never knew existed. Many times I will just browse the topics and lose myself in a subject that I really enjoy, American History.  

Miss Frank E. Buttolph American Menu Collection

This next collection is an example of something I found on the internet and really enjoyed because I had never considered using this type of material as an information resource. While completing a research project, for one of the professors I am a G.A. for, I came across this digital collection provided by the New York Public Library. The collection includes images of a number of menus that were collected by Miss Buttolph during her lifetime. The menus are organized by year and cover a range of years from 1851 to 1956. Many of the menus are from fine dining restaurants or special occasions. So if you have ever wanted to know what the World Champion Boston Red Sox ate at a congratulatory dinner held in 1912 than you are in luck. I enjoy this collection not only because it is a fascinating subject but because it is a collection that most people may never even realize is available. I guess it just shows you really can find anything somewhere on the net. Not only could some of these menus be considered a work of art but they also tell researchers a great deal about social customs and history.  

Louvre Museum Collection website

This website created by the Louvre Museum in Paris provides digital access to a number of the paintings and artifacts held by this world famous museum. The site is organized by the curatorial departments within the museum. The site also allows users to search using terms. Each department includes samples of the collection along with a physical description and a short historical description. This collection allows people that may never get to experience the Louvre in person a chance to experience and learn from the museum virtually.  I really enjoy just exploring something that I may never experience firsthand.  I love how I can visit a museum and learn aout the art and history found in it right from my couch.