The Library of Congress / Ameritech National Digital Library Competition (1996-1999) |
Lessons Learned: Staffing and Skill Requirements
Several awardees highlighted the need for particular skills and the
challenge of juggling tasks among the staff available. The value of
continuity, experience, and individuals who can handle several aspects of
a digitization project was also mentioned.
- University of Chicago
- Online Collection: American Environmental Photographs, 1897-1931
- This collection consists of 5,800 photographic images in
various original formats and is being scanned in-house. Item-level
descriptions are being prepared during the project period.
- In the first interim report, Alice Schreyer emphasized:
- . . . the importance of maintaining workflow continuity
and of not segmenting tasks and responsibilities. She commented that
"as we talked through the actual project workflow, we began to think
more creatively about the types of tasks we specified and how they might
be better integrated into a single workflow." The project team
decided to combine the .75 FTE Manuscripts and Archives Assistant position
with the 1 FTE Scanning Technician position, which allowed one person to
play a central role as operator and manager of an important aspect of the
project."
- The Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley, with the California Historical Society
- Online Collection: Chinese in California, 1850-1920
- The plan for this collection consists of 7,000 images of various
original
formats and 5,500 pages of encoded electronic texts. In the interim report, Merrilee Proffitt notes that:
- Selecting items from a diverse range of original source materials has
been challenging. "Many of the items are individual bibliographic
items (books, items from serials, etc.) and it is hard to know how to cast
these in terms of the archival finding
aid model we are using for other items in the project. With manuscript
collections, we are finding that it is not as easy as with pictorial
collections to choose items that will be interesting, informative, and
"web friendly." Accordingly, we have put additional staff onto
the project in order to cope with the additional complications . . ."
This activity has proven more time-consuming than originally planned and
requires staff with specialized knowledge of the content.
- Lee Library at Brigham Young University with the Utah Academic Library Consortium and the Utah State Historical Society
- Online Collection: Pioneer Trails: Overland to Utah and the Pacific, 1847-1869
- This collection consists of 6,040 images of various original
formats and transcriptions of handwritten diaries. In the interim report,
Susan Fales notes:
- ". . . having enough people, and the right people, to plug
into a project planning model would have solved many of the problems we
have faced so far. Other than the full-time person over the Special
Collections Imaging Center, and the part-time students who have been
added due to the project money, everyone else has tried to sandwich this
project along with everything else. We need to find ways of freeing up
people or repurposing people and positions, in order to make the work go
faster and more smoothly."
- "Most project planning centered on the scanning phase
and not the delivery or even the packaging of the collection. The
scanning has really turned out to be the easiest phase of the project,
partly because we have people whose full-time job is devoted to the
project. All of the other people involved are sandwiching the process
among regular responsibilities.
- "The web design and packaging of this collection as a
publication is where I think our vision was the shortest. . . . We are
beginning to understand the issues which relate to bringing an anthology
collection together in what is really a digital publication. We had paid
absolutely no attention to this piece in the application process for the
grant."
- As the project has progressed, "we have learned about
the need for calibrating and coordinating all the hardware/software
systems for running the scanner/computers. Keeping up with software and
hardware issues is pretty constant. Scanners go down, have problems, and
technical assistance is often required just to keep the machines all
running. Calibration is a periodic chore and must be scheduled.
Maintaining the expertise to stay on top of all this has been challenging
with out personnel structure. We have been fortunate to have a very
talented student work force that has been fairly constant throughout the
project."
-
Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library at Duke University
- Online Collection: Emergence of Advertising in
America, 1850-1920
-
This collection incorporates heterogeneous source materials: cookbooks,
photographs of billboards, trade cards, promotional leaflets, print
advertisements, and more.
In an interim
report, Ellen Gartrell notes:
-
Another lesson learned was the impact of experienced student
assistants on the project. The impact of the leadership of returning
students was somehat expected but proved exceptional. The returning
students were familiar with the routines of scanning and database
entry and were cognizant of the level of quality expected. They
were able to assist the new students in identifying items with
possible moiré patterns and assessing information for
inclusion in the databases.
- Online Collection: Historic American Sheet Music,
1850-1920
-
The 3,000 pieces of sheet music in this collection were scanned in-house.
In an interim report, Stev Hensen emphasizes:
- "Automated processes and programming skills continually
proved their worth, being used in many facets of the project including
conversion of metadata, conversion of image formats, creation of the
project's web interface, and overall quality control of the
project."