The March meeting of the SCS convened at 10 a.m. in Special Collections at Alderman Library with the representatives of VT (Gail McMillan), UVA (Ned Berkeley), GMU (Paul Koda), William & Mary (Kay Domine) and VCU (Betsy Pittman) present.
Several topics of discussion were addressed prior to the scheduled html training session with David Seaman of the UVA Electronic Text Center.
Further discussion was suspended until after html training and lunch with the ECC. The committee reconvened at 1:30 to continue discussion of a preliminary one year time table, five year plan, materials to be considered for SCS demonstrations and budget proposals for the next biennium.
A tentative one year plan was agreed upon as follows:
At the next meeting of the SCS [7 April, 10am, Alderman Library] the following will be discussed and decided upon:
It is hoped that the LVA representative will be appointed in time to attend this meeting. At the conclusion of the discussion the committee adjourned to view the scanning station set up adjacent to Ned's office. The meeting adjourned at 3:30 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Betsy Pittman
--------Information from the mail header-----------------------
Sender: Archives & Archivists <ARCHIVES@MIAMIU.BITNET>
Poster: "Dept. of Preservation and Conservation"
<preserve@CORNELL.EDU> Subject: Digital Training Workshops
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As a follow up to your response to our preliminary posting, we are
pleased to announce the following Digital Training Workshops.
Although you may have already provided us with some of the
information requested below, please make a formal application as
outlined at the end of this message.
DIGITAL TRAINING WORKSHOPS: USE OF DIGITAL IMAGE TECHNOLOGY FOR
PRESERVATION AND ACCESS
Dates:
June 12-16, 1995
August 14-18, 1995
October 9-13, 1995
March 18-22, 1996
Organized by:
CORNELL UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF PRESERVATION AND CONSERVATION
Co-sponsored by:
THE COMMISSION ON PRESERVATION AND ACCESS
The Cornell University Department of Preservation and Conservation
announces its offering of a series of digital training workshops.
The workshops are designed as intensive one- week training programs
to provide participants with the means to develop a baseline
knowledge about the use of digital image technology for
preservation and access. The training will focus on the
reformatting of paper- or film-based library materials, including
books, serials, archives, manuscripts, graphic materials, and
photographs. Primary emphases will be placed on the conversion
process itself, on an examination of factors affecting image
quality, and on the use of digital imaging in a preservation
context.
Each workshop will combine the practical with the theoretical.
Participants will select samples of materials from their own
collections to bring to Cornell for scanning. During the workshop,
participants will be introduced to the vocabulary and concepts of
digital image technology, the components of imaging systems and
their attendant costs, factors affecting conversion quality and the
longevity of digital information, and access- related issues.
Through presentations, review of computer- projected illustrations,
hands-on exercises, six hours of directed lab assignments,
demonstrations of current digital projects, and an extensive
training notebook, participants will gain an understanding of how
bitonal, grayscale, and color scanning affect the capture, storage,
and use of a broad range of library materials.
The workshop is intended for preservation administrators,
librarians, archivists, records managers, curators, and other
information professionals who are responsible for collecting,
preserving, and making accessible documentary materials.
INSTRUCTORS
Anne R. Kenney and Stephen Chapman will serve as the principal
faculty for these workshops. They will be joined by several guest
instructors, including James Reilly who will present a session on
digital conversion of photographic materials.
Anne R. Kenney is the Associate Director of the Department of
Preservation and Conservation at Cornell. For the past five years,
Kenney has managed and co-managed the majority of Cornell's digital
imaging projects. She also developed the New York State digital
training workshop concept and served as one of the principal
instructors in that series. Kenney is the past president of the
Society of American Archivists, and serves as one of two American
representatives to the Committee on Image Technology of the
International Council on Archives.
Stephen Chapman is the New York State Preservation Intern (through
March 1995 in the Cornell University Department of Preservation
and Conservation. Chapman is the project liaison for the
NEH-funded "Digital to Microfilm Conversion Project" and was an
instructor in the New York State digital training series. He has
co-authored with Anne R. Kenney the tutorial, "Digital Resolution
Requirements for Replacing Text-Based Material: Methods for
Benchmarking Image Quality", to be published by the Commission on
Preservation and Access in the spring of 1995.
James Reilly, Director, Image Permanence Institute, has been
designing, executing, and directing research into photographic
preservation since 1978. He most recently participated in the RLG
Technical Images Test Project, which investigated how various
choices in capture, display, compression, and output affect image
quality for photographic materials.
INSTITUTIONAL PROFILE:
Since 1990, Cornell has been investigating the use of digital image
technology for preservation and access. With private, public, and
corporate support, the Department of Preservation and Conservation
has undertaken a series of projects to digitize research library
materials and to produce high quality paper and microfilm
replacements. The projects also assessed the role of digital
technology in providing networked access to library and archival
resources.
SCHEDULE
Schedule for Workshop 1: June 12-16, 1995
Monday, June 12
8:00-8:30 a.m. REGISTRATION.
8:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. THEORETICAL OVERVIEW.
Concepts and vocabulary of digital imaging; document categories and
scanning characteristics affecting image quality; selection for
preservation; determining quality benchmarks for digital
reformatting.
3:45-5:00 p.m. SCANNING OVERVIEW.
Basic operations associated with bitonal, grayscale, and color scanning
as they relate to image capture; introduction to resolution, tonal
correction, and sharpening; assessment of effectiveness in converting a
variety of document categories.
Tuesday, June 13
8:00-10:00 a.m. IMAGING SYSTEM COMPONENTS: CAPTURE AND DISPLAY.
Relationship between image quality/throughput considerations and
hardware/software capabilities of scanners and monitors.
NEH-funded "Digital to Microfilm Conversion Project" and wa
10:15 a.m.-12:00 p.m. IMAGING SYSTEM COMPONENTS: NETWORK
TRANSMISSION, PRINTING, AND STORAGE. Network links and
hardware/software issues related to storage, transmission,
retrieval, and printing of digital images from local and remote
locations.
1:30-2:45 p.m. SCANNING PRINTED TEXT. Introduction to basic
techniques used for capturing printed text and line art; utility of
bitonal scanning and the role of resolution and image enhancement.
3:00-4:00 p.m. SCANNING MANUSCRIPTS. Issues associated with
conversion of handwritten materials and effects of physical
deterioration on image quality; tradeoffs in quality, file size,
and portability associated with bitonal, grayscale, and color
scanning.
4:00-6:00 p.m. SCANNING LAB I (track one): TEXT AND MANUSCRIPTS.
Wednesday, June 14
8:00-10:00 a.m. SCANNING LAB I (track two): TEXT AND MANUSCRIPTS.
10:15 a.m.-12:00 p.m. SCANNING ILLUSTRATIONS. Issues associated
with digitizing the range of illustration types found in books
published over the past century and a half; review of illustrations
and reproductions produced xerographically and through binary and
grayscale scanning.
12:00-1:30 p.m. OPTIONAL LAB. Participants will be able to scan
their own documents.
1:30-3:45 p.m. SCANNING PHOTOGRAPHS. Assessment of key technical
issues and problems associated with the digital reformatting of a
variety of types and formats of photographs and photographic
intermediates; range of technical choices and practically
obtainable results will be explained and demonstrated.
4:00-6:00 p.m. SCANNING LAB II (track one): ILLUSTRATIONS AND
PHOTOGRAPHS.
Thursday, June 15
8:00-10:00 a.m. SCANNING LAB II (track two): ILLUSTRATIONS AND
PHOTOGRAPHS.
10:15 a.m.-12:00 p.m. IMAGE INDEXING AND DATABASE MANAGEMENT.
Issues associated with providing access to digital files by such
means as document control structures, WAIS indexing, and links to
on-line bibliographic databases; evaluation of relational, flat-
file, and object-oriented databases, using fixed-field and
controlled vocabulary structures; discussion of database security,
privacy, integrity, and confidentiality.
12:00-1:30 p.m. OPTIONAL LAB. Participants will be able to scan
their own documents.
1:30-2:30 p.m. CONVERTING BITMAPPED IMAGES INTO TEXT-READABLE
FILES. Key concepts and capabilities of OCR technology; pre- and
post-processing issues affecting OCR accuracy; integration of
OCR-generated text into image databases.
2:45-4:00 p.m. VENDOR SELECTION AND RFP DEVELOPMENT. Discussion
of economic viability of outsourcing conversion of library
materials to imaging service bureaus; negotiation strategies to
attain a product that meets preservation and access requirements;
review of sample RFPs developed by AIIM and Cornell; means by which
to judge a vendor's viability and product.
4:00-6:00 p.m. SCANNING LAB III (track one): INDEXING, OCR, AND
DATABASE MANAGEMENT.
Friday, June 16
8:00-10:00 a.m. SCANNING LAB III (track two): INDEXING, OCR, AND
DATABASE MANAGEMENT.
10:15 a.m.-12:00 p.m. HYBRID APPROACHES. Review of Yale
University's Project Open Book (to create digital images from
microfilm), and Cornell's Digital-to-COM Project (to produce raster
computer output microfilm from digital images); comparison of COM
to conventional microfilm; issues associated with preparing
microfilm for future digital conversion.
12:00-1:30 p.m. OPTIONAL LAB. Participants will be able to OCR
and index their own documents.
1:30-3:00 p.m. DEMONSTRATIONS OF CORNELL PROJECTS. Reports and
presentations of ongoing imaging projects for text and visual
materials, such as Making of America, Utopia, and the Museum
Educational Site Licensing Project.
3:15-5:00 p.m. CONCLUDING SESSION: ENDURING ACCESS, SOURCES OF
INFORMATION, WRAP UP, AND EVALUATION. Institutional and technical
considerations associated with maintaining enduring access to
digital libraries; review of additional sources of information (to
be distributed as a supplement to the training notebook);
discussion of questions and issues arising from various workshop
components; overall evaluation of workshop.
DETAILS:
Dates June 12-16, 1995
August 14-18, 1995
October 9-13, 1995
March 18-22, 1996
Location Cornell University, Ithaca, New York.
Accommodations Student housing may be available. Please
indicate if you are interested in receiving
information on this option.
Cost $1,500* Travel and lodging not included.
* Cornell is seeking additional support to reduce the registration
fee to $1,200. Positions will be filled on a first- come,
first-serve basis, with the understanding that if this support is
not obtained, individuals will not be obligated to attend and may
cancel their reservations. The final registration fee will be set
in four to six weeks.
APPLICATION: Enrollment for each workshop is limited to 16
participants. Send a letter with the following
information:
Name:
Institution and current position:
Postal and e-mail addresses:
[Ned's information re UVa]
I'll read in below the basic costs that I lifted from a memo that I wrote recently proposing some charges for the public for us to make images in the Special Collections Digital Center. Unlike the Electronic Text Center, which always attempts to teach the student or faculty member how to make his/her own images on their flatbed scanners, we can't do that. Either the material is fragile, etc., etc. But we decided that we can't be in the business of making images for folks any time they want--or we won't be able to do anything else! Here's the pertinent section of that memo:
Production of images alone can reach about eight per hour. . . we should add the header to each image created from our materials. Thus, the production rate for the public of materials from the Special Collections Department is going to average about three per hour. At times, a single image may take longer if the material requires extra handling and special support under the camera.
Respectfully submitted,
Betsy Pittman