Reflections on the LCAmeritech Competition

1
Reflections on the LC/Ameritech Competition

• Caroline Arms
• Office of Strategic Initiatives
• Library of Congress
• caar_at_loc.gov

2
American Memory -- Background

• April 1996
• 12 collections (5 released in March 1996)
• 6 collections of photos, 5 of text, 1 of movies
• special project
• November 2002 -- 100 collections
• photos, movies, sound, maps, sheet music
• text (books, pamphlets, serials, manuscripts)
• complex objects
• page-turning, zooming, thumbnail grids, atlases,
  albums
  
• into the mainstream project to program

3
Characteristics of this Digital Library

• The digital library is part of the library
• Builds on expertise in providing access to
  special resources
  
• maps, photographs, manuscript collections, rare
  books
  
• Heterogeneity, diversity
• in form of original content
• in level, granularity, and format of description
• in digital format
• Pragmatic solutions to problems
• Todays technology, but with a long-term view

4
About the LC/Ameritech Competition

• 2 million from Ameritech to LC
• For other institutions to digitize unique
  materials
  
• Integrate into American Memory
• Outreach to smaller institutions (historical
  societies, museums)
  
• Opportunity for learning
• 3 years, 23 collections, 33 institutions
• 3 panels content, technical, final
• significance of content for historical
  understanding
  
• utility to students and general public

5
Integrating Collections

• Applicants chose
• where to store digital reproductions
• how to provide access and present materials for
  their users from their site
  
• Applicants provided
• copies of descriptive records or finding aid with
  links that retrieve individual digital
  reproductions
  
• LC provides
• Home page and search for collection at LC
• Search across all American Memory collections
• Low-tech interoperability for remote collections
• union catalog model
• distributed search would exclude many partners

6
Summary Report Card

• 22 collections online by November 2002
• Putting the national in National Digital
  Library
  
• Stimulated activity in awardee institutions
• Served as example for
• Interoperability
• Evaluation of digitization practices
• Experience contributed to shaping of Open
  Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata
  Harvesting

7
Lessons Collaboration and Interoperability

• Seamlessness is not essential
• Projects have taken longer and cost more in
  hidden costs than participants thought
  
• What makes for best collaborative relationships
  is caring about the result in this case doing
  the content justice
  
• Interoperability is a state of mind
• Persistent identifiers are key

8
User
Access paths
Digital reproductions
Identifiers
Search
American Memory MARC record for item
Presentation of digital reproduction
LC Catalog MARC record for item
Name persistent external logical
OCLC MARC record for item
Web browser or other interface client
LC archive of finding aids EAD instance
RLG archive of finding aids EAD instance
Identifiers are key
Browse
Finding aid or archival register
Special presentation or exhibit
Reference
Link from online work
Citation in print work
Personal recommendation or school reading list
9
Persistent Identifiers

• LC using handle server
• Persistent URL links to presentation of digital
  object
  
• Used in 856 field of distributed catalog records
• Longer term questions
• What needs to be identified?
• Work
• Manifestation
• Trading package
• Presentation of complex digital object
• Raw digital object
• How to adjust practices?

10
Lessons Project Planning

• Planning, project management, and quality
  assurance take time
  
• Heterogeneity adds more complexity than scale
• Text transcription/markup has steep learning
  curve
  
• Develop relationships with contractors
• Naming schemes should be established early
• Digitization only a small portion of the cost
• Uniformity of description is impractical but
  consistency within collection valuable
  
• Early tests help convey how it will work.

11
Lessons Interactions with Users

• User services
• help
• suggestions, corrections, offers
• source of feedback for design and development
• User expectations for USE
• Easy downloading
• Get reproductions
• Cite, link, refer to items (persistently)
• From online works
• From student projects
• From catalogs
• Incorporate materials into courseware
• Non-proprietary, malleable formats

12
Lessons Teams, skills, roles

• Issues mentioned by awardees
• Communication among team members
• Communication with contractors
• Finding staff with multiple skills
• Visual literacy
• Curatorial expertise
• Importance of key individuals

13
Aspects of Digital Collection Creation and
Maintenance
Library of Congress, Technical Design Review
Group, November 2001
14
Lessons Selection

• Item-level selection is expensive
• Cultural significance, value for teaching or
  scholarship
  
• Requires curatorial or domain expertise
• Existing scholarly bibliographies or compilations
  useful
  
• Pragmatic factors for proposal evaluation at LC
• Priority for custodian/champion
• Audience (K-12, general, specialist)
• Rights
• Technical requirements for systems development
• iNventory ready (selection already done)
• Readiness of descriptive records

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Thinking ahead

• Need to work towards standards for representing
  complex objects and relationships
  
• Fuller interoperability will be difficult, but
  difficulties not primarily technical
  
• Costs obvious
• Value hard to assess, metrics for library service
  unsatisfactory
  
• No-ones highest priority
• Local pressures for special treatment and rapid
  results
  
• Different community practices
• Plan for sustainability and interoperability

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Contact Information and URLs

• Caroline Arms
• caar_at_loc.gov
• American Memory
• http//memory.loc.gov/
• LC/Ameritech Competition
• http//memory.loc.gov/ammem/award/
• Building Digital Collections
• http//memory.loc.gov/ammem/ftpfiles.html