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Project Documentation was prepared by Peter Ryan.
Project Documentation: Project Planning and Timeline
1. Introduction
This project is made up of five main project phases. The first stage was the developmental phase, which included initial accessioning, benchmarking, copyright issues, and developing an overall plan of how to best proceed.
The second stage focused primarily on digitizing the archive collection in such a way as to produce both a digital archive and the starting point for a digital library.
The third stage was preparing the images for mounting the digital version of the collection on the Internet. This involved photoshop work, determining an appropriate search tools, designing a website, and the like.
The fourth stage was developing further Search tools and gaining feedback from scholars in the community.
The fifth stage was finalizing the product based on feedback.
The second and third stages were the most labor intensive, and the most time consuming. There are three main tasks that need to be performed in order to digitize the collection and move into the final stage of the project.
1. The accessioning of the documents that will be scanned.
2. The scanning of documents.
3. The creation of a catalog record and metadata for each of those documents.
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2. Accessioning Tasks and Duties
Location: Tory Building Archive Lab, 14th Floor
The accessioning is a necessary first step to anything being photograpahed. It will help keep track of both what is in the collection, as well as help organize it (the digital records will be organized in the same way as the physical collection). One team member should make this their primary focus. Breakdown as follows:
I. Accession and produce a record of each file in the collection.
II. Enter those records on to the computer.
III. Prepare box with records for the days digitizing.
IV. Double check to ensure all the files have returned at the end of the day.
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3. Cataloging Tasks & Duties.
Location: Any computer with net and system access. Preferably in the Archive Lab.
It has been determined that the number of key catalogers be kept to a minimum to allow for greater constancy in the catalog. (Which is important for users, especially those who use the system regularly as it will enable them to familiarize themselves with the system more easily.) With that in mind one team member will make cataloging their main responsibility and help in other duties as required. Other team members, however, may also help with the cataloging as necessary.
Quality control: Check to ensure that nothing is missing from each accession, & Check image quality/legibility.
II. Fill out descriptive metadata section first, may use accession list.
III. Look at the document and determine area of coverage, apply subject headings.
IV. Fill out any remaining fields as necessary.
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4. File storage
The file storage organization should match the paper collection as closely as possible. This is because we are attempting to produce a digital version of the original. It will make the structure easier to follow and it will facilitate locating the original documents based on the computer files, and vice versa.
The individual data files should be stored in a series of folders/directories as follows, with each leveling having more folders than one above it.
Notes: Regarding Cataloging and Organization
Each accession may have more than one item that needs to be cataloged in it, and these items may or may not be comprised of more than one leaf. As a result there may be more than one record with the same title and accession number in the system. The other fields may or may not differ in the descriptive metadata. Description of contents will likely be unique to each item in some regard. The file range and file sequence will be by necessity unique in each record, and no two catalog records can have the same values in these fields.
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5. Forms
a. The Complete Archive Contents (organized by Category, CD, Volume, Unique Identifier):
b. Pilgrims's Progress
c. Updating the Archive Database Instructions
6. Photoshop: Image Correction
A Word Document that describes this procedure can be found here:
Image_Correction.doc
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7. Procedures for Filling Out the Metadata Template.
1. The fields of the excel metadata template should be completed close to the time of the photography.
Rationale:
* This information is necessary to identify the digital items themselves. This does not however identify the informational content of the item; this will be done latter by the cataloger. The digital item itself, however, has to be defined and identified before its content can be determined and catalog. For this reason this first step is key.
* Filling out the scanning stage fields will enable the cataloger to bring the items of the document together as the file range and sequence information will already be recorded.
* This is important as all the files for one accession will be in one directory/file folder on the share drive, and this will allow the cataloger to know which individual files in a directory make up a single document. This will save the cataloger from having to take time to retrieve the original physical document.
2. The Title field and the accession number field in the Descriptive Metadata section of the template should also be entered at the time ofphotography.
Rationale:
* As this information will be gleaned from the items file folder recording at the time of scanning will save the cataloger from having to go back to the original file to determine what its title is. The accession number of the file should be also entered into the record at this stage.
3. The cataloger can fill out the rest of the fields at a later date.
Rationale:
* This will enable to the cataloger to catalog by looking at the digital items. This can take place from anywhere where they cataloger can access the files. Most importantly this provides a measure of quality control, as the cataloger will have to look at each document in order to apply appropriate subject headings to it.
* NOTE: Quality control of the cataloging stage will be supported by a field on the template for the cataloger's initials. This field will allow anybody checking the records to go back and ask the original cataloger any questions they might have.
4. The final stage information will be entered later as per an original instruction sheet.
Rationale:
* The information relates to how the files will be structured on the Internet, and so should be completed during the third stage of the project.
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8. Procedures for Database Updates to the WebSite
A Word Document that describes this procedure was prepared for reference. |
The Team