Digitisation of Special Collections: National and Academic Libraries’ Examples

Rochna Srivastava

Abstract

The paper describes a few major national and academic libraries of the world that have undertaken projects to exploit the potential of digital technology for displaying unique and fragile materials. It also highlights major goals of these digital projects. Selection criteria of special collections for digitisation, by these libraries, have also been discussed in the paper.

1. SPECIAL COLLECTION four terabytes of digitised information1. Special collection forms the core of the Special collections of the BL are digitised to primary research collection of a library. maximise their use by facilitating a greater volume of networked access and by providing Whatever may be the format, the common features of special collection are that they are the enhanced functionality intrinsic to the unique, rare, require special handling, and in digitised items. Materials covered under limited availability or just something that digitisation programme may be: cannot be located in the open stacks. Equally q Owned by the BL important is that the material is valued as an q Deposited with the BL artifact. Special collection may use digitisation q Owned by a collaborative partner of the BL as a preservation technique but its real value 2 q Owned by a commercial partner of the BL . is related to the increased access to special collections. The Early Printed Collections Department of the BL provides wider access to important The selection of special collection material for digitisation is based upon the same criteria items by digitising them so as to preserve fragile originals for future generations of for placing material in special collections: researchers. A wide range of fine and historic uniqueness; artifactual value; importance to bindings found in the BL are being digitised. original research; etc. Almost all major Well represented bindings are mainly British libraries of the world are having digitisation and Continental. programme to provide greater access to its special collections through the digitisation of Database of Bookbindings3 is an image material including photographs, manuscripts, database of bookbinding compiled since 1997 maps, printed music, pictures, etc. covering Western European printed books. Evanion collection of Henry Evans 2. NATIONAL LIBRARIES (1832-1905) containing around 5,000 items relating to Victorian entertainment and 2.1 The British Library (BL) everyday life has been digitised by the BL4. There is a growing number of collaborative ‘Burney Collection of Early English digitisation initiatives within the British Library Newspapers’ is trying to make the text of (BL) and the library already has an estimated newspapers and newsbooks of pre1801 fully DESIDOC Bulletin of Inf Technol, 2004, 24(5) 3 searchable via a website. Individual plays of q The Library’s catalogue Shakespeare, referred to as quartos, are q PictureAustralia completely converted into digital copies under q MusicAustralia the project ‘Shakespeare Quartos’. About 200 q Library’s multimedia applications. books describing public displays at royal marriages and funerals, stately entries into 2.2.1 Pictures cities, and other similar events have The Pictures’ Catalogue provides access completely digitised under the project to over 65,000 pictorial images available ‘Renaissance Festival Books’. online which are also exposed to internet The digitisation project ‘The Gutenberg search engines through a URL list. Bible’ aims to provide wider access to this 2.2.2 Music rare material printed in Mainz around Some music albums published before 1454-555. 1930 and all Australian sheet music Another project ‘Canterbury Tales’ has first (composed by an Australian, or on Australia two editions of Geoffrey Chaucer’s ‘The or published in Australia) available at NLA is Canterbury Tales’ as printed by William now available through digitised printed music Caxton in 1476 and 1483 in complete digital collection. Initially over 2,000 sheet music form. In order to increase access to Beowulf, items were released which are exposed to the oldest surviving epic in British literature internet search engines through a URL list. has been published on CD-ROM (The Electronic Beowulf) by the BL. 2.2.3 Maps All sheet maps and selected atlases ‘Turning The Pages’ is an award-winning interactive display system developed by the published before 1900 possessed by the BL to increase public access and enjoyment National Library of Australia are digitised. 6 Initially, over 1,000 sheet maps from the Nan of its treasures using touch screen technology and animation. Kivell rare map collection were released. More maps from the Ferguson rare map ‘International Dunhuang Project’ is to collection are expected to be added to this promote the study and preservation of pre collection thus reaching the collection over eleventh century manuscripts and artefacts. 2,000. 2.2 National Library of Australia 2.2.4 Manuscripts (NLA) The Library’s online exhibition features digitised manuscripts’ collections of the NLA A number of digitisation projects have (e.g., Diary of William John Wills and the been undertaken by the NLA7 for long-term papers of Sir Edmund Barton). All kinds of preservation of traditional documentary 8 unpublished records, maps and plans relating materials. Digitisation provides access to to Cook’s South Sea voyages have also been electronic information resources such as digitised. NAL is in the process of digitising image databases, recordings, theses, oral history and folklore collection and will be manuscripts and the full text of periodical made available online very soon. As part of articles index by the library9. the International Children’s Digital Library Special collections (including photographs, Project, it is also involved in digitising cartoons, drawings, transparencies, Australian children’s works. negatives, postcards, maps, printed music and manuscripts) of the NLA has been 2.3 Library of Congress (LC) digitised under a major digitisation The Library of Congress (LC) is trying to programme aiming at providing greater develop a national strategy for the access to its collection. This digital material is preservation of digital information 10 and has made available on the internet through: carried out its preservation responsibilities by q Online exhibitions providing adequate storage conditions, 4 DESIDOC Bulletin of Inf Technol, 2004, 24 (5) reformatting materials from their original treasures of the LC. Maps are available in fragile formats to more stable media and from three images: rare and unique materials with intrinsic value q Master image in TIFF file format to restoring originals through conservation q Reference image in SID file format treatment. q Thumbnail image in GIF file format. American Memory,11 the flagship of the 2.3.4 Documents (text and page library’s digital services, offers more than 7.5 million digital items from more than 100 images) historical collections. Multimedia collections of American Memory document collection digitised documents, photographs, recorded also includes pictures of pages and sound, motion pictures and text from the illustrations from original documents. They American historical collections of the LC and are presented in five formats: other institutions are now the part of American q Images of original pages (.tif or .tiff format) Memory, the National Digital Library. q Images of original illustrations (.pcx format) 2.3.1 Sound Recordings q Page images (.pdf format) The majority of sound recordings included q Page images for large-format document in the American memory are taken from material (like newspapers and maps) (.sid cylinder and disk recordings and are offered format) in three formats requiring special players: q SGML viewer option (text). t RealAudio delivering sound fast, with a Online collections of manuscript materials minimum download time such as Presidential papers, papers of Government officials, organisational records, t MPEG2, layer 3 (.mp3) offering high quality foreign sources and special collections are sound downloading available as digital images or as searchable t WaveForm (-wav) higher quality version. text. 2.3.2 Motion Pictures 3. CO-OPERATIVE DIGITAL The motion pictures, (from 1894-1912) PROJECTS deposited to LC for copyright, were chosen for digitisation. They were all black-and-white 3.1 Berkeley Digital Library and silent whether originating from paper SunSITE prints or from early film copies in other The University of California, Berkeley collections. Current motion pictures are presented in three formats: Library is using digital technology to build a national digital library in collaboration with a q .mpg (Motion Pictures Experts Group or number of other organisations to enhance MPEG) containing highest quality film files access to information while preserving it for 12 q .mov (QuickTime) offering small future generations. The Berkeley Digital downloadable files Library SunSITE13, sponsored by The Library, UC Berkeley and Sun Microsystems, Inc., q .rm (Real Media) allowing viewing of the film builds digital collections and services while as it arrives at the users’ computers. providing information and support to digital 2.3.3 Maps library developers worldwide. The digital map collection represents only California Heritage collection14 is the result a small fraction of the Geography and Map of the California Heritage Digital Image Division of the LC holding more than 4.5 Access Project covering photographs, million items. Digital images created from pictures, and manuscripts illustrating heritage maps and atlases are restricted to items not of California. Another project Catalan covered by copyright protection. The focus of Manuscript contains approximately 900 map collection is American and cartographic images of early paper and vellum DESIDOC Bulletin of Inf Technol, 2004, 24(5) 5 manuscripts. ‘UC Berkeley/Columbia Digital learning through easy access to images, Scriptorium Project’ aims to select Latin dated movies, sound and virtual reality. There are and datable manuscript (to 1550). An online one million records from museums, galleries, database, Advanced Papyrological archives, media, and contemporary and Information Systems (APIS), is of digitised performing arts. Images are derived from images of papyri. The ‘MusiLan Project’ has primary source material such as: paintings; created an online digital listening reserves drawings; 16th century manuscripts; and system for the Department of Music. Historic trade union banners. It provides easy access Topographic Maps of California project to 1.5 million text records of artefacts and provides web access to the historic historic monuments, and 100,000 related topographic quadrangles, both 15 and multimedia resources. SCRAN is also 7.5-minute. ‘Aerial Photography Online’ is a commissioning 100 multimedia essays, based collection of aerial photographs representing on these resources and others, for use in aerial flights of the San Francisco bay area schools and by a wider audience. SCRAN is a and Yosemite National Park. rights clearance project, grant aiding the digitisation of assets in exchange for a ‘Incunabula’, a searchable database of the non-exclusive licence for their educational incunabula collection includes philosophical, use. It is also a resource disclosure and theological, scientific, mathematical, delivery project and acts as a metadata historical, legal and poetical works. Siberian repository, pointing to individual digitised Digital Photo Collection, from late 19th assets in its own resource base and to century Siberia, is presented by the UC objects in the real world, as well as acting as Berkeley Digital Library SunSITE and the UC a gateway to other electronic collections. High Berkeley Slavic Collections. The Last Jews of quality cultural resources are online including Libya is the site containing photographs, multimedia records, still images, video clips, writings, and the spoken words of them. The audio files, virtual reality panoramas and Jack London Collection contains letters, essays.18 postcards, telegrams, manuscripts, official documents, photographs, audio and other Each resource has a caption providing papers relating to his life and work. valuable background information for reference or research. Thus teachers and learners, 3.2 SCRAN (Scottish Cultural through SCRAN, have the best possible opportunity to put ICT into practice in a way Resources Access Network) that is right for them. The SCRAN is a Millennium Commission funded project, which aims to build a 4. ACADEMIC LIBRARIES networked multimedia resource base for the teaching and celebration of human history 4.1 Oxford University Library and material culture in Scotland.15 SCRAN, a The Oxford University Library19 has registered charity, began in November 1996.16 extremely rich and diverse resources The founding partners are the National provided by more than 100 library units. Museums of Scotland, the Royal Commission Throughout the last decade, the University of on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Oxford has been proactive in digitising Scotland and the Scottish Museums Council. materials from its own collections and making It was set up as an independent, not for profit, them available to scholars nationally and limited company to manage the digital internationally. Working concept of the ‘hybrid intellectual property rights of its members. library ’ is the base of the forward plan for the Although based on the libraries, archives, Oxford University Library Services (OULS). museums, and built heritage of Scotland, The Oxford digital Library (ODL) has been SCRAN’s prime concern is neither with established as a key component in the conservation, nor with documentation, but implementation of a comprehensive with educational access.17 SCRAN supports e-strategy for OULS.20 6 DESIDOC Bulletin of Inf Technol, 2004, 24 (5) The ODL plans to build up a significant set America), KLIC (Kodak Library Image of digital resources for local and remote Consortium), TULIP (The University Licensing online access. It aims to offer a digital library Program), NEEDS (National Engineering architecture allowing centralised access to Education Delivery System), and DAISY digital resources, both created by the Oxford (Dissertations Available on Internet Library and those acquired from outside.21 Systems).22 First venture of the University was the n Primary Visual Images-In this digital Toyota City Imaging Project, instigated by a collection include: donation from the Toyota Motor Company and q Beautiful Birds: Masterpieces from the Hill concentrating on automobile ephemera held Ornithology collection project displays in the John Johnson Collection. Soon changing techniques during 18th and 19th afterwards, through a national grant, the centuries. Celtic and Medieval Manuscripts Project q Fantastic in Art and Fiction project is based began digitising material from the University’s on graphic material from the Cornell extraordinary collections of extant material Witchcraft Collections. from the Middle Ages. The momentum has q Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, been maintained throughout the 1990s, Museum on-line database search options, allowing the University to build expertise in over 16,000 images of works of arts of the the digitisation of grey literature, photographs Johnson Museum of Art. and artefacts (e.g. the projects at the Ashmolean Museum and the Beazley q Icelandic and Faroese Photographs of Archive), rare print material (e.g. the Bodelian Frederick W.W. Howell provides an Broadside Ballads Project), and multimedia important visual record of Icelandic and (notably the Wilfred Owen Multimedia Digital Faroese life and landscapes at the close of Archive, which digitises audio and video 19th century along with historical clips). information. q New York School of Human Ecology: The Internet Library of Early Journals Historical Photographs is a collection of (ILEJ), a joint venture between the University over 1400 photographs of students and of Oxford, Birmingham, Leeds, and faculty, buildings and scenes that portray Manchester is the example of collaborative the college from its founding through 1969. initiative. Not only this but pioneering work by q Utopia database, is a collaborative project the Oxford Text Archive and the Digital Library providing images of European Project have placed oxford in a leading role of Renaissance Art, primarily from the 15th providing document delivery and access to and 16th centuries. structured texts. Potential collections identified for digitisation are rare and unique q Cornell University’s major multimedia projects are: ‘image’ material predominantly in the arts and humanities. The general opinion for q Death of the Father examining the closure increasing access to collections is that of political authority following the death of material currently in high demand (of both Stalin, Hitler, and Mussolini high and low artefactual value) should be q Global Performing Arts Database (GloPAD) targeted initially. with the aim to develop a consortium namely GloPAC (Global Performing Arts 4.2 Cornell University Library Consortium). Electronic library components are being q Agriculture Network Information Center created in almost all sectors of Cornell (AgNIC): An internet portal. University Library. Cornell’s digital library q French Revolution Collections: Web research and development initiatives include Exhibits and Guides is based on the projects like CLASS (College Library Access collections of French Revolutionary papers and Storage System), MOA (Making of of Cornell. DESIDOC Bulletin of Inf Technol, 2004, 24(5) 7 q International Court of Justice Web Mirror 2. The British Library. About us: Policies. Site is the first official web site, for the Court http://www.bl.uk/about/policies/digital.html created by the University. 3. The British Library. Collections: Early q Making of America (MOA), funded by the printed. Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the http://www.bl.uk/collections/early/holding Charles E. Culpepper Foundation, was bindings.html initially started by the Cornell University Library and the University of Michigan 4. The British Library. Collections: Early Library. It provides access to 267 printed. monographs and over 100,000 journal http://www.bl.uk/ collections/early/evani articles with 19th century imprints. on.html The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) 5. The British Library. The Gutenberg bible. through USDA Economics and Statistics http://.prodigi.bl.uk/gutenbg/background. System (ESS) provides fast and free asp electronic access to vital agricultural 6. The British Library. Collections: information via the World Wide Web. Treasures. http://www.bl.uk/collections/treasures/abo 5. DISCUSSION ut.html Thus, it is clear from the above description 7. National Library of Australia. Digital that many institutions and libraries have undertaken projects to exploit the potential of collections. http://www.nla.gov.au/digicoll/ digital technology for displaying and researching unique and fragile materials. 8. Woodyard, Deborah. Digital preservation: Similarly, many institutions prioritised special The Australian experience. Paper collections for digitisation because of their presented at the Third Digital Library value, rareness or uniqueness, and for the Conference on Positioning the Fountain attention such high-profile initiatives can draw of Knowledge, 2-4 October 2000, State to the institution. Library of Sarawak, Malaysia. http://www.nla.gov.au/nla/staffpaper/ The aim of almost all the digital projects dw001004.html#abstract discussed above has been to enhance access to rare and unique primary materials 9. Haddad, Peter. The next years in national that may otherwise have limited scholarly and libraries: The National Library of educational importance at their geographical Australia. Alexandria, 2000, 12(2), location, to aid in the preservation of these 126-27. special materials through the creation of 10. Library of Congress, National Digital digital surrogates, and to create learning Information Infrastructure and opportunities for remote users, including Preservation Program. Building a those in colleges and universities, schools national strategy for preservation: Issues and to the students of distance learning. in digital media archiving. April 2002. http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub106/ REFERENCES contents.html 1. Shenton, Helen. From talking to doing: 11. Library of Congress. American Memory: Digital preservation at the British Library. Historical collections for the National Paper presented at the International Digital Library. Conference on the Preservation and http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amhome. Long-Term Accessibility of Digital html Materials, 7-8 December, York, England, 2000. 12. Tennant, Roy. The Berkeley Digital http://www.rlg.org/events/pres-2000/shen Library SunSITE. D-Lib Magazine, ton.html February 1996. 8 DESIDOC Bulletin of Inf Technol, 2004, 24 (5) http://www.dlib.org/dlib/February96/ucb/0 18. Royan, B. Scotland in Europe: SCRAN 2tennant.html as a marquette for the european cultural 13. 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Contributors: Dr. Rochna Srivastava, Commonwealth Fellow, Department of Information Science, Loughborough University, Loughborough, Leicestershire LE11 3TU UK. e-mail: [email protected]

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