National Impact - This project is focusing on several issues of national importance: collaboration, development of unique digital collections and preparing librarians/archivists for careers in library/archives management and digital project development. While there are many examples of collaboration among institutions within a state or region, this project is the first of its kind, bringing together institutions from two urban areas to develop a common set of standards, policies and procedures; participate in the development of joint collection development criteria; address issues of funding and sustainability; design user interfaces; develop and assign metadata; and to assess user impact.
Our project will be guided by a three-pronged approach. First, we will create a resource that virtually unites the collections from our institutions making use of best practices that already exist for such collections. Specifically we will: Facilitate access to a majority of the partners’ collections in this area of study by making digital surrogates available through a robust search engine openly accessible via the World Wide Web; Build a substantial and unique repository that virtually unifies 10,000 images from the individual collections and provides users with a new means of accessing these resources while preserving and protecting the existing collections for future generations by reducing handling; Establish and promote standards for descriptive metadata that can be used by other institutions with comparable collections; Produce a model for training information professionals in the creation, description, and management of digital repositories;
Second, while creating this resource we will form an “Urban Digital Library Federation” to advance digitization efforts among urban institutions. Using this project as an example, we will collaboratively address all aspects of digitization including: the development of standards and best practices; evaluation including user needs analysis; development of selection criteria; development of policies including quality control, metadata, intellectual property, and distribution; funding and sustainability.
It is important to note that both of these institutions are members of the “Urban 13”, a collection of top urban universities across the country. Many of the Urban 13 institutions have not yet engaged in the process of digitization or have done so only on a limited scale. Typically these institutions can be characterized as having rich collections but limited resources. One of our goals of this project is to establish an “Urban Digital Library Federation” whose mission will include assisting these institutions by providing: leadership and support in advancing digitization projects in the participating institutions.
Third, our project will act as a model for training information professionals in the creation, description, and management of digital projects. The project partners will provide learning opportunities to new students in ALA-accredited programs and newly graduated librarians and archivists. By employing them in grant-funded positions the partners will increase the number of qualified professionals in the areas of “archives” and “digital project management” in two urban areas (Detroit and Atlanta). The partner institutions and the units involved include:
GEORGIA STATE UNIVERSITY, Southern Labor Archives, Special Collections Department, Georgia State University Library (http://www.library.gsu.edu/spcoll/)
Georgia State University’s Southern Labor Archives, established in 1971, is dedicated to collecting, preserving and making available the documentary heritage of Southern workers and their unions, as well as that of workers and unions having an historic relationship to the region. This collection is the largest of the curatorial units that make up Georgia State University Library’s Special Collections Department, which also includes the University Archives and Rare Book Collection, the Popular Music Collection, the Georgia Women’s Movement Collection, and the Georgia Government Documentation Project.
The largest accumulation of labor records in the Southeast, the Southern Labor Archives holdings include organizational records, pamphlets, periodicals, photographs, personal papers of labor leaders, oral histories, collective bargaining agreements, constitutions and bylaws, and convention proceedings from 1888 to the present. The Southern Labor Archives is the official repository for the records of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, the United Garment Workers of America, the United Furniture Workers of America, the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization, as well as several state federations of labor. Overall, the Southern Labor Archives has approximately 10,000 cubic feet of records, and close to 1,000 labor collections.
WAYNE STATE UNIVERSITY, Walter P. Reuther Library, Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs http://www.reuther.wayne.edu
The Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs was established in 1960 to collect and preserve records of the American labor movement, with special emphasis upon industrial unionism and related social, economic and political organizations in the United States. It also collects historical records related to urban affairs, with particular focus upon metropolitan Detroit. The archives of Wayne State University and its predecessor institutions are also held at the Reuther Library. Currently, the library holdings comprise 75,000 linear feet of records, found within 1,600 individual collections and an Audiovisual collection of over two million items.
University Library System (http://www.lib.wayne.edu)
Wayne State University is one of the nation’s leading urban research universities with a demonstrated commitment to teaching and learning excellence. The University enrolls 31,000 students including approximately 18,000 undergraduate and 13,000 graduate/professional students. Wayne State University Libraries rank among the top 60 libraries in the Association for Research Libraries. The library system consistes of five major libraries, an ALA-accredited Library and Information Science Program, and an office for Undergraduate Education (UGE1000).
In addition, Jeff Trzeciak, one of the principal investigators has experience establishing collaborative approaches to digital collections. He is the principal investigator on “Digital Dress” project, which can be found at http://www.lib.wayne.edu/geninfo/units/lcms/dls/grants/ddgrant.php, which virtually unites the collections of historic garments at three Detroit museums. Jeff has delivered speeches about collaborative digitization projects at organizations including the Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education, Michigan Library Consortium and the Michigan Library Association.
Library and Information Science Program (http://www.lisp.wayne.edu)
Ranked in 1999 by U.S. News & World Report as one of the top twenty in the country, the Library and Information Science Program draws upon the richness and diversity of its urban setting to enrich student learning experiences. In addition to thirteen full-time faculty, it recruits local practitioners and experts from a wide variety of private and public institutions in the metropolitan area as part-time faculty members and as guest lecturers. Accredited by the American Library Association in 1965/66 the Program celebrated its 35th Anniversary this past academic year. In 1978, the Specialist Certificate in Library and Information Science was created to serve practicing librarians who wish to update their knowledge and professional skills. The Graduate Certificate in Archival Administration, founded in the Reuther Library, began in 1961 and will celebrate 40 years of existence this academic year.
The participating institutions share many commonalities:
- Walter P. Reuther Library and the GSU Special Collections Department are home to the two largest regional labor archives in the United States;
- Both institutions have strong collections highlighting the contributions of women;
- Both of their parent institutions; respectively Wayne State University and Georgia State University are founding members of the “Urban 13”.
Together their collections contain more than 10,000 images of “Women@Work” making this project a unique resource for fields of study including Labor History and Women’s History. The images cover more than a century from the late 19th century to the present day. They represent a dramatically changing role for women in the United States as we became more industrialized and evolved from a primarily rural to a primarily urban society. These images have potential appeal to those studying: the industrialization and urbanization of the United States; the social inequalities that existed among men and women and the rich and working classes; politics and labor movements; women and activism.
Wayne State University has extensive experience with digitizing photographs, having digitized 15,000 for the IMLS-funded “Virtual Motor City” (http://www.lib.wayne.edu/resources/special_collections/local/vmc/index.html). Wayne State University also has experience working on collaborative digitization projects including:
- acting as a regional digitization center as part of the IMLS-funded “Making of Modern Michigan” project (mmm.lib.msu.edu), which includes providing training and support to libraries with fewer resources and less experience
- acting as the host site for the IMLS-funded “Digital Dress” project to digitize historic garments from three Detroit-area museums (http://www.lib.wayne.edu/geninfo/units/lcms/dls/grants/ddgrant.php)
The digital collections at the Wayne State University Library System (http://digital.lib.wayne.edu) consist of more than 20,000 digital objects including photographs, slides, text, three-dimensional objects and audio. More than 3,300 unique visitors have visited the website more than 6,000 times since January 2003. (http://www.lib.wayne.edu/geninfo/about/stats/index.php)
Although the GSU Special Collections Department has not to-date participated in a nationally-funded digitization initiative, previous efforts include the state-funded “Capturing the Phoenix” project http://www.library.gsu.edu/spcoll/avcoll/onlinephotos.htm. Launched in 1999, this project has resulted in the preservation and digitization of over 10,000 photographs selected from the Department’s Lane Brothers and Tracy O’Neal Photographic Collections. These images, which mostly document Atlanta in the 1940s and 1950s, can be accessed and viewed on the GSU Special Collections website. Statistics at Georgia State University indicate that their existing photographic websites are among the top 10 sites used by library patrons.
Urban institutions such as Wayne State University and Georgia State University have a strong commitment to collaborations and partnerships, particularly within the “urban community”. According to “Portrait of Universities with Metropolitan Alliances (PUMA)” (http://www.imir.iupui.edu/puma/key.htm), the “Urban 13” institutions can be characterized as integrating the university experience with the community “through collaborations and partnerships with area businesses and community agencies, the faculty, students and staff”. These collaborative relationships improve the quality of life in the cities these institutions serve by focusing resources on “urban issues”. In this grant we will continue to build upon the existing partnership our institutions share though the “Urban 13” by establishing an “Urban Digital Library Federation” dedicated to improving the environment of our “community” (urban digital libraries) through collaborations that benefit our users.
Project Goals - Goal 1: Establish an “Urban Digital Library Federation”.
Objectives: Notify potential participants (Urban 13); Establish communication mechanisms; Establish a steering committee; Develop a charter to address the areas of:
1. Management structure including: implementation and management of digital resources; membership criteria; access and ownership; policies and procedures.
2. Funding and sustainability of existing and new digital collections at member institutions;
3. Collection development criteria
4. Best practices including: procedures for digitization; metadata development; user interface design; indexing and retrieval; preservation and access; ongoing assessment.
Objective: Determine Services to be provided by Federation (grant writing assistance, training, consultation, hosting)
Objective: Conduct a national “Urban Digital Library Federation” conference
Goal 2: Improve access to a majority of the partner’s collections in the field of study (Working Women) by making digital surrogates available over the web.
Evaluation will be an important aspect to the project throughout all stages. As such, we are planning on using a variety of methods before, during and upon completion of the project to determine if user needs are being met. The PI’s, Jeffrey Trzeciak and Michael Smith, have attended Outcome Based Evaluation (OBE) training at IMLS and will lead all aspects of the evaluation according to the principles for OBE found at: http://www.imls.gov/pubs/pdf/pubobe.pdf
While much has been done in terms of collaborative digitization projects in local and state partnerships, little has been written about digitization efforts that go beyond state lines. Obviously, these two collections are distributed between two sites in different regions of the United States. Access to the images is limited and, while some descriptive metadata exists it is not sufficient to meet the growing needs of the users. While there is increased demand for access to and use of the materials, the collections are still relatively underutilized. It is our goal to improve access, increase use and reduce wear and tear associated with handling of the physical objects by digitizing them and making them accessible through a common search engine.
This project will build a substantial and unique cultural resource that “virtually unifies” the individual collections and provides users with a new means of accessing these resources while reducing wear and tear associated with frequent handling of the original materials.
The first step will be to conduct an inventory of the collections to determine which resources should be digitized. While both institutions have a combined collection well in excess of 10,000 images, our intention is to focus on digitizing 10,000 images that are in high demand and historically significant.
Images will be scanned, saved and made accessible using standards developed in previous digitization projects. We will incorporate the NINCH Guidelines for completeness, fidelity or faithfulness to the original, and legibility as spelled out in http://www.nyu.edu/its/humanities/ninchguide/VIII/. See also the following appendices:
Appendix A: Image Scanning Procedures
Appendix B: File Naming Conventions
Appendix C: Quality Control Measures
The partners will create two separate databases built on the same standards. Each institution will have its own database and users will be given an option to search them individually. These databases will be enhanced with descriptive data built upon national standards. The data mapping table can be found in Appendix D: Metadata. Existing data from each institution will be mapped to Dublin Core and then converted to SGML. The SGML will be indexed and made searchable by users through a simple yet powerful web search engine.
Each institution will also have its own search page allowing for the use of institutional branding. In addition, users will have the option of searching both databases from an overarching search page.
The collection will be made freely available both nationally and internationally through contributions to OCLC, through contributions to various repositories of digital projects such as RLG and from the participating institutions’ websites.
Throughout the process we will be adhering to proven national standards for the creation, storage and retrieval of our digital images and metadata. This adherence to standards allows the information from different institutions, often captured originally in different ways and using different systems to be brought together to form a coherent whole.
Our model will demonstrate how institutions can collaborate with partners outside of their local, state or regional area. While our focus will be on urban institutions any library, museum or archives will be able to adapt our model to their situation in order to deliver a shared resource built upon common policies, procedures and standards.
We especially believe our project can serve as a model for other libraries, museums and archives which might not have large collections, but which might have one or two special collections of interest to users; collections that would contribute toward the digital resources available in a certain topic or that would enrich other existing collections. The local resources (staff and equipment) devoted to special collections in these libraries are often limited; but our example as a collaborative project will show that it is possible for libraries of all sizes to offer enhanced access to unique resources.
The digital environment and the World Wide Web have already shown value in breaking down geographical barriers to information sharing. Hence, through collaboration and adherence to standards this project will show how collections in physically distinct and geographically separate locations can be brought together to create a valuable and unique new resource that is universally accessible via the Web. In doing so, we will create a model that other organizations may use when planning collaborative projects to offer digital access to their collections.
DESIGN - During the last two years, Wayne State University has been increasingly involved in digital library initiatives. In 2001 the Library System was reorganized to provide for a “Digital Library Services Unit” (http://www.lib.wayne.edu/geninfo/units/lcms/dls/index.php). To date WSU has been involved in three IMLS-funded projects previously mentioned in this proposal. In addition, the Libraries have actively acquired and created other non-grant funded digital projects. (http://www.lib.wayne.edu/resources/digital_library/)
The Library System’s digitization efforts have almost exclusively focused on collaborative projects including those involving archives (Virtual Motor City), museums and historical societies (Digital Dress) and other libraries (Making of Modern Michigan). This project is a logical extension of our digital library program.
As previously mentioned, our program has three goals: collaboration, development of unique digital collections and preparing librarians/archivists for careers in library/archives management and digital project development. Therefore, “Design” must also meet those three goals.
The partners will create, convert, or transfer digitized objects and data records from each partner to the web and make these resources universally accessible through a single common search interface. The database, including a search engine and website, will be based on a set of tools designed specifically to allow libraries to develop their digital collections. Newly input or existing data will be exported from proprietary databases (Foxpro, MS Access, or Filemaker), mapped to Dublin Core, converted to SGML, and indexed. Our technology is provided through Wayne State University’s membership in DLXS, the University of Michgan Digital Library Extension Service. (http://www.dlxs.org). (See Appendix E - DLXS Overview)
While archival quality TIFF images will be stored on the server, web accessible images will be available as thumbnail images or access images suitable for printing. (See Appendix A: Image Standards) Non-commercial users will have free access to 72dpi jpg images. Users who wish to use the materials for commercial purposes must obtain permission. A copyright statement will be included in each record and on each image. Each participating institution will retain copyright for their contributed images, and/or serve as an approved third-party resource for copyrighted images.
We will start by establishing a Steering Committee selecting representatives from the three participating organizations. (Walter P. Reuther, University Library System, GSU Special Collections). The Steering Committee will be charged with establishing a framework for collaborative governance and decision-making.
This group will then identify broad goals/objectives based on user needs; create a collaborative website with overarching search mechanisms to search all of the images including ‘branding’ for each of the institutions; create a collaborative collection development policy for this and future projects; identify, select and prepare individual objects for digitization; creation standards, best practices and guidelines that will facilitate collaborative digitization; clarify roles and responsibilities:
Throughout the process we will follow the guidelines established by NINCH – Guide to Good Practice in the Digital Representation and Management of Cultural Heritage Materials – http://www.ninch.org/guide.html
MANAGEMENT PLAN – The proposal evolved from the overall digital library strategic directions of the Wayne State University Library System and the needs of the other collaborating partners. As a founding member of the Urban 13, Wayne State University is committed to maintaining and developing relationships with the other members. This project presents the partners with a new opportunity for collaboration – digital library projects.
The institutions have committed the human and financial resources necessary to carry out the work of the grant. Jeff Trzeciak, the Director of Library Computing and Media Services, Wayne State University Library system and Mike Smith, Interim Director of the Reuther Library will co-manage the project. They will have responsibility for overall management including planning, budgeting, monitoring and reporting. The Wayne State University Library System will also contribute technical and cataloging skills. Reuther and GSU Special Collections will bring their collections and an extensive knowledge of them, as well as experience and expertise in metadata development and standards for archival collections. (See Appendix G – Partner Contributions)
The project is planned to take place over a one-year period and will include objectives that may be attained relatively quickly and others that will require ongoing study, consultation and experimentation.
A draft website has already been developed at Wayne State University where information about the project will reside. It can be found at http://www.lib.wayne.edu/resources/special_collections/local/wwc/index.php This website includes links to this grant proposal, a list of contacts, a link to the prototype, a timeline, technical information such as server specifications, and a description of the software, digital object standards, metadata standards and file naming conventions.
Schedule (See also Appendix H: Schedule of Completion)
The project is divided into seven phases, each with a “point person” from one of the participating institutions. Interns and onsite coordinators will be involved with all phases of the project.
Phase 1: Infrastructure and organization (Project Leads: Jeff Trzeciak/Mike Smith). The primary goal of phase one is to build the infrastructure necessary to maintain a partnership among participating libraries. Initially this will only include representatives from Wayne State University and Georgia State University.
In this phase we will: Establish a steering committee selecting representatives from the three participating organizations. (Walter P. Reuther, University Library System, GSU Special Collections); develop a working group structure.
Phase 2: Project design (Project Leads: Steering committee). In this phase we will: identify broad goals/objectives including user needs assessment and copyright/intellectual property analysis; develop collaborative based digitization including
- Creation a collaborative collection development policy for the project (See Appendix I: Material Selection Questions)
- Set up digitization facilities at GSU Special Collections
- Identify, create and document digital file standards
- Identify, create and document metadata standards (We will use Dublin Core for metadata creation and will be OAI compliant (See Appendix F – OAI Compliance)
- Create a collaborative model of sustainability – identify process for long term management and development of the digital collection including migration to new formats, backup and restoration, etc.
Phase 3: Research and preparation of the objects. (Project Leads: Elizabeth Clemens, Wayne State University and Grant Funded position at GSU). This phase will consist primarily of identifying, preparing and selecting the individual objects to be digitized. Emphasis will be placed on those items that have the most historical significance. They will include images that are broadly representative of various racial, social, cultural and economic groups. They will also include items that may, as a result of excessive handling, be fragile or even damaged. Our intention is to create a resource that allows users to access the collections without the need for physical handling. Approximately 10,000 images will be produced.
Phase 4: Data preparation (Project Leads: Adriene Lim, Digital Services Team Leader, Wayne State University Library System, Doug Goans, Web Liaison for Georgia State University Library). Wayne State University will create database structures on the server at Wayne State University. Each institution will have its own database on the server and will be able to customize the templates to fit within their institutional websites. Users will be able to easily search individual collections or will be able to search across all databases simultaneously using the same interface. The search interface allows the user to select from multiple fields including title, creator, subject, description and date.
Any existing data at the member institutions will be mapped to Dublin Core, converted to SMGL, imported and indexed. (See Appendix: D - Metadata.) Where data does not exist, temporary staff will be hired to establish records. The temporary staff will also assign Library of Congress subject headings and will add authority controlled names to the records.
Phase 5: Digitization. Data and Image Processing (Project Leads: Elizabeth Clemens, Wayne State University and Grant Funded position at GSU). The standards and procedures outlined in appendices A, B and C will be used for this process.
Phase 6: Web Design (Project Leads: Shawn McCann, Wayne State University, and Doug Goans at Georgia State University). In order to seamlessly integrate the project into each partner’s individual websites, each will have a search interface designed to fit within their existing web sites. These interfaces would allow users to search that institution’s portion of the virtual collection. Each site will be consulted in the design of these interfaces. However, the interface will also allow searches across images from all of the participating collections. In the final product, users will be able to search all of the collections simultaneously using a common interface and a common language, but will also have the ability to limit their search to the collections of a particular institution.
Phase 7: evaluation, promotion, and dissemination (Project Lead: Adriene Lim, Wayne State University). Evaluation will consist of three elements: (1) Front-end analysis – We will conduct a survey, focus groups and individual interviews of current and potential users to determine their needs prior to embarking on the project. (2) Formative evaluation - Evaluation will be ongoing throughout the process. During each phase, we will work with users through surveys, interviews and focus groups to determine if we are meeting their basic needs for selection, digitization, and access. Should problems occur either in the data or the image display, we will use tools based on national standards for making changes to the data structure and the image display geared towards identified user needs.
(3) Summative evaluation – At the end of the project we will conduct surveys, interviews and focus groups to determine if we met our user needs.
BUDGET - The partners are seeking a total of $ 171,186 for a one-year project to develop a digital collection of 10000 images, as described in the project statement above. The partners are contributing $88,000 or approximately 1/3 of the total project costs. There are four major sections of the budget:
1. $148,252 - Salaries and Wages - for selection, preparation and description of the images. Additionally, the budget includes $38,940 for fringes benefits.
2. $10,000 – Materials Supplies and Equipment – A portion of these funds will be used to purchase equipment for Georgia State University and to license software for the indexing and display of the images.
3. $3,000 – To develop and deliver a mini-conference in Detroit to encourage digitization and partnerships among Urban 13 institutions.
4. $58,994 – Indirect Costs
CONTRIBUTIONS
GSU Special Collections will provide access to selected artifacts and descriptive data records from their collection; permission to create digital images; and publicity and marketing for the project. Additionally, they will provide $ 28,404 in staffing.
Wayne State University – Reuther Library will provide access to selected artifacts and descriptive data records from their collection; permission to create digital images; publicity and marketing for the project.
Wayne State University Library System agrees to act as the fiscal agent for the grant including consultation, management and coordination of all activities associated with the grant. WSU will also be responsible for all record keeping and reporting requirements of the grant project. The Wayne State University College of Fine, Performing and Communication Arts will provide consultation, evaluation and promotion. Additionally, Wayne State University will provide $ 56,690 in staffing and software costs.
PERSONNEL- Project Directors - Jeff Trzeciak and Michael Smith, Wayne State University and Pam Hackbart-Dean, Georgia State University will oversee all aspects of the project. They will have administrative responsibility for managing the grant including establishing priorities, goals and objectives, promotion, financial management and reporting to IMLS. They will work with the management team to cover all issues related to the grant such as metadata development, image standards, web access, data conversion, etc.
Project Coordinators - Adriene Lim and Elizabeth Clemens, Wayne State University and the grant-funded position for GSU (in collaboration with Pam Hackbart-Dean), Georgia State University will coordinate the daily activities associated with the project such as training and supervision of staff, data conversion and loading, server administration, image management, website development, etc.
Webmaster – Shawn McCann, Wayne State University, will serve both as the “webmaster” and “image lead” for this project. Doug Goans, Georgia State University will be responsible for development of their interface.
Metadata Development, Adriene Lim, Wayne State University will serve as coordinate all activities associated with metadata development, migration, loading and indexing.
Content Developers – The content developers will select and prepare the photographs for digitizations, will identify metadata needs and will assist in the selection of the images for the website. They include: Mary Wallace and Tom Featherstone, Wayne State University; Lauren Kata, Morna Gerrard and Peter Roberts, Georgia State University. Additional staff will be hired with IMLS funding to assist with all aspects of the project including selection, preparation, photography, metadata development, data migration, and web development.
PROJECT EVALUATION -An integral part of the activities in all of the Wayne State University digital collection activities is evaluation. In all projects, evaluation is ongoing. Each evaluation includes tasks that are common to all projects as well as those that are specific to the particular collection. Specific measurable outcomes are identified for each phase of the project. Evaluation methods will include interviews, questionnaires, and focus groups. Quantitative and qualitative data analysis will follow all methodologies. Additionally, Jeff Trzeciak, Michael Smith, and Elizabeth Clemens have been trained in outcome-based assessment through an IMLS workshop in December 2002.
Outcome 1: Instructors, students and free-will learners who use Women@Work will find resources relevant to their interests and needs. Measure: Number and percentage of respondents who identify the site and its contents as relevant. Data sources: Interviews, questionnaires, and focus groups.
Data collection point: Online surveys will be provided at the end of each site visit. Interviews will be conducted quarterly with students, instructors and free-will learners every six months during the project. Target: 80% of respondents will rank the resource as “relevant”
Outcome 3: Other “Urban 13” library and archive workers will have an increased understanding of partnerships related to digitization projects Measure: Number and percentage of library and archive workers who identify the information about the partnership as relevant and useful. Data source: Questionnaires, interviews and focus groups conducted at conferences and events. Data collection point: Throughout the project during attendance at conferences and events. Target: 60% of respondents who rate the information as “relevant and useful”
Outcome 4: Partners find the experience beneficial and seek additional opportunities for collaboration in order to improve services to our users. Measure: Number and percentage of partners who rank the experience and “beneficial”. Data source: Surveys and interviews of participating grant staff. Data collection point: End of project. Target: 100% of respondents who rank the project as “relevant and useful”.
Throughout the project we will use the data to identify problems and implement any necessary changes.
DISSEMINATION - Information about the project will be disseminated nationally, statewide and locally. Information about the project will be available in print, on the project website, on the partners’ websites, on the statewide “Making of Modern Michigan” website and through digital repositories such as the Association of Research Libraries’ Digital Initiative Database and through OCLC. Information about the project will be distributed by the partners through press releases, member mailings, and mailings to various museum/library listservs. Presentations and resource materials about the project as a model for library/museum collaboration will be created for delivery at regional, state and local meetings including Detroit Area Library Network, Michigan Library Association, Michigan Archival Association and the Midwest Archives Conference in Michigan; and the Georgia Library Association and the Society of Georgia Archivists in Georgia. Presentations will also be made at national meetings, including American Library Association, American Association of Museums, and the Society of American Archivists. In addition, because of the relevance of this project to both Labor Studies and Women’s Studies, dissemination to these communities of interest will also be integrated into this phase.
SUSTAINABILITY - Our strategy has five components:
1. Software/hardware migration – The platform we have chosen includes:
a. Sun Server – While the grant is for a one-year period, we have recently purchased a server with a three year lifetime. The server will be replaced every three years as part of an overall strategy for replacement.
b. DLXS – The software upon which the interface and indexes are built is based on the SGML standard. The images will be available as JPEG or TIFF. All of our files and metadata are based on international standards that can be migrated to new systems.
2. Physical deterioration of digital media – Digital images will be archived on DVD’s and a copy will be given to the Wayne State University Reuther Archives for cold storage. Backups of the server will be housed at the Wayne State University Computing Center and an off-site location.
3. Metadata – Metadata will be updated frequently and stored as SGML/XML files and will provide a high level of structure and functionality. It will easily migrate to new systems, if necessary.
4. User needs and preferences – We will continue to discuss the project with our users after the grant deadline in order to meet their basic yet ongoing needs.
5. The partners are committed to maintaining this collection after the grant period. The database will continue to be available, free of charge, to users after the grant period. Updates to the data and images will be provided to Wayne State University Library System when available.