MMM
aims at empowering a wide range of libraries, smaller libraries in particular,
to contribute to a digital collection about the Making of Modern Michigan.This
theme fits into the K-12 Michigan Curriculum Framework[2],
and will especially help communities to identify important parts of their
own past. Many small libraries have rich collections relating to Michigan
history, but often lack the hardware, software, and local expertise necessary
to carry out a digitization project. The intent is also to give the staff
at these institutions an opportunity to develop their skills.This
project has two outcome-based goals.These
are:
·Empowerment.
Training libraries in digitization techniques, metadata standards, and
copyright issues, to empower them to digitize their own local and often
unique materials relevant to 19th and 20th century
Michigan history.
·Content.
Developing a rich digital collection on Michigan history – including 20th
century materials usually excluded from library digitization projects –
for use in K-12 Michigan history modules, as well as for scholars and free-choice
learners who want to know more about their state or their local community.
The
means for achieving these goals are:
·Regional
Centers. Establish
regional centers throughout the state where libraries without digitization
equipment or expertise can go to digitize materials.All
centers will be able to do photographic, text, and audio materials.Some
will also be able to handle large format materials.
·Copyright.
Provide copyright training and a permissions service so that libraries
can consider digitizing 20th century materials, which may still
have protection under Title 17 of the US Code.
·Standards.
Provide statewide standards for digitization and metadata using the Colorado
Digitization Project[3]
as a model.
·Access.
Provide access to digital materials through a centrally managed Website
at Michigan State University, with the possibility of adding it to a statewide
portal being developed by the ATLAS Portal committee. The option of using
OAI Metadata harvesting techniques will also be pursued actively.
· Incentive
Grants. Provide
incentive grants ($25,000 total) to help libraries, especially very small
libraries, to take part in the digitization process.
Taken
together, the first four initiatives will create all the necessary infrastructure
for libraries throughout Michigan to begin digitizing their rich collections
on Michigan history.The last item,
the incentive grants, will encourage participation among the smallest libraries
– those which find it most difficult to extend their resources to new activities
– by providing seed money to defray expenses on a first-time digitization
project.
Measurement
of the project’s outcomes will take place throughout the grant period.Four
groups will be targeted:
·Educators.
Focus group discussions with K-12 teacher groups will be held at each regional
center with teachers from the area.
·Digitizers.
Surveys at each training session and after each use of a regional center
to ask about the quality of assistance and determine unmet needs.
·End
Users. Maintain
feedback mechanisms at the central Website, and at other local sites where
possible.These mechanisms should
include a short survey as well as an email contact for longer comments.
·Public
Libraries. Survey
both participating and non-participating Michigan public libraries about
whether the project is meeting both their training and content needs.
This
is the first stage of a larger project.Future
participants will include museums and historical societies. Future developments
will also include enhancements to the access mechanisms, including the
use of OAI (Open Archives Initiative) metadata harvesting tools.
Need
Michigan
has a number of libraries that are active digitizers and builders of digital
libraries.Among these are the University
of Michigan, which has a Digital Library Production Service, established
digitization rates and capacity, and a record of large scale digitization
projects (e.g., Making of America). The University of Michigan is also
an active developer of OAI Metadata harvesting tools with Mellon funding.
Michigan State University is producing the IMLS-funded Feeding America
project and does active research on spoken word digitization through Digital
Library Initiative funding. Wayne State University has been digitizing
costume collection materials, the University of Detroit Mercy has produced
a collection of images of Great Lakes shipping, and Central Michigan University
has digitized county history materials.All
of these institutions have rich collections, but even more information
about Michigan history, particularly local histories, exists only at libraries
where digitization facilities are very limited or nonexistent. A key goal
of MMM is to enable these libraries to digitize materials.
The
ATLAS Digitization Committee surveyed Michigan libraries in November and
December 2001 to discover what types of historical and cultural materials
have been digitized in Michigan, whether institutions holding such materials
are interested in future digitization projects, and what assistance they
would need to accomplish this. Eighty-six libraries responded, including
37 public libraries, 18 academic libraries, 16 libraries serving museums,
historical societies, genealogical societies, and archives, and 15 school,
special, and other types of libraries.
Nearly
half the academic libraries had completed some type of digitization project,
while only 6 out of 37 public libraries had done so. However, 30 of the
37 public library respondents indicated that they do have collections they
are interested in digitizing. These holdings cover a wide range of materials,
including architectural drawings and building records, cemetery records
and obituaries, vital records and other genealogical material, letters
and manuscripts, books, photo collections, audio and video recordings and
artifacts.
Survey
respondents were also asked what type of assistance they would need to
begin a digitization project. Funding was mentioned by most respondents.
The other areas cited most frequently were assistance in selecting metadata
formats and creating metadata; training in technical imaging; designing
a system for public access; providing for long-term digital preservation;
and selecting digital formats. A significant but smaller number mentioned
copyright. This may reflect the fact that most respondents had limited
their digitization efforts to pre-1923 materials and items for which the
copyright is held by their home institution. The 20th century
focus of MMM will require participants to learn about copyright issues
regarding more recent materials.
Empowerment
MMM
particularly encourages local digitization and hands-on participation,
even for libraries with no digitization tools or experience. The goal is
to empower these libraries to digitize their own materials within a support
environment that provides standards and training. This is not efficient
in the short run, but it allows the work to be done by the owners of the
original materials at or near their own institutions. The expectation is
that participant libraries will grow comfortable with the digitization
process, and will have confidence to continue to produce digital materials:
perhaps even to purchase equipment because they know how to use it, or
become knowledgeable enough to develop grant proposals and contract for
digitization services.
Digitization
techniques and standards are now taught in many, perhaps even most, library
schools, but only the newest librarians have had an opportunity to learn
them.MMM brings hands-on digitization
training to librarians who graduated before these courses became popular.Library
boards and library administrations often take a conservative approach to
purchasing equipment for digital projects.MMM
is designed to make equipment purchases unnecessary, so that budget size
and flexibility are not limiting factors for participating in a digital
project.
Small
Libraries
One
option is to allow smaller libraries to send their materials to a central
resource for digitization.That would
guarantee standards and offers an efficient approach with some economies
of scale.Although an important
focus of this project is to develop hands-on skills in digital production,
having a staff member spend even a few days at a regional digitization
center might be too difficult for the one- or two-person library.
MMM
recognizes that the process of selecting items for digitization, determining
the copyright status, and creating metadata are equally critical parts
of the overall digitization process, and these can only be done locally.
This kind of learning experience can be extended to even the smallest libraries
by having the regional digitization centers do the digital production work
at an affordable cost for those institutions unable to release a staff
member for travel. Libraries (of any size) will be able to hire the regional
centers on their own or use incentive grant money. This option will be
available for MMM participants who are willing to send materials to another
institution and agree to that institution's handling conditions (e.g. disbinding).
For some libraries, this is the only realistic way to participate.
Incentive
Grants
The
incentive grants are designed to cover only part of the costs of digitization.
The purpose of the grants is to give tangible financial support to small
libraries which might not be able to consider any digitization project
without financial assistance. The application process will use a simple
online or paper form that requests the following information:
·Institutional
name
·Materials
to be digitized (number of pages, photographs, minutes of audio tapes,
etc.) and publication / creation date.
·Staff
time expected to be spent on training / digitization.
·Can
the digital materials be hosted locally?
Thirty-two
incentive grants will be for $500, roughly equal to 2.5 days of staff time.For
that amount, a library would be expected to spend at least 5 days (including
training and travel) on digitization efforts.Thirty
incentive grants will be for $300, roughly equivalent to 1.5 days of staff
time. Both categories would also be expected to cover travel costs in accord
with local policy.Incentive grants
could also be used to contract for services at the University of Michigan’s
Digital Library Production Service (especially for larger or more complex
materials) or one of the regional centers.
A committee
of 5 librarians chosen by the Library of Michigan would evaluate incentive
grant proposals. One round of funding would take place 6 months after the
start of the project.Another would
take place 12 months after the start.The
money would be paid after the first visit by library staff to either a
training session or a regional digitization center.
The
criteria for judging the incentive grants would include:
·Degree
of commitment from the library to undertake digital projects.
·Appropriateness
of the material.
·Possible
copyright complications or unusual difficulties in finding rights holders.
·Balance
among the regional centers.
·Work
plan for completing the project.
The
training sessions offered to MMM participants (described below) will address
some of these issues in greater depth, particularly copyright issues and
digital project planning. To assist libraries applying for incentive grant
applications, some staff at the more experienced regional centers will
offer individual assistance and consultation in planning digitization projects.
This assistance could be given by phone or email, or during events such
as the Library of Michigan-sponsored Small and Rural Libraries Conference
scheduled for May 2003.
Incentive
grants are not necessary for libraries to take part in MMM or to use the
facilities of the regional centers.All
of those using the regional centers need to contact them to make scheduling
arrangements.
Regional
Centers
MMM
would establish eight regional digitization centers at institutions around
the state. These are:
|
UPPER
PENINSULA
|
Hiawathaland
Library Cooperative
|
|
NORTHERN
LOWER PENINSULA
|
Traverse
Area District Library
|
|
CENTRAL
LOWER PENINSULA
|
Central
Michigan University
|
|
SOUTHWEST
MICHIGAN
|
Western
Michigan University
|
|
MID
MICHIGAN
|
Michigan
State University
|
|
SOUTHEAST
MICHIGAN
|
Wayne
State University
|
|
SOUTHEAST
MICHIGAN
|
University
of Detroit Mercy
|
|
SOUTHEAST
MICHIGAN
|
University
of Michigan (contracted services; no walk-in traffic)
|
The
intent is to minimize driving distance for libraries that want to digitize
materials, with a goal of making it possible for 95% of Michigan libraries
to be able to reach a center in no more than 2 hours of driving time.Since
driving time is heavily dependent on traffic, we propose establishing two
centers in the Detroit urban area. The University of Michigan will provide
production services for bitonal scanning (for book-like objects) and continuous
tone image services (for photographic or other visual resources) and will
serve any participating libraries which decide not to do their own digital
production work. No drop-in services will be available there.
Each
center would house equipment necessary for capturing images and sound.At
a minimum this would include a computer with scanner and OCR (Optical Character
Reader) and a digital audio recorder for conducting oral history interviews.Grant
money will be used to provide flatbed scanners, computers, and digital
audio recording equipment as needed. Institutions will be able to make
the purchases themselves, but MSU will provide recommendations. Institutions
will also contribute the availability of some of their existing equipment
as part of their cost-share commitment. The following institutions will
offer specialized services:
·Central
Michigan University: overhead scanning using a Minolta PS3000 for tightly
bound materials that cannot be disbound.
·Michigan
State University: analog audio digitization from reel-to-reel or cassette,
and overhead scanning using a Minolta PS3000.
·University
of Michigan: digitization for bitonal scanning, continuous tone images,
or complex materials which can be disbound.
·Wayne
State: analog audio and video in multiple formats.
Training
Training
in digitization will take place at three levels.The
first level will be for training the trainers and will focus on staff in
each of the regional centers.This
will include selection, hardware use, scanning standards, OCR use, digital
object management (including storage), copyright, and metadata creation.The
training will include decision making about when color or black and white
are preferable, and when to use OCR software to create a preliminary transcript.Training
will include the use of digital audio recorders, obtaining permissions,
and general oral history techniques.The
training will also cover how to manage focus groups and other evaluation
methods. MSU and the Library of Michigan will jointly host one of these
training sessions; Wayne State University will host another.
The
second level of training will take place in each of the regional centers.It
will cover the same range of topics, but the primary audience will be libraries
in the area that want to participate in MMM. Regional staff will serve
as the primary trainers, but at least one of the first level trainers will
also be present to assist.Level
two training sessions will take place twice during the grant period.
The
third level training will take place at each regional center and will focus
on visiting staff from other libraries who want to use the digitization
resources.As a practical matter,
people who have attended training sessions, but not had ongoing hands-on-practice,
will forget key details.Third level
training will focus only on the type of digitization relevant at the moment,
and will be hands-on.While regional
center staff will be expected to answer questions and help solve problems,
they are not expected to do the digitization work.This
is the responsibility of those bringing materials to the centers. Libraries
that would rather not have their own staff do the digitization work may
make private arrangements to hire the services of any of the regional centers.
Those hiring services will be encouraged to participate in the training,
so that they understand the process.
The
University of Michigan, through its Digital Library Production Service,
will contribute (as cost share) $30,000 in its digitization capacity toward
bitonal scanning and continuous tone image services. (Information about
its rates and services can be found at http://www.umdl.umich.edu/pubs/digit-services-brochure.html)
Content
The
Making of Modern Michigan theme has a breadth that should make it possible
for most libraries throughout the state to contribute materials.Choosing
only 19th century or early 20th century history would
exclude communities that did not exist at the time, and would exclude much
of the history of the auto industry, which is as integral to 20th
century Michigan as the logging and mining industries were to 19th
century Michigan.A city like Livonia,
for example, had a scant 10,000 people in 1950, and Livonia residents relied
on the neighboring Detroit and Plymouth public libraries.A
decade later it had surged up near 100,000, had a significant industrial
base, and had established its own public library system.
The
kind of project that enables such a community to capture its own history
in digital form must also deal with a variety of media, not just photographs
and documents. Oral history in particular offers a way of capturing the
recent past.Libraries can either
organize systematic interviews of founding members of their communities,
or emulate the experience of the Museum of the Person in Brazil and establish
places where residents can come to record their own stories.Grant
money will be used to purchase inexpensive digital audio recorders that
the regional centers can loan for a month at a time to participating libraries
for oral history projects. Those
making recordings will be asked to sign a permissions form, which specifies
whether the recording may be made available on the Web, or may only be
used within the library.
More
traditional content will fit within the project as well.This
includes photographs, maps, and local histories.The
Council of Library Deans and Directors (COLD), which includes all of the
state's 15 public four-year institutions, is planning a project to digitize
county atlases and histories, which are often held by smaller libraries.Digitization
of these materials could be done by the local libraries or by COLD member
institutions.
MMM
does not expect to gather a critical mass of research-oriented content
within the two year grant period.The
goal of empowering local libraries means letting them select their own
materials to digitize, rather than imposing systematic coverage. This does
not mean that the results will be unfruitful for academic research.The
number of unique materials hidden in libraries across the state should
benefit scholars from many disciplines. But the orientation will be local,
with the hope that communities will use this as an opportunity to capture
and celebrate their own past.It
will build an historical mosaic, some pieces of which will need completion
in later phases.
Standards
MMM
will expect participating libraries to follow national standards for digitization
and metadata.The Colorado project
has done a great deal of work to define standards[4]
that work for a state-wide project, and it makes sense for MMM to refer
to and build on those standards rather than reinvent them.Standards
work is expensive, time consuming and intellectually demanding.Those
regional centers that are already active digitizers generally follow standards
similar to those in the Colorado project, and to some extent contributed
to them as national leaders in particular areas.
Scanning
standards for images will follow those used in national projects such as
Making of America and American Memory.Generally
these will be at least 400 dpi (dots per inch) for full color (24 bit depth)
images, and 600 dpi for black and white (1 bit) images. Standards for analog-to-digital
audio conversion will follow those of the Vincent Voice Library at MSU:
a sampling rate of 44.1 mhz, 16 bit, for monaural sound recordings, which
includes most oral history and private recordings.
Descriptive
metadata standards are particularly important, since metadata creation
will be the responsibility of each participating library, and will not
be done at the regional centers.Only
the owner of the original materials is likely to have sufficient information
about them to write reliable descriptions.As
in Colorado, Dublin Core (DC) records will be the norm for monographs and
other stand-alone items, including photographs.One
additional expectation will be that the records comply with OAI metadata
harvesting requirements.Encoded
Archival Description (EAD) will also be a standard for collections of materials.
The collection level information for these EAD records should be compatible
with OAI Metadata Harvesting.
Both
DC and EAD formats encourage the use of controlled vocabularies for subject
access. The Library of Congress Subject Headings clearly would be
one option and for many libraries this would be most feasible. Other possibilities
include the
Revised Nomenclature for Museum Cataloging, the Social
History & Industrial Classification, and the LC Thesaurus of
Graphic Materials.
Several
options for metadata creation will be available to help reinforce the guidelines,
includingWeb-based forms that produce
fully encoded DC and EAD.MSU will
produce the Web forms for EAD and DC along with a support Website for using
the templates.
Interns
MMM
will use library school interns from both of Michigan's American Library
Association accredited library schools to assist with training at the regional
centers.These interns will take
part in the first level training, travel to regional centers to assist
in second level training sessions there, and serve as first level trainers
at their own home institutions. Participation will benefit the interns
by giving them hands-on experience in developing digitization services,
and will expose them to the problems and opportunities of smaller libraries
throughout the state.Both UM and
Wayne will nominate candidates for the internship positions, and the candidates
will be interviewed by the MMM management team. The internships are envisioned
as full-time positions of 40 hours per week for a period of 15 weeks (one
semester), with compensation of $12.50/hour.
Access
While
access is not the primary focus of this project, it is of course critically
important. Materials which are not easily located or displayed simply are
not used. MMM plans both to provide access through a collective Website
and to encourage participating libraries to host their own materials on
a local Website. This dual approach will reach the largest number of users.
Michigan residents exploring their local library’s Website will find materials
relating to their own community and be guided to the statewide collection.
Users of the statewide site, meanwhile, will be led through diverse collections
to items to specific interest.
MMM
plans to cooperate fully with other resources being developed as part of
ATLAS, particularly the Web portal which will offer a central location
for a wide range of information services, including a common catalog. Since
specifications for the portal are still being defined, alternative plans
are also necessary.If the ATLAS
Portal is unavailable when MMM materials become available, MSU will develop
a Website and provide data storage. There are several options for the search
interface, including the XPAT software from UM, image management and metadata
harvesting software from Innovative Interfaces, Inc., and OAI metadata
harvesting tools. MMM expects access plans for other parts of the ATLAS
initiative to be decided before grant funding would begin.Locking
MMM into specific plans at this time would not serve the goal of statewide
cooperation on such infrastructure elements.
The
Library of Michigan will serve as a permanent repository for all of the
DC records.MSU will serve as a
permanent repository for the EAD records.Both
will work with the University of Michigan to make these records available
to its Mellon Foundation funded OAI Metadata Harvesting project.
Copyright
Training
Most
digitization projects have avoided 20th century materials because
of copyright complications.These
complications are significant, but a combination of copyright training
and a service to obtain appropriate permissions can be used to make the
materials available. MMM will provide both.
The
training will consist of half-day sessions that cover the basics of copyright
law, including what is protected, how long the protection lasts, and what
exceptions exist including fair use.It
will also cover legal issues for unpublished and audio materials. The goal
of this training is to help libraries generally, and regional centers in
particular, to recognize potential copyright advantages or complications.For
example, a local work published before 1963 may not have had the copyright
renewed and may actually have fallen into public domain.A
work published before 1978 without notice of copyright would definitely
have fallen into public domain.A
set of unpublished papers whose authors died less than 70 years ago would
be protected, and the heirs would need to be found for a permission to
be granted.An unpublished photograph
taken after 1978 as part of a corporate work-for-hire arrangement would
be protected for 120 years and the corporation would be the rights owner,
not the photographer (though the photographer might have moral rights in
the pictures).
Some
copyright training will take place during the level one digitization training,
but sessions will also be offered at the regional centers throughout the
project. The basic information for these training sessions will be available
online at MSU, so that staff at regional centers and at participating libraries
can refer to them.MLC and MSU staff
already provide some of this training, as requested by local library groups.One
example is a recent half-day training session for Wayne County media specialists.
The
training will make people more aware of copyright issues, but cannot answer
all questions.Staff at MLC and MSU
will provide ongoing reference assistance for copyright questions.This
information, and the training itself, cannot be considered legal advice.It
is merely information.Libraries
and individuals must make their own decisions about when digitizing is
legitimate.
Permissions
Service
A centralized
permissions service is a critical element in enabling the use of copyright
protected materials.Such a service
exists already at MSU to support the Digital Library Initiative-funded
National Gallery of the Spoken Word project as well as MSU's distance education
program.Records of all requests
are available online, along with their status.Copies
of permission letters are stored so that they can be made available as
needed, should any questions arise.The
permissions service ordinarily requests a permanent permission for non-exclusive
unrestricted use, and emphasizes the educational use of the materials.
Most
non-commercial rights owners are happy to grant such a permission.This
makes materials available to every student and adult learner in the state
and the world.For those rights holders
who insist on restrictions, MMM will include the option of access only
to authenticated users via the ATLAS portal now being developed. The MMM
permissions service will not offer the option of restricting access to
particular Internet address ranges, because of the difficulty of establishing
those in such a way that everyone in the state could get access.
The
permissions service naturally cannot guarantee success. When rights holders
refuse permission, the requesting library will be informed and the materials
will not be digitized.When rights
holders cannot be located after a good faith effort, libraries will be
free to take advantage of the clause in the Copyright Extension Act that
allows libraries to copy materials more than 75 years old, as long as no
objection is raised (17 USC 108h1).Otherwise
libraries will be advised to choose other materials to digitize and publish
on the Web.
Correct
provenance and citation information is critical for the permissions service
to carry out its job.The MSU permissions
service has an established set of forms to collect key information from
those submitting requests.Those
submitting the requests will also be expected to supply additional information,
as requested, if they can get it locally.
Evaluation
MMM
is aiming at three specific outcomes: empowering Michigan libraries to
digitize locally held materials, building a content-base of digital information
on modern Michigan history, and providing copyright training and a permissions
service to enable the use of 20th century materials without
infringement.These outcomes can
be measured in a number of ways.One
is by counting the number of libraries participating in the digitization
project.Another is by assessing
the quantity and quality of digital materials produced.A
third is by tracking how many permissions were requested and received.Although
these are important measures, they do not necessarily reflect the impact
on people.
Four
categories have been picked to measure MMM's impact on Michigan residents.Educators
are a particularly important group because their interest in the project
will determine whether they use MMM contents in the Michigan history sequences
in their classes.Focus groups held
at or near each regional center offer the best way of getting detailed
feedback. Because focus groups are expensive in terms of teacher time,
only one will be held each year (at the end of the first and second years).Training
in focus group management will be part of the level one training.
The
digitizers themselves are another important group, since they are doing
the hands-on work, using the facilities at the regional centers, and are
the people whose proficiency with the process will determine whether MMM
is a success.Evaluation forms have
become a common part of training classes, and these will be used at the
end of each training session, as well as at the end of each visit to a
digitization center.The forms will
be short enough that people can fill them out in a few minutes, and will
contain space for free form comments.
Free-will
learners represent one of the target groups.They
can come from any part of the state, and from any age or occupation.The
only opportunity to reach them directly is when they use the materials,
either in their local libraries, or centrally on the Website.A
short survey will be available to them on the central Website, as well
as an email address for comments. MMM will also make the survey available
to all participating libraries, though it cannot require them to use it.
Although
public libraries are only one of the types of libraries that might use
MMM services, they are conspicuous in needing a state-wide support structure
to engage in digitization. Few have the resources to begin on their own.Several
surveys have already gone out to ask about needs and interest.Public
libraries will be targeted for follow-up surveys at the end of the first
and second year of the grant to understand both how well the project is
doing, and what remains to be done.
All
surveys and focus group training done at MSU will first be approved by
the University Committee on Research in Human Subjects (UCRIHS). Other
regional centers will be expected to get approval through their own institutional
channels.
Work
Plan
The
work plan for this project is broken down into four six-month intervals.
First
six months (October 2002 through March 2003): establish regional centers
|
ACTIVITY
|
PERSON(S)
RESPONSIBLE
|
|
Recommend
equipment to centers; distribute funds
|
Seadle
|
|
Establish
management team
|
Management
team
|
|
Establish
Incentive Grant Selection committee
|
Library
of Michigan
|
|
Advertise
incentive grants
|
Management
team
|
|
Level
one training at MSU/LM and Wayne
|
Trzeciak/
trainers
|
|
First
regional copyright training
|
Seadle
or Dukelow
|
|
Select
interns
|
Seadle
with regional center staff
|
|
Write
first report
|
Seadle
|
·
Second
six months (April 2003 through September 2003): training
|
ACTIVITY
|
PERSON(S)
RESPONSIBLE
|
|
Select
and award 1st round of incentive grants
|
Selection
committee
|
|
Begin
second level training (first round)
|
Trzeciak/
trainers / regional center staff
|
|
Two
additional copyright training sessions
|
Seadle
and Dukelow
|
|
Permissions
service begins
|
Carmona-Garcia
|
|
Digitization
projects begin at regional centers
|
Regional
center staff
|
|
Design
Website, mount digitized materials
|
Seadle
/ Jones
|
|
Preservation
storage of materials begins
|
Seadle
/ Jones
|
|
Planning
for next phase begins
|
Management
team
|
|
First
focus group evaluations with teachers
|
Trzeciak
/ regional center staff
|
|
Write
second report
|
Seadle
|
·
Third
six months (October 2003 through March 2004): digitization projects begin
|
ACTIVITY
|
PERSON(S)
RESPONSIBLE
|
|
Digitization
continues
|
Regional
centers
|
|
Use
of materials in Michigan history programs encouraged
|
Management
team / regional center staff
|
|
Second
level training (second round)
|
Trzeciak
/ trainers
|
|
Copyright
training continues
|
Seadle
/ Dukelow
|
|
Financial
resources for next phase established
|
Management
team
|
|
Select
and award 2nd round of incentive grants
|
Selection
committee
|
|
Write
third report
|
Seadle
|
·
Final
six months (April 2004 through September 2004): access and evaluation
|
ACTIVITY
|
PERSON(S)
RESPONSIBLE
|
|
Digitization
continues
|
Regional
center staff
|
|
Permissions
work continues
|
Carmona-Garcia
|
|
Interns
finish their work
|
Management
team
|
|
Access
through OAI metadata harvesting
|
Seadle
/ Jones
|
|
Second
focus group evaluation with teachers
|
Trzeciak
/ regional center staff
|
|
Survey
of participating libraries
|
Trzeciak
|
|
Transition
to next phase begins
|
Management
team
|
|
Write
final report
|
Seadle
|
·
Management
The
MMM management team will consist of the project director, Michael Seadle
(MSU); the co-principal investigator,Ruth
Ann Jones (MSU); a representative from the Library of Michigan (Jo Budler);
a representative from the Michigan Library Consortium (Ruth Dukelow); and
the project coordinator, Jeff Trzeciak (WSU).They
will have responsibility for the distribution of project funds to regional
centers, interns, and to those receiving incentive grants.They
will make final decisions about issues that arise in the course of the
project, and will be expected to continue the expansion of the project
to include museums and historical societies.
A larger
MMM advisory board will consist of representatives of each of the regional
centers.This board will assist the
management team in evaluation and future development.The
advisory board will receive all evaluation forms from the centers, all
survey results, and will review reports from focus group meetings. They
will meet at least once each year of the project during the Michigan Library
Association annual conference.
The
project director at MSU will have administrative responsibility for grant
accounting, financial management, and reporting to IMLS including writing
the final report.He will carry out
these responsibilities in close consultation with the broader management
team.He will also be expected to
represent the project as needed on a state and national basis.The
co-principal investigator will attend MMM management team meetings and
will substitute for the project director as needed in meetings and as a
representative of the project. The project coordinator will have responsibility
for organizing training sessions at the regional centers, and performing
training as time permits, as well as organizing and implementing the evaluation
processes, including the final survey.
Staffing
The
project director, Michael Seadle, has a PhD in history, over a decade of
experience as a professional programmer, and has written and lectured on
digital publication. He is principal investigator for “Feeding America:
The Historic American Cookbook Project” and co-principal investigator for
the Digital Library Initiative Phase 2 project to create a National Gallery
of the Spoken Word.He is Digital
Services and Copyright Librarian at Michigan State University, and head
of the MSU Libraries’ Digital & Multimedia Center.
The
co-principal investigator, Ruth Ann Jones, is Digital Projects Coordinator
at the Michigan State University Libraries. She is project manager for
“Feeding America: The Historic American Cookbook Project.”
Jo Budler
is Deputy State Librarian at the Library of Michigan. She also served as
Director of Network Services at the Nebraska Library Commission.
Ruth
Dukelow is Associate Director of the Michigan Library Consortium. She has
a J.D. as well as a library degree and has taught numerous workshops and
training sessions on copyright.
Jeff
Trzeciak is Interim Director for Library Computing and Media Services at
the Wayne State University Library System.
Jennie
Carmona-Garcia will serve as copyright permissions manager. She currently
manages the permissions service for MSU online courses and the Vincent
Voice Library digitization project.
Preservation
To ensure
the preservation of all digital materials, copies of text and image materials
will be provided to central repositories with existing long-term digital
storage programs.Local libraries
will also be encouraged to follow good practices for digital preservation,
including multiple copies on a variety of media such as CD-ROM, back-up
tape, and hard disk.They will also
be encouraged to check the media periodically (at least once each year),
and migrate to fresh media on a regular basis.
MSU
will serve as the central repository for long term preservation of materials.It
uses the Andrew File System (AFS) from Carnegie Mellon University as its
repository system.The MSU AFS space
consists of cabinets with mirrored 36 Gigabyte hard disks, with weekly
and monthly tape backups that are stored off site.This
storage is used for all of the audio materials from the Vincent Voice Library
that are being digitized for the Digital Library Initiative-funded National
Gallery of the Spoken Word project, as well as for materials digitized
for its IMLS-funded Feeding America project.
Encouraging
Participation
A key
aspect of the project will be encouraging libraries which have never done
digitization to make use of the opportunities provided by MMM. One facet
of the effort to encourage participation will be wide dissemination of
information about the project and the incentive grants. There are many
channels for outreach and communication; these include the MichLib-L mailing
list, the Michigan Library Consortium’s monthly Communique, the
Library of Michigan’s Access newsletter, the Michigan Library Association’s
newsletter Michigan Librarian, and email lists and newsletters of
the regional library cooperatives in the state. Library conferences also
offer opportunities to make the incentive grants widely known and to provide
assistance and consulting to libraries preparing applications. In addition
to the Michigan Library Association’s annual conference, the Library of
Michigan sponsors a bi-annual Small & Rural Libraries Conference, to
be held next in May 2003. It draws a large number of librarians from the
small- and medium-sized institutions which MMM particularly aims to involve
in digitization.
Another
important facet is communicating to potential participants how to design
feasible projects and what the time and cost requirements are likely to
be. To that purpose, the management team will develop guidelines which
outline the time and effort required to digitize certain types of materials,
describe likely scenarios for realistic, achievable first-time projects,
and templates for developing a work plan and budget.
The
Long Term
This
is only the first phase of a long term digitization project for Michigan.No
two-year project can reach all of the public libraries, small colleges
and universities, museums, archives, and historical associations in a state
that is both intensely urban in the southeast and intensely rural in the
north. The geography of the state makes travel from, for example, Lake
Linden in the Keweenaw peninsula to Monroe in the southeast, a multi-day
drive or a complex of long drives to airports and multiple flights on small
planes.
The
long term goal of this project is to enable Michigan's cultural institutions
to participate on their own in the digital world.Some
reliance on expertise from the larger universities will always be necessary,
but only the local institutions know what materials they have and what
they actively want to share.
The
next phase of this project will involve historical museums and historical
societies.Some conversations with
these organizations have already begun, and the work with them can build
on training and resource sharing that MMM envisions for libraries.Although
historical museums and societies are not specifically targeted for this
proposal, they will be welcome to participate in using the regional centers
and attending training sessions as space permits.
This
planning is being done in close cooperation with the Library of Michigan
and the Michigan Library Consortium, andas
part of the larger ATLAS initiative.Funding
for future developments will be sought from a variety of sources, including
the state itself.