Overview
On December 10, 2013, the Cleveland Public Library, Columbus Metropolitan Library, Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, and Toledo-Lucas County Public Library were awarded a combined total of 508,457ドル in federal LSTA funds from the State Library of Ohio, matched with 251,964ドル from the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) to create a network of coordinated Digitization Hubs. The Digitization Hubs will be regional digitization centers with specialized state-of-the-art technology to digitize and archive, for online access and hard-copy reproduction, rare and culturally significant materials located in their libraries. Once established, the hubs will also serve other libraries, museums, archives, and local communities.
The libraries will use the 760,421ドル in grant funds for the three year project to purchase equipment and software to create high quality digital images (with associated metadata) of a wide range of materials, and to develop a standard set of policies for digitizing materials gathered from outside the library. Each of the four libraries will contribute to the project with existing staff expertise, logistical support for digitization equipment including trained staff, and operational costs associated with facility space. This project builds on existing digitization projects to establish regional digitization centers that are coordinated through use of similar equipment and standardized metadata.
Other digitization projects have demonstrated a need for higher quality digitization and better metadata than the digital files and metadata sometimes received from "volunteer" digitizers. The coordinated regional labs will insure consistent quality of digital materials and associated metadata. It is intended that the digital materials created in these labs will eventually be accessible to the public through a variety of Internet sites, and it is also intended that digitized materials would be included in the Digital Public Library of America.
The Digitization Hubs Project has four objectives:
- Equip four geographically disbursed digitization labs with a collection of equipment and software that can make digital images of a wide range of materials.
- Implement policies for digitizing materials not owned by the library.
- Create standardized metadata describing each digital image.
- Digitize materials from other institutions and individuals.
Equipment choices were determined by the needs of each library, but in general each hub will have a large-format planetary scanner, a robotic book scanner, and extensive file storage.
Policies will not be determined by any central authority, but will instead be determined by consensus of an Oversight Committee.
A Technology Committee will discuss and share metadata standards, and best practices and procedures.
Detailed information is available in the complete LSTA grant proposal [pdf] located at http://www.library.ohio.gov/sites/default/files/DigitizationHubs-OH-IMLS-LSTA-2013proposal.pdf
Planned Digitization Hubs Project Timeline
- December 2013
- Receive LSTA grant; and request final bids for equipment
- January 2014
- Establish Oversight Committee; review policy research; and place orders for equipment
- February 2014
- Begin installing equipment in libraries
- April 2014
- Finalize policies; finalize agreement on metadata standards and procedures; finalize search/retrieval interfaces; and begin staff training
- May 2014
- Begin announcements to local communities about new service
- June 2014
- Complete staff training
- July 2014
- Complete launch of new digitization service
- October 2014
- Complete expenditure of LSTA funds; and begin evaluation process
Unexpected Changes
The Unexpected Changes page lists some of the obstacles, etc. that other digitization projects may wish to consider.
Actual Digitization Hubs Project Timeline
The Actual Timeline page records the progress of the projects as they develop.