The University of Scranton
Weinberg Memorial Library
Participation in
PALINET
Mass Digitization
Collaborative
2008

About Scranton
• Mid-sized, private Jesuit university
– ~4,000 FT undergrads
– ~1,500 PT and graduate
• No, we don’t know Jim and Pam!
• But we do eat at Cooper’s.

About the Weinberg
Memorial Library
• Almost 500,000 books
• Over 30,000 full text
online periodicals
• 8 full time faculty
librarians
• 27 staff members

Why Participate?
• Increased access to Library resources
– Distance education
– Conversion to digital library
• Cost
• Coordination and help from PALINET
– We’re new at this! (especially me)

Our Team
• University Archivist
– Margaret Craft
• Special Collections Librarian
– Michael Knies
• Systems Coordinator
– Mary Kovalcin
• Digital Services Librarian
– Kristen Yarmey-Tylutki

Our Process
• Selection
– Books in public domain
– Unique or unusual
– Harder than we thought!

Book Selection
• Pilot
– Focus on local
history, pre – 1923
– Six books chosen
• Production
– Local history
– University
publications?
– Course catalogs?

Our Process
• Submit Pick/Packing list to PALINET and IA
• Set up Z39.50 connection for MARC records
– Estimated 8-10 days
• Site visit (Princeton)
– Books dropped off 9/22
– Most books available online 10/08
– All six books available 10/10

Quality Review
– Examined page-by-page PDF, flipbook, and
JPEG2000 for all six books
– IA gave us plenty of time to review before shipping
books back

Quality Review
• Results
– JPEG2000s good
– Full text searching is good
– Foldouts aren’t ideal
– Derivatives: lose quality in exchange for file size
• PDFs: blurry images
• Flipbook: illegible text

Quality Review
PDF JPEG2000

Quality Review
Flipbook

Quality Review
• Bottom line/IA response
– Recommend PDF for general users
• Compromise between detail and file size
– Flipbook is still in beta format
– Recommend JPEG2000 for researchers
• Just like Roy said…

Our Process
• What’s next:
– Add digital books to catalog
– Create digital library collection in
CONTENTdm

Marketing and PR
• Pilot:
– Library blog post
– Informing staff and
librarians
• Production:
– Collaborate with PR
department
– Press release
– Postcards

Questions?
Kristen Yarmey-Tylutki
Digital Services Librarian
The University of Scranton
Weinberg Memorial Library
yarmeyk2@scranton.edu