This presentation was provided by Barbara Laufersweiler of the University of Oklahoma during the NISO virtual conference, Images: Digitization & Preservation of Special Collections in Libraries, Museums and Archives, held on Wednesday, June 14, 2017.

1. Digital Imaging
and Preservation
for Special Collections
at the University of Oklahoma Libraries
Barbara Laufersweiler
@barbaraell
NISO virtual conference “Images”, June 14, 2017

2. Digitization at OU Libraries
§ New facility in 2013

3. Digitization at OU Libraries
§ New facility in 2013
§ Special collections

4. Digitization at OU Libraries
§ New facility in 2013
§ Special collections
§ Major exhibition

5. Digitization at OU Libraries
§ New facility in 2013
§ Special collections
§ Major exhibition
§ Capacity building

6. Digitization at OU Libraries
§ New facility in 2013
§ Special collections
§ Major exhibition
§ Capacity building
§ Rapid improvement

7. New facility in 2013
Major investment by OU Libraries to
stand up a digitization facility

8. Beyond flatbed scanners
Student employee scanning archival documents, OU Digitization Lab

9. Renovated space
View of OU Digitization Lab

10. New equipment
Student employees using various equipment, OU Digitization Lab

11. Lighting and color control
Student employees at processing stations, OU Digitization Lab

12. Existing practices
Student employee lifting a page in a book for photography, OU Digitization Lab

13. Special collections
Digitization of the special collections
of the university for online public
access

14. 95% from two sources
§ OU’s Western History Collections
§ Documents, 19th-20th century
§ OU’s History of Science Collections
§ Rare books, 15th-19th century

15. Cultural heritage objects
On left, A1r title page, Mysterium cosmographium, Johannes Kepler (Tubingen, 1596), History of Science Collections, OU.
On right, Cherokee Nation Papers Box 22, folder 713, image 49, Western History Collections, OU.

16. Standards & practices
Screen capture during quality check, multiple images of Opera Bücher und Schrifften,
Paracelsus (Strassburg, 1603), with color cards, OU Digitization Lab

17. Changes to practices
§ FADGI Technical Guidelines for
the Still Image Digitization of
Cultural Heritage Materials
§ www.digitizationguidelines.gov

18. Major exhibition
New needs challenged digitization
practices and spurred change

19. Galileo’s World
Screen capture, Galileo’s World exhibition home page, galileo.ou.edu. August 2016.

20. Over 300 books digitized
Screen capture, Galileo’s World exhibition website search result page, galileo.ou.edu. August 2016.

21. Practices improved
Screen captures of workflow, task, & project management tools, OU Digitization Lab.

22. Productivity
increased
Box-and-whisker analysis of monthly photography capture rate each year. April 2017

23. Capacity building
Current needs are metadata,
preservation, and online access

24. Left, screen capture, digital image METS file.
Center, screen capture, OU Libraries special collections repository. August 2016
Right, DLF/Aquifer Implementation Guidelines for Shareable MODS Records (November 2006).
Metadata

25. Digital preservation
Screen capture, BagIt structure of files for digital transfer, OU Digitization Lab

26. Screen captures, OU Libraries special collections repository. August 2016.
Online access

27. Digital repository
Screen capture, OU Libraries special collections repository. August 2016.

28. Rapid improvement
Key has been to learn, communicate,
and improve quickly & iteratively

29. Imaging & preservation at OU
§ 4 years in new facility
§ Partner to special collections
§ Exhibition & other projects
§ Building key capacities
§ Iterative improvement

30. Thank you!
Questions, comments?
Barbara Laufersweiler
Coordinator, Digitization Lab
Project Manager, Knowledge Services
blaufers@ou.edu @barbaraell