Digitization of the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum Archives.

1. REPORT ON PRESERVATION, DIGITIZATION, INDEXING AND WEBSITE HOSTING
THE TUOL SLENG GENOCIDE MUSEUM ARCHIVES
Absolute Standards to Spread an Objective Vision of History
Alexis Lecoq – DDD | Jacqueline Vincent – Brechin | Frederick Zarndt – DDDDigiPres 2019 – 17/10/19

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Picture
Introduction – UNESCO Memory of the World
TSGM Archives Preservation and Digitization Project launched
January 29, 2018
Digitizing to spread an objective vision of history by and for a future-oriented generation
Done by a future-oriented generation
Why Project is so important?
 Materials are at risk, many are fragile
 Limited preservation and digitization skill
 Archives not accessible for most Cambodians
 Capturing stories for next generations

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A brief history of the genocide and S-21 prison
• A communist party which ruled Cambodia from 17th April 1975 to January 1979
• Responsible for 1.5 to 2.3 millions Cambodian deaths
• Based on a agrarian economy and rejection of capitalism
• During this period, were abolished: money, private property, religion,
traditional culture, normal schooling, Non-revolutionary entertainment, etc.
What is the Khmer Rouge regime ?
• A former High School transformed into a prison in August 1975
• Largest prison during the Khmer Rouge regime
• ~20 000 prisoners, tortured, forced to make confessions, then executed
• Discovered in January 1979 with only 7 survivors
• Became a Genocide museum in 1980 during Vietnamese occupation
What is Tuol Sleng ?
Picture
Through this project and digitization, we aim at enlightening this period of darkness for Cambodia

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2 Institutional partners
1Joint venture between 2Digital companies
1 Governmental partner
Supported by:
1 Funding partner
Partners

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Project brief
• Cataloguing
• Preservation/preparation
• Scanning/capturing
• Image editing/post-processing
• Indexing/database/website
• Create the archives database
• Preserve and digitize the museum archives registered
as UNESCO’s Memory of the World
• Build the capacity of the museum staff
• Create a comment-sourcing website for public to
consult archives and edit/comment the content
Jan-18  Jan-20$519K
• 1 Joint-venture between Digital Divide Data (DDD)
and The Brechin Group (Brechin)
• 3 Institutional partners (Ministry of Culture and
Fine Arts, Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, UNESCO)
• 1 Funding partner (KOICA)
• 10 staff from DDD
(students in work-study
program)
• 11 staff from the museum
Budget Schedule Objectives
Activities Team Partners

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Project overview – 2 key requirements
Brechin and DDD decided to train team on all parts end to end of the digitization process
• Safe handling of archive materials
• Preservation and simple repairs
• Preparation of materials for digitizing
• Update/maintain Database
• Capture RAW & scan
• Follow high digitization standards
• Post-process, Image edit & QC
• Indexing and metadata
1 Digitize and preserve materials, create database and crowd-commenting website
2 Provide training to 11 staff of TSGM and Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts

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Breakdown of the collection
~400 000
pages divided
into:
Confessions of
4000+ prisoners
6000+
Biographies
212
Microfilms
~6000
Negatives
56
Revolutionary
magazines
~5100 Other
documents
158
Khmer rouge
handbook
~6000
Photos

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Imaging specifications – Camera Raw and Image Quality Targets
Input resolution
Bit-depth
Compression
400 ppi
24-bit color
600 ppi 3000 ppi
8-bit
greyscale
Confessions Photos NegativesOther docs Books + mag Biographies
LZW lossless compression
Master File
format
TIFF
FADGI
performance level
RAW with Q13 and Mini ColorChecker target values allow better colour and exposure accuracy.
Standards enable neutral unbiased white balance and grey targets at low cost.
Color space Adobe RGB (1998)
Output resolution > 4000 pixels on the long side > 6000 pixels on the long side
Gray
Gamma 2.2

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Key Project challenges
Historical status of digitization room and constraint to ensure floor and walls remained untouched
1 Environmental Challenges
• Hot, humid climate
• Archives and digitization rooms: location
• Historical status of digitization rooms
• Power fluctuations and cuts
2
Limited skill set of team
• Few had previous digitization / capture skills
• Minimal handling & preservation experience
• Limited English & technical language
5 Tight timeline
• Over 400,000 pages & photos to be preserved,
captured / scanned, processed in 1 year
3
Limited local equipment & supplies
• Most equipment not available locally
• Importing increased costs
• Local repair expertise limited
 often cheaper to buy backups
4
Limited existing Archives inventory
• Prisoner log, little documentation, no database
• No provenance left by previous personnel left
• Confessions inventory limited:
 confusion over originals vs duplicates
 extended capture & processing 2 months
Some Team Challenges
• Targets time-consuming, some hard to do
• Learning new concepts
• Preservation - counting pages
• Interpreting document relationships
• Oversize scanning and stitching

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Equipment, processes and sharing expertise locally in TSGM
What digitization solutions we chose and why?
We optimized training, equipment and processes with local context
Environment
Skill Set
Timeline
Standards
Equipment /
Supplies
View of digitization room prior to set-up
Photo 2018: Jacqueline Vincent
24/7 A/C, battery-powered strobes + UPS
Humidity, temperature, power fluctuation
Train from scratch – streamlined process
Limited skills in digitization
Efficient equipment and process
~400k pages / 1 year / 3 capture stations
Teach high imaging standards (FADGI)
No digitization standards in Cambodia
Importing and hand carrying equipment
Sourcing locally very limited

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Project approach – brief view of digitization solutions
Efficient processes and appropriate equipment were planned and team resources managed effectively
to complete high quality work on time and often ahead of schedule
• Online spreadsheet; from scratch
• Key critical data recorded
• Provenance maintained
Preservation
Database
• Epson v850 & XL 12000
• SilverFast Ai8 for scanners
Scanning
solutions for
photos, films,
oversize
• CaptureOne Pro 11
• Photoshop and Bridge
• X-rite Mini colour checker &
Kodak Q13 targets
Post-
processing
Image
Editing & QC
• Nikon digital cameras / Targets
• Rimelite strobes / UPS for PC
• Live view with Auto-focus
Capturing
solution for
documents

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Workflow – Digitization: from physical materials to digital files
Archival Material
for Preservation
or Capture
Photographs
Oversize
Documents
Analyze preservation
state of doc and
preserve if needed
Prepare the docs for
Scanning/Capturing
Files are validated
for quality on PC
Image processing
image editing
Documents
Photos Negatives
Files stored on local
NAS
Post processing QC checking
Each day preservation and digitization stations are assigned to the team by the Project Manager
Paper Materials
Capture Stations
with digital cameras
Film negatives
Scan Stations Epson
V850 & 12000 XL
Preservation
Stations
Books + mag
Digitizing
Oversize Docs
Quality
Control
Stations
Processing
Stations
Files stored on NAS
& Amazon

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Archives digitized – next steps: Indexing
Indexing Descriptive Metadata
Indexing Team
• Training by Nerida (sp) from NZ
• Fields determined by Advisory Com.
• 2 Shifts of DDD associates
• 1 Team from TSGM.
• Frederick input / words
Index variables etc etc
Challenges
Indexing Team
• Training by Nerida (sp) from NZ
• Fields determined by Advisory Com.
• Metadata
• For Frederick to input.
Behind the technical process of digitization, lie the stories of the objects, people, places we capture

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Content Database – providing online access for Cambodians
Database description
Two databases
• 1 holds detainee data – 1 holds document data
• Enables to link detainees to documents, vice versa
Open source software for database creation – MySQL
 Skills: MySQL allows TSGM staff to maintain themselves
 Cost: open source has no license fee
Two languages for target audiences
• Khmer for Cambodian people
• English

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Website to share and spread the stories
New Website functionality – key features
Sub-domain of the official website:
- to interconnect the 2 websites and increase traffic to
increase SEO
Only using open-source:
- to enable TSGM staff to maintain and update it over time
Crowd-sourcing/crowd-commenting:
- to allow Cambodian people to contribute to history and
engage younger generation via contributions/comments
- allows people to contribute through comments such
as wrong data entry and/or additional info
- there will still be people who need to review and
validate contributions
1
2
3

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Crowd-sourcing: A help for Cambodia’s reconstruction ?
Why a crowd-sourcing / commenting functionality ?
We want to involve Cambodian people through this “tool”, especially the younger generation so that
they can contribute to the database and the Cambodian history as “citizen archivists”
Website was to have crowd-sourcing functionality but that has challenges:
Crowd-sourcing or not Crowd-sourcing or Crowd-commenting ?
1 Cambodia during Khmer Rouge Regime was a black box in terms of information, and to
understand their functioning is still a challenge for researchers
2
Limited researchers on this topic in Cambodia - most are foreigners (only 1 Master
degree of History in Cambodia, and specialized into Arts)
3 Cambodia culture is more future oriented making duty of remembrance difficult process
4 This part of Cambodia history is still blur for Cambodians - especially younger generation

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Project Results - Stories to be told and shared?
Law on copyright of Kingdom of Cambodia (2003):
Do we have the right to publish those documents ?
Is it the right thing to publish those documents ?
We only provide a tool. In this vast work on memory, we don't take position as prosecutor, jury or
even judge. We are the court clerk, relating facts and making the stories public in an objective way
ConsPros
- Help families that are looking for answers
- Help the public in general to understand better
this prison and this period
- Harm the families of the formers prisoners and
the former guards
 We have the right to publish those content as they have an education and research purpose

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Conclusions
Photo 2018: Sokhim Soeurng View from the TSGM Archives digitization room
Through this Project, we tell stories:
A story of a prison and a dark period in
Cambodian history
A story of a digitization project in developing
country
Stories of thousands of souls
It brings past, present and future together to
help illuminate a dark period of Cambodia
This future-oriented generation will spread
objective vision of history for new generations

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Q&A - References, Websites and Contact Information
 Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum Archives. http://tuolsleng.gov.kh/en/.
 It is estimated that between 1.5 and 2.5 million people were either killed or died from starvation during the time that the
Democratic Kampuchea regime reigned over Cambodia from April 17, 1975 until January 7, 1979.
 Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts, Government of Cambodia. www.mcfa.gov.kh
 Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA). Project: The Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum Archives Preservation
and Digitization in Cambodia. http://www.koicacambodia.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/8-Tuol-Sleng-Genocide-
Museum-archives-ditizationa-and-preservation-Project-revised-1.pdf.
 UNESCO Memory of the World Register. http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/memory-of-
the-world/register
Contact information:
Alexis Lecoq, Associate Director of Cultural Heritage, alexis.lecoq@digitaldividedata.com
Jacqueline Vincent, TSGM Digitization Advisor, jvincent@brechingroup.com
Frederick Zarndt, Digitization Advisor, frederick@digitaldividedata.com

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Q&A

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Appendix

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Preservation/Digitization
Preservation /
Preparation
Scanning /
Capturing
Image editing /
processing
Indexing
Tasks:
• Analyze preservation state of
the doc + preserve if needed
• Prepare the docs for
Scanning/Capturing
Tasks:
• Configure the equipment
• Capture/Scan the doc +
name/order the files
• Input Technical metadata
Tasks:
• Process RAW file to TIFF file
• Crop/Resize/Align the doc
• Edit image (color, sharpness)
• Input Technical metadata
Tasks:
• Input Administrative and
Descriptive metadata
Software:
• Excel (Tracking file)
Software:
• CaptureOne Pro 11 (capture)
• SilverFast Ai Studio 8 (scan)
Software:
• Adobe Photoshop CS6
• Adobe Bridge CS6
Software:
• TBD (Khmer OCR software
currently in test)
Equipment:
• Horse-hair brushes
• Micro-spatulas
• Nitrile gloves
• Archival tape
• Tacking iron
• Archival thread
Equipment:
• DELL T5810 + UPS Prolink
PROII 902WS x3
• DELL T3620 + UPS Prolink
PROII 901 WS x6
• Nikon D810 Camera
• Rimelite Light kits
• Epson XL12000 scanner
• Epson v850 Pro scanner
• Kaiser Copy stand x3
Equipment:
• DELL T3620 + UPS PROII
901WS
Equipment:
• DELL T5810 + DELL T3620