Class presentation for LIS 2674 - Digital Preservation. Documents the digital preservation of the Chicago Daily New's plate glass negative collection by the Chicago History Society and Library of Congress for the LOC's American Memory collection.

1. Unloading rolls of paper from a horse drawn cart for the Chicago Daily News press. Chicago Daily News negatives collection, DN-0001448. Courtesy of Chicago History Museum. The preservation and digitization of the Chicago Daily News glass negative collection. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpcoop/ichihtml/cdnhome.html Michael DziabiakLIS 2674March 31, 2010

2. Project Background Project: Digitize 55,000 glass negatives from 1902- 1933 out of the 88,000 negative collection Partners: Chicago Historical Society (CHS), New-York Historical Society, and the Library of Congress Funding: The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Amount: $520,000 (approx. $400,000 to the CHS) Duration: 3 years, starting in August 1998 Goals: Access and Preservation

4. Buildings under construction

5. New bridges

6. Statues

7. Labor strikes

8. Political conventions

9. Children and social welfare workers

10. Working men and women

11. Prominent politicians

12. Socialites

13. Actors

14. Athletes

15. Criminals

16. Police officers

17. Firefighters

18. Judges , lawyers, and defendants

19. Parades

20. Victory celebrations

21. Railroad trains

22. Steetcars

23. Horse-drawn wagons

24. Automobiles

25. Chicago parks and beaches

27. Pre-digitization planning Consulted current standards and scanning methodologies Meet a majority of users’ needs All negatives to be scanned One time scan for each negative Able to retire the original glass negative to temperature controlled storage Men sitting around a table covered with papers in a room, planning the Chicago Daily News Mardi Gras. Chicago Daily News negatives collection, DN-0080281. Courtesy of Chicago History Museum.

29. Cataloging the collection Image files received the same identification number as the original glass negatives assigned by the Chicago Daily News staff Detailed research required for most negatives Creation of a full MARC record Library of Congress currently hosting the MARC records and JPEG and GIF files online in the American Memory historical collection Ice covered Eureka building after fire, West Madison Street near Union Street, Near West Side community. Chicago Daily News negatives collection, DN-007163. Courtesy of Chicago History Museum.

30. Example record

31. Benefits of digitization Nearly 80% of never before published images are now available to the general public and research community Cropped and other previous modified images that were published are now available in their entirety Continual contribution of detail and history to the subjects contained in each image added to the records Assessment and conservation of original glass negatives

32. Reflection “The Internet creates the potential to add value to primary sources materials by gathering and linking the knowledge of many people with those sources. Online presentation can also increase the research potential of historical image collections simply by bringing together pieces of historical evidence that have long been separated.” -Barbara Orbach Natanson, “Worth a Billion Words? Library of Congress Pictures Online,” 2007 Chicago skyline, dark exposure. Chicago Daily News negatives collection, DN-0079326. Courtesy of Chicago History Museum.

34. References Cook, Matthew. 2000. Economies of scale: digitizing the Chicago Daily News. RLG DigiNews 4, no. 1 (February 15), http://www.worldcat.org/arcviewer/1/OCC/2007/08/08/0000070519/viewer/file199.html#feature2 (accessed March 15, 2010). Jacob, Mark, and Richard Cahan. 2007. Chicago under glass: Early photographs from the Chicago Daily News. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Library of Congress American Memory. Photographs from the Chicago Daily News, 1902-1933. Library of Congress. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpcoop/ichihtml/cdnhome.html (assessed March 15, 2010). Library of Congress American Memory. Photographs from the Chicago Daily News, 1902-1933: About the collection. Library of Congress. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpcoop/ichihtml/about.html (accessed March 15, 2010).

35. References cont’d Library of Congress American Memory. Photographs from the Chicago Daily News, 1902-1933: Building the digital collection. Library of Congress. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpcoop/ichihtml/build.html (accessed March 15, 2010). Natanson, Barbara Orbach. 2007. Worth a billon words? Library of Congress pictures online. Journal of American History 94, no. 1: 99-111. Valverde, María Fernanda. 2005. Photographic Negatives: Nature and Evolution of Processes. Rochester: Mellon Advanced Residency Program in Photographic Conservation (George Eastman House/Image Permanence Institute). http://imagepermanenceinstitute.org/shtml_sub/negatives_booklet_web.pdf (access March 15, 2010).