The document summarizes a scanathon event held by the University of Scranton to digitize local history materials from the Lackawanna Historical Society. Over two days, 30 student volunteers digitized over 1,600 images from historical volumes and correspondence. Students captured basic metadata and some transcription. While digitization was successful, metadata tasks proved time-intensive. Future events may focus on printed works and reduce metadata duties for volunteers. Student feedback was very positive about hands-on experience with primary sources and historical research.

1. KristenYarmey
Digital Services Librarian
University of Scranton
Weinberg Memorial Library
@kristenyt
PALA West Branch Chapter
Spring Workshop
May 12, 2016

2. Kickoff - April 23, 2015
Charter Day - April 23, 2016

3. Lackawanna Historical Society
Scranton Public Library
Lackawanna Valley Digital
Archives
University of Scranton Library
University of Scranton History
Department
Royals Historical Society

4.  2-day weekend event in October 2015
 University of Scranton students will digitize and describe local
history materials from the Lackawanna Historical Society
 University of Scranton Library will host and provide computer
equipment, classroom space, training, supervision, and snacks
 Scranton Public Library staff will upload digitized images to
Lackawanna Valley Digital Archives

5.  Increase public access to primary sources related to the city’s
history;
 Raise awareness about the important work that libraries and
other cultural heritage institutions do to preserve and provide
access to Pennsylvania history;
 Engage students from local universities with archival materials
and expose them to new skills;
 Establish a working model for future scanathon events, to be
held in Scranton as well as other Pennsylvania cities and
regions.

6. Available to borrow from the
State Library!

7.  Significance to city, county, and state history
 Feasibility (2-day scanathon)
 Existing metadata/descriptive information
 Fragility (for handling by student volunteers)
But also…
 Public domain
 All scanned images are uploaded to Internet Archive
 Bound volumes

8. Housed at Lackawanna
Historical Society
19 bound volumes
Over 9,000 handwritten letters
by 3 key members of the
Scranton family
Dated 1850-1917
2 bound volumes, 414 letters,
625 pages
Dated 1850-1854
Previously transcribed by LHS
volunteers (thank you, Martin
Family!)

9.  Spring/Summer 2015
 Initial discussions with partners
 Selected content
 Scheduled scanathon dates
 Submitted proposal for Scribe Station to State Library
 August/September 2015 (Thanks to Kate Reilly ‘17!)
 Sign-up sheets for student volunteers
 Workflow/strategy for managing staff and volunteers
 Step-by-step instructions and “cheat sheets” for each task
 Metadata spreadsheets in Google Docs
 Reserved classrooms
 October 2015
 Event promotions and signage
 Ordered snacks
 Borrowed selected volumes from LHS
 Picked up Scribe Station

10. Box is sturdy but large and
heavy (150 lbs)
May not fit through some
doorways
(Thanks to Bill Fee and Scott
Thomas!)

11. Very helpful instructions
w/photos!
Computer, monitor, keyboard,
mouse are all included.
Open space in preferably dark
room
Power outlets and network
connection
Deep table
A friend or two
~ 2 hours to unbox and set up
(IA estimate was 30 min)
~ 2 hours to test and calibrate
(~1 hr takedown)
(Thanks to Sam Davis, Elizabeth
Davis, Sylvia Orner, Sarah
Piccini, and Martina Soden!)

12.  12 hours over 2 days (Saturday and Sunday)
 3 rooms at UofS Library
• Computer lab = Metadata/transcription, snacks and drinks
• Classroom = Scribe Station
• DigServ office = Flatbed scanners
 30 student volunteers
 Staff supervision (LHS, LVDA, Scranton Public Library,
UofSLibrary, UofSHistory)

13. 2-person teams
3hr volunteer shifts
30-40min task rotation
2 scanning tasks (Scribe Station
and flatbed)
4 metadata tasks
Training at start of shift
Staff member in each room at all
times

14. 2-person teams (one person
works foot pedal and turns
pages, other worked keyboard
and mouse)
White paper inserts due to
paper transparency
Scan rate = about 100 images
(50 2-page spreads) per hour
(IA est. was ~200 pages per
day)
Students say = FUN!

15. *Very* basic metadata
300 dpi, 24-bit color JP2s
Unprocessed image files are
uploaded to Internet Archive for
automated cropping,
processing,and publication.
Upload took longer than
expected.
(We downloaded copies of the
files as a backup.)

16. Images turned out… OK
Had trouble getting a sharp
focus
Some gutters too tight

17. 4 metadata tasks (red, blue,
yellow, green)
Wrangling a giant Word
document into a Google Docs
spreadsheet
Students captured dates,
people, locations, and
copied/created transcriptions
CONTENTdm-friendly
format/syntax
Students say = Not fun (esp.
transcription).

18. Completed digitization of GWS
volumes plus box of loose
correspondence
1,608 digitized images (over
20GB)
Completed all metadata tasks
Remaining transcription
completed by staff volunteers

19. Internet Archive
 Bound volumes captured
using Scribe Station are
uploaded automatically
 Available within days!
 But only basic, volume-level
metadata (less discoverable)
 Only 37 views since October

LVDA (CONTENTdm)
 LVDA is uploading letters from
loose box *and* bound volumes
 Available within... months (much
more time-intensive to prepare
and upload)
 Item-level metadata prepared
by volunteers – including full
text transcriptions, dates,
to/from
 Will be discoverable in DPLA
via PA Digital! 

20.  “… the opportunity to engage in the actual praxis of history
and get a real feel for the sort of skill sets expected of
professional historians—especially for those of us considering
post-graduate work in the field—not only offers us a practical job
market advantage, but was a downright thrill!”
 Julia Frakes,president of Royals Historical Society
 “[Students] benefited from seeing how much effort goes into
making primary sources available online for us to use in our
undergraduate work… It was fulfilling and novel to conduct
historical research, often a solitary task, with dozens of other
interested students, and the local history we preserved made the
project more immediately resonate than most course work.”
 Julien Cuny, member of Royals Historical Society

21.  Plan to keep Scribe Station longer (two weeks? 1 month?)
 Focus on printed materials?
 Decrease volunteer metadata tasks (prep and QA time made this
inefficient)
 Help students integrate letters into historical context

22. KristenYarmey
University of Scranton
kristen.yarmey@scranton.edu
@kristenyt