Assignment 3: Grant Proposal

Transcription

1 Assignment 3: Grant Proposal Christopher Lishawa INFO Winter March 16, 2014

2 1 Executive Summary The University of Findlay Archives, located in Findlay, Ohio, is home to a wide variety of rare newsprints and manuscripts that date back to the foundation of the institution in These documents record the history of the institution, their interactions with local communities and enrollment records. In order to better preserve these aging documents we have determined digitization is the best course of action. We are proposing a one year project during which the documents will be removed from their current displays and digitized to ensure their future preservation. We are seeking funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities agency in the form of a Preservation Assistance Grant for smaller institutions due to your dedication to preserving and protecting historical documents. The University of Findlay Archives is seeking $25, in funding over a one year period to complete this project. Setting The University of Findlay Archives (UFA) services the University of Findlay student and staff population in addition to the city of Findlay, in the Hancock County region of Northwest Ohio. The University of Findlay hosts a population of one thousand graduate and three thousand six hundred undergraduate students, while the surrounding city of Findlay has a population of approximately forty one thousand people. Roughly nineteen percent of this population fell below the poverty line between 2008 and 2012 and ten percent have less than a high school diploma. This population is ninety one percent Caucasian with the remaining nine percent being made up most of Asian Americans and African Americans. The UFA is located on the second floor of the Shafer Library on the University of Findlay campus. Due to space limitations our archive is a subsection of the library and thus we are overseen by the library director. We participate in all of the library s public outreach programs in addition to putting on our exhibitions, aiding research requests and preserving documents pertaining to the history of the

3 2 university. Requested documents are scanned and given to the researcher on request and we serve as the main document repository center for each branch of the university. Our mission is to support the teaching and research endeavors of the faculty, students and community by making materials available which relate to the history and culture of The University of Findlay. Our mission statement was last revised in 2011, along with our collection and acquisition policies. The number of student patrons we receive in a given year is liable to change based on the curriculum of the professors at the university. This past academic semester we had four hundred twenty three students visit our archive to research the historic buildings on our campus. Students make up the majority of the patrons of our archive but we do typically receive about twenty requests from the general population of Findlay each week. Most of these requests involve locating information pertaining to grandparents or other family members who may have attended the institution many years prior. Our institution helps serve the local community as a source of personal family history by connecting the current generations with those who came before. Currently we employ one full-time archivist to oversee our collection and preservation efforts who is aided by a graduate student. Additionally, we have access to the aid of two volunteers from the Hancock County historical society several times a week. For this upcoming academic year we have requested access to two additional graduate students to help with the digitization project. We are also exploring an option to hire a second archivist to expand our staff to better meet the demands of the community and our upcoming projects. Statement of Need Within our rare newsprint and manuscript collection we have several thousand documents dating back to the foundation of our institution in While we have done our best to preserve these materials until now, due to the delicate nature of aged newsprint many of the documents are becoming unusable

4 3 without risking harm. Many of these documents have also been bound into large tomes which further complicate their use as we currently do not have a cradle scanner to make clean prints of these delicate books. Thus, in order to digitally scan many of these documents we are required to take apart the binding of the book, scan the document and then rebind the book again for display. We believe that digitization of these fragile materials will ensure their continued safety for future generations while allowing them to be more widely accessed without the current level of risk. One added benefit of digitizing this collection is that it will free up more physical display space within the archive for new exhibitions, while making our collections more available to the public in a friendlier format. We have already begun to digitize several sections of our collection as requested by the University, but the newsprints represent a different challenge due to delicate nature and physical size. Our in-house scanners are not large enough to handle full newspaper-size documents and thus risk damaging the source materials when scanned. We currently lack the funding and equipment to undertake such an important project and without help from a Preservation Assistance Grant many of the older documents might be lost. Proposed Program The goal of our project is to fully digitize the rare newsprint and manuscript collection at the UFA before January 1, In order to meet this goal there are several steps that will need to take place. Each step will be overseen by both the head archivist and the library director, who will evaluate the progress that is being made and ensure deadlines are being met promptly. Additionally, full expense reports will be filed with and approved by both of these advisors to make sure all funding is being spent appropriately. At the end of the project all of the newsprint and manuscripts will have been digitized to guarantee their preservation and can then be moved to a more controlled and protected environment while still being easily accessed online by the public. The first of these steps is to gather the resources needed to undertake such a sweeping project. Volunteers will be needed in order to handle the total load of materials in a timely manner. Additionally,

5 4 we will need to purchase a cradle scanner that is large enough to handle newspaper-sized documents without folding or damaging them. New computers and software will also be required in order to handle the influx of digital materials to our servers. All members participating in this project will also need to be trained to use the new technologies before any documents are digitized. This step should be completed within the first month of receiving funding in order to meet our goal. The second step is to identify the most at-risk documents and determine the best method for translating them to a digital format without endangering their already fragile state. By utilizing the cradle scanner we will be able to avoid the risk of disassembling many of the bound tomes, thus greatly improving survival chances of some of the more delicate documents. This step will take the largest allotment of time as we only have two experienced archivists to make these evaluations. Volunteers will be helpful when trained to make the scans, but the actual evaluation needs to be done by a trained archivist. This evaluation will be an ongoing process throughout the project and required the need to devote an entire year to this task. The third step involves actually creating digital copies of the selected materials and will be taking place alongside step two. As the archivists work to verify documents are safe to scan, those materials that have been cleared can be scanned and digitized by volunteers and graduate students. Due to the formats that many of the documents are currently in, utilization of the cradle scanner will be the best option. The Atiz BookDrive Pro is a cradle scanner that is able to scan the sizes of documents that we will need while providing very clear images. Additionally, it utilizes multiple cameras to further clean up images and eliminate the risk of copy smudges or errors. The system can also be automated which will help reduce human error and decrease total required time spent scanning a single document or book. These images should be checked for clarity and errors prior to being entered into the digital collection by the volunteers or graduate students and reported to the evaluators. After completion of the project the cradle scanner will continue to be useful both to the Shafer library and the community of Findlay.

6 5 Finally, once a book has been completely scanned and entered into the digital collection it can be safely stored in a more controlled space. Once there the archivist will be able to retrieve those materials if the originals are needed, but they will be safe from wear and tear that they might have received while in the open shelves of the archive. This way we will be able to preserve the original documents while still providing access to the information to the public. The success of this project will be evaluated not only by the completion of the digital collection but also by the records of increased access the new digital collection is predicted to receive. Proposed Budget Expenses Cost Atiz BookDrive Pro (cradle scanner) $ 19, Cradle scanner training and installation $ 3,700 Computers (2) $ 2,000 software $ 200 Volunteers and Graduate students hours/week Total $ 25, Conclusion The collection of newsprints and manuscripts within the UFA, in their current state, are at risk of damage due to their advanced age and overuse while housed in the main archival offices. In order to preserve these materials they need to be removed from active use and circulation within the archive, yet that destroys their value to the public as a source of accessible information. By helping to fund the digitization efforts of the UFA we will be able to both protect and preserve our history while still meeting our primary goal of educating our community.

7 6 References Atiz Innovation Co. (2012) Atiz BookDrive Pro. Retrieved from Fast facts. (n.d.). Retrieved from University of Findlay website: Facts National Endowment for the Humanities. (2014). About Us. Retrieved from National Endowment for the Humanities. (2014). NEH grants: Preservation assistance grants for smaller institutions. Retrieved from Schirmer, R. (2014, February 11). Interview by C.R Lishawa. Personal communication. University archives. (2011). Retrieved from University of Findlay website U.S Department of Commerce, United States Census Bureau. (2013). Findlay (city), ohio. Retrieved from website: Warnock, N. (2012) Atiz store. Retrieved from