|
Citation |
- Permanent Link:
- https://ufdc.ufl.edu/UF00082123/00001
Material Information
- Title:
- Rewiring Florida's News : from microfilm to digital ( LSTA Grant )
- Creator:
- Kesse, Erich, 1959-
- Publisher:
- University of Florida
- Publication Date:
- 2005
- Language:
- English
Subjects
- Subjects / Keywords:
- University of Florida. ( LCSH )
Florida Digital Newspaper Library
- Spatial Coverage:
- North America -- United States of America -- Florida
Notes
- Abstract:
- Library Services and Technology Act (LTSA) grant proposal for digitizing Florida newspapers which are then available in the Florida Digital Newspaper Library.
Record Information
- Source Institution:
- University of Florida
- Holding Location:
- University of Florida
- Rights Management:
- All rights reserved, Board of Trustees of the University of Florida
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Library Name: University of Florida Libraries
Project Name: Rewiring Florida's News: from microfilm to digital
Florida Department of State, Division of Library and Information Services
LSTA APPLICATION
Application Due: March 15. 2005
LIBRARY/ORGANIZATION NAME...... University of Florida Libraries
MAILING ADDRESS .............................. P.O. Box 117007,
University of Florida,
Gainesville, FL 32611-7007
PHONE # ..................................................... (352) 846-0129
SUNCOM #.................................................. 622-0129
FAX # ........................................................... (352) 846-3702
CONTACT PERSON............................... Erich Kesse
E-MAIL ADDRESS.................................. kesse@ufl.edu
FEID OR SAMAS AND EO #.................... 550100104
CONTRACTING AGENCY NAME......... University of Florida
TYPE .......................................................... Academic Library
CATEGORY ............................................. Library Technology Connectivity and Services
PROJECT NAME..................................... Rewiring Florida's News: from microfilm to digital
PROJECT: ................................................ New
LSTA FUNDS REQUESTED................ $199,321
PRIORITY# 1 OF 1 APPLICATIONS SUBMITTED
LIBRARY SERVICE AREA POPULATION
Entire State of Florida (17+ million citizens),
Primarily in the 41 Florida counties where the 54 newspapers are published and
Largely by Genealogists & Family Historians, Researchers & K-12 Students,
But also by newspaper readers in the general population of Florida.
NUMBER OF PERSONS TO BE SERVED BY PROJECT
17+ million citizens of the State of Florida
TARGETED USER GROUP(s)................. Mixed
Typed Name and Signature of Library / Organization Director
Dale B. Canelas Date
Library Name: University of Florida Libraries
Project Name: Rewiring Florida's News: from microfilm to digital
B. Introduction
Located in Gainesville, Alachua County, the Libraries of the University of Florida form the
largest information resource system in the state of Florida. The Libraries of the University of
Florida consist of eight libraries. Six are in the system known as the George A. Smathers
Libraries of the University of Florida and two (Health Sciences and Legal Information) are
attached to their respective administrative units. Together the Libraries hold over 4,075,290
catalogued volumes, 7,335,476 microforms, 1,335,094 documents, 769,239 maps and images,
and 19,287 computer datasets. FTE staffing at the Libraries includes 112 professionals, 208
support staff, and 64 student assistants. The Libraries serve over 42,042 students and a faculty of
2,865. The operating budget for 2004-05 was 19,146,073 million. The University of Florida is
a public higher education institution, with a Board of Trustees appointed by the Governor of
Florida.
Recent grant administrative experience within the Libraries includes an IMLS grant "Ephemeral
Cities" (including a retrospective newspaper digitization component), a two-phase LSTA grant
"From the Air: the photographic record of Florida's lands," and two-phase NEH grant
"Literature for Children." Previous experience digitizing newspapers include: two research
grants from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, "Caribbean Newspaper Imaging Project",
phases one and two in the mid-1990s that made 140,000 page images available on CD-ROM and
an Internet searchable index. The Libraries also were recently awarded a project from the
National Endowment for the Humanities to retrospectively digitize Florida newspapers (cf,
Appendix 5 for additional information).
Introduction to Project
Rewiring Florida's News: from microfilm to digital
From sinkholes threatening local drinking water to gardening tips, our local newspapers inform,
entertain, and educate us. The University of Florida has microfilmed Florida's newspapers since
the 1930s and has one of the country's oldest newspaper programs. Much of the microfilming of
key Florida local newspapers was done at the University of Florida. As we enter the new digital
era, UF is now poised to take the news to the Internet. While the microfilming program has
shrunk as newspapers ceased publication or their publishers offered their own microfilm or
digital versions, UF continues to microfilm 54 papers from counties throughout Florida. The
microfilm, sold at cost, can be found in both public and academic libraries throughout the state
and region.
Once touted as the ultimate preservation format, microfilm is a dying medium: raw film
production is declining; aging equipment can no longer be replaced; and costs are soaring. Most
importantly, microfilm is not user friendly. A fortuitous nexus of evolving technologies and
services has uniquely positioned the University of Florida to assist Florida independent
newspaper publishers to move into the digital arena and to make the news available to
researchers via the Internet. The equipment to digitally capture newspapers has reached an
acceptable level of sophistication, optical character recognition software is 99% accurate in
creating searchable text from newspaper images, Web serving software makes searching and
Library Name: University of Florida Libraries
Project Name: Rewiring Florida's News: from microfilm to digital
viewing easy for Internet users, and the first "true" digital archiving facility has been created in
Florida.
Highly cognizant of the Internet's impact on information seeking behavior, 41 publishers
(Appendix 1), to date, have consented to the ongoing preservation of contemporary issues of
their newspapers in digital format with free Internet distribution for noncommercial uses. As
indicated, digital archiving has come of age in Florida because the Florida Center for Library
Automation (FCLA) has created the first digital archive in the United States. Digital images
created from the newspapers will be stored, monitored and migrated forward in the FCLA digital
archive in perpetuity. Because the digital archive is a totally new service, the product of this
grant, the Florida Digital Newspaper Library, will be freely accessed for two years. During
these two years, the University will investigate and develop cost-sharing mechanisms, if
necessary.
With publisher permission, the same titles that had been filmed will be switched over to digital
production. The intent is to begin the new digital production service with the January 1, 2006
issue of all papers. At the end of the grant, the first six months of newspaper issues should be
available on the Web. The average number of pages microfilmed per year between 2000-2005 is
245,128, which includes foreign titles. During the grant period, 95,000 images should be
digitized from the Florida newspapers only. From January forward, with a projected two month
lag period, all issues will be preserved digitally and accessible over the Internet. It is expected
that some back issues that were missed during the microfilming era will be discovered and they
will also be captured digitally. UF is committed to the continued digitization of these
newspapers after the grant period ends.
After the infrastructure and procedures for producing, serving, and archiving newspaper issues in
digital format are created with this grant, additional funding and partnerships will be sought to
fill in years and titles to provide a comprehensive Florida Digital Newspaper Library. It is also
our intent to make content available to both the Florida Electronic Library and to the National
Digital Newspaper Program at the Library of Congress. The recently funded National Program
(see, Appendix 5: Notice ofAward) funds retrospective conversion of preservation microfilms
from 1900 through 1910. The University of Florida will act outside these date limits, using its
own internal funding and other grant opportunities, to extend coverage of the State's news. In
the last Fiscal Year, for example, the University retrospectively microfilmed a nearly complete
run of the Jax Air News. It also piloted the digitization of its Civil War era newspapers. As such
retrospective runs and appropriate funding become available, the equipment provided by this
grant will be used to digitize these retrospective holdings. Additionally, through the creation and
active promotion of a manual for the digitization of Florida newspapers by third parties, the
Florida Digital Newspaper Library will accept compliant product for inclusion (see, Deliverable
6 in the list below).
Library Name: University of Florida Libraries
Project Name: Rewiring Florida's News: from microfilm to digital
Deliverables from this grant will include:
1) Creation of a digital newspaper architecture at the University of Florida that will support the
ongoing ingest, digitization, Internet serving, and archiving of all Florida newspapers
currently being supported by the microfilming production unit.
2) Reinventing the preservation model for newspapers from a microfilm to digital paradigm.
3) Establishment of an online fully searchable collection of local Florida news stories with
multi-paper simultaneous search functionality.
4) Preservation of newspaper digital images in the Florida Center for Library Automation
Digital Archives (http://www.fcla.edu/digitalArchive/).
5) Promoting this state-wide resource by providing publicity through both printed and digital
issues of the participating newspapers. Publicity will also be sent to branch public libraries,
community college libraries, and high school libraries
6) Create a manual, with specifications and compliance-requirements, to be used by other
institutions seeking to digitize Florida newspaper titles. The manual will be distributed via
the Internet from the Florida Digital Newspaper Library web page. And, the Florida
Digital Newspaper Library will encourage its use through publicity (see, Deliverable no. 5)
and consultation with agencies seeking funds for digitization.
The Florida Digital Newspaper Library infrastructure will accommodate ingest of
retrospective Florida newspapers digitized to specification by third parties to the National
Digital Newspaper Project's specifications. And, the Project staff (i.e., the staff of the
University's Digital Library Center) will offer their services to review plans and funding
proposals of third parties wishing to contribute content for the Florida Digital Newspaper
Library.
Library Name: University of Florida Libraries
Project Name: Rewiring Florida's News: from microfilm to digital
C. LSTA Outcomes Plan
LSTA OUTCOMES PLAN
Project Name Rewiring Florida's News: from microfilm to digital Library George A. Smathers Libraries, University of Florida
Project Summary / Program Purpose: The purpose of this project is to change the preservation model for newspapers from microfilm to digital and
to create the core collection of the Florida Digital Newspaper Library by digitizing and making internet searchable and viewable 54 local Florida
newspapers beginning with January 2006 issues This grant will set up the technical infrastructure to be expanded over time to include more newspaper
titles and years; thus, creating a digital resource that is useful to all Floridians and can be integrated into the Florida Electronic Library.
EVALUATION
INPUTS ACTIVITIES OUTPUTS OUTCOMES INDICATORS SOURCES / METHODS
Hire, train, and supervise # issues digitized, marked up 1 .Public uses technology to 1a. # of hits on newspaper la,b,e System generated statistics,
Digital Library Center staff project staff and served get information, database using a customized web-use
(see, Section E: Inputs, Staff) (The creation of a Florida statistics program developed by the
Purchase equipment #metadata records created digital newspaper collection 1b. Inspection of use logs to Project Programmer (working
Project Technicians and served for harvesting will enable Floridians to determine hits by user against use logs automatically
(see, Section E: Inputs, Staff) Digitize, markup and serve all easily find and use news category, e.g., .gov, .edu, recorded by the web server). A
issues of designated Web site with search related to their local .com visual representation of use will also
FCLA Digital Archive newspapers between interface created communities. It will also be displayed using HitMaps script
(see, Section E: Inputs, Staff) January 1, 2006 and June provide rich content for use (http://kmi.open.ac.uk/
30, 2006 # publicity materials in local schools and could be proiects/hitmaps/)
Software developed for: used in the development of
(see, Section E: Inputs, Create a newspaper 1) newspapers local Newspapers in 1 c. # responses to pop-up 1 c Responses collected through
Software) digitization manual 2) branch public libraries Education programs such as questionnaire that will be web survey commercial software
3) community college the one offered by the St. online for first two weeks in and analyzed by project staff
Equipment Create Web interface and libraries Petersburg Times September
(see, Section E: Inputs, database 4) public high school libraries http://nieonline.com/sptimes/i
Equipment) ndex.cfm) 1 d. # publicity packages sent 1 d. Physical counts of mailings to
Develop publicity materials to Newspaper digitization to: each constituency
be used by participating manual available on Internet 1) newspapers,
newspapers and for 2) branch public libraries
distribution to local libraries 3) libraries of community
and schools colleges
4) public high school libraries
le. # times newspaper le. See source/methods above (la,
digitization manual viewed or b, e)
downloaded.
Library Name: University of Florida Libraries
Project Name: Rewiring Florida's News: from microfilm to digital
D. Need
The four numbered items below succinctly define the needs addressed by this project. A more
comprehensive discussion, extending these points, follows.
1. Targeted audience
Although the initial collection of 54 titles digitized here will be of highest interest to the readers
within the circulation area of those titles (45 counties), all Floridians (17 million) who can access
the Internet personally, at work, or in their public libraries and/or schools will have access to this
collection. As titles and years are expanded, the research value to all citizens will grow. The
project developers believe that the use of newspapers online will far surpass the actual
circulation figures of any of the printed newspaper versions.
2.Unmet needs
Very few Floridians from smaller cities and rural areas have access to their news online, nor is
there an easy way to compare news coverage of issues of regional and state-wide interest. This
project will help solve both needs. Citizens, students, and policy makers throughout the state,
region, and beyond will have a resource that can educate them about community situations. It
will provide local perspectives on issues that are often missed in "bigger" picture reporting, but
are critical to maintaining local community character and viability. As past years and titles of
multiple newspapers are added, the Florida Digital Newspaper Library will document the
history and evolution of Florida's communities.
Recently, the Digital Library Center digitized an early collection of the Indian River Farmer for
Pam Cooper, Supervisor, Indian River County Main Library, Florida History & Genealogy
Department, Vero Beach, Florida. Her response to accessing them over the web was "They
actually worked and I was able to print them out. Thank you so much. What a great piece of our
history that was missing!!! We had no written documentsfor this time period prior to the Press
Journal in 1919." While this example draws on earlier years, the need to access local news is
clear. By beginning this project now, we will assure Floridians that 20-50 years from now, they
will have access to the news legacy of their communities.
Searchability is a need unmet in newspaper microfilm. It will be met here. Digitization,
particularly optical character recognition, opens newspapers not only to Internet display but to
content searches, text highlighting, and other time-saving aids to research.
With microfilm and other film technologies quickly declining, Rewiring Florida's News also
anticipates the massive task of migrating microfilming technologies to digital technologies.
Digitization both for the current good and for long-term longevity (continuing good) requires
more that simply scanning documents. It implies digital preservation. The emergence of the
FCLA Digital Archive meets a key need.
Library Name: University of Florida Libraries
Project Name: Rewiring Florida's News: from microfilm to digital
3. Local library/Community Services unable to meet needs
The resources needed to efficiently digitize, provide Internet access, and to digitally archive local
newspapers are beyond the means of most smaller newspaper publishers and public libraries as
well. Phalbe Henrksen's comment "We simply do not have the staff to do this work oi1 \.ll'e" is
relevant to libraries throughout the state. Because the University of Florida has extensive
experience in newspaper microfilming, digitization, and preservation techniques, it is qualified to
lead the state-wide initiative in newspaper digitization. The manual created as part of this grant
will provide digitization guidance to other Florida institutions that seek to collaborate in building
the Florida Digital Newspaper Library as a state-wide resource.
4. Project relationship to UF mission
UF is a major, public, comprehensive, land-grant, research university. The state's oldest, largest
and most comprehensive university, Florida is among the nation's most academically diverse
public universities. Florida has a long history of established programs in international education,
research and service. Its service mandate includes the creation and support of resources to
benefit the citizens of Florida.
Newspaper collection and preservation has been a part of the University of Florida's mission
since the 1930s. And, since the 1930s, newspapers have been integrated into the University's
teaching and research programs. Even before the Library of Congress began microfilming its
newspaper collections, the University of Florida had been microfilming its Florida newspaper
collection. By the time that the University officially entered the U.S. Newspaper Project in the
1980s, Florida had already cataloged and preserved the majority of its newspapers. Today, the
newspaper microfilms of the University of Florida are a statewide resource, acquired and used by
archives, libraries and their patrons around the State of Florida.
Discussion of Need.
"The news written about any important event or trend, when viewed over time, often constitutes
the best and most complete story available anywhere in society. When historians look at past
events, even those in the recent past, they go directly to the newspaper archives as one if not the
main source of content." ["Old News" may be newspaper's best reason to adopt XML," by
Barry Schaeffer. Online Technology, December 2000. Accessed online 3/3/05 at
http://www.newsandtech.com/issues/2000/12-00/ot/12-00_schaeffer.htm ]
In her article "For homework or baseball scores, children like using computers, not newspapers -
and will continue to do so," Ellen Pearlman discusses a poll conducted by Day and Business
Wire of "1,500 online households with children ages 6 to 15. Some key findings showed that:
70 percent have researched a topic for school online.
89 percent would rather conduct research for a school project online than with books in a
traditional library.
84 percent would rather do homework on a computer than with pen and paper.
57percent believe that when they grow up, they will get the vast majority of their
daily news from the Internet.
Library Name: University of Florida Libraries
Project Name: Rewiring Florida's News: from microfilm to digital
27 percent think they will get their news from TV, and less than 8 percent plan on
needing to read a newspaper. [The American Editor, July-August 1996. Accessed
online 3/3/05 at http://www.asne.org/kiosk/editor/iulyaugust/pearlman.htm]
The heaviest use of local Florida papers is probably at the undocumented local level, but 774
requests for issues of Florida newspapers were received at UF during 2004-2005; 22 of those
were for papers proposed for digitization here.
The need for a Florida newspaper digitization initiative was first vocalized at the Florida
Electronic Library Conference held in Orlando, May 15-16, 2003. During one of the open
sessions, several public librarians from across the state voiced concern about the need for digital
access to newspapers. The following three excerpts from letters in Appendix 2 are representative
of the state-wide support for Internet access to Florida's newspapers.
Phalbe Henrksen, Director of the Bradford County Public Library, writes:
Many years ago, the owner of the Telegraph gave the then currently existing
Telegraph on microfilm. Since then, we have bought each reel as it has become
available. Unfortunately, that can be as long as a year and a half after the paper
is published. So we keep the papers. We feel that if the Telegraph is available to
the public anywhere, it should be in Bradford County Public Library.
Over the years, we have spent many hours researching thing\ for people who
have inquired by mail and now by e-mail. We get requests for obituaries, of
course, like everyone else does. In 1994, in self-defense, we began indexing the
obituaries. All of that work was done by volunteers. Now we have an Experience
Works person transferring the information on those cards into MS Word tables,
so we can put them in PDFform and make it available on the internet.
We simply do not have enough staff to do this work ourselves. Digitizing the
newspaper will keep us from having to go even further back into the microfilm.
Early editions of the Telegraph did not have an obituary section. Dei, lt, were
simply written up as news articles. We would have to comb through every page of
the paper and read the headline and beginning of each article to see if there were
a death in it. Being able to search a digitizedpaper would be incredibly easy
compared to what we have been doing.
In addition, Starke is the town from which news articles are sent about Florida
State Prison. We have had many requests for copies of articles written about FSP.
We have done what we could, but there really is a limit to how much time we can
spend looking for people. Since there's no historical society here, it has been up to
us to do this work.
Digitizing the Telegraph will take a large burden off us. I have been looking
forward to this for more than nine years now. I hope that the LSTA funds will be
awarded to the Digital Library Center.
Nancy Pike, Director of the Sarasota County Library System, identifies the existing
problems with microfilm and the potential benefits of digital newspapers in her
Library Name: University of Florida Libraries
Project Name: Rewiring Florida's News: from microfilm to digital
letter:
For many years, the Sarasota County Library System has purchased our local
newspapers on microfilm and we appreciate the work done at UF to make it
possible for us to store and provide access to this rich resource.
However, it is certainly time to make the shift to digital access. The index to the
microfilms of our newspapers is not as thorough as we would like; in addition,
patrons often have difficulty using the equipment and printing the pages needed.
With the newspapers in digitalform, researchers will be able to find text, clearly
highlighted, online i ithiitt scrolling through reels of microfilm. The fact that they
will be able to research papers statewide, will be a huge benefit. Plus it will save
all of us money, libraries as well as patrons who will be able to search as many of
the papers as they like, i iithilt travel or special borrowing requests. I understand
they will even have the opportunity to simultaneously search the University of
Florida's other digital collections o Florida history, maps, and images.
We are all really delighted to hear that UF is submitting this grant proposal
because it is a project that is long overdue. This would be a wonderful addition to
both the Florida Electronic Library and to the National Digital Newspaper
Program at the Library of Congress.
I hope you will give this proposal strong consideration. The digitized newspapers
will be a national treasure and make a huge amount ofFlorida information
available to researchers all over the world.
Mark Greenberg, a nationally respected scholar of Florida history and the head of Special
Collections at the University of South Florida, describes the research benefits of digitized
newspapers:
Building upon its experience digitizing Gainesville, Key West, and Tampa
newspapers for inclusion in "Ephemeral Cities, the University ofFlorida now
wishes to expand its effort statewide. UF has an opportunity to provide patrons
Ii ith searchable digital newspaper text. It proposes creating a Florida Digital
Newspaper Library that will be available via the Internet at no cost for at least
the first two years. The news will become available more quickly -- two miutnli
as opposed to one year after publication.
As the result of UF's efforts, researchers will be able to find text, clearly
highlighted, online ii ithlut scrolling through reels of microfilm. If they want to
research issues statewide, they 'll be able to search all or as many of the papers as
they like, ii ithi,,it travel or special borrowing requests. They 'll even have the
opportunity to search simultaneously the University ofFlorida's other digital
collections ofFlorida history, maps, and images. UF also intends to make
content available to the Florida Electronic Library and National Digital
Newspaper Program at the Library of Congress.
As part of the University ofFlorida's commitment to statewide representation, it
has selected newspapers ofparticular interest to Tampa Bay area residents: the
Library Name: University of Florida Libraries
Project Name: Rewiring Florida's News: from microfilm to digital
Plant City Courier; Bartow 's Polk County Democrat; Tampa's La Gaceta; Dade
City 's Pasco News; and New Port Richey 's Suwannee Democrat.
(The complete text of these and other supporting letters may be found in Appendix 2.)
While larger syndicated newspapers such as the St. Petersburg Times, Gainesville Sun, etc. are
well represented in the digital world through their own web sites and services such as
Lexis/Nexis, often the local news that documents Florida's smaller communities is difficult to
discover. As noted, the purpose of this project is to provide access for all Florida citizens to the
current news that impacts their lives at a local level. This project also moves the Florida press
world beyond discrete web sites to an integrated repository of news that will permit searching
across papers.
In addition to the well-documented migration of news-seeking from print to Internet sources, the
support infrastructure of the microfilming industry is eroding. An analogous situation is
occurring in the photographic field where 35 mm cameras and their peripherals: film, processing
equipment, etc. are quickly being replaced by their digital counterparts. A similar demise for
microfilm is suggested by Susan A. Cady in "Microfilm Technology and Information Systems":
"Microfilm, like any information system, has its strengths and weaknesses. One strength is in its
ability to preserve information for long periods of time and another is its ability to disseminate
information cheaply...However, digital photography portends major changes in the technologies
used for information storage. Once digital photography penetrates fully into the mass market and
new storage mechanisms are developed for digital information that strength may decline. And
the World Wide Web offers amazing new facility for instant dissemination of up-to-date
information, including the most sophisticated graphic images. Microfilm's weakness lies in its
limited retrieval and output capabilities, both in print and on screen. The repeated, unsuccessful
attempts to design comfortable, convenient readers were a testimony to this lack." [accessed
3/3/05 at http://www.chemheritage.org/explore/ASISdocuments/ASIS98_Cady.pdf]
The discussion above clearly indicates that the previously standard method of preserving local
newspapers on microfilm does not serve the Internet-based news seeking behavior of Floridians
nor does the medium possess the robust search and retrieval functionality found in digital
formats. At a fundamental level, there is a question of the long-term viability of the microfilm
industry itself.
Library Name: University of Florida Libraries
Project Name: Rewiring Florida's News: from microfilm to digital
While the population that will be most interested in access to the initial titles digitized by the
grant are the 466,700 Floridians in the circulation areas of the newspapers, the ability to search
many newspapers and across newspapers at the same site will be of interest to the 3.5 million
Floridians who have Internet access in the state. [United States Census Bureau. Table lB.
Presence of a Computer and the Internet for Households, by State: September 2001; accessed
3/7/05 at http://www.census.gov/population/socdemo/computer/ppl-175/tabO1B.xls] In
September 2001, the U.S. Census Bureau surveyed the purpose of Internet use in the U.S. by 7.1
million children ages 6-9, 14.1 million children ages 10-14, and 9.3 million children ages 14-17.
Internet use pertaining to "News, Weather, or Sports Information" steadily increased with age;
the percentages of use by age group are 18.4% (6-9); 37.5% (10-14); and 51.9% (14-17).
[United States Census Bureau. Table 9A. Purpose of Internet Use for People 3 to 17 Years
Using the Internet Anywhere, by Selected Characteristics: September 2001; accessed 3/7/05 at
http://www.census.gov/population/socdemo/computer/ppl-175/tab09A.xls]
In 1997, the Florida Virtual School [http://www.flvs.net/] was founded with a threefold aim:
"1) to relieve the strain of overcrowded schools in the fast-growing Florida districts; 2) to meet
the demands for high-needs courses; and 3) to make advanced courses available to students
throughout the state's 32 rural districts." In a recent report "Tear Down Those Walls: The
Revolution Is Underway," on the U.S. Department of Education's National Technology
Education Plan site [http://www.nationaledtechplan.org/theplan/TearDownThoseWalls.asp] the
tremendous impact of this online school is detailed with one teacher from a small, rural Florida
district noting: "Online learning 'evens the playing field' for rural students." This project too
will help even the playing field by providing students throughout the state with the same type of
news access found in major metropolitan areas. In most smaller areas, neither local newspapers
nor local libraries have the resources to provide this type of service. In seeking funding for this
project, the University of Florida Libraries are assisting the University "to educate students, to
perform research, and to render service to society." In addition, this newspaper collection will
enhance other digital collections that have been developed by the University or in cooperation
with other public institutions including Florida Heritage, Florida Environments Online, and
Aerial photography of Florida (cf, PALMM Collections at http://palmm.fcla.edu/).
The deliverables of this project are closely aligned with the goals and outcomes expressed in
Florida's Strategic Plan for Library Development "Gateway to Information through Florida
Libraries, An Outcomes Plan, 2003-2007." The following table indicates the goal and LSTA
purposes that would be supported through this project.
Library Name: University of Florida Libraries
Project Name: Rewiring Florida's News: from microfilm to digital
Goals from Strategic Plan Outcomes from Strategic Plan Intended Project Contribution
Goal 1. Florida Residents have 2. Residents use the Florida Digitization and web serving of
electronic access to information Electronic Library portal to Florida local newspapers will
resources and services through retrieve information from create a new digital collection of
the Florida Electronic Library multiple sources with a single interest throughout the state.
search engine. OAI compliant metadata
LSTA Purposes: associated with the collection
1.Expanding services for lifelong 5. Residents access digital or will be made available for
learning and access to electronic local content through harvesting and searching to the
information and educational the virtual library. Florida Electronic Library.
resources in a variety of
formats...
2. Developing library services
that provide all users
access...through international
networks
Goal 2. People in Florida of all 1. Florida residents improve their Access to and use of local
ages have programs and services knowledge and skills through newspapers will aid library users
that support lifelong learning targeted programs provided by in identifying community-based
through their libraries libraries and library partners. programs that may be of interest.
These could include volunteer
LSTA Purposes: opportunities, educational
1.Expanding services for lifelong programs for all ages, health care
learning and access to information, job placement, etc.
information and educational Newspapers are often used in
resources in a variety of English as second language
formats... classes and in literacy classes.
2. Developing public and private
partnerships with other agencies
and community-based
organizations.
E. Inputs
Staff
The University of Florida Libraries will contribute a technical team consisting of one senior
Coordinator who will act as Project Administrator, one Project Coordinator, one Digital
Archiving Coordinator, one Finance Coordinator, one Bibliographic Control Coordinator, one
Digital Imaging coordinator, one Newspaper Imaging Coordinator, one Quality Control
Coordinator, one Mark-Up & Metadata Coordinator, and one Project Programmer. The Director
of the Digital Library Center will be the overall project administrator. Specific project duties for
each individual are given below. (Resumes of project staff may be found in Appendix 3.)
PROJECT ADMINISTRATOR (Erich Kesse): provides administrative and budgetary oversight
including supervising the hiring of project staff and purchase of necessary equipment and
Library Name: University of Florida Libraries
Project Name: Rewiring Florida's News: from microfilm to digital
software; helps design the basic Web site, reports directly to the funding agency; and in
coordination with the Project Coordinator tracks and revises the various Action Plans as
necessary. The Project Administrator, together with the Project Coordinator and other Project
staff, will produce a Florida Digital Newspaper Library: Manual for Digitization of Florida
Newspapers.
PROJECT COORDINATOR (Stephanie Haas): provides direct supervision and coordination between
the project components; coordinates the distribution of publicity materials; devises and analyzes
the questionnaire on site use; works with the UF Systems Department to collect and analyze
project statistics; helps design the basic Web site; and provides weekly updates to the Project
Administrator.
DIGITAL ARCHIVING COORDINATOR (Cathleen Mook): supervises all aspects of the digital
archiving of images submitted to the FCLA Digital Archive including the newspaper issues
created during this project.
FINANCE COORDINATOR (Kelley Cunningham): provides ongoing monitoring of all fiscal
transactions related to the grant; provides monthly reports to the Project Administrator and
Project Coordinator; and liaisons with various units in the university's office of sponsored
research.
BIBLIOGRAPHIC CONTROL COORDINATOR (Nelda Schwartz): manages the digital equivalent of
issue check-in; assigns bibliographic control numbers that uniquely identify issues to be scanned
and that serve, subsequently, as control numbers for digital archiving. The Bibliographic Control
Coordinator will also update holdings records in the University of Florida on-line library catalog,
U.S. Newspapers Project: Florida on-line inventory, and other catalogs.
DIGITAL IMAGING COORDINATOR (Randall Renner): supervises the scanning of the 95,000 page
images; consults with Quality Control Coordinator on quality issues and production of
derivatives for markup and Web serving and digital archiving; and integrates the scanning
operations with populating the metadata database.
NEWSPAPER IMAGING COORDINATOR (Will Canova): previously supervised all aspects of the
microfilming unit, now will be supervising and training students in digital capture of newspapers
QUALITY CONTROL COORDINATOR (Jane Pen): supervises the quality control staff responsible for
image quality and creating derivatives for markup and serving; oversees local archiving of
images to DVD.
MARK-UP & METADATA COORDINATOR (James "Gus" Clifton): works with the Project
Administrator, Project Coordinator, and other project staff to create functional text markup
procedures for newspapers, quality control OCR-ed output, and creation of appropriate metadata
for contribution to the Florida Electronic Library and National Digital Newspaper Program at the
Library of Congress.
Library Name: University of Florida Libraries
Project Name: Rewiring Florida's News: from microfilm to digital
PROJECT PROGRAMMER/FLORIDA DIGITAL NEWSPAPER LIBRARY INTERFACE DESIGNER (Mark
Sullivan): works with the Project Administrator and Coordinator to implement design and
functional elements of the Greenstone-based technology supporting the Florida Digital
Newspaper Library and SQL tables driving the U.S. Newspapers Project: Florida on-line
inventory; administers OAI configuration and other data transfer tools to ensure contributions to
the Florida Electronic Library, the National Digital Newspaper Project (Library of Congress),
and other metadata harvesters, e.g, AmericanSouth.org. Responsible for programs used to
generate use statistics.
The Florida Center for Library Automation (FCLA) Digital Archive will archive all issues
of newspapers digitized as part of this project. The University of Florida Library system is in the
process of finalizing the formal agreement for digital archiving with FCLA and all digitization
completed as part of this project will be covered under that agreement. Archiving requirements
are specified in format plans at the FCLA Digital Archive site
[http://www.fcla.edu/digitalArchive/dalnfo.htm#library]. As previously noted, a minimal fee for
archiving may be instituted in the future to cover archiving costs and server expansion needs.
These fees will be requested from system users not the contributing newspaper publishers. With
technical teams already in place, FCLA will provide:
Server space and management of the digital master images
Technical migrations to assure continued functionality and access to digital objects
created as part of this project
Statistical data concerning the digital master images archived as part of this project
The Project Staff that will be hired specifically for the project include:
Project Technicians: as supervised by appropriate unit coordinator/Coordinator, responsible for
creation of original, visually enhanced, and copyright clean versions; quality control review;
markup verification; metadata completion; and burning original and enhanced images to DVDs
for local storage.
Software:
Adobe Photoshop CS (v. 8) for Windows needed for two processing stations.
N.B. Scanning (image capture) software is preconfigured with digital cameras.
Equipment:
Six (6) capture stations each consisting of:
1-Better Light High-Speed Digital Scanning Camera Backs (Super 8K-HS);
1-Toyo-View 4 x 5 VS125-R Camera;
1-Schneider 120 mmm f/5.6 Digitar Lens;
1- Bogen Super Repro Column (copy stand) w/o Baseboard 53" #FF1220BL;
1-Toyo-View Recessed 110 x 110 mm Lensboard for #0 Copal/Compur Shutters with
Field, 23G &45 CX Cameras; and
Library Name: University of Florida Libraries
Project Name: Rewiring Florida's News: from microfilm to digital
2- Fluorescent Work Light Units, Item # 100SWL, 130 Watts.
One Aware JPEG 2000 server used to provide Internet access to newspaper images. Permits 1:1
zoomability, panning, search term highlighting, etc.
Two (2) post-capture workstations for image processing prior to transmittal to quality control
unit.
A grand total of eight (8) processing workstations will be purchased: one for each of the capture
stations (6) and two for image processing.
F. Action Plan
There are four action lines related to the successful completion of "Rewiring Florida's News"
and the creation of the Florida Digital Newspaper Library: (Each of these action lines is more
fully discussed below.)
1. Digitally capture, markup, serve, archive, and prepare metadata for the selected
newspaper issues from January 1, 2006 to June 30, 2006 (with a 2 month lag, June
digitization is projected for completion in August 2006) to create the Florida Digital
Newspaper Library.
2. Create Florida Digital Newspaper Library web interface for searching and retrieving the
newspaper content
3. Develop and distribute the Florida Digital Newspaper Library publicity to participating
newspapers, and local libraries and schools.
4. Develop newspaper digitization manual for third party contributors to the Florida Digital
Newspaper Library.
1. PROJECT ACTIVITIES
Workflow
Selection Bibliographic Preparation, Digitization Quality Control Text Conversion Digital C iiens
Copyright Control Collation, etc. & Copyright & Mark-up Libary Of Florida
Clearance Content Processing
Action Line 1:
Digitally capture, markup, serve, archive, and prepare metadata for the selected
newspaper issues from January 1, 2006 to June 30, 2006
(N.B. With a 2 month lag, June digitization is projected for completion in late August 2006)
Library Name: University of Florida Libraries
Project Name: Rewiring Florida's News: from microfilm to digital
Selection for Digitization
Newspaper Imaging Coordinator prepares lists of 54 Florida newspapers currently being preserved by
UF on microfilm and confirms with publisher that the migration from microfilm to digital preservation is
acceptable and obtains permission for Internet serving. (41 confirmed; 13 pending additional contact)
Tracking & Preparation for Digitization
DLC staff (bibliographic control) logs newspaper titles into tracking systems, updates holdings in
bibliographic records and other library catalogs.
Other DLC staff (physical processing) perform collation, flattening and other processes required for
optimal image capture.
Digitization & Image Derivative Creation
The scanning, image enhancement, and quality control of the newspaper images will be done
at the Digital Library Center, University of Florida. The Project Administrator in consultation
with the Project Coordinator, Digital Imaging Coordinator, Newspaper Imaging Coordinator, and
Quality Control Coordinator will set the initial standards for scanning the newspaper images.
Under direct supervision of the appropriate unit head, trained project technicians will carry out
the primary activities of image creation, enhancement, quality control, and markup validation.
Scanning will conform to all appropriate standards and at pixel-per-inch resolutions and bit-
depths that are consistent with the recommendations of Cornell University's Moving Theory into
Practice Digital Imaging for Libraries and Archives (Anne R. Kenney and Oya Y. Rieger1
[Mountain View, CA: Research Libraries Group, 2000.]
Electronic archive masters will be uncompressed TIFF files (ITU 6.0) at 100% scale: the
current de facto standard for electronic image archives. Under the supervision of the Newspaper
Imaging Coordinator, pages will be digitized and produced in graphical file formats (i.e., TIFF)
by project technicians to meet the requirements of the item's physical format. Images will be
scanned at 400 dpi, 8-bit grey-scale, per National Digital Newspaper Project specifications.
Pages with meaningful color, color that informs the story or without which interpretation is not
possible, will be scanned at 400 dpi, 24-bit sRGB calibrated color. Visually enhanced versions
will be created using Adobe Photoshop: these versions include needed corrections for brightness,
sharpening, etc. The enhanced version is sent to the Quality Control unit.
Per National Digital Newspaper Project specifications the deliverable will be JPEG 2000
images with searchable text. (See, Appendix 4 for discussion of JPEG 2000.)
Quality Control
The enhanced version is reviewed by the Quality Control Unit using the DLC quality control
application program. If the staff accepts the image, copyrighted contents such as cartoons,
syndicated columns, etc. are visually modified to create a copyright clean version of the page
image. Rejected images are reported to the Newspaper Imaging Coordinator for re-shooting.
Accepted images are transferred on to Mark-Up & Metadata Unit.
Mark-Up & Metadata
The Mark-Up & Metadata Unit processes the copyright clean version of the newspaper
images through PrimeRecognition software. Outputs include SGML files and a searchable JPEG
2000 file with an embedded text file. Appropriate metadata is created to describe the digital
package.
1 See Mrs. Rieger's letter of support in Appendix 2.
Library Name: University of Florida Libraries
Project Name: Rewiring Florida's News: from microfilm to digital
This metadata will be used to access the newspaper issues online and made available for
harvesting to the Florida Electronic Library.
Deployment & Archiving
With acceptable completion of markup and metadata creation, the completed digital package
will be ingested into the Greenstone-based digital library server at the University of Florida and
made available to the public.
The original TIFF image and the copyright clean enhanced version are FTP'd to the FCLA
Digital Archive (http://www.fcla.edu/digitalArchive/), with archive listed (separate database)
MD5 checksum. The Florida Center for Library Automation (FCLA) Digital Library Services
staff performs secondary review of packages, return errors in them to the DLC and pass on
accepted packages. Any returned error packages will be reviewed and rectified by the Digital
Archiving Coordinator in collaboration with the Mark-Up & Metadata Coordinator, and/or other
staff as appropriate. Copies of the original and copyright clean images, as well as the SGML and
searchable JPEG 2000 files will be stored on DVD at the Digital Library Center. Per standard
preservation policy (as also reflected in microfilm archiving), the Florida Digital Newspaper
Library will maintain redundant archives to ensure long-term preservation.
Action Line 2.
Create Web interface
The initial Web site design will be completed by the Project Programmer in collaboration with
staff at the Digital Library Center, University of Florida (e.g., the Project Administrator and
Project Coordinator) and the Libraries' Public Services Division.
Staff will seek public pre-release input on design and functional issues, particularly from those
who have submitted letters of support. The Florida Digital Newspaper Library, under the
auspices of the UF Digital Library Center, will maintain a pull-list of Web development items.
An Advisory Board will also provide advice on direction.2
No one fully knows what a digital newspaper collection's interface should look like or precisely
how it should behave. Form-and-function studies of electronic delivery for Florida newspapers
is a component funded by the National Digital Newspaper Program (see, Appendix 5: Notice of
Award). The interface completed during Rewiring Florida's News will share the form and
function of other digital newspaper collections, specifically collections at the Library of
Congress (see: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/sgphtml/sashtml/sashome.html), Alaska's Tundra
Times (see: http://ttip.tuzzy.org/), and Utah Digital Newspapers (see:
http://www.lib.utah.edu/digital/unews/).
2 Advisory Board is named in the outstanding proposal to the National Endowment for the Humanities for
retrospective newspaper microfilm digitization, as part of the National Digital Newspaper Project. For reference,
see: http://web.uflib.ufl.edu/digital/collections/FDNL/NDNPproposal.pdf.
3 See the Utah Newspaper Program's letter of support in Appendix 2
Library Name: University of Florida Libraries
Project Name: Rewiring Florida's News: from microfilm to digital
Action Line 3.
Develop and distribute the project publicity to participating newspapers, and local libraries
and schools.
The Project Coordinator with the assistance of the Publicity Coordinator for the University of
Florida Libraries will create a series of publicity packages to send to participating newspapers
and to all Florida branch public libraries, libraries at community colleges and all public high
schools. This distribution list consists of approximately 1,100 addresses. Digital Library Center
staff will also seek time on the Florida Library Association's agenda for the meeting immediately
following release.
Publicity
Please see Action Line 3 above.
Action Line 4.
Develop newspaper digitization manual for third party contributors to the Florida Digital
Newspaper Library.
The Project Administrator, together with the Project Coordinator and other Project staff, will
produce a Florida Digital Newspaper Library: Manual for Digitization of Florida Newspapers.
This manual, with specifications and compliance-requirements, is to be used by other Florida
institutions seeking to digitize Florida newspaper titles intended for contribution to the Florida
Digital Newspaper Library. The manual will be distributed via the Internet from the Florida
Digital Newspaper Library web page. And, the Florida Digital Newspaper Library will
encourage its use through publicity (see, Deliverable no. 5) and consultation with agencies
seeking funds for digitization.
2. TIMELINE FOR ACTION PLAN
Time Table Quarter 1 Quarter 1 Quarter 2 Quarter 4
Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb March April May June July Aug Sept
1. Purchasee andtest
2. Hire and train staff
3. Digitize, markup,
serve and archive
newspaper issues
4. Create newspaper
digitization manual
5. Create metadata for
issues
6. Create project Web
site
7. Develop publicity
packages and distribute
Library Name: University of Florida Libraries
Project Name: Rewiring Florida's News: from microfilm to digital
3. SUSTAINABILITY
Upon completion of "Rewiring Florida's News," 95,000 pages of local Florida news will be
available. The University of Florida is committed to continuing the digitization of the 54 titles
included in this grant after funding ceases in September 2006.
The intent of the grant developers is to seek additional funds to digitize earlier years of the titles
completed during this grant and to expand the number of newspaper titles available. As noted
previously, the funded NEH will digitize the issues of 50 Florida newspapers between the years
1900-1910. This will add an additional 120,000 pages to the project site. Funding sources may
include subsequent LSTA grants, private industry grants, other governmental bodies, and groups
with historical interests in Florida.
The University of Florida will act outside these date limits, using its own internal funding and
other grant opportunities to extend coverage of the State's news. In the last Fiscal Year, for
example, the University retrospectively microfilmed a nearly complete run of the Jax Air News.
It also piloted the digitization of its Civil War era newspapers. As such retrospective runs and
appropriate funding become available, the equipment provided by this grant will be used to
digitize these retrospective holdings. Additionally, through the creation and active promotion of
a manual for the digitization of Florida newspapers by third parties, the Florida Digital
Newspaper Library will accept compliant product for inclusion in this Project (see, Deliverable
6). Immediate targets for retrospective digitization include various extant issues from the more
than 20 titles in the University's Florida Underground Newspapers collection; the more than 10
titles in the University's Civil War Era Florida Newspapers collection; and the more than 700
issues of various out-of-state titles with extensive Florida reporting from the Goza andMickler
Newspaper Collections.), as well as the conversion of previously digitized newspapers (e.g.,
Hotel News) in the PALMM Florida Heritage Collections (http://palmm.fcla.edu/fh/).
As we have tried to indicate throughout this proposal, the funding for this grant will help
us to develop the technical infrastructure to successfully launch a Florida newspaper
digitization initiative. The project developers are keenly aware of the need to continue
newspaper ingest, serving and archiving throughout the lifetime of a paper and are
equally aware of the need to digitize the legacy news of past years.
The University of Florida's strategy for Florida's newspapers also includes ingest of newspapers
"born-digital". Capture of the digital content used to print newspapers obviates the need to
digitize them after print. Several of the newspaper publishers agreeing to allow us to digitize
their newspapers have indicated that they would make digital content available to the Florida
Digital Newspaper Library and assist in future fundraising to enable this final strategy.
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Library Name: University of Florid a Libraries Project Name: Rewiring Florida’s News: from microfilm to digital Florida Department of St ate, Division of Librar y and Information Services LSTA APPLICATION Application Due: March 15, 2005 LIBRARY/ORGANIZATION NAME......University of Florida Libraries MAILING ADDRESS................................P.O. Box 117007, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611-7007 PHONE #.....................................................(352) 846-0129 SUNCOM #..................................................622-0129 FAX #...........................................................(352) 846-3702 CONTACT PERSON.................................Erich Kesse E-MAIL ADDRESS....................................kesse@ufl.edu FEID OR SAMAS AND EO #....................550100104 CONTRACTING AGENCY NAME.........University of Florida TYPE............................................................Academic Library CATEGORY...............................................Library Technology Connectivity and Services PROJECT NAME.......................................Rewiring Florida’s News: from microfilm to digital PROJECT: ..................................................New LSTA FUNDS RE QUESTED.................... $199,321 PRIORITY# 1 OF 1 APPLICATIONS SUBMITTED LIBRARY SERVICE AREA POPULATION Entire State of Florida (17+ million citizens), Primarily in the 41 Florida counties wh ere the 54 newspapers are published and Largely by Genealogists & Family Historians, Researchers & K-12 Students, But also by newspaper readers in the general population of Florida. NUMBER OF PERSONS TO BE SERVED BY PROJECT 17+ million citizens of the State of Florida TARGETED USER GROUP(s).................Mixed Typed Name and Signature of Library / Organization Director Dale B. Canelas Date 1
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Library Name: University of Florid a Libraries Project Name: Rewiring Florida’s News: from microfilm to digital B. Introduction Located in Gainesville, Alachua County, the Librar ies of the University of Florida form the largest information resource system in the state of Florida. The Libraries of the University of Florida consist of eight libraries. Six are in the system known as the George A. Smathers Libraries of the University of Florida and tw o (Health Sciences and Legal Information) are attached to their respective administrative units. Together the Li braries hold over 4,075,290 catalogued volumes, 7,335,476 microforms, 1,33 5,094 documents, 769,239 maps and images, and 19,287 computer datasets. FTE staffing at the Libraries include s 112 professionals, 208 support staff, and 64 student assistants. The Libraries serve over 42,042 students and a faculty of 2,865. The operating budget for 2004-05 was 19,146,073 milli on. The University of Florida is a public higher education institution, with a Bo ard of Trustees appointed by the Governor of Florida. Recent grant administrative experience within th e Libraries includes an IMLS grant “Ephemeral Cities†(including a retrospective newspaper digitization component), a two-phase LSTA grant “From the Air: the photographic record of Florida’s lands,†and two-phase NEH grant “Literature for Children.†Prev ious experience digitizing news papers include: two research grants from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundati on, “Caribbean Newspaper Imaging Projectâ€, phases one and two in the mid-1990s that made 140,000 page images available on CD-ROM and an Internet searchable index. The Libraries al so were recently awar ded a project from the National Endowment for the Humanities to retrospectively digitize Florida newspapers (cf, Appendix 5 for additional information). Introduction to Project Rewiring Florida’s News: from microfilm to digital From sinkholes threatening local drinking water to gardening tips, our local newspapers inform, entertain, and educate us. The University of Flor ida has microfilmed Florida’s newspapers since the 1930s and has one of the country’s oldest ne wspaper programs. Much of the microfilming of key Florida local newspapers was done at the Univ ersity of Florida. As we enter the new digital era, UF is now poised to take the news to the Internet. While the microfilming program has shrunk as newspapers ceased publication or th eir publishers offered th eir own microfilm or digital versions, UF continues to microfilm 54 papers from counties throughout Florida. The microfilm, sold at cost, can be found in both public and academic libraries throughout the state and region. Once touted as the ultimate preservation format, microfilm is a dying medium: raw film production is declining; aging equipment can no l onger be replaced; and costs are soaring. Most importantly, microfilm is not user friendly. A fortuitous nexus of evolving technologies and services has uniquely positioned the University of Florida to assist Florida independent newspaper publishers to move into the digital arena and to make the news available to researchers via the Internet. The equipment to digitally capture newspapers has reached an acceptable level of sophistication, optical charac ter recognition software is 99% accurate in creating searchable text from newspaper imag es, Web serving software makes searching and 2
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Library Name: University of Florid a Libraries Project Name: Rewiring Florida’s News: from microfilm to digital viewing easy for Internet users, a nd the first “true†digital archivi ng facility has been created in Florida. Highly cognizant of the Internet’s impact on information seeking behavior, 41 publishers (Appendix 1), to date, have consented to the ongoing preservation of contemporary issues of their newspapers in digital format with free In ternet distribution for noncommercial uses. As indicated, digital archivi ng has come of age in Florida becau se the Florida Center for Library Automation (FCLA) has created the first digital archive in the United States. Digital images created from the newspapers will be stored, monitored and migrated forward in the FCLA digital archive in perpetuity. Because the digital archiv e is a totally new servic e, the product of this grant, the Florida Digital Newspaper Library , will be freely accessed for two years. During these two years, the University will inves tigate and develop cost-s haring mechanisms, if necessary. With publisher permission, the same titles that ha d been filmed will be switched over to digital production. The intent is to be gin the new digital production se rvice with the January 1, 2006 issue of all papers. At the end of the grant, the first six months of newspaper issues should be available on the Web. The average number of pages microfilmed per year between 2000-2005 is 245,128, which includes foreign titles. During the grant period, 95,000 images should be digitized from the Florida newspapers only. From January forward, with a projected two month lag period, all issues will be preserved digitally and accessible over the Internet. It is expected that some back issues that were missed during the microfilming era will be discovered and they will also be captured digitally. UF is comm itted to the continued digitization of these newspapers after the grant period ends. After the infrastructure and procedures for produ cing, serving, and archiving newspaper issues in digital format are created with this grant, addi tional funding and partnerships will be sought to fill in years and titles to provide a comprehensive Florida Digital Newspaper Library . It is also our intent to make content available to both th e Florida Electronic Libr ary and to the National Digital Newspaper Program at the Library of Congress. The recently funded National Program (see, Appendix 5: Notice of Award ) funds retrospectiv e conversion of preservation microfilms from 1900 through 1910. The University of Florida will act outside these date limits, using its own internal funding and other gr ant opportunities, to extend covera ge of the State’s news. In the last Fiscal Year, for exampl e, the University retrospectivel y microfilmed a nearly complete run of the Jax Air News. It also piloted the digi tization of its Civil War era newspapers. As such retrospective runs and appropriate funding become available, the equipment provided by this grant will be used to digitize th ese retrospective holdings. Ad ditionally, through the creation and active promotion of a manual for the digitization of Florida newspapers by third parties, the Florida Digital Newspaper Library will accept compliant product fo r inclusion (see, Deliverable 6 in the list below). 3
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Library Name: University of Florid a Libraries Project Name: Rewiring Florida’s News: from microfilm to digital 4 Deliverables from this grant will include: 1) Creation of a digital newspaper ar chitecture at the University of Florida that will support the ongoing ingest, digitization, Internet serving, and archiving of all Florida newspapers currently being supported by th e microfilming production unit. 2) Reinventing the preservation model for newspape rs from a microfilm to digital paradigm. 3) Establishment of an online fully searchable collection of local Florida news stories with multi-paper simultaneous search functionality. 4) Preservation of newspaper digital images in the Florida Center for Library Automation Digital Archives ( http://www.fcla.edu/digitalArchive/ ). 5) Promoting this state-wide resource by provi ding publicity through both printed and digital issues of the participating newspapers. Publicit y will also be sent to branch public libraries, community college libraries, and high school libraries 6) Create a manual, with specifications and comp liance-requirements, to be used by other institutions seeking to digitize Florida newspa per titles. The manual will be distributed via the Internet from the Florida Digital Newspaper Library web page. And, the Florida Digital Newspaper Library will encourage its use through publicity (see, Deliverable no. 5 ) and consultation with agencies seeking funds for digitization. The Florida Digital Newspaper Library infrastructure will a ccommodate ingest of retrospective Florida newspapers digitized to specification by third parties to the National Digital Newspaper Project’s specifications. A nd, the Project staff (i.e., the staff of the University’s Digital Library Ce nter) will offer thei r services to review plans and funding proposals of third parties wishi ng to contribute content for the Florida Digital Newspaper Library.
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Library Name: University of Florid a Libraries Project Name: Rewiring Florida’s News: from microfilm to digital 5 C. LSTA Outcomes Plan LSTA OUTCOMES PLAN Project Name Rewiring Florida’s News: fr om microfilm to digital Library George A. Smathers Librarie s, University of Florida Project Summary / Program Purpose: The purpose of this project is to change the preserva tion model for newspapers from microfilm to digital and to create the core collection of the Florida Digital Newspaper Library by digitizing and making internet searchable and viewabl e 54 local Florida newspapers beginning with January 2006 issues This grant will set up the technical infrastructure to be expanded over time to include more newspaper titles and years; thus, creating a digital resource that is useful to all Floridians and can be integrated into the Florida Ele ctronic Library. EVALUATION INPUTS ACTIVITIES OUTPUTS OUTCOMES INDICATORS SOURCES / METHODS Digital Library Center staff (see, Section E: Inputs, Staff) Project Technicians (see, Section E: Inputs, Staff) FCLA Digital Archive (see, Section E: Inputs, Staff) Software (see, Section E: Inputs, Software ) Equipment (see, Section E: Inputs, Equipment ) Hire, train, and supervise project staff Purchase equipment Digitize, markup and serve all issues of designated newspapers between January 1, 2006 and June 30, 2006 Create a newspaper digitization manual Create Web interface and database Develop publicity materials to be used by participating newspapers and for distribution to local libraries and schools # issues digitized, marked up and served #metadata records created and served for harvesting Web site with search interface created # publicity materials developed for: 1) newspapers 2) branch public libraries 3) community college libraries 4) public high school libraries Newspaper digitization manual available on Internet 1.Public uses technology to get information. (The creation of a Florida digital newspaper collection will enable Floridians to easily find and use news related to their local communities. It will also provide rich content for use in local schools and could be used in the development of local Newspapers in Education programs such as the one offered by the St. Petersburg Times http://nieonline.com/sptimes/i ndex.cfm) 1a. # of hits on newspaper database 1b. Inspection of use logs to determine hits by user category, e.g., .gov, .edu, .com 1c. # responses to pop-up questionnaire that will be online for first two weeks in September 1d. # publicity packages sent to: 1) newspapers, 2) branch public libraries 3) libraries of community colleges 4) public high school libraries 1e. # times newspaper digitization manual viewed or downloaded. 1 a,b,e System generated statistics, using a customized web-use statistics program developed by the Project Programmer (working against use logs automatically recorded by the web server). A visual representation of use will also be displayed using HitMaps script ( http://kmi.open.ac.uk/ projects/hitmaps/ ) 1c Responses collected through web survey commercial software and analyzed by project staff 1d. Physical counts of mailings to each constituency 1e. See source/methods above (1a, b, e)
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Library Name: University of Florid a Libraries Project Name: Rewiring Florida’s News: from microfilm to digital D. Need The four numbered items below succinctly define the needs addressed by th is project. A more comprehensive discussion, exte nding these points, follows. 1. Targeted audience Although the initial collecti on of 54 titles digitized here will be of highest interest to the readers within the circulation area of those titles (45 counties), all Floridians (17 million) who can access the Internet personally, at work, or in their public libraries and/or schools will have access to this collection. As titles and years are expanded, the re search value to all citizens will grow. The project developers believe that the use of newspapers online will far surpass the actual circulation figures of any of th e printed newspaper versions. 2.Unmet needs Very few Floridians from smaller cities and rura l areas have access to their news online, nor is there an easy way to compare news coverage of i ssues of regional and stat e-wide interest. This project will help solve both n eeds. Citizens, students, and po licy makers throughout the state, region, and beyond will have a resource that can e ducate them about community situations. It will provide local perspectives on issues that ar e often missed in “bigger†picture reporting, but are critical to maintaining local community charact er and viability. As past years and titles of multiple newspapers are added, the Florida Digital Newspaper Library will document the history and evolution of Florida’s communities. Recently, the Digital Library Center di gitized an early collection of the I ndian River Farmer for Pam Cooper, Supervisor, Indian River County Main Library, Florida History & Genealogy Department, Vero Beach, Florida. Her response to accessing them over the web was “ They actually worked and I was able to print them out. Thank you so much. What a great piece of our history that was missing!!! We had no written documents for this time period prior to the Press Journal in 1919. †While this example draws on earlier y ears, the need to access local news is clear. By beginning this project now, we will assu re Floridians that 20-50 years from now, they will have access to the news legacy of their communities. Searchability is a need unmet in newspaper microfilm. It will be met here. Digitization, particularly optical character r ecognition, opens newspapers not onl y to Internet display but to content searches, text highlighting, a nd other time-saving aids to research. With microfilm and other film technologies quickly declining, Rewiring Florida’s News also anticipates the massive task of migrating micr ofilming technologies to digital technologies. Digitization both for the current good and for long-term longe vity (continuing good) requires more that simply scanning documents. It imp lies digital preservation. The emergence of the FCLA Digital Archive meets a key need. 6
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Library Name: University of Florid a Libraries Project Name: Rewiring Florida’s News: from microfilm to digital 3. Local library/Community Services unable to meet needs The resources needed to efficiently digitize, provide Internet access, and to digitally archive local newspapers are beyond the means of most smalle r newspaper publishers a nd public libraries as well. Phalbe Henrksen’s comment “ We simply do not have the staff to do this work ourselves †is relevant to libraries throughout the state. B ecause the University of Florida has extensive experience in newspaper microfilming, digitization, and preservation techniques, it is qualified to lead the state-wide init iative in newspaper digitization. The ma nual created as part of this grant will provide digitization guidance to other Florida in stitutions that seek to collaborate in building the Florida Digital Newspaper Library as a state-wide resource. 4. Project relationship to UF mission UF is a major, public, comprehensive, land-grant, research university. The state's oldest, largest and most comprehensive university, Florida is among the nation's most academically diverse public universities. Florida has a long history of established programs in international education, research and service. Its service mandate in cludes the creation and s upport of resources to benefit the citizen s of Florida. Newspaper collection and preservation has been a part of the University of Florida’s mission since the 1930s. And, since the 1930 s, newspapers have been inte grated into the University’s teaching and research programs. Even before the Library of Congress began microfilming its newspaper collections, the University of Florid a had been microfilming its Florida newspaper collection. By the time that the University offici ally entered the U.S. Newspaper Project in the 1980s, Florida had already cataloged and preserved the majority of its newspapers. Today, the newspaper microfilms of the University of Florid a are a statewide resource, acquired and used by archives, libraries and their patr ons around the State of Florida. Discussion of Need. “The news written about any important event or trend, when viewed over time, often constitutes the best and most complete story available anywhe re in society. When historians look at past events, even those in the recent past, they go direc tly to the newspaper archives as one if not the main source of content.†[“Old News†may be newspaper’s best reason to adopt XML,†by Barry Schaeffer. Online Technology, December 2000. Accessed online 3/3/05 at http://www.newsandtech.com/issues /2000/12-00/ot/12-00_schaeffer.htm ] In her article “For homework or baseball scores, children like using computers, not newspapers and will continue to do so,†Ellen Pe arlman discusses a poll conducted by Day and Business Wire of ,500 online households with children ages 6 to 15. So me key findings showed that: 70 percent have researched a topic for school online. 89 percent would rather conduct research for a school project online than with books in a traditional library. 84 percent would rather do homework on a computer than with pen and paper. 57 percent believe that when they grow up , they will get the vast majority of their daily news from the Internet. 7
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Library Name: University of Florid a Libraries Project Name: Rewiring Florida’s News: from microfilm to digital 27 percent think they will get their news from TV, and less than 8 percent plan on needing to read a newspaper. “ [T he American Editor, July-August 1996. Accessed online 3/3/05 at http://www.asne.org/kiosk/editor/julyaugust/pearlman.htm ] The heaviest use of local Florida papers is probably at the undocumented local level, but 774 requests for issues of Florida newspapers we re received at UF duri ng 2004-2005; 22 of those were for papers proposed for digitization here. The need for a Florida newspape r digitization initiative was fi rst vocalized at the Florida Electronic Library Conference held in Or lando, May 15-16, 2003. During one of the open sessions, several public librarians from across the state voiced concern about the need for digital access to newspapers. The following three excerpts from letters in Appendix 2 are representative of the state-wide support for Intern et access to Florida’s newspapers. Phalbe Henrksen, Director of the Br adford County Public Library, writes: Many years ago, the owner of the Telegr aph gave the then currently existing Telegraph on microfilm. Since then, we have bought each reel as it has become available. Unfortunately, that can be as long as a year and a half after the paper is published. So we keep the papers. We feel that if the Telegraph is available to the public anywhere, it should be in Bradford County Public Library. Over the years, we have spent many hou rs researching thi ngs for people who have inquired by mail and now by e-mail. We get requests for obituaries, of course, like everyone else does. In 1994, in self-defense, we began indexing the obituaries. All of that work was done by volunteers. Now we have an Experience Works person transferring the informati on on those cards into MS Word tables, so we can put them in PDF form and make it available on the internet. We simply do not have enough staff to do this work ourselves. Digitizing the newspaper will keep us from having to go even further back into the microfilm. Early editions of the Telegraph did not have an obituary section. Deaths were simply written up as news articles. We would have to comb through every page of the paper and read the headline and beginning of each article to see if there were a death in it. Being able to search a digitized paper would be incredibly easy compared to what we have been doing. In addition, Starke is the town from which news articles are sent about Florida State Prison. We have had many requests for copies of articles written about FSP. We have done what we could, but there really is a limit to how much time we can spend looking for people. Sin ce there's no historical society here, it has been up to us to do this work. Digitizing the Telegraph will take a large burden off us. I have been looking forward to this for more than nine yea rs now. I hope that the LSTA funds will be awarded to the Digital Library Center. Nancy Pike, Director of the Sarasota County Library Syst em, identifies the existing problems with microfilm and the potential be nefits of digital newspapers in her 8
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Library Name: University of Florid a Libraries Project Name: Rewiring Florida’s News: from microfilm to digital letter: For many years, the Sarasota County Library System has purchased our local newspapers on microfilm and we appreciate the work done at UF to make it possible for us to store and provid e access to this rich resource. However, it is certainly time to make the sh ift to digital access. The index to the microfilms of our newspapers is not as thorough as we would like; in addition, patrons often have difficu lty using the equipment and printing the pages needed. With the newspapers in digital form, resear chers will be able to find text, clearly highlighted, online without scrolling through reels of microfilm. The fact that they will be able to research papers statewide, will be a huge benefit. Plus it will save all of us money, libraries as well as patrons who will be able to search as many of the papers as they like, without travel or special borrowing requests. I understand they will even have the opportunity to simultaneously search the University of Florida's other digital collections of Florida history, maps, and images. We are all really delighted to hear th at UF is submitting this grant proposal because it is a project that is long over due. This would be a wonderful addition to both the Florida Electronic Library and to the National Digital Newspaper Program at the Library of Congress. I hope you will give this proposal strong consideration. The digitized newspapers will be a national treasure and make a huge amount of Florida information available to researchers all over the world. Mark Greenberg, a nationally resp ected scholar of Florida hist ory and the head of Special Collections at the University of South Florida, describes the research benefits of digitized newspapers: Building upon its experience digitizing Gainesville, Key West, and Tampa newspapers for inclusion in “Ephemeral Cities,†the University of Florida now wishes to expand its effort statewide. UF has an opportunity to provide patrons with searchable digital news paper text. It proposes creating a Florida Digital Newspaper Library that will be available via the Internet at no cost for at least the first two years. The news will beco me available more quickly -two months as opposed to one year after publication. As the result of UF’s efforts, researchers will be able to find text, clearly highlighted, online without scrolling through reels of microfilm. If they want to research issues statewide, th ey’ll be able to search all or as many of the papers as they like, without travel or special bor rowing requests. They’ll even have the opportunity to search simultaneously the University of Florida’s other digital collections of Florida history, maps, and images. UF also intends to make content available to the Florida El ectronic Library and National Digital Newspaper Program at the Library of Congress. As part of the University of Florida’s commitment to statewide representation, it has selected newspapers of particular intere st to Tampa Bay area residents: the 9
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Library Name: University of Florid a Libraries Project Name: Rewiring Florida’s News: from microfilm to digital Plant City Courier; Bartow’s Polk County Democrat; Tampa’s La Gaceta; Dade City’s Pasco News; and New Port Richey’s Suwannee Democrat. (The complete text of these and other supporting letters may be found in Appendix 2.) While larger syndicated newspapers such as the St. Petersburg Ti mes, Gainesville Sun, etc. are well represented in the digital world through their own web sites a nd services such as Lexis/Nexis, often the local news that documents Florida’s smaller communities is difficult to discover. As noted, the purpose of this project is to provide access for all Florida citizens to the current news that impacts their lives at a local le vel. This project also moves the Florida press world beyond discrete web sites to an integrated repository of news that will permit searching across papers. In addition to the well-documented migration of news-seeking from print to Internet sources, the support infrastructure of the microfilming industr y is eroding. An analogous situation is occurring in the photographic field where 35 mm cameras and their peripherals: film, processing equipment, etc. are quickly being replaced by thei r digital counterparts. A similar demise for microfilm is suggested by Susan A. Cady in “Microfilm Technology and Information Systemsâ€: “Microfilm, like any information system, has its strengths and weaknesses. One strength is in its ability to preserve information for long periods of time and another is its ability to disseminate information cheaplyHowever, digital photography portends major changes in the technologies used for information storage. Once digital photog raphy penetrates fully into the mass market and new storage mechanisms are developed for digita l information that strength may decline. And the World Wide Web offers amazing new facility for instant dissemination of up-to-date information, including the most sophisticated graphic images. Microfilm’s weakness lies in its limited retrieval and output capabilities, both in print and on screen. The repeated, unsuccessful attempts to design comfortable, convenient readers were a testimony to this lack.†[accessed 3/3/05 at http://www.chemheritage.org/explo re/ASIS_documents/ASIS98_Cady.pdf ] The discussion above clearly indi cates that the previously sta ndard method of preserving local newspapers on microfilm does not serve the Internet -based news seeking be havior of Floridians nor does the medium possess the robust search and retrieval functiona lity found in digital formats. At a fundamental level, there is a que stion of the long-term vi ability of the microfilm industry itself. 10
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Library Name: University of Florid a Libraries Project Name: Rewiring Florida’s News: from microfilm to digital While the population that will be most interested in access to the initial titles digitized by the grant are the 466,700 Floridians in th e circulation areas of the news papers, the ability to search many newspapers and across newspapers at the same site will be of in terest to the 3.5 million Floridians who have Internet access in the stat e. [United States Census Bureau. Table 1B. Presence of a Computer and the Internet for Households, by State: September 2001; accessed 3/7/05 at http://www.census.gov/population/socd emo/computer/ppl-175/tab01B.xls ] In September 2001, the U.S. Census Bureau surveyed the purpose of Internet use in the U.S. by 7.1 million children ages 6-9, 14.1 million children ages 10-14, and 9.3 million children ages 14-17. Internet use pertaining to “News, Weather, or Sports Inform ation†steadily increased with age; the percentages of use by age group are 18.4% (6-9); 37.5% (10-14) ; and 51.9% (14-17). [United States Census Bureau. Table 9A. Purpose of Internet Use for People 3 to 17 Years Using the Internet Anywhere, by Selected Characteristics: September 2001; accessed 3/7/05 at http://www.census.gov/population/socd emo/computer/ppl-175/tab09A.xls ] In 1997, the Florida Virtual School [ http://www.flvs.net/ ] was founded with a threefold aim: ) to relieve the strain of overc rowded schools in the fast-growing Florida districts; 2) to meet the demands for high-needs courses; and 3) to make advanced courses available to students throughout the state’s 32 rural di stricts.†In a recent report “Tear Down Those Walls: The Revolution Is Underway,†on the U.S. Department of Education’s National Technology Education Plan site [ http://www.nationaledtechplan.org/th eplan/TearDownThoseWalls.asp ] the tremendous impact of this online school is detailed with one teacher from a small, rural Florida district noting: “Online learning ‘evens the playing field’ for rural students.†This project too will help even the playing field by providing studen ts throughout the state with the same type of news access found in major metropolitan areas. In most smaller areas, ne ither local newspapers nor local libraries have the resources to provide this type of service. In seeking funding for this project, the University of Florida Libraries are assisting the University “to educate students, to perform research, and to render se rvice to society.†In addition, this newspaper collection will enhance other digital collections that have been developed by the University or in cooperation with other public institutions including Florida Heritage, Florida Environments Online, and Aerial photography of Florida (cf, PALMM Collections at http://palmm.fcla.edu/ ). The deliverables of this project are closely alig ned with the goals and outcomes expressed in Florida’s Strategic Plan for Library Developm ent “Gateway to Information through Florida Libraries, An Outcomes Plan, 2003-2007.†Th e following table indicates the goal and LSTA purposes that would be s upported through this project. 11
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Library Name: University of Florid a Libraries Project Name: Rewiring Florida’s News: from microfilm to digital Goals from Strategic Plan Outcomes from Strategic Plan Intended Project Contribution Goal 1. Florida Residents have electronic access to information resources and services through the Florida Electronic Library LSTA Purposes: 1.Expanding services for lifelong learning and access to information and educational resources in a variety of formats 2. Developing library services that provide all users access...through international networks 2. Residents use the Florida Electronic Library portal to retrieve information from multiple sources with a single search engine. 5. Residents access digital or electronic local content through the virtual library. Digitization and web serving of Florida local newspapers will create a new digital collection of interest throughout the state. OAI compliant metadata associated with the collection will be made available for harvesting and searching to the Florida Electronic Library. Goal 2. People in Florida of all ages have programs and services that support lifelong learning through their libraries LSTA Purposes: 1.Expanding services for lifelong learning and access to information and educational resources in a variety of formats 2. Developing public and private partnerships with other agencies and community-based organizations. 1. Florida residents improve their knowledge and skills through targeted programs provided by libraries and library partners. Access to and use of local newspapers will aid library users in identifying community-based programs that may be of interest. These could include volunteer opportunities, educational programs for all ages, health care information, job placement, etc. Newspapers are often used in English as second language classes and in literacy classes. E. Inputs Staff The University of Florida Libraries will contribute a technical team consisting of one senior Coordinator who will act as Project Administra tor, one Project Coordinator, one Digital Archiving Coordinator, one Finance Coordinator, one Bibliographic Control Coordinator, one Digital Imaging coordinator, one Newspaper Imaging Coordinator, one Quality Control Coordinator, one Mark-Up & Metadata Coordinator, and one Project Programmer. The Director of the Digital Library Center will be the overall project administrator. Specific project duties for each individual are given below. (Resumes of project staff may be found in Appendix 3.) PROJECT ADMINISTRATOR (Erich Kesse): provides administ rative and budgetary oversight including supervising the hiri ng of project staff and purchas e of necessary equipment and 12
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Library Name: University of Florid a Libraries Project Name: Rewiring Florida’s News: from microfilm to digital software; helps design the basic Web site, repor ts directly to the funding agency; and in coordination with the Project Coordinator tracks and revises the various Action Plans as necessary. The Project Administra tor, together with the Project Coordinator and other Project staff, will produce a Florida Digital Newspaper Library: Manual for Digitization of Florida Newspapers. PROJECT COORDINATOR (Stephanie Haas): provides direct supervision and c oordination between the project components; c oordinates the distribution of publicit y materials; devises and analyzes the questionnaire on site use; works with the UF Systems Department to collect and analyze project statistics; helps design the basic Web site; and provides weekly updates to the Project Administrator. DIGITAL ARCHIVING COORDINATOR (Cathleen Mook): supervises all aspects of the digital archiving of images submitted to the FCLA Digital Archive including the newspaper issues created during this project. FINANCE COORDINATOR (Kelley Cunningham): provides ongoing monitoring of all fiscal transactions related to the grant; provides m onthly reports to the Pr oject Administrator and Project Coordinator; and liaisons with various un its in the university’s office of sponsored research. BIBLIOGRAPHIC CONTROL COORDINATOR (Nelda Schwartz): manages the digital equivalent of issue check-in; assigns bibliographic control numbe rs that uniquely identify issues to be scanned and that serve, subsequently, as control numbers for digital arch iving. The Bibliographic Control Coordinator will also update holdings records in the University of Florida on-line library catalog, U.S. Newspapers Project: Florida on-line inventory, and other catalogs. DIGITAL IMAGING COORDINATOR (Randall Renner): supervises the scanning of the 95,000 page images; consults with Quality Control Coor dinator on quality issues and production of derivatives for markup and Web serving and digi tal archiving; and integrates the scanning operations with populating the metadata database. NEWSPAPER IMAGING COORDINATOR (Will Canova): previously supervised all aspects of the microfilming unit, now will be supervising and traini ng students in digital capture of newspapers QUALITY CONTROL COORDINATOR (Jane Pen): supervises the quality control staff responsible for image quality and creating deriva tives for markup and serving; oversees local archiving of images to DVD. MARK-UP & METADATA COORDINATOR (James “Gus†Clifton): works with the Project Administrator, Project Coordinator, and other project staff to create functional text markup procedures for newspapers, quality control OCRed output, and creation of appropriate metadata for contribution to the Florida Electronic Library and National Di gital Newspaper Program at the Library of Congress. 13
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Library Name: University of Florid a Libraries Project Name: Rewiring Florida’s News: from microfilm to digital PROJECT PROGRAMMER/ FLORIDA DIGITAL NEWSPAPER LIBRARY INTERFACE DESIGNER (Mark Sullivan): works with the Project Administra tor and Coordinator to implement design and functional elements of the Greenst one-based technology supporting the Florida Digital Newspaper Library and SQL tables driving the U.S. Newspapers Project: Florida on-line inventory; administer s OAI configuration and other data transfer tools to ensure contributions to the Florida Electronic Library, th e National Digital Newspaper Project (Library of Congress), and other metadata harvesters, e.g, American South.org. Responsible for programs used to generate use statistics. The Florida Center for Library Automa tion (FCLA) Digital Archive will archive all issues of newspapers digitized as part of this project. The University of Florida Library system is in the process of finalizing the formal agreement for digital archiving with FC LA and all digitization completed as part of this projec t will be covered under that agreement. Archiving requirements are specified in format plans at the FCLA Digital Archive site [http://www.fcla.edu/digitalArchive/daInfo.htm#library]. As previously noted, a minimal fee for archiving may be instituted in the future to cove r archiving costs and server expansion needs. These fees will be requested from system users not the contributing newspaper publishers. With technical teams already in place, FCLA will provide: Server space and management of the digital master images Technical migrations to assu re continued functionality and access to digital objects created as part of this project Statistical data concerning the digital master images archived as pa rt of this project The Project Staff that will be hired specifically for the project include: Project Technicians: as supervis ed by appropriate unit coordinato r/Coordinator, responsible for creation of original, vi sually enhanced, and copyright clean versions; quality control review; markup verification; metadata completion; and bu rning original and enhanced images to DVDs for local storage. Software: Adobe Photoshop CS (v. 8) for Windows needed for two processing stations. N.B. Scanning (image capture) software is preconfigured with digital cameras. Equipment: Six (6) capture stations each consisting of: 1-Better Light High-Speed Digital Sca nning Camera Backs (Super 8K-HS); 1-Toyo-View 4 x 5 VS125-R Camera; 1-Schneider 120 mmm f/ 5.6 Digitar Lens; 1Bogen Super Repro Column (copy st and) w/o Baseboard 53†#FF1220BL; 1-Toyo-View Recessed 110 x 110 mm Lensboard for #0 Copal/Compur Shutters with Field, 23G &45 CX Cameras; and 14
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Library Name: University of Florid a Libraries Project Name: Rewiring Florida’s News: from microfilm to digital 2Fluorescent Work Light Units, Item # 100SWL, 130 Watts. One Aware JPEG 2000 server used to provide Inte rnet access to newspaper images. Permits 1:1 zoomability, panning, search term highlighting, etc. Two (2) post-capture workstations for image pr ocessing prior to transmittal to quality control unit. A grand total of eight (8) processing workstations will be purchased: one for each of the capture stations (6) and two for image processing. F. Action Plan There are four action lines related to the succ essful completion of “R ewiring Florida’s News†and the creation of the Florida Digital Newspaper Library : (Each of these action lines is more fully discussed below.) 1. Digitally capture, markup, serve, archive, and prepare metadata for the selected newspaper issues from January 1, 2006 to June 30, 2006 (with a 2 month lag, June digitization is projected for comple tion in August 2006) to create the Florida Digital Newspaper Library . 2. Create Florida Digital Newspaper Library web interface for searching and retrieving the newspaper content 3. Develop and distribute the Florida Digital Newspaper Library publicity to participating newspapers, and local libraries and schools. 4. Develop newspaper digitization manual for third party contributors to the Florida Digital Newspaper Library. 1. PROJECT ACTIVITIES Workflow Action Line 1: Digitally capture, markup, serve, archive, and prepare metadata for the selected newspaper issues from January 1, 2006 to June 30, 2006 (N.B. With a 2 month lag, June digitization is projected for completi on in late August 2006) 15
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Library Name: University of Florid a Libraries Project Name: Rewiring Florida’s News: from microfilm to digital Selection for Digitization Newspaper Imaging Coordinator prepares lists of 54 Florida newspapers currently being preserved by UF on microfilm and confirms with publisher that th e migration from microfilm to digital preservation is acceptable and obtains permission for Internet serving. (41 confirmed; 13 pe nding additional contact) Tracking & Preparation for Digitization DLC staff (bibliographic control) logs newspape r titles into tracking systems, updates holdings in bibliographic records and other library catalogs. Other DLC staff (physical processing) perform colla tion, flattening and ot her processes required for optimal image capture. Digitization & Image Derivative Creation The scanning, image enhancement, and quality control of the newspaper images will be done at the Digital Library Center, University of Flor ida. The Project Administrator in consultation with the Project Coordinator, Digital Imaging Co ordinator, Newspaper Imaging Coordinator, and Quality Control Coordinator will set the initial standards for scanning the newspaper images. Under direct supervision of the appropriate unit head, trained project technicians will carry out the primary activities of image creation, enhancement, quality control, and markup validation. Scanning will conform to all appr opriate standards and at pixelper-inch resolutions and bitdepths that are consistent with the re commendations of Cornell University’s Moving Theory into Practice Digital Imaging for Libraries and Archives (Anne R. Kenney and Oya Y. Rieger 1 [Mountain View, CA: Research Libraries Group, 2000.] Electronic archive masters will be uncompresse d TIFF files (ITU 6.0) at 100% scale: the current de facto standard for el ectronic image archives. Under th e supervision of the Newspaper Imaging Coordinator, pages will be digitized and produced in graphical file formats (i.e., TIFF) by project technicians to meet th e requirements of the item’s physical format. Images will be scanned at 400 dpi, 8-bit grey-scale, per Natio nal Digital Newspaper Project specifications. Pages with meaningful color, co lor that informs the story or w ithout which interpretation is not possible, will be scanned at 400 dpi, 24-bit sRGB calibrated color. Visually enhanced versions will be created using Adobe Photoshop: these vers ions include needed corrections for brightness, sharpening, etc. The enhanced version is sent to the Quality Control unit. Per National Digital Newspaper Project specifications the de liverable will be JPEG 2000 images with searchable text. (See, Appendix 4 for discussion of JPEG 2000.) Quality Control The enhanced version is reviewed by the Quality Control Unit using the DLC quality control application program. If the staff accepts the im age, copyrighted contents such as cartoons, syndicated columns, etc. are visu ally modified to create a copy right clean version of the page image. Rejected images are reported to the Ne wspaper Imaging Coordinator for re-shooting. Accepted images are transferred on to Mark-Up & Metadata Unit. Mark-Up & Metadata The Mark-Up & Metadata Unit processes the copyright clean versi on of the newspaper images through PrimeRecognition software. Output s include SGML files and a searchable JPEG 2000 file with an embedded text file. Appropriate metadata is created to describe the digital package. 1 See Mrs. Rieger’s letter of support in Appendix 2. 16
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Library Name: University of Florid a Libraries Project Name: Rewiring Florida’s News: from microfilm to digital This metadata will be used to access the ne wspaper issues online and made available for harvesting to the Florida Electronic Library. Deployment & Archiving With acceptable completion of markup and metada ta creation, the completed digital package will be ingested into the Greenstone-based digital library server at the University of Florida and made available to the public. The original TIFF image and the copyright clean enhanced version are FTP’d to the FCLA Digital Archive ( http://www.fcla.edu/digitalArchive/ ), with archive listed (separate database) MD5 checksum. The Florida Center for Library Automation (FCLA) Digital Library Services staff performs secondary review of packages, return errors in them to the DLC and pass on accepted packages. Any returned error packages will be reviewed and re ctified by the Digital Archiving Coordinator in collaboration with the Mark-Up & Metadata Coordinator, and/or other staff as appropriate. Copies of the original and copyright clean images, as well as the SGML and searchable JPEG 2000 files will be stored on DVD at the Digital Library Center. Per standard preservation policy (as also reflected in microfilm archiving), the Florida Digital Newspaper Library will maintain redundant archives to ensure long-term preservation. Action Line 2. Create Web interface The initial Web site design will be completed by the Project Programmer in collaboration with staff at the Digital Library Cent er, University of Florida (e. g., the Project Administrator and Project Coordinator) and the Libraries’ Public Services Division. Staff will seek public pre-release input on design and functional issues, particularly from those who have submitted letters of support. The Florida Digital Newspaper Library , under the auspices of the UF Digital Library Center, will ma intain a pull-list of Web development items. An Advisory Board will also provide advice on direction. 2 No one fully knows what a digital newspaper co llection’s interface should look like or precisely how it should behave. Form-and-function studies of electronic delivery fo r Florida newspapers is a component funded by the National Digital Newspaper Program (see, Appendix 5: Notice of Award). The interface completed during Rewiring Florida’s News will share the form and function of other digital newspaper collections , specifically collections at the Library of Congress (see: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ sgphtml/sashtml/sashome.html ), Alaska’s Tundra Times (see: http://ttip.tuzzy.org/ ), and Utah Digital Newspapers 3 (see: http://www.lib.utah.edu/digital/unews/ ). 2 Advisory Board is named in the outstanding proposal to the National Endowment for the Humanities for retrospective newspaper microfilm digitization, as part of the National Digital Newspaper Project. For reference, see: http://web.uflib.ufl.edu/digital/co llections/FDNL/NDNPproposal.pdf . 3 See the Utah Newspaper Program’s letter of support in Appendix 2 17
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Library Name: University of Florid a Libraries Project Name: Rewiring Florida’s News: from microfilm to digital Action Line 3. Develop and distribute the project publicity to participating newspapers, and local libraries and schools. The Project Coordinator w ith the assistance of the Publicity Coordinator for the University of Florida Libraries will create a seri es of publicity packages to se nd to participating newspapers and to all Florida branch public libraries, libra ries at community colle ges and all public high schools. This distributio n list consists of approximately 1,100 a ddresses. Digital Library Center staff will also seek time on the Florida Library Association’s agenda for the meeting immediately following release. Publicity Please see Action Line 3 above. Action Line 4. Develop newspaper digitization manual for third party contributors to the Florida Digital Newspaper Library . The Project Administrator, together with the Pr oject Coordinator and other Project staff, will produce a Florida Digital Newspaper Library: Manual for Digitization of Florida Newspapers . This manual, with specifications and compliancerequirements, is to be used by other Florida institutions seeking to digiti ze Florida newspaper titles inte nded for contribution to the Florida Digital Newspaper Library . The manual will be distribut ed via the Internet from the Florida Digital Newspaper Library web page. And, the Florida Digital Newspaper Library will encourage its use through publicity (see, Deliverable no. 5 ) and consultation with agencies seeking funds for digitization. 2. TIMELINE FOR ACTION PLAN Time Table Quarter 1 Quarter 1 Quarter 2 Quarter 4 Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb March April May June July Aug Sept 1. Purchase and test equipment 2. Hire and train staff 3. Digitize, markup, serve and archive newspaper issues 4. Create newspaper digitization manual 5. Create metadata for issues 6. Create project Web site 7. Develop publicity packages and distribute 18
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Library Name: University of Florid a Libraries Project Name: Rewiring Florida’s News: from microfilm to digital 3. SUSTAINABILITY Upon completion of “Rewiring Florida’s News,†95,000 pages of local Florida news will be available. The University of Florida is committe d to continuing the digitization of the 54 titles included in this grant after funding ceases in September 2006. The intent of the grant developers is to seek addi tional funds to digitize earlier years of the titles completed during this grant and to expand the numb er of newspaper titles available. As noted previously, the funded NEH will digitize the issues of 50 Florida newspapers between the years 1900-1910. This will add an additional 120,000 pages to the project site. Funding sources may include subsequent LSTA grants , private industry grants, othe r governmental bodies, and groups with historical intere sts in Florida. The University of Florida will act outside these date limits, using its own internal funding and other grant opportuni ties to extend coverage of the State’s news. In the last Fiscal Year, for example, the University retrospe ctively microfilmed a nearly comp lete run of the Jax Air News. It also piloted the digitization of its Civil War era newspapers. As such retrospective runs and appropriate funding become availa ble, the equipment provided by th is grant will be used to digitize these retrospective holdi ngs. Additionally, through the cr eation and active promotion of a manual for the digitization of Florid a newspapers by third parties, the Florida Digital Newspaper Library will accept compliant product for inclusi on in this Project (see, Deliverable 6). Immediate targets for retrospective digitization include various ex tant issues from the more than 20 titles in the University’s Florida Underground Newspapers collection; the more than 10 titles in the University’s Civil War Era Florida Newspapers collection; and the more than 700 issues of various out-of-state titles with extensive Florida reporting from the Goza and Mickler Newspaper Collections.), as well as the conversion of pr eviously digitized newspapers (e.g., Hotel News) in the PALMM Florida Heritage Collections ( http://palmm.fcla.edu/fh/ ). As we have tried to indicate throughout this proposal, the funding fo r this grant will help us to develop the technical in frastructure to successfully launch a Florida newspaper digitization initiative. The pr oject developers are keenly aw are of the need to continue newspaper ingest, serving and archiving through out the lifetime of a paper and are equally aware of the need to digitize the legacy news of past years. The University of Florida’s stra tegy for Florida’s newspapers also includes ingest of newspapers “born-digitalâ€. Capture of the digital content used to print newspapers obviates the need to digitize them after print. Several of the news paper publishers agreeing to allow us to digitize their newspapers have indicated that they would make dig ital content available to the Florida Digital Newspaper Library and assist in future fundraising to enable this final strategy. 19
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