Presented for the Wisconsin Federation of Museums annual meeting, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, November 12, 2012.

1. BUILDING DIGITAL
COLLECTIONS
E M I LY P F O T E N H A U E R
P R O G R A M M A N A G E R , W I S C O N S I N H E R I TA G E O N L I N E
E P F O T E N H A U E R @ W I L S .W I S C . E D U
H T T P : / / W I S C O N S I N H E R I TA G E . O R G

2. WHAT DO YOU MEAN, DIGITIZE?
• Selecting materials
• Reformatting materials
(scanning or
photographing)
• Adding metadata
(descriptive
information)
• Making available online
• Storing and maintaining
digital files and data
(digital preservation) Wisconsin Historical Society

3. IDENTIFYING GOALS: WHY DIGITIZE?
• Go where your
audience is
• Reach new audiences
• Improve access to
“invisible” materials
• Protect fragile or
heavily used materials
• Learn more about your
collections
• Contribute to our
collective knowledge South Wood County Historical Museum

4. DIGITAL PRESERVATION
• Definition from the Library of
Congress:
• The active management of digital
content over time to ensure
ongoing access.
• Two threats to digital content:
• Obsolescence
• Physical damage
• Digital preservation is not
simply file storage/backups.
• Good practices now
(preservation file formats,
consistent file naming,
thorough metadata) help
ensure future access. Rock County Historical Society

5. DIGITAL PRESERVATION QUICK TIPS
• Save more than one
copy of each file
• On more than one type
of storage media
• In more than one
location
• Document what, where,
when
• Spot-check annually
• Migrate as necessary Logan Museum of Anthropology

6. STORAGE OPTIONS
• Cloud storage service
• Google Drive
• Amazon
• DuraCloud
• Local server
• RAID device
• External hard drive
• Archival quality (gold)
CDs or DVDs
Take into account potential
future storage needs.
Villa Terrace Decorative Arts Museum

7. CONSIDERING COPYRIGHT
• Disclaimer: I am not a
lawyer
• Owning a physical item does
not necessarily mean you
hold the copyright to that
item
• Public domain = no longer
under copyright. In the US
in 2012 that means the item
was:
• published before 1923 –OR–
• Unpublished; creator died
before 1942 –OR–
• Unpublished; unknown
creator; made before 1892
UW-Milwaukee Libraries

8. DIGITAL IMAGING
• Goals of imaging:
• Create a digital
representation that’s
faithful to the original
item
• Create the highest quality
image file you can
achieve with available
resources
• Image once—don’t
expect to return to re-
digitize UW-Madison Archives

9. OBJECT PHOTOGRAPHY
• Digital camera
• SLR that can shoot RAW
files (can convert to TIFFs)
• Tripod
• Two adjustable lights (500
watts)
• Reflective umbrellas (or
sheets)
• Paper or cloth backdrop
• Color calibration chart
Photo setup at Pabst Mansion

10. SCANNING PHOTOGRAPHS
• Scan all photographs in 24-
bit color, even if image is
black and white
• Scanning resolution (ppi)
depends on size of original
item
• Longest side of item longer
than 7” = 300ppi
• Shorter than 7” = 600ppi
• Save two copies of each
scan:
• High resolution TIFF (20-
40MB) for archiving and
printing
• Lower resolution JPEG (1-5MB)
UW-La Crosse
for online collection, email,
easy access

11. NAMING YOUR FILES
• Use only lower case letters, numbers, and dashes or
underscores
• Don’t use spaces or punctuation
• Use leading zeroes for consecutive numbering. For
example, a multi-page letter could have file names
mac001.tif, mac002.tif, mac003.tif, etc.
• Tie your file names to existing catalog numbers if possible
• Document any file naming conventions you develop
• Examples:
• Photograph with accession # 2011.32.1 = 201132001.tif –OR–
2011_32_001.tif
• Series of images by photographer John Smith = smith001.tif,
smith002.tif, smith003.tif
• Not so good: Glassplate16039 Auto repair in basement 025.tif

12. METADATA: WHAT IS IT?
• Information about stuff
• Technical metadata =
information about the
digital file (size, type, etc.)
• Descriptive metadata =
information about the
content of the item (what
are we looking at?)
• Lets users find what
they’re looking for
• Organized, standardized,
consistent, searchable
Grant County Historical Society

13. METADATA ELEMENTS
Field Name Sample Data
Title DiVall barber shop
Creator F. C. Bartle
Date 09/12/1925 OR 1920-1930
Materials Photographs
Subjects Barbers; Barbershops
Description Ralph DiVall (left) and Edwin T. Baltes (right) shave
two men seated in barber chairs. According to a
family history on file at the Society, DiVall operated
this barber shop from the 1920s until his retirement
on July 1, 1966.
Location Middleton, Dane County, Wisconsin Middleton Area Historical Society
Collection DiVall Family
Rights statement This material may be protected by copyright law. The
user is responsible for all issues of copyright.
Identifier 2006.01.12
File name 2006_01_12.jpg

14. ASSIGNING SUBJECTS
• Consistent use of subject headings
can help link related content in
your collection and across
disparate collections.
• A controlled vocabulary is a
standardized, pre-determined list
of subject headings.
• Some examples of controlled
vocabularies:
• Getty Art and Architecture Thesaurus
• Nomenclature 3.0
• Thesaurus for Graphic Materials
• Library of Congress Subject Headings Milwaukee Public Museum

15. Structured, standardized metadata
makes your digital content . . .
• Searchable and sortable
• Interoperable and shareable
– Wisconsin Heritage Online portal
http://wisconsinheritage.org
– Digital Public Library of America
http://dp.la
• Understandable in new ways
– Maps, charts, timelines

16. • Viewshare
• Google Fusion tables
• Timeline JS

17. SOFTWARE
• When choosing software,
determine your needs
and then pick the best
tool for the job
• To share your content in
the statewide Wisconsin
Heritage Online portal,
your software must be
OAI-PMH compliant
(Open Archives Initiative
Protocol for Metadata
Wisconsin Folksong Collection, UW-Madison
Harvesting)

18. RESOURCES
• A Framework of Guidance for Building Good Digital
Collections (IMLS, 2007) http://framework.niso.org/
• Digitization Activities: Project and Management
Outline (Federal Agencies Digitization Guidelines
Initiative, 2009) http://www.digitizationguidelines.gov/
• Wisconsin Heritage Online digital imaging and
metadata guidelines http://wisheritage.pbworks.com
• Museums and the Web conference proceedings
http://www.museumsandtheweb.com/

19. THANK YOU!
E M I LY P F O T E N H A U E R
P R O G R A M M A N A G E R , W I S C O N S I N H E R I TA G E O N L I N E
E P F O T E N H A U E R @ W I L S .W I S C . E D U
H T T P : / / W I S C O N S I N H E R I TA G E . O R G