A Gift to the Future: 3 Goals of Digital Heritage and the Archives Showcasing Them
Why are collectors, organizations, and institutions bringing their collections into the digital age? What makes the effort and cost of digital conservation worthwhile?
As users, we can’t know the primary driving force behind the digitization of some of the most impactful collections on the internet, but at Anderson Archival, we’ve seen countless motivations for digitization. One common element is that the stewards of these collections want to bestow a gift on the digital landscape: the gift of preservation, the gift of a better future through learning and inspiration, the gift of accessibility.
New to digital libraries? Read more about digital collections and the Anderson Archival difference.
Here is a sampling of successful digital archives that showcase these three goals for digitization.
- Documenting and Preserving a Lost History
For some collections without a digital presence, the cultures, histories, and movements they represent may be lost in the event of a disaster. Those interested in historical preservation know that history is relevant for both today and tomorrow. Digital collections that preserve a little-known or previously lost history fill in gaps left by traditional education, inviting readers and viewers to explore and learn.
- Early Americas Digital Archive offers rare and out-of-print texts, written in and about the early Americas as full-text documents checked against originals. This text is easy to search, read, and reference.
- RomArchive is populated with highly curated sub-collections and journeys of thought that explore how the Roma people are represented in European history and culture, where gaps in coverage lie and affect public perception, and offer strategies for combating this skewed absence.
- Virtual First Ohioans, a sub-collection of Ohio History Connection, invites visitors to take a tour through this native history of Ohio, starting with the archeological process involved in modern re-discovery and preservation, and journeys through time with descriptive visuals. Clicking through the section acts as a virtual museum showcasing these ancient peoples.
- The Library of Congress’ Mapping the National Parks collection tracks the history of lands that visitors may take for granted.
- The Digital Library of the Middle East provides a vital resource to a region often divided by conflict, preserving documents digitally because the physical originals are often sold on the black market or destroyed.
These collections and archives could have remained behind closed doors, in drawers, in museums, or even destroyed, but curators identified a need to not only preserve but to share their contents with the world.
- Sharing History to Change the Future for the Better
Many collection owners believe that the material in their possession has the power to educate, enlighten, and change the world for the better. In some cases, documents present underheard worldviews or religious beliefs, while others highlight periods of historical upheaval, from which many lessons may be learned. For these curators and collectors, making the words, photos, or other historical materials available to the general public is deeply important.
- The Pearl Digital Collections of the Presbyterian Historical Society comprise the oldest denominational archives in the United States. Primary source documentation of Japanese-American internment during World War II, tied to the denomination through mission work in the camps, is just one example of a piece of history that still resonates today.
- Another highly-curated digital museum is the digital offerings of United States Holocaust Museum. The site covers brutal historical events with honesty, providing photographic and written record for a thoughtful tour or in-depth research.
- The Peace Database collections of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum serve a similar purpose. Though the digital archive hasn’t been updated since 2016, the site stands as memorial and marker of a horrific event.
These collections have the potential to make a profound change in the thinking of modern readers, and digitization has made them available to anyone.
- Giving the Gift of Accessibility
Digitization offers incredible freedom: researchers and other users no longer must travel to a single location and request limited time in a temperature-controlled room with just a copier to aid their memory. Research (and search in general) is far easier when done digitally, where a single keyword puts the user just a click away from the title, page, and paragraph they want to find.
- The Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation brings historical artifacts to users who can’t make the trip to Michigan. Their digital collections mimic walking through a museum by browsing through Expert Sets or the back room of a research library through their advanced search.
- The New York Public Library’s Digital Collections are stunning in scope and content. Containing material that users might not have even known existed, NYPL makes these collections easy to browse and search, like this collection of The Black Experience in Children’s Books. While not every item in these collections is fully text searchable, NYPL makes discovery easy.
- The Provincial Archives of Saskatchewan continues to grow its collection, moving forward with the belief that the content it provides is valuable and that digitization offers unparalleled search for its users.
- The Internet Archive is possibly the longest-running and most comprehensive archive currently online. Founded on the ideal of “Universal Access to All Knowledge,” the Internet Archive has been in the news recently for linking Wikipedia-cited passages to digitized materials, stressing the importance of using digitization as a tool for verification.
Being able to access materials like these from anywhere in the world is a gift to this century. This massive amount of data is now accessible and at the fingertips of anyone in the world.
When all is said and done, the deciding factor to digitize may come down to the simple fact that the world is going digital. Don’t let your collection be left behind or forgotten.
Contact Anderson Archival by phone (314.259.1900), email, or our contact form today for a free consultation regarding the digitization of your collection, regardless of your goal for going digital.
Quotables: 3 Ways to Improve Intelligent Capture with Human Touch (AIIM)
Mark Anderson’s guest blog at AIIM (The Association for Intelligent Information Management) addresses the limits of IIM and how to improve results.
Human factors can never be replaced by technology because of the intelligence and problem-solving care experts possess. Whether the end result is for a paperless office or a collection of documents, the metadata, organization, and hands-on human approach can make the resulting digital library much more accurate and efficient.
Do you have a historical document collection that you’d like to make more accessible, relevant, and impactful? Anderson Archival uses proprietary methods to digitize collections so they are easily searchable, ultimately accessible, and even more meaningful to a wide audience. Let us help you preserve your legacy today! Give us a call at 314.259.1900 or email us at info@andersonarchival.com.
What are Quotables? This is a category in our posts to highlight any professional publications that benefit from our expert archivist experience and quote us in articles for their readers.
Generate Revenue from Your Online Collection
Is the perceived cost of digitally archiving your collection making you hesitant to move forward with an important project? Monetizing archival collections may be the answer!
Monetizing an archival collection involves electronically transforming the collection in a way that allows people to access it online for a fee. You use the digital collection to provide revenue to your organization, so the project helps pay for itself while allowing users to access what they need from the archives. TIME, Harper’s Weekly, Vanity Fair, and other magazines are transforming their historical collections in this way.
To monetize, your digitized collection needs to be available online. This has many benefits, including a variety of options for display and customization. With an online interface, the documents are beautifully preserved, interactive, and searchable.
Optical character recognition (OCR) creates document searchability, which is a prime benefit of digitization. Being able to search the full text—especially when there are thousands of documents in a database—can be life-changing for researchers. OCR takes digitizing to a new level, but it does require more time and resources for the digitization process. However, doing the project right the first time with quality and precision means your collection will be preserved long term and it could fund itself.
Anyone thinking about archiving their collection usually has a vision of what they want it to look like on-screen, but a limited budget could cripple the effort to make a well-preserved collection shareable with the world.
What Does Monetizing Look Like?
Say your organization has a website with a newsletter that averages one million subscribers. If 1% of those subscribers were willing to pay for enhanced archival access at $1/month, your collection would generate $120,000 annually. Engaging 4% of your subscribers would result in almost half a million dollars in revenue. If just a fraction of your current constituency engages with your digitized collection, the results could be substantial.
The key is strategically marketing subscriptions to users and organizations that will directly benefit from your collection. Think of the potential users. Do you have subscribers already, users accessing or already paying for access to a printed or digital newsletter? Current print and email subscribers might be attracted to the ability to access a digital collection for more robust study of their interest. Libraries, schools, archives, research centers, museums, and organizations specializing in the field of your collection would also be promising candidates.
It is important to consider where the paywall is placed. What materials, if any, are accessible for free, and what materials or functions are available only for a fee? Do you want all users to have to pay for the services (hard paywall), or do you want to grant users limited access to the documents and pay a subscription for full access or for specific functions (metered paywall)? Maybe you’d prefer to make the collection only available to members. The paywall’s location and function are dynamic, as customizable as the way your collection will be displayed, and can be adjusted based on specific users or specific materials.
Read more about custom software development – built for your collection!
Working Within Your Budget
Archival companies work with organizations that have a broad range of budgetary needs and considerations, including nonprofits, so the one you choose should understand the monetary considerations of archiving a large collection. Strong communication throughout the bid process is essential to make sure your exact budget needs are met. For example, the collection could be divided into sections so completed sections of the collection can be made available to users while another section is being digitized. In this example, project managers would work with you to determine an annual budget, prioritize your documents, and begin the digitization process for the first set. Once those are online and users are subscribing, you’ll have more resources for the next set of documents.
When digitizing your collection, remember that the cost is an investment in doing the project right the first time. Your archival company should balance budget requirements with providing a quality end product and thoroughly explore revenue-generating potential. Don’t sacrifice quality or your dream of a digital collection because of your budget.
Is monetizing your collection something you’d like learn more about? Contact us today at 314.259.1900 or info@andersonarchival.com.
Quotables: Where Will Your Legacy Be When You’re Gone (The Good Men Project)
Check out Mark Anderson’s recent guest contribution to The Good Men Project, laying out tips for individuals, families, and organizations to safely preserve their historical documents.
Taking the right steps to preserve your important family and community collections now will prevent damage from unexpected disasters or the inevitability of time.
Do you have a historical document collection that you’d like to make more accessible, relevant, and impactful? Anderson Archival uses proprietary methods to digitize collections so they are easily searchable, ultimately accessible, and even more meaningful to a wide audience. Let us help you preserve your legacy today! Give us a call at 314.259.1900 or email us at info@andersonarchival.com.
What are Quotables? This is a category in our posts to highlight any professional publications that benefit from our expert archivist experience and quote us in articles for their readers.
5 Factors That Can Affect the Timeframe of Your Archival Project
Is it finally time to kick off that digitization project you’ve been delaying for so long?
Many collectors don’t realize how much time and planning go into digitizing a box of old photo albums, let alone a collection that fills an entire room or basement. If you’re applying for funding to help your or your organization’s rainy day dream become reality, you’ll need to have some idea of the amount of time it will take to do it right.
How much time should you plan to spend digitizing before you see the end result? Or, more likely, how long should you expect your archival team to keep and analyze your collection until you have the final digitized project in your hand?
A quality archival company is well-versed in the variables that affect the time it takes to see your project through to the end. Doing it right the first time is going to take more time than a lower-quality job that will need to be re-done in a few years. Every collection has its own needs, quirks, and significance. Here are four of the most common factors that determine how long it will take to complete your digitization project.
- Handling and Scanning Materials
The time it takes to physically process the individual materials in your collection is an important factor to consider. The size and composition of the collection determine how the materials should be handled at every point in the process. Unless you work in-house, your collection will need to be transported to the scanning facilities (and eventually back to you).
Historical paper documents, especially those severely damaged or suffering from acid deterioration, require the gentlest touch at every step of the project.
Once in-house, a trained team carefully categorizes each document and prepares it for scanning, which may include a page-by-page examination to note any handwriting marks, rips, or smudges. This process can take hours or weeks to complete, depending on the breadth of your collection.
Scanning the materials is also a much more delicate task than one might think. Unlike an amateur photo album scanning job, professional archival scanning goes beyond slapping a document into a home/office scanner bed and calling it a day. An archivist must observe each page that feeds through the enterprise-grade scanner, taking care to prevent any wrinkles or jams before they occur and damage the original. Bound collections require specialized scanning cradles that photograph pages while preserving the binding and delicate materials that would otherwise be destroyed in a traditional scanner.
- Image Cleanup
Once your collection is scanned, the real digital work begins! Historical documents almost always have some sort of blemish; changes in paper quality and printing standards are to thank for that. While copies of the original image can be kept, it is useful to have working copies that can be adjusted for maximum use by the end user. In order to get the cleanest possible result—and fewer headaches during the proofing process—the newly-digitized images are combed over and cleaned in a graphic editing program.
Depending of the needs of the project, archivists can simply erase speckles or splotches that would interrupt the proofing process or perform character or full-text replacements for missing or damaged sections of text. Document age, page size, image resolution, scan quality, and level of adherence to the original material need to be considered to accurately calculate the length of time needed for this step. Not all collections need or want this step, but it’s often necessary for the longevity and use of the final product.
- OCR and Proofing
Optical character recognition (OCR) is an essential part of most digitization projects and cannot be rushed. Being patient during the image cleanup steps pays off by providing cleaner images to process during OCR. Proofing relies on both human and digital eyes, a partnership that can sometimes prove time-consuming.
Older texts often use outdated language and fonts, which can confuse modern text recognition programs.
The human archivists on the other side of the screen inspect any flagged letters or symbols and compare to the original text to confirm accuracy.
With trickier collections, or those needing a character-for-character replication of the original, additional human-eye passes may be needed for precision of detail. Rare cases could require spoken or audio passes, which can add a significant chunk of time to the project duration, but also greatly enhance the quality of the end product.
- Tagging and Organization
Building search features into a collection is a lengthy process, but necessary for any collection that may one day be used for study or research. This is accomplished by tagging a document’s metadata during the digitization process. By marking authors, dates, and section types, users can not only search a text for exact keywords but also for these specific features.
Formatting your collection is more than the “finishing touches” it implies. You as the collector will need to reflect on what you want your end product to look like. How will you use it? How will your target audience?
Even collectors who just want digital image replications of their collection cannot ignore this step. The Library of Congress outlines the sustainability of digital formats, so you can ensure the time you’ve invested in this project won’t have to repeated in the future.
- Context of Collection
Okay, okay—so this isn’t really a timeframe factor as much as it is one of the proprietary values Anderson Archival infuses into every digitization project that comes through our doors.
But it is an absolutely crucial one when it comes to doing it right the first time. We’ve written before about how much time gets wasted by improper digitization strategies. Understanding the full cultural, historical, and personal context of your collection guarantees success in every step of the process.
It takes knowing everything possible about the collection to catch pages missed during the scanning or find a misprint of an author’s name during proofing. Realizing a step too late that an entire chapter of a document is missing from your copy and a replacement needs to be found could set the project back. The extra time it takes to understand your collection pay big dividends in the end.
Anderson Archival is dedicated to turning your collection into a usable digitized archive—no matter how much detail is involved. To discuss the timeframe of your next digitization project, contact us today!
Transcription from the Crowd: Three Success Stories
The cost of paying for expert text recognition, proofreading, and quality assurance do not need to be prohibitory barriers to the completion of a digital library, recent stories show.
Projects ranging from preserving digital records of the stars to documenting the civil rights and suffrage movements have employed volunteers to transcribe historical documents. Whether dedicated researchers with a vested interest in the final product or a stranger offering a moment of time and effort, volunteer transcribers provide an essential service that ensures collections are accessible and searchable without a huge price tag.
Crowdsourcing volunteers is not new, not even for transcription work. Since 2012, the National Archives’ Citizen Archivist program has utilized a nearly unlimited workforce of internet users to transcribe historical documents, add metadata tags, and review changes made by other volunteers.
Part of what Anderson Archival offers is the integrity of treating your collection as our own – and for some collections, crowdsourcing the text recognition process can be an incredible solution to a lack of funding, or desire to involve the public.
Three such crowdsourced digitization and transcription projects already prove the capabilities of a large group of volunteers.
Involving specially-trained volunteers in some cases or strangers around the world also directly ties the public to the welfare of the collection.
Digital Access to a Sky Century @ Harvard (DASCH)
Not long ago, Anderson Archival wrote about the digitization of this spectacular collection. Since 2014, the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics has asked digital volunteers for help transcribing material related to Harvard observatory’s glass plates. This collection, known as Project PHaEDRA, includes logbooks and findings related to the DASCH glass plates analyzed by notable women in science history, such as Williamina Fleming, Annie Jump Cannon, Henrietta Swan Leavitt, Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, and Antonia Maura.
Transcription will allow the collection to be fully text-searchable and provides crucial contextual data about the 500,000 glass plate photographs of the night sky taken from 1885 to 1992. Without transcription of these data sets, accurate digital modeling of the scanned plates is not possible.
The collection of glass plates along with notebooks of findings will provide an incredible look at the history of our sky and of astronomy.
#TranscribeBond with University of Virginia
In August of 2018, and again in 2019, residents of Charlottesville, the University of Virginia, and digital volunteers met for a “transcribe-a-thon” of civil rights activist Julian Bond’s writings. Previously, the papers were available only to students in person at the university library, but digitization efforts aim to make this collection available online.
Transcription efforts for this collection are ongoing. Digital volunteers can join the work at From the Page. At the time of this posting, more than three thousand of the 7,797 pages of Bond’s writings are transcribed.
The Library of Congress: By the People
The Library of Congress’ By the People project proves that a few minutes of your time can impact future historical research and reference. By the People was launched in 2018, and collections relating to Abraham Lincoln, women’s suffrage, and the Civil War continue to be featured.
The digitization and transcription of these collections mean that countless pages will be available digitally and fully searchable for the first time, ensuring that the history they contain is accessible to all.
For volunteers fascinated with history, By the People has enough variety to keep anyone entertained and learning while they transcribe.
Crowdsourcing Saves Costs and Enriches the World
A solution like one of these might be possible for your collection. The cost of expert handwriting transcription, proofreading, and quality assurance may feel too high for some collection owners. A volunteer workforce can save money when this is the case!
Involving specially-trained volunteers in some cases or strangers around the world also directly ties the public to the welfare of the collection.
Crowdsourcing does have its downsides. As illustrated by the three examples above, even with millions of potential volunteers, the time taken to process documents greatly increases. In addition, a digital transcription framework may need to be purchased or developed. If a digitization project has limits on timeframe, or if leaving the accuracy of your collection to the public is a concern, crowdsourcing may not be right for you.
As with any project involving the public, your success may vary, and this is something to consider in the planning process, but crowdsourcing transcription provides an interesting alternative to the traditional model.
Anderson Archival provides all aspects of historical document digitization, including expert transcription, proofreading, and quality assurance. Are you looking for a digitization company that will treat your collection as their own? Contact Anderson Archival today.
Who Will Use This Collection and How? All About Use Cases
Use cases. It’s simply a term for capturing the functional requirements of a digital library. Each use case is written from the user’s perspective, defining who they are and how they want and expect to use the digital collection.
Understanding use cases is essential for determining how a collection will be best delivered, and what functionality needs to be built in.
Let’s imagine a collector owns a Sears, Roebuck, and Co. personal library of catalogues* that spans nearly 75 years, and they want to digitize it. Right now, they’re the only person using it in their study of American history to provide the cultural context of what people were buying, using, and interested in at particular points in time.
Currently, the magazines in the collection are physically arranged by date—this is how the collector imagines they will organize the collection digitally. They have already done a lot of physical work to categorize the collection, including making notes of what is in which volume.
The collector wants to make their collection of catalogues available to other historians, schools, and individuals, so they decide to employ a technical archival company to help develop the digitized collection and figure out the best way to showcase it.
When the collector talks to an archival company, one of the questions a digital archivist asks is, “What are your use cases?”
In other words, who will use this collection? In this imagined case of a digitized Sears catalogue collection, the collector works with the archival company to make estimations of these categories of users:
- Historians and collectors
- Students
- Librarians and researchers
- Historical Fiction Writers
Next, a sample of potential users should be interviewed about how they would like to use this collection. It’s important to talk to users directly because the quality of requirements will be better if they come directly from the users. Assuming how a group would utilize the collection could mean missing something crucial.
Read more about how Anderson Archival builds digital collections!
Discovering the use cases for these specific groups will help determine how the collection will operate, how it will appear, and how it will be accessed.
The first interview is with a researcher of Western Expansion. She wants to do specific research on the homes available for purchase in the catalogue. She plans to compare the results found in this collection to others she has found in scholarly work. She mentions that she would like to use search to narrow results by date, model number or name of the house, and price range. She wants to be able to search for exact phrases found in scholarly work, to verify that it appears in the collection.
The second interview is with a university student. He informs the interviewer that he does much of his electronic research on his phone. He mentions that he usually sends interesting articles or pictures to himself to later reference.
And the interview process continues.
The collection will need to accommodate the needs of all of these interviewees. Some key points of the interview findings might look something like this:
| Historians and collectors | Need a way to save pertinent documents or quotes easily. Want the ability to print historically accurate pages. |
| Students | Want a fast, accurate search of keywords, mobile access, and the ability to share pages electronically. |
| Librarians and researchers | Know what they are looking for and expect to be able to search dates, volumes, and issues. Want to search exact phrases and verify what they know is in the collection. |
| Historical fiction writers | Want to page through issues to get a sense of the era and need to search by date, category, or item type. |
Once interviews have concluded and use case scenarios have been compiled, a technical archival company can then recommend the best tools, and in some cases, a custom software solution for the collection.
For Anderson Archival, this step is utilized in the development process. Knowing the current and potential users of a collection helps to determine how best the digital library should be delivered. Options can be as simple as using a PDF viewer to access a private library for only a few users, to as complex as custom online software with logins.
Technology is constantly evolving. If the collector wants to invest in digitizing right the first time, the collection should be optimized for cutting-edge technology so it will easily adapt to the new and better software and hardware developed every year.
Of course, each collection will be different and have specific needs for digitization, tagging, and its interface, but the goal for anyone digitizing their collection and defining use cases is to make their collection accessible and functional for as many types of users as possible.
Here are a few more tips for building your use cases:
- Consider how your collection is different from others. What features could this collection offer that others do not?
- As you think about use cases, focus on users’ functional needs and not software design.
- Often, collectors think they know how users will use the collection, but actually interviewing potential users will uncover needs for critical functionality that otherwise is likely to be lost.
- Developing detailed use cases, taking the time to learn from users, will make the final product of your digital collection much better!
Whether you’re developing use cases for a private collection or because you want to share your collection with the world, once your collection is digitized, you’ll have peace of mind. Your digital library will be preserved for generations to come and now others will be able to interact with it easily and share it.
If you want help developing a use case for your collection, contact Anderson Archival at 314.259.1900 or email us today!
*This theoretical collection is used purely for example purposes. Sears has a portion of their catalogue available online here.
The Path to Funding Your Archival Project
You have big dreams and your organization has a big impact on communities, but sometimes you run into big roadblocks when funding your projects. Some of your projects include protecting and preserving documented history, which is our mission as well, so we know how important it is to be able to fund those projects. Asking for money can be hard, and can be a daunting task, especially when you need to raise a substantial amount.
However, you aren’t alone in this process! When you partner with a trusted archival company, they will be with you every step of the way. Here’s the three-step path we recommend for funding your archival projects.
- Tell Your Story
This is the single-most important foundational factor when funding your project. Telling your story establishes who you are and why you exist. What problems are you solving in your community, and why can’t it thrive without you? What resources do you make available? What collections are you preserving for historical research and future generations?
Don’t just tell your story. Share it in such a compelling way that your readers will want to jump on your band wagon, hail their friends, and enthusiastically dive into the work you’re doing. For this, social media can be incredibly productive. Creating videos, online events, groups, and pages will help capture interest and followers. Many archival companies can also assist in creating a web presence that matches the upcoming project or archive!
Part of telling your story is listing your goals for the future. When you ask for funding, make sure you explain why you need money and how it will be used, which is something your archival company can help you with. Be specific. Why do you need it to impact the community? And don’t forget to tell why your partnership is important.
- Ask for Donations from Private Donors
Whether it’s time or money, people are more likely to give when asked directly. Review your donor list and identify a handful of friends or donors who align best with the goals of the project. These are the donors who are moved by your mission and purpose. Use the old-fashioned method of mailing personal letters. Call potential donors on the phone and set up a meeting. Tell your story, explain your need and tell them why you thought of them, how their values align with yours, how they can help, and that they will directly impact a need.
People want to be needed. If you can outline exactly how a prospective donor can help, they will be more likely to invest, and personally asking people and being prepared to answer their questions will establish a foundation of trust.
Historic works are always at risk of damage due to accidents or simply handling the documents, which makes digital library preservation imperative. Explaining that preserving these documents is of utmost importance, and laying out exactly what will be lost if these documents aren’t preserved digitally will paint an honest picture of why you need the help of donors.
Partner with a trusted archival company who will help you communicate with those outside of your organization. They will help educate and energize your key donors on the possibilities and benefits of your digital archiving project.
You are not alone in this process. Your archival partner can provide demonstrations, presentations, and education. They will explain the importance of archival quality and doing your project right the first time.
- Apply for Grants
Did you know that both the private sector and the government have grants available for library preservation?
Applying for grants might be a little intimidating. A grant proposal is involved, and there are so many, many grants to apply for. Where should you start? How does receiving funds from foundations work?
Applying for grants takes more specialized expertise than marketing. In fact, it might be helpful to hire a grant writer. Again, you may have to spend money to make money. Charitable requests, whether government or not, aren’t just for giving away free money. Your mission must be aligned with their mission, and a grant writer will help you apply in a way that appeals to this connection. If you still want to go through the process yourself, you can find many guides, including this simple step-by-step guide.
Grants can be worth incredibly large sums, and there are a surprising number of grants available for nonprofits and libraries.
Don’t stop there!
You can use any or all of these strategies. Some build on each other, and each compliments the rest. Now all you have to do is continue to build your relationships. Make sure you thank your donors and invest in working relationships with them. This will remain important for future projects. You want your donor to take ownership of projects and be just as dedicated as you are. Don’t just use their money. Show them how they’re directly helping, which can be as simple as sending out regular newsletters or taking time to have personal conversations.
At Anderson Archival, we know how important preserving historical collections is for future generations, and we want to help you create the best digital collection possible. On occasion, our customers ask us to meet with significant donors to explain the benefits of creating a digital library and we have found this to be effective. Call us today at 314.259.1900 or email us at info@andersonarchival.com for more information on ways to fund your archival project and how to build a digital library!
Protecting and Preserving History in Uncertain Times
What is the duty of a library or museum? Take a moment to come up with some answers. Did you say…
- To preserve knowledge?
- To protect the history and cultures of past peoples?
- To share that knowledge and history with the public?
- To help people learn about the world around them?
You probably didn’t answer to make looting of antiquities unprofitable or to catch criminals selling black market artifacts. But that’s just what the founding organizations of the Digital Library of the Middle East (DLME) envisioned in the wake of physical, cultural, and political conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).
Soon, their vision will be a reality.
What is the DLME?
Founded in 2016 by the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR), the Digital Library Federation (DLF), and the Antiquities Coalition, the DLME intends to bring together existing Middle Eastern digital libraries from institutions and private collections around the world into a single searchable platform. The DLME will include all types of cultural heritage materials, extensively photographed, catalogued, and searchable in multiple languages.
Through this free-to-use online platform, the DLME intends to serve the “partners and peoples across the Middle East and North Africa—to help reveal, share, honor, and protect collections of cultural materials and the living and historical cultures they represent.” This platform offers scholars and researchers ease of use and includes images, metadata, location, and provenance when available for all items listed.
However, they want to be far more than a resource for students and scholars. Wars, both civil and foreign, have decimated the MENA region. Black market antiquities trading is a consistent source of income for terrorist organizations and warring states. The DLME will provide a large-scale database of known artifacts—documented and digitized—that customs officials, law enforcement agencies, and art dealers can use to determine if an item was stolen or looted from a conflict area. This not only helps to return objects to their rightful places, but also stops terrorist groups from funding their activities.
The Antiquities Coalition created this infographic to show just how digital databases help mitigate looting and the illegal antiquities trade. The DLME intends to bring countless databases together, making searching for the history or authenticity of an item far easier.
Why Do We Need to Digitally Safeguard History?
In the past 20 years alone, countless artifacts, manuscripts, and historical sites located in conflict zones have been lost. In 2003, while U.S. troops entered Iraq to remove Saddam Hussein from power, Baghdad’s Iraq National Museum was looted of nearly 15,000 items, including “ritual vessels, heads from sculptures, amulets, Assyrian ivories, and more than 5,000 cylinder seals.” The looting lasted 36 hours before U.S. troops finally secured the site.
The loss could have been much worse. Many of the most valuable items were moved to a secret storage area known only to five people to safeguard them from looters, and a trove of gold, jewelry, and precious stones had been moved decades before to the Central Bank’s vaults for safekeeping.
Recovering these items was further complicated by the lack of computerized documentation or photographic evidence. The Iraq National Museum had only begun the process of cataloguing its massive inventory into a single digital database when the looting occurred, and since it was a repository for artifacts from recent excavations, many items lacked even hand-written documentation. Thanks to an amnesty program, many of the items were returned voluntarily, and others were found in raids or reported by customs officials and art dealers. But despite all the progress, more than 8,000 items from the Middle East’s earliest historical sites are still missing.
More recently, the war against the Islamic State (IS), or ISIS/ISIL, resulted in the mass destruction of two major UNESCO World Heritage sites, the cites of Nimrud and Hatra. After capturing the cities, IS forces proceeded to bulldoze and otherwise destroy as much of the cities as they could. This was done not merely to remove what they considered heretical idols, but to cover up their extensive looting of antiquities to be sold on the black market.
During a 2015 raid on IS commander Abu Sayyaf in Syria, numerous Iraqi relics were found ready to be sold. Further evidence showed that IS had profited millions of dollars not only from the antiquities trade, but from taxing those pillaging excavation sites. Just how much was lost to looters and the wanton destruction that followed is still being discovered.
If a database like the DLME existed during these times, officials and law enforcement agencies would have had access to accurate documentation of catalogued artifacts to catch looters trying to smuggle out the stolen pieces. Also, museums and governments would be able to confirm ownership on a contested artifact that managed to enter the legitimate art trade. Most importantly, future generations would have a full record of what was lost, even if it couldn’t be recovered.
The DLME’s Value to Research
While the DLME does want to combat the illegal trade of antiquities from the Middle East, its core principal is one of access, research, and outreach to the community about the culture and history of the MENA region. It has already partnered with the Qatar National Library and the Stanford Libraries, as well as other museums and libraries around the world, for inclusion in the DLME’s searchable platform.
The DLME’s prototype is already in use by scholars, allowing for discoveries that would have remained unknown if not for the federation of so many various source institutions. Through the DLME prototype, Jacco Dieleman, an Egyptologist based in Washington, D.C., located two papyri in the University of Pennsylvania’s Rare Book & Manuscript Library, one of which had never been published. Thanks to the DLME, this piece of history could now be included in Egyptology research.
As more databases are added to the DLME, the qualitative value of its results will substantially improve the cultural conversations and research about the MENA region.
When Can You Use It?
You may have noticed above that the DLME is currently a prototype, but that doesn’t mean you can’t use it. The DLME is able to reference more than 130,000 records from various institutions around the world. These can be searched in a variety of ways, such as by language, location, country of origin, era, type of item, creator, and more. And it won’t be a prototype forever.
In April, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation awarded the CLIR $1.12 million to complete the DLME. When finished, the DLME will be accessible online and through any mobile device. The final version is expected to launch in 2020, though the CLIR and DLF intend it to grow and adapt with changing technologies.
In “The Critical Role of Digital Libraries,” Peter Herdrich of the DLME and Antiquities Coalition stated, “Creating inventories, documenting collections, and making digital records accessible are considered best practice for heritage collections and are widely used around the world.” He goes on to say that making the DLME publicly available “help[s] to safeguard a fundamentally important expression of our humanity.”
Ultimately, that is the goal of most digital collections: to share knowledge in order to protect and preserve a part of our past or present civilizations. Through digitization and thorough documentation, we are better able now than ever before to ensure the survival of culturally or historically significant materials, even if the artifacts themselves become lost or destroyed.
If you’d like to start a digital collection of your own, or need a search platform to make an existing digital collection more accessible, contact Anderson Archival by phone at 314.259.1900 or by email at info@andersonarchival.com.
Phone: 314.259.1900
Email: info@andersonarchival.com
13523 Barrett Parkway Dr
Suite 120
St. Louis, MO 63021