[Web4lib] RE: Digital archiving for the web

[Rice-Anne]

Brendon,
We are a small public library that partnered with the Publication of Archival Library & Musuem Materials (PALMM) project of the Florida Center for Library Automation to digitize and deliver images from our photo collection. Here's a link to their site: http://palmm.fcla.edu/ <http://palmm.fcla.edu/> 

While FCLA did all the tech work, I do recall that our TIFF images were treated with Mr. Sid. The result is amazing detail, moderately fast load and the pan/zoom features you mentioned. FCLA has since moved to better delivery technology. From their Technical Info page:
 
"Visual Collections runs on DLXS software from the University of Michigan Digital Library Production Service. Descriptive information is searched using the XPAT full text search engine, and images are displayed using Image Class middleware. See the DLXS website <http://www.dlxs.org/aboutdlxs.html>  for more information." 
 
Each collection has its own technical info page. FCLA folks would welcome your questions. Please visit our Mile Markers project linked in my sig below. We're quite proud of it!
 
My experience was that handling the images was the easy part--descriptive metadata was the bear. As Roy Tennant commented at a School for Scanning presentation, "Describe an object to the deepest granularity that you can possibly stand." (Kinda paraphrased, that was you, wasn't it Roy? I don't have notes handy. I would add "...that you can possilby afford.") You never know how your images and metadata might be repurposed in the future. For example, I never dreamed that 5 years later the Scripps Institution would be using our little island outpost digital archives for a historical marine ecology project...
 
Best wishes and good luck with your project,
Anne
 
Anne Layton Rice
Library Administrator
Monroe County Public Library
Key West, Florida
rice-anne at monroecounty-fl.gov
 
Visit our award-winning history project: www.mile-markers.org <http://www.mile-markers.org> 
 

Message: 3
Date: Thu, 26 Apr 2007 16:30:37 -0400
From: "Kozlowski,Brendon" <bkozlowski at sals.edu>
Subject: [Web4lib] Digital Archiving for the Web
To: <web4lib at webjunction.org>
Message-ID: <E42BD2DBCFF50E49A59BA1AA2DE64CDA01486D4E at Postal.sals.edu>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

I am currently researching a solution to digitize some of our library's historical content (and perhaps other non-historical content in the future).  Some of the content has already been digitized - but the staff would also like to have a version viewable on our website.  The original file size is too large to place on a website (it would take about 30 minutes to download on a highspeed connection), and if they are reduced in size to be placed on the website, the high detail is completely removed (which is important to keep in this regard).

I've noticed that the NY Public Library has something very close to what I'm after in their digital gallery (see image page <http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/dgkeysearchdetail.cfm?trg=1&strucID=293063&imageID=481134&word=&snum=&p=&s=&notword=&d=&f=&total=1&num=0&imgs=12&pos=1&staticMode=yes>  and use "Pan & Zoom").  The Library of Congress incorporates something similar in their "American Memory" collection (such as the History Map of Saratoga, 1888 <http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/map_item.pl?data=/home/www/data/gmd/gmd380/g3804/g3804s/pm006300.sid&style=pmmap&itemLink=D?gmd:156:./temp/~ammem_1U5z:&title=Saratoga%20Springs,%20N.Y.%201888.%20Drawn%20%26%20published%20by%20L.%20R.%20Burleigh.%20Burleigh%20Lith.%20Est> ).  From my research, I know that the technology used for NYPL is a server software from LizardTech, and the LoC uses both software from LizardTech and Aware, Inc.

I'm currently in contact with someone from NYPL, but while awaiting their response, I thought a opening up my questions publically to many more professionals would be beneficial to all.

What I'm trying to find out is the following information from anyone who may be willing or able to help:
 - What options are there for (server?) software to handle this specific need (if any)?
 - What considerations were made when planning for the implementation of these tools?
 - What were the reasons for the final choice?
 - Are there any precautions to be aware of with any possible solution?  (Personal/Organizational experiences...)

I think any other information that we may require, I could easily find on my own, but I would appreciate any help in answers from those knowledgeable in these tools and services.




Brendon Kozlowski
Web Administrator
Saratoga Springs Public Library
49 Henry Street
Saratoga Springs, NY, 12866
[518] 584-7860 x217