LSTA Grant

Collection Development: Digital Collection for the Study of

Pennsylvania History, Culture and Society

PROJECT NUMBER: 709091 (LSTA)

NAME OF LIBRARY

OR AGENCY:PALCI (Pennsylvania Academic Library Consortium, Inc.)

ADDRESS:Room 333

7500 Thomas Boulevard

University of Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh, PA15208

LSTA QUARTERLY REPORT:February—April 2008

DATE SUBMITTED:May 7, 2008

Narrative

The goal of LSTA Project Number 709091 is to develop collection guidelines for the digitization of resources “for, by, and about” Pennsylvania history, culture, and society. At the end of the grant project, PALCI, in conjunction with PALINET, the State Library of Pennsylvania, and the Philadelphia Area Consortium of Special Collection Libraries (PACSCL), will have created guidelines defining the focus of Pennsylvania’s digital library, a document that will also set the agenda for future digitization endeavors.

Activities in the 3rdquarter of the grant period centered on the following:

  • Refining the list of audiences for digital resources on Pennsylvania history, society, and culture
  • Finalizing the broad categories of Pennsylvania history, society, and culture, through which future digitization effortsmay be focused
  • Developing a tiered approach to help set priorities for digitization and funding
  • Conducting interviews with additional participants to help shape the guidelines document
  • Completing the first draft of the guidelines and making it available to the Panel of Scholars (see Appendix A) and Digital Collection Development Working Group(see Appendix B) for review
  • Incorporating feedback into the guidelines and readying the document for public review
  • Determining the professional, educational, and scholarly organizations, discussion lists, and meetings to which the guidelines will be submitted for further input

Audiences for Pennsylvania digital resources

Discussion at the 3rdPanel of Scholars meeting (see Appendix F) and in a conference call with the Digital Collection Development Working Group (see Appendix G) helped to finalize the list of audiences Pennsylvania’s digital library is designed to serve. Constituents include the following:

  • Middle and high school students and teachers / National History Day
  • Local and family historians
  • College students
  • Scholars and researchers
  • Heritage tourism development
  • Funders

Broad categories of Pennsylvania history

During the third meeting, the assembled Panel of Scholars was able to combine headings and debate categories until it reduced a list of broad topics in Pennsylvania history from 10 to 6. These 6 categories will help focus and organize future digitization projects on Pennsylvania history, society, and culture. The categories are

  • The Environment:Pennsylvania’s geology, flora, fauna, and land use from prehistory to the present.
  • The Economy: Digitizing materials from the 1600s to the present, related to important economic and labor trends including agriculture, commerce, and manufacturing, can provide information on the growth of the Commonwealth.
  • Politics and Government: From the first elections held in the State to present local, state, and national elections, these materials can provide insight on how Pennsylvanians govern themselves, and their relationship with the outside world.
  • Societal Topics: Race, Gender, Native American populations, Slavery and the Underground Railroad, and the effect of battles and wars on the people of Pennsylvania from the earliest settlers to today are an important focus.
  • Technical, Scientific, and Medical topics: Throughout the history of the Commonwealth, and especially from 1850 on, breakthroughs made in technology, innovation, and invention in Pennsylvania have been important to the nation and the world.
  • Culture: From built spaces to fine arts to pop culture, especially in the 20th Century, Pennsylvanians have been cultural trendsetters.

Priorities for digitization

Based on discussion in the 2nd quarter with the Digital Collection Development Working Group, thePanel of Scholars and the project’s organizers (see Appendix D) moved toward a tiered approach to setting digitization priorities.It was determined that the first tier of priorities for digitization would consist of those collections that meet stated priorities based on desired outcomes, outcomes that favor, for example, projects that increase the presence of underrepresented populations, support state curricula and educational goals, or support heritage development. The second tier of priorities for digitization would have to make the case that the collections are important and contribute to the story of the state or the nation.

The panel and the project work group have recommended that the following topical areas be given priority for digitization over the next three years:

  • The environment and land use
  • Population groups from 1850 to the present
  • Transportation
  • Major nineteenth-and-twentieth century conflicts: The American Civil War and World Wars I and II

Additionally, the panel recommended types of materials that should receive priority for digitization and funding. Recognizing that there are many kinds of library and archival materials that can be digitized to meet user needs, the panel and project organizers recommended that significant attention be given to historical sound and moving image documents. Such materials, it was noted, are invaluable to the audiences for Pennsylvania’s history, society, and culture, yet are in need of collection and preservation by cultural heritage institutions.

The panel also recommended that prioritization take into account the funding programs already in place from public and commercial organizations for digitization of such materials as newspapers, diaries, printed works, and census records. Thus, after considering digitization of historical sound and moving image materials, the panel recommended that collecting institutions focus on kinds of primary sources that are outside the purview of current initiatives for newspapers, diaries, printed works, and census records, such as vital records, including birth and death records and land records.

Interviews

Because the Panel of Scholars meetings were spread over a period of six months, October 2007 to March 2008, it was often a challenge to have full participation from all members throughout the period. Additionally, it was difficult at times to receive participation from certain types of stakeholders, such as public librarians, K-12 educators, and library, archives, and museum professionals outside the Philadelphia and Harrisburg areas.

As a result, members of the project group conducted a series of interviews in the 2nd and 3rd quarters with representatives from these groups. The following persons were interviewed during this time period:

  • Dennis Downey, MillersvilleUniversity
  • Jane Gill,BethlehemArea Public Library
  • Helen Grady, SpringsideSchool
  • Marilyn Holt, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh (via e-mail)
  • Deborah Litwack, Free Library of Philadelphia
  • Mark Frazier Lloyd, University of Pennsylvania
  • Charlene Mires, VillanovaUniversity(via e-mail)
  • Joe Perry, Free Library of Philadelphia
  • John Kenly Smith, LehighUniversity
  • Penny Wolboldt, Warren Library Association

These academics and professionals provided insights on their use of archival and history resources, both print and digital. This information was used by the project group to craft the guidelines document.

During the 4th quarter, some additional interviews will be conducted, with the information received being incorporated into revisions of the guidelines document.

Guidelines draft

During the 3rd quarter, a first draft of the guidelines document was completed. Members of the Panel of Scholars were able to review the first draft prior to the 3rd panel of scholars meeting on March 4, 2008, and discuss it at that meeting.

Suggestions from the panel of scholars were incorporated into the document and then the panel, along with the Digital Collection Development Working Group, had a period of time to review the document and make further comments and suggestions.

These comments were, in turn, incorporated into the document. As of May 1, 2008, the final guidelines draft had been completed and submitted to the heads of PALCI, PALINET, PACSCL, Access PA, the State Library, and Katherine Skinner, the project’s consultant, to solicit final approval of the guidelines. (See Appendix E: Building the Pennsylvania Digital Library: Guidelines for Topics, Materials, Priorities, Best Practices, Next Steps.)

In the 4th quarter, the document will be distributed publically to appropriate discussion lists, shared with professional associations and meetings, and posted on the Pennsylvania Digital Library wiki ( offering the opportunity for comments from the relevant publics.Some of the groups that will be contacted for feedback include

  • Associated College Libraries of Central Pennsylvania (ACLCP)
  • County archivists and historical societies
  • Keystone Library Network (KLN)
  • Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference (MARAC), subset of Pennsylvania archivists
  • National History Day teachers
  • PALINET
  • Pennsylvania Academic Library Consortium, Inc. (PALCI)
  • Pennsylvania Advisory Council on Digitization (PAACD)
  • Pennsylvania Council for Social Studies
  • Pennsylvania Historical Association
  • Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC)
  • Pennsylvania Library Association (PaLA)
  • Pennsylvania Federation of Museums and Historical Organizations (PFMHO)
  • Philadelphia Area Consortium of Special Collections Libraries (PACSCL)

Future steps

In the 4th quarter, personnel from libraries, museums, archives, historical societies, and other cultural heritage organizations will have the opportunity to comment upon the guidelines document. The document will be reviewed and revised in June with the final, official version of being published to the web later in that month. Additionally, a printed brochure highlighting the key points of the guidelines and directing interested persons to the full document on the web, will be published by the end of the quarter.

Evaluation

No evaluation is needed at this time. The 3rdquarterwitnessed significant progress in gathering input on audiences and digitization priorities, creating the first and final drafts of the guidelines, and determining the groups and individuals from which to solicit further input on the guidelines.

Problems

There are no problems to report at this time.

Appendix A: Invitation to participate in scholars’ panel for drafting collections guidelines for future Pennsylvania Digital Library digitization projects

We are writing today at the suggestion of Laurie Rofini of CCHS to invite you to join a panel of historians, librarians, educators, and archivists who will develop a "collection development policy" for a digital collection of materials about the history, culture, and society of Pennsylvania. The project is funded under grant from the Federal Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) and is an element of a larger effort sponsored by the Pennsylvania Advisory Committee on Collaborative Digitization, a cooperative of the State Library, the Bureau of Library Development in the Office of Commonwealth Libraries, the Philadelphia Area Consortium of Special Collections Libraries (PACSCL), the Pennsylvania Academic Library Consortium Inc. (PALCI), Access PA, and PALINET, an organization serving all types of libraries in the Mid-Atlantic region.
On behalf of a steering committee consisting of representatives of these organizations, we will be convening the panel for a series of three meetings over nine months at the State Library in Harrisburg beginning in August or as soon thereafter as we conveniently can. We hope you will join a dozen or so others in this working group, who will identify topics and types of materials that should be digitized to meet the needs of all levels of students, teachers, and scholars as well as family and local historians, tourism agencies, and the many others who want historical information about Pennsylvania. Almost all states in the United States have a digitization project of this sort. Our effort to define in advance the materials that will most usefully be digitized will place Pennsylvania among the very few that have tried to describe what the digital collection would most productively consist of.
The product of our work will be a set of guidelines that not only lists desiderata for digitization but the ways in which readers can use the digitized materials. The guidelines will help the library community and funding agencies set priorities and meet known needs. The guidelines will be published on the Web and in print and will be discussed widely with relevant groups. This grant proposal builds on and attempts to lend coherence to projects already under way at universities, public libraries, and historical societies and results from discussion by Board members and staff of the organizations named above.
The panel will convene for three half-day meetings between August and the spring of 2008. During the first quarter of the project, we will develop a work plan and online means for communication among panel members, begin to consider the needs of various user groups, develop lists of criteria for inclusion in the collection, and create draft lists of topics, specific collections, and classes of materials that should be digitized.
At a second meeting in the late fall or winter, we will review the draft list of topics, collections, and classes of materials that should be digitized and align them with the needs of various user groups. We will then meet again in the late winter or early spring to complete and approve the draft guidelines, publish them to a website for public review, and send the draft to consortia and associations for posting to mailing and discussion lists. After your work is finished and during the fourth quarter of the grant, the project team will discuss comments received during the review period, revise the draft to produce a working document, and publish the guidelines both online and in print.
Staff of the State Library, members of the steering committee, and Tom and I will coordinate the meetings, take and produce notes, and write the guidelines document based on group discussion. Your expenses for working with the panel will be covered by the grant.
This collaborative effort will greatly benefit from the expertise you will bring to it, and we hope that you will be able to join us. Please be in touch with Bob at your earliest convenience to indicate your willingness to participate. At this point we are looking dates in October and November for the initial meeting; if you agree to sign on, I will let you know what the possibilities are.

Bob Kieft

Appendix B: LSTA Grant Panel of Scholars Members

Panelist / Title / Institutional affiliation / E-mail address
Susan Cady / Director for Administration, Planning & Advancement / LehighUniversity Library and Technology Services /
Charles Hardy / Professor of History / West ChesterUniversity /
David Hoffman / Director, retired / State Library of Pennsylvania /
Dana King / Educator / Philadelphia Public Schools /
Susan Klepp / Professor of History / TempleUniversity /
EmmaLapsansky-Werner / Professor of History / HaverfordCollege /
Art Louderback / Head Librarian / Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania /
William Murray / Educator/Consultant / Distinguished Educator Program, Pennsylvania Department of Education /
Eric Novotny / Humanities Librarian / Arts and Humanities Library, PennsylvaniaStateUniversity /
Laurie Rofini / Director / ChesterCountyArchives and Records Services /
Thomas Ryan / President & CEO / LancasterCounty Historical Society /
Lenwood Sloan / Director of Heritage Tourism / Cultural and Heritage Tourism, State of Pennsylvania /
Jeffery Zeiders / Social Studies Education Advisor / Pennsylvania Department of Education /

Appendix C: Members of the Digital Collection Development Working Group

Member / Title / Institutional affiliation / E-mail address
Marjorie Bardeen / Assistant Librarian / LancasterCounty Historical Society /
Joseph Benford / Assistant Chief, Materials Management / Free Library of Philadelphia /
Caryn Carr / Director / State Library of Pennsylvania /
V. Chapman-Smith / Regional Administrator / National Archives and Records Administration, Mid-Atlantic Region /
Thomas Clareson / Program Director for New Initiatives / PALINET /
David Haury / State Archivist / Pennsylvania Historic and Museum Commission /
James Hollinger / Acting Director / Bureau of Library Development /
Daniel Iddings / Executive Director / PALCI /
Robert Kieft / Librarian of the College & Director of College Information Resources / HaverfordCollege /
Sue Kellerman / Head of the Digitization and Preservation Department / PennsylvaniaStateUniversity /
David McKnight / Curator, SchoenbergCenter For Electronic Text and Image / University of Pennsylvania /
Richard Swain / Director, Francis Harvey Green Library / West ChesterUniversity /
Diane Turner / Curator, Blockson Collection / TempleUniversity /

Appendix D: LSTA Digital Collection Guidelines Project Group

John Barnett / Assistant Director / PALCI /
Laura Blanchard / Executive Director / PACSCL /
Thomas Clareson / Program Director for New Initiatives / PALINET /
Robert Kieft / Librarian of the College & Director of College Information Resources / HaverfordCollege /

Appendix E: BUILDING THE PENNSYLVANIA DIGITAL LIBRARY:
Guidelines for Topics, Materials, Priorities, Best Practices, Next Steps

1. Introduction

In 2007, the Collection Development Working Group of the Pennsylvania Advisory Committee for Collaborative Digitization (PACCD), a statewide coalition of leaders in digitization of and access to important resources across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, began the development of guidelines for the subject matter and content of a comprehensive, distributed statewide digital collection of Pennsylvania’s history, culture, and society.

Funded in part by a grant from the Pennsylvania Library Services and Technology Act, the group convened a committee of experts in the history and resources of the Commonwealth to begin to develop a working list of important subjects and types of material that should be considered for digitization.

These guidelines will help libraries, museums, and cultural heritage organizations begin the process of digitizing their collections in order to share them with a wider audience, both in Pennsylvania and around the world.

This guide will explain how and why the material will be used by a variety of communities and audiences and will list desiderata for digitization, both of which, in turn,can be utilized to set priorities that will help funders from Pennsylvania and across the country determine the most urgent funding needs for digitization. Additionally, these guidelines provide a starting point for gathering information on the technical processes and recommended best practices of digitization. It is hoped that following these guidelines, practices, and specifications will result inhigh-quality digital resources for, by, and about Pennsylvania's history, culture, and society that will be of benefit to Pennsylvanians (and scholars) at home and abroad.