DIGITIZING COUNTY RECORDS:
TROUP COUNTY COURT AND GOVERNMENT RECORDS
NHPRC INTERIM REPORT
NAR07-RD-10013-07
January 1 - July 31, 2007
Objectives:
a) flattening and scanning 53 linear feet of Troup County court records
b) Converting the Guide to Troup County Records to EAD and using automated scripts to create folder level records
c) Linking the scanned images to the folder level EAD records
d) Creating microfilm of the scanned images for long-term preservation
e) Testing the usability of the digitized materials with at least two focus groups and reporting on the results of the tests
f) Developing tracking methods to explore use of the digitized collection and compiling annual reports for at least three years after completion of the project
g) Developing a website that publicizes the project and describes the processes used at both the Troup County Archives and the Digital Library of Georgia
h) Publicize the project and its methods through press releases, announcements on appropriate listserves, articles in at least two publications, and presentation of the project during at least one professional conference.
Summary of Project Activities
The Troup County Scanning Project is proceeding according to plan. At this point, all 53 linear feet of materials have been flattened and prepared for scanning. Three linear feet of materials have been scanned in accordance with guidelines prepared by staff of the Digital Library of Georgia. Computer and scanning equipment has been purchased and is being used daily. Work has begun to convert the 1986 finding aid to Troup County court records to EAD.
Other activities have included hiring staff members to work at the Troup County Archives to scan the documents. The Troup County Archives staff has worked with the Digital Library staff to name and number image files to match the finding aids. Additionally a blog has been created to chronicle progress of the project.
Accomplishments
a) Flattening and Scanning: During the winter months of 2007, eleven people volunteered to assist in flattening the documents and prepare them for scanning. Volunteers were recruited through articles in the LaGrange Daily News and the newsletter of the Troup County Historical Society. Volunteers generally worked a minimum of two – 2 hour shifts per week (4 hours a week) and worked together in groups under the supervision of a staff member of the Troup County Archives. Flattening and other document preparation took 553 volunteer and staff hours to complete. Additionally, new archival boxes were purchased since flattened documents took up more space than the previously tri-folded materials. Our volunteers enjoyed handling the materials, some of which have only been looked at a few times in their 175 years of existence while others have been used and photocopied by Troup County Archives researchers on multiple occasions.
In mid-May, staff began scanning the flattened documents. By late summer, three linear feet have been scanned. Scanning has proceeded slowly to date, but we expect this part of the project to proceed more rapidly in the coming months. (The Troup County Archives had to move into temporary quarters while its building is being renovated. About two weeks scanning time was lost during this move since moving, setting up computers, and getting settled into the new space took several days longer than expected. Also, one of the original staff members was unable to work more than three weeks. Just after she started, her elderly mother was diagnosed with cancer. We were able to immediately employ an excellent recent graduate from LaGrange College and a new employee should start soon, but training each of these employees and getting them up to speed takes time.
Also during these early months, the original finding aid which was available only as a paper copy was scanned and saved as a word file. Given the numbers and the columns, this process took about fifty hours. This work was done by the project director but as a volunteer project during her off hours.
b) EAD Conversion
A consultant who works with the Digital Library of Georgia as her full-time job (Sheila McAllister) has begun the EAD conversion of the 1986 finding aid. She directed Archives staff on how to name the individual scans and documents. She did the sample page for the grant application and will begin working on the EAD conversion this fall.
c) Linking scanned images to EAD
In May, the project director plus one of the scanners (this person has remained on the scanning project since the earliest days of scanning) traveled to Athens, Georgia, and trained with the Digital Library staff. On that day, file names were established and have been consistently used so that the scanned images should link to the EAD finding aid once it is completed.
d, e, f) Creating microfilm, testing the usability of the digitized materials, developing tracking methods to explore use of the digitized collection and compiling annual reports will all be done in the coming months and have not yet been started.
g) Developing a website that publicizes the project and describes the processes used at both the Troup County Archives and the Digital Library of Georgia has begun and has been used to describe the flattening project. A blog has been created and has several articles on it. http://troupscanning.blogspot.com/ The blog needs to be updated with information about the actual time required for the flattening and with details about the scanning and EAD conversion. These articles will be added in the coming months. Also, more effort will be made to publicize the existence of the blog.
h) Publicize the project
The LaGrange Daily News has included two articles about the grant, including one top of the fold, front page article which was very helpful in getting volunteers. Additionally, the Troup County Historical Society newsletter has included articles. Finally, the project has been mentioned in the newsletter of the Association of County Managers and in an article in the Atlanta Journal Constitution about the IMLS “Preserving America” conference. An upcoming article in Annotations about the project is forthcoming. Copies of all these articles are included in this report. In future months, efforts will be made to have additional articles in the LaGrange, Atlanta, Columbus, and West Point newspapers plus in newsletters and journals of professional publications.
4. Assessment
The original goals of this project generally appear to have been realistic and we should be able to meet all of our goals, though we may have to ask for an extension of time. Everyone involves remains excited about the project and we are looking forward to researchers from various parts of the US and the world being able to use the documents via the Internet.
We also remain excited about this scanning project being a model for other scanning projects. We firmly believe that creating minimal metadata and spending minimal time processing the collection is an excellent way to do archival scanning projects. We are trying to follow this example in more of our processing projects at the Troup County Archives with both manuscript collections and with government records. Specifically, sometime in the next twelve months, we expect to significantly update and revise the Troup County Archives’ website (www.trouparchives.org). With the new website, we plan to include for the first time lists of government records and be ready to insert scanned pages as they become available. For instance, over time, we should be able to scan pages of Troup Inferior Court minutes. The Inferior Court heard both misdemeanor cases and acted as county commissioners in the early decades of Troup County’s existence. We could scan these pages and include only the briefest of descriptions about the minute books. We expect to do similar processing of manuscript collections and hope to include scanned images of some of our most popular collections. For example, we have a finding aid for the Julius Schaub collection. We appreciate Schaub’s excellent photographs made between 1881 and his death in 1910 and use them frequently. Many of our researchers get more excited about a company history he wrote of the NC Confederate military unit that he served in. Putting up scanning of his handwritten company history could help make this part of the collection much more accessible.
Three things have not gone according to expectation should have been expected: flattening and preparing documents for scanning took much longer than expected and hiring new staff members always seems to bring unexpected complications. We were delighted with how many people volunteered for our flattening project and that they stuck with the project until its completion. We plan to keep availability of volunteer time in mind for future project. In the past, we have had our greatest success getting volunteers for special projects, such as planning, organizing, and researching a tour of homes. We are delighted this flattening project worked so well, though we did not expect it to take as long as it did. The original estimate proved to be seriously low and it actually took about five times as long for the flattening and document preparation. Thank goodness for volunteers. Had the Troup County Historical Society and Archives had to pay for these hours, even at minimum wage, the project would have been over budget from the start. If we had it to do over again, we would have the staff member supervising the volunteers to have spent more of his time reboxing, making the shelf list, etc. while working with the volunteers. Instead, he spent most of the time the volunteers were here actually helping with the unfolding. This benefited the volunteers since they learned more about the actual documents than they would have otherwise, but it would have taken less of the Archives’ time if he had been doing other things while being available to answer questions.
As for staffing, the health of other family members meant that one of the first people hired had to quit and others had to be trained to do the scanning. Despite setbacks, scanning is progressing. We are very concerned about the slow speed of scanning and the fact that only three linear feet have been scanned; however, we expect this pace to pick up as staff becomes more use to the process. We are about to hire another person and should get the staffing stabilized. We should also be able to put one person to working on Saturdays so that more time will be spent scanning. We will also get Toby Graham, head of the Digital Library of Georgia to come to LaGrange and see if he has any recommendations for increasing the speed of the project. In general, we will try to speed up scanning as long as it can be done without hurting the quality of the scans.
All in all, we are satisfied with the project and excited about the end results. We hope scanning will proceed in coming months without complications and that the EAD conversion of the finding aid will be completed shortly. Then we will start setting up the DLG site with the scans and the finding aid and start making the materials available to the public.
5. Costs
Estimated costs:
Flattening the documents: 350 hours at $9.00 = $3150 (these hours were donated by volunteers) plus 200 hours by TCA staff at $19 per hour = $3800.
A total of 550 hours and an equivalent of $6950. went into flattening and document preparation. (Staff time was spent supervising volunteers, reboxing, reshelving, preparing new shelf list, labeling boxes, etc.)
Average cost per linear foot to flatten and prep $131.25 per linear foot.
(Note: $9.00 per hour was chosen because some of the volunteers had extensive professional experience in working with technology while others had no experience.)
Converting paper copy of finding aid to word file 50 hours at $33.00 per hour = $1650 (volunteer hours donated by the Project Director, work done on her own time.)
Scanning – basic cost has averaged $8.00 per hour. Additional costs include the scanner, computer and overhead. Thus far 232 hours have been spent scanning about 3 linear feet. Salary cost has been $1906. At this rate, it will take 3850 hours to finish the project. We will be working to spend up this process and get more scanning done more quickly. The current cost per page is 33 cents per page. We will be working to get this number down. The cost per linear foot is about $600. This is within the accepted range according to Harvard University’s website, using May 2006 figures (accepted is $150 to $750 per linear foot box) and these records are old and varying sizes. They certainly cannot be put through an automatic sheet feeder. Nonetheless, we will be working to speed the process along. For instance, every sheet does not have to be previewed when the sheets are the same size pages. We will be looking for other ways to speed the process but our options may be limited.
Metadata creation – unable to give an estimate at this point.
6. Impact
The impact of the project on the grant-receiving institutions, especially on the Troup County Historical Society, has already been significant. As mentioned above, staff at the Archives are reconsidering processing methods of larger collections and may begin scanning of collections, especially if this can be done without time consuming creating of metadata. Impacts beyond these two points will come in future months and years after the scans of court records are placed on the Internet.
Thursday, December 6, 2007
Friday, February 2, 2007
Words from our document preparers
The Troup County Archives has been fortunate to have about twelve people who have volunteered 150 hours during the month of January helping with our NHPRC project. They have flattened about 30 years of 19th century court cases. They are continuing to work as this blog update is being written. They found out about the project thanks to a front page article on the LaGrange Daily News or from the Troup County Historical Society newsletter. These volunteers are all mostly new to Historical Society projects. We have been delighted to have their support!
The volunteers generally work twice a week three hours each day for a total of six hours per week. [STAFF NOTE: Flattening and preparing documents for scanning is fairly slow and labor intensive -- but is very important work essential to the success of the project. We have been fortunate that the paper is in amazing good condition so we have not had to dehumidify records in advance of flattening. The volunteer hours spent flattening is part of the match that the Troup County Historical Society is contributing toward the project.]
We interviewed two of the volunteers. WALTER DANCE volunteered when a friend called and suggested he help out. The friend has only worked once or twice but Walter has been a dedicated project volunteer and tries to be here twice a week. He is retired from the Georgia Department of Human Resources and is a native of LaGrange who came back home after living for several years in Savannah.
Walter says that it is the people who make this an enjoyable project. They talk and joke around while they are working. He admits that looking at the documents can slow your work so mostly he looks at the name and the type of case. Along with the other volunteers, he is amazed at how well the paper has held up over the intervening 150+ years and especially the wax used to seal some of the documents.
When he is not volunteering, Walter is active walking and golfing. Georgia has been very cold this January so his golf time has not been impacted by his volunteering!
Another dedicated volunteer is Tina Quiggles. She is a newlywed and just moved here from Snellville. She read about the project in the newspaper. She is not working this year so she has enjoyed having the time to help. She too enjoys doing the flattening with other people. She has learned a lot about the 1800s by doing the project. Accounts of personal property can be especially interesting, for instance individuals sometimes owns as much as 50 pounds of sugar or barrels of whisky. What were they doing with all these supplies?
She has enjoyed holding documents that are over 100 years old. The handwriting can often be hard to read but she is getting better at it as time goes along. Sometimes opening the envelopes can be the hardest part of the flattening. She is also amazed at how well some 150 year old straight pins have lasted!
Her husband is a high school history teacher who has participated in teacher workshops given by the Troup County Archives. They often compare notes at the end of the day about the kinds of records she has looked at that day.
To repeat: We can't thank these and other volunteers enough for their hard work!
The volunteers generally work twice a week three hours each day for a total of six hours per week. [STAFF NOTE: Flattening and preparing documents for scanning is fairly slow and labor intensive -- but is very important work essential to the success of the project. We have been fortunate that the paper is in amazing good condition so we have not had to dehumidify records in advance of flattening. The volunteer hours spent flattening is part of the match that the Troup County Historical Society is contributing toward the project.]
We interviewed two of the volunteers. WALTER DANCE volunteered when a friend called and suggested he help out. The friend has only worked once or twice but Walter has been a dedicated project volunteer and tries to be here twice a week. He is retired from the Georgia Department of Human Resources and is a native of LaGrange who came back home after living for several years in Savannah.
Walter says that it is the people who make this an enjoyable project. They talk and joke around while they are working. He admits that looking at the documents can slow your work so mostly he looks at the name and the type of case. Along with the other volunteers, he is amazed at how well the paper has held up over the intervening 150+ years and especially the wax used to seal some of the documents.
When he is not volunteering, Walter is active walking and golfing. Georgia has been very cold this January so his golf time has not been impacted by his volunteering!
Another dedicated volunteer is Tina Quiggles. She is a newlywed and just moved here from Snellville. She read about the project in the newspaper. She is not working this year so she has enjoyed having the time to help. She too enjoys doing the flattening with other people. She has learned a lot about the 1800s by doing the project. Accounts of personal property can be especially interesting, for instance individuals sometimes owns as much as 50 pounds of sugar or barrels of whisky. What were they doing with all these supplies?
She has enjoyed holding documents that are over 100 years old. The handwriting can often be hard to read but she is getting better at it as time goes along. Sometimes opening the envelopes can be the hardest part of the flattening. She is also amazed at how well some 150 year old straight pins have lasted!
Her husband is a high school history teacher who has participated in teacher workshops given by the Troup County Archives. They often compare notes at the end of the day about the kinds of records she has looked at that day.
To repeat: We can't thank these and other volunteers enough for their hard work!
Monday, January 15, 2007
ARCHIVES RECEIVES NHPRC SCANNING GRANT
The Troup County Historical Society and Archives (TCHS-A) recently learned that the Archives will receive a grant of $75,000 from the National Historical Records and Publications Commission (NHPRC) to digitize 19th century Troup County court and county records. Once digitized, the records will be added to the website of the Digital Library of Georgia (DLG). This grant is part of a pilot project by NHPRC to fund archival digitization projects. This grant will become official only after the U. S. Congress passes its 2006-2007 spending bills (the federal government is currently operating on contingency spending bills).
These Troup County records were first organized in 1985-86 as part of a grant from NHPRC which was awarded soon after the Archives opened. All of the materials processed in the 1985-86 grant and the current project were saved from the Troup County Courthouse during the devastating November 5, 1936 fire. Two women died in the fire, but still local citizens organized themselves into bucket brigades of sorts and passed historical documents from the burning building to safety. During that 1980s grant, records formerly in boxes marked simply “old cases” and in no order were reorganized and put into chronological order. A detailed finding aid was produced which gives folder level control over the records.
The Digitizing County Records project has several purposes. 1) The records will be of interest to a variety of researchers investigating a broad range of topics, from the settlement of the western frontier (West Georgia in the 1820s), the Civil War and Reconstruction and effects on the home front, immigration, slavery, economic depressions, capital punishment and much more.
—2) Digitizing these records will allow the Troup County Historical Society and Archives to take advantage of modern technology and make an important advance in our ability to serve researchers. The collection dates from 1825 to 1900 and consists primarily of court cases. The 159 boxes in this collection (53 linear feet) are organized chronologically and by type of case. The finding aid transformed an interesting but unusable assortment of old papers into a nicely organized collection of local government records. Having the records digitized and available online will significantly improve access to these records.
—3) Researchers will gain easy online access to records dealing with many different nineteenth century historical topics, ranging from settlement to the Civil War, to the coming of Industry. These researchers include academics, History Day participants, local historians, genealogists, students, and many others. The records will be available to all researchers free of charge. Being able to use the records online will mean that residents who live within a mile or two of the Archives or researchers living across the country or abroad will all be able to look at 19th Century Troup County records with a few clicks of a computer mouse! Having the materials on DLG’s heavily used site will help ensure that the digitized records are easily available to as many people as possible.
Staff at the Troup County Archives, and at the Digital Library of Georgia, including Archives’ Director Kaye L. Minchew and DLG Director Dr. Toby Graham, are excited about joining together on a new project to digitize nineteenth century Troup County government records. The project will be a national model showing how local government records can be digitized and how the Internet can allow county and city governments and small local historical societies to better serve a wide variety of researchers.
These Troup County records were first organized in 1985-86 as part of a grant from NHPRC which was awarded soon after the Archives opened. All of the materials processed in the 1985-86 grant and the current project were saved from the Troup County Courthouse during the devastating November 5, 1936 fire. Two women died in the fire, but still local citizens organized themselves into bucket brigades of sorts and passed historical documents from the burning building to safety. During that 1980s grant, records formerly in boxes marked simply “old cases” and in no order were reorganized and put into chronological order. A detailed finding aid was produced which gives folder level control over the records.
The Digitizing County Records project has several purposes. 1) The records will be of interest to a variety of researchers investigating a broad range of topics, from the settlement of the western frontier (West Georgia in the 1820s), the Civil War and Reconstruction and effects on the home front, immigration, slavery, economic depressions, capital punishment and much more.
—2) Digitizing these records will allow the Troup County Historical Society and Archives to take advantage of modern technology and make an important advance in our ability to serve researchers. The collection dates from 1825 to 1900 and consists primarily of court cases. The 159 boxes in this collection (53 linear feet) are organized chronologically and by type of case. The finding aid transformed an interesting but unusable assortment of old papers into a nicely organized collection of local government records. Having the records digitized and available online will significantly improve access to these records.
—3) Researchers will gain easy online access to records dealing with many different nineteenth century historical topics, ranging from settlement to the Civil War, to the coming of Industry. These researchers include academics, History Day participants, local historians, genealogists, students, and many others. The records will be available to all researchers free of charge. Being able to use the records online will mean that residents who live within a mile or two of the Archives or researchers living across the country or abroad will all be able to look at 19th Century Troup County records with a few clicks of a computer mouse! Having the materials on DLG’s heavily used site will help ensure that the digitized records are easily available to as many people as possible.
Staff at the Troup County Archives, and at the Digital Library of Georgia, including Archives’ Director Kaye L. Minchew and DLG Director Dr. Toby Graham, are excited about joining together on a new project to digitize nineteenth century Troup County government records. The project will be a national model showing how local government records can be digitized and how the Internet can allow county and city governments and small local historical societies to better serve a wide variety of researchers.
Project Summary from NHPRC Grant Application
Project Summary
Purpose and Goals of Project
The Troup County Historical Society and Archives (TCHS-A) and the Digital Library of Georgia (DLG) are very excited about joining together on a new project to digitize nineteenth century Troup County government records. These Troup County records were first organized in 1985-86 as part of a grant from NHPRC. A finding aid, Guide to Archival Records of Troup County, Georgia, 1825-1900” was published as part of that grant. During that grant, records formerly in boxes marked simply "old cases" and in no order were reorganized and put into chronological order by year, then by session of court and by type of case. A detailed finding aid was produced which gives folder level control over the records. This finding aid will enable the Digitization project to proceed with minimal metadata creation.
The Digitizing County Records project has several purposes.
--1) Having nineteenth county records available online will allow DLG to add an exciting new collection of records available at their website. The records will be of interest to a variety of researchers investigating a broad range of topics, from the settlement of the western frontier (West Georgia in the 1820s), the Civil War and Reconstruction and effects on the home front, immigration, slavery, economic depressions, capital punishment and much more.
--2) Digitizing these records will allow the Troup County Historical Society and Archives to take advantage of modern technology and make an important advance in our ability to serve researchers. The collection dates from 1825 to 1900 and consists primarily of court cases. The 159 boxes in this collection (53 linear feet) are organized chronologically and by type of case. The finding aid transformed an interesting but unusable assortment of old papers into a nicely organized collection of local government records. The materials have been used consistently since 1986 but seldom more than once a week. Having the records digitized and available online will significantly improve access to these records.
--3) The project will be a national model showing how local government records can be digitized and how the Internet can allow county and city governments and small local historical societies to better serve a wide variety of researchers.
--4) Researchers will gain easy online access to records dealing with many different nineteenth century historical topics, ranging from settlement to the Civil War, to the coming of Industry. These researchers include academics, History Day participants, local historians, genealogists, students, and many others.
Significance and Relationship to NHPRC Goals and Objectives
1) NHPRC plans to fund trial scanning projects involving archival records in which large amounts of records are processed and a minimal amount of metadata is created. The goal is to scan historical records and make digital versions freely available on the Internet. This project to Digitize County Records will make an excellent trial scanning project.
2) These records are national in scope because Troup County records are typical of records found in local governments across the nation. Local government records are the records "Closest To Home" (the very appropriate title of another current NHPRC project). There are over 3141 counties across the United States, plus countless other governing bodies all serving at the regional and local levels. They touch the lives of residents of the United States more directly than state or national records. The records of debt, immigration, divorce (there were nasty divorces even in the 1830s), murders, mortgages, slavery reveal much about the lives of residents of the U. S. during the nineteenth century. These records are truly national in scope and are free of copyright restrictions. They will be made available free of cost on the Internet.
3) This project will demonstrate how a medium-sized collection of 53 linear feet can be scanned in a cost effective manner. Costs will be for someone to flatten the documents, scan them, and identify file and folder names so that they will link to the existing finding aid. The “Guide to Archival Records of Troup County” finding aid will be converted into a Microsoft Word file and then into EAD. Folder level metadata will be automatically created as part of the EAD process. The creation of metadata will be minimized. The only other significant costs will be for scanner and computer equipment.
4) Having the Troup County Archives, a recognized local government repository, team up with the Digital Library of Georgia, a recognized national leader in making digitized collections available to the public, will help ensure that the digitized records are easily available to as many people as possible. DLG staff have the technical expertise to make sure this project is done right and in as streamline a way as possible. Having the records available on the heavily used DLG site will help ensure maximum exposure for this NHPRC project.
Plan of Work for Grant period
Once the Troup County Archives receives notification from NHPRC of receipt of this digitization grant, the Archives will purchase an 11 x 17 inch flatbed scanner and a new desktop computer to be used in the project. Archives staff will advertise for two part-time people who will be the scanners. The goal will be to keep the scanner working full-time. A sample job description is attached. Qualified people may be recent retirees or students at West Georgia Technical College who desire to work thirty hours or less per week.
Once the staff member is hired and the new equipment has been purchased, the scanning project will officially begin. Scanner staff may travel to Athens, Georgia, to be trained by staff at the Digital Library of Georgia. Further, several documents will be scanned and sent to DLG on a cd-rom for careful review. Needed the scanning staff will make adjustments at that early time. Periodically during the grant, DLG will continue to do checks for quality control. Scanning staff will flatten the contents of each box. They will use sheets of 8 1/2 x 11 archival copy paper as separators between documents within a folder.
The new staff members will start scanning the documents. They will scan each document as a tiff file at 300 dpi and 600 pixels across the top. (Some very small documents will not be scanned at 600 pixels across the top because too much distortion would result.) The Digital Library of Georgia's scanning specifications will be used as a guide. Scanned images will be numbered to match the folders in the finding aid, so that the documents can be automatically matched up to the finding aid.
During the early days of the grant, the inventory, now a Microsoft Word file, will be converted to EAD. A consultant with EAD experience will be hired to do this conversion. Scripts will be written and used to automate the conversion process as much as possible.
Jpeg images of 72 dpi will be created for use on the DLG website. Staff at DLG will add the images to their website. The project directors will create introductory information about the county records and DLG staff will design the actual website in an attractive and functional style. Staff at DLG and at TCHS-A will issue press releases to archival publications and local media about the availability of the documents online. DLG staff will also begin carefully evaluating usage of the website and will periodically compile detailed usage numbers. They will be able to determine whether e-mail addresses ending with edu, org, gov or others are the most frequent users, what time of year they are using the documents and how long people are using the site during each visit. For instance, they will be able to look at the amount of usage during specific times of the year to help determine whether approaching History Day contests or the end of academic semesters create increased usage. DLG will continue to maintain the site as needed for at least three years after the grant officially ends and probably much longer.
TCHS-A will keep a master copy of the tiff digital images on an external hard drive (total size is expected to be about 700 gigabytes) at their building in LaGrange. A second external hard drive will be stored at the Georgia Department of Archives and History (GDAH). GDAH will also create 16 mm microfilm copies of the images. Having multiple copies of the images will help ensure their preservation. The Troup County Archives is prepared at some point in the future to convert the tiff files to another format as file migration necessitates.
Products and Publications to Be Completed During Grant Period
-- The Guide to Troup County Records, 1825-1900, created in 1986, as part of a NHPRC grant, will be converted into an EAD file. Scripts will be used on the EAD files to automatically convert the EAD file into the needed metadata.
--Scanned tiff and jpeg images of over 20,000 documents will be created as part of the process.
--16 mm preservation microfilm will be created of the images. Master and backup copies of the tiff files will be stored at the Troup County Archives at the Georgia Archives.
--Troup County Government Records, 1825-1900 will be added to the website of the Digital Library of Georgia and will be available on Galileo, a website available throughout Georgia in schools, libraries, colleges, and universities free of charge, and in homes on personal computers. This will be available to everyone free of charge.
Key Personnel
Project Director: Kaye Lanning Minchew Co-Director: Dr. Toby Graham
Address: Troup County Archives Digital Library of Georgia
P.O. Box 1051, 136 Main Street University of Georgia
LaGrange, GA 30241 Athens, GA 30602
An advisory committee consisting of seven members will be created. Minchew and Graham will chair the committee. The Advisory Committee will meet at least six times and will advise on procedures and products.
Finally one or two people will hire to do the actual scanning. The new staff members will be sought from the local LaGrange labor market.
Purpose and Goals of Project
The Troup County Historical Society and Archives (TCHS-A) and the Digital Library of Georgia (DLG) are very excited about joining together on a new project to digitize nineteenth century Troup County government records. These Troup County records were first organized in 1985-86 as part of a grant from NHPRC. A finding aid, Guide to Archival Records of Troup County, Georgia, 1825-1900” was published as part of that grant. During that grant, records formerly in boxes marked simply "old cases" and in no order were reorganized and put into chronological order by year, then by session of court and by type of case. A detailed finding aid was produced which gives folder level control over the records. This finding aid will enable the Digitization project to proceed with minimal metadata creation.
The Digitizing County Records project has several purposes.
--1) Having nineteenth county records available online will allow DLG to add an exciting new collection of records available at their website. The records will be of interest to a variety of researchers investigating a broad range of topics, from the settlement of the western frontier (West Georgia in the 1820s), the Civil War and Reconstruction and effects on the home front, immigration, slavery, economic depressions, capital punishment and much more.
--2) Digitizing these records will allow the Troup County Historical Society and Archives to take advantage of modern technology and make an important advance in our ability to serve researchers. The collection dates from 1825 to 1900 and consists primarily of court cases. The 159 boxes in this collection (53 linear feet) are organized chronologically and by type of case. The finding aid transformed an interesting but unusable assortment of old papers into a nicely organized collection of local government records. The materials have been used consistently since 1986 but seldom more than once a week. Having the records digitized and available online will significantly improve access to these records.
--3) The project will be a national model showing how local government records can be digitized and how the Internet can allow county and city governments and small local historical societies to better serve a wide variety of researchers.
--4) Researchers will gain easy online access to records dealing with many different nineteenth century historical topics, ranging from settlement to the Civil War, to the coming of Industry. These researchers include academics, History Day participants, local historians, genealogists, students, and many others.
Significance and Relationship to NHPRC Goals and Objectives
1) NHPRC plans to fund trial scanning projects involving archival records in which large amounts of records are processed and a minimal amount of metadata is created. The goal is to scan historical records and make digital versions freely available on the Internet. This project to Digitize County Records will make an excellent trial scanning project.
2) These records are national in scope because Troup County records are typical of records found in local governments across the nation. Local government records are the records "Closest To Home" (the very appropriate title of another current NHPRC project). There are over 3141 counties across the United States, plus countless other governing bodies all serving at the regional and local levels. They touch the lives of residents of the United States more directly than state or national records. The records of debt, immigration, divorce (there were nasty divorces even in the 1830s), murders, mortgages, slavery reveal much about the lives of residents of the U. S. during the nineteenth century. These records are truly national in scope and are free of copyright restrictions. They will be made available free of cost on the Internet.
3) This project will demonstrate how a medium-sized collection of 53 linear feet can be scanned in a cost effective manner. Costs will be for someone to flatten the documents, scan them, and identify file and folder names so that they will link to the existing finding aid. The “Guide to Archival Records of Troup County” finding aid will be converted into a Microsoft Word file and then into EAD. Folder level metadata will be automatically created as part of the EAD process. The creation of metadata will be minimized. The only other significant costs will be for scanner and computer equipment.
4) Having the Troup County Archives, a recognized local government repository, team up with the Digital Library of Georgia, a recognized national leader in making digitized collections available to the public, will help ensure that the digitized records are easily available to as many people as possible. DLG staff have the technical expertise to make sure this project is done right and in as streamline a way as possible. Having the records available on the heavily used DLG site will help ensure maximum exposure for this NHPRC project.
Plan of Work for Grant period
Once the Troup County Archives receives notification from NHPRC of receipt of this digitization grant, the Archives will purchase an 11 x 17 inch flatbed scanner and a new desktop computer to be used in the project. Archives staff will advertise for two part-time people who will be the scanners. The goal will be to keep the scanner working full-time. A sample job description is attached. Qualified people may be recent retirees or students at West Georgia Technical College who desire to work thirty hours or less per week.
Once the staff member is hired and the new equipment has been purchased, the scanning project will officially begin. Scanner staff may travel to Athens, Georgia, to be trained by staff at the Digital Library of Georgia. Further, several documents will be scanned and sent to DLG on a cd-rom for careful review. Needed the scanning staff will make adjustments at that early time. Periodically during the grant, DLG will continue to do checks for quality control. Scanning staff will flatten the contents of each box. They will use sheets of 8 1/2 x 11 archival copy paper as separators between documents within a folder.
The new staff members will start scanning the documents. They will scan each document as a tiff file at 300 dpi and 600 pixels across the top. (Some very small documents will not be scanned at 600 pixels across the top because too much distortion would result.) The Digital Library of Georgia's scanning specifications will be used as a guide. Scanned images will be numbered to match the folders in the finding aid, so that the documents can be automatically matched up to the finding aid.
During the early days of the grant, the inventory, now a Microsoft Word file, will be converted to EAD. A consultant with EAD experience will be hired to do this conversion. Scripts will be written and used to automate the conversion process as much as possible.
Jpeg images of 72 dpi will be created for use on the DLG website. Staff at DLG will add the images to their website. The project directors will create introductory information about the county records and DLG staff will design the actual website in an attractive and functional style. Staff at DLG and at TCHS-A will issue press releases to archival publications and local media about the availability of the documents online. DLG staff will also begin carefully evaluating usage of the website and will periodically compile detailed usage numbers. They will be able to determine whether e-mail addresses ending with edu, org, gov or others are the most frequent users, what time of year they are using the documents and how long people are using the site during each visit. For instance, they will be able to look at the amount of usage during specific times of the year to help determine whether approaching History Day contests or the end of academic semesters create increased usage. DLG will continue to maintain the site as needed for at least three years after the grant officially ends and probably much longer.
TCHS-A will keep a master copy of the tiff digital images on an external hard drive (total size is expected to be about 700 gigabytes) at their building in LaGrange. A second external hard drive will be stored at the Georgia Department of Archives and History (GDAH). GDAH will also create 16 mm microfilm copies of the images. Having multiple copies of the images will help ensure their preservation. The Troup County Archives is prepared at some point in the future to convert the tiff files to another format as file migration necessitates.
Products and Publications to Be Completed During Grant Period
-- The Guide to Troup County Records, 1825-1900, created in 1986, as part of a NHPRC grant, will be converted into an EAD file. Scripts will be used on the EAD files to automatically convert the EAD file into the needed metadata.
--Scanned tiff and jpeg images of over 20,000 documents will be created as part of the process.
--16 mm preservation microfilm will be created of the images. Master and backup copies of the tiff files will be stored at the Troup County Archives at the Georgia Archives.
--Troup County Government Records, 1825-1900 will be added to the website of the Digital Library of Georgia and will be available on Galileo, a website available throughout Georgia in schools, libraries, colleges, and universities free of charge, and in homes on personal computers. This will be available to everyone free of charge.
Key Personnel
Project Director: Kaye Lanning Minchew Co-Director: Dr. Toby Graham
Address: Troup County Archives Digital Library of Georgia
P.O. Box 1051, 136 Main Street University of Georgia
LaGrange, GA 30241 Athens, GA 30602
An advisory committee consisting of seven members will be created. Minchew and Graham will chair the committee. The Advisory Committee will meet at least six times and will advise on procedures and products.
Finally one or two people will hire to do the actual scanning. The new staff members will be sought from the local LaGrange labor market.
CONTACT US
If you have questions or comments about our project, please e-mail us at info@trouparchives.org. We will share e-mails of broad interest on this website.
WELCOME to our NHPRC Scanning Blog
Welcome!
At the Troup County Archives, we are delighted to have received one of the first grants from NHPRC to scan 19th century court records. During this blog, we will share both fun details, like our success in getting volunteers who want to help flatten court records that were first folded in say 1825. We'll also share archival details: how long does it take to flatten files in one document box, how much space do scanned images take, and what have we learned about converting a detailed word file into an EAD file. I am sure at some point, we will have a "things we would have done differently post!" We are taking our position in being a pilot NHPRC scanning project seriously -- we hope to encourage other archival institutions to scan their archival collections in as fast and economical fashion as possible.
We are excited to be working with the Digital Library of Georgia. We can't wait until 19th Century Troup County records are actually posted on the World Wide Web on DLG's website. Our goal is to move from having fifty or so people per use use these documents to having many times that many using the records in the comfort of their living room, library, or office. In the meantime, we have a lot of hard work to do! We will try to update this blog every week or so. If you have questions or comments, please share them at info@trouparchives.org.
Thanks and stay tuned!
Kaye Lanning Minchew
Director, Troup County Archives
LaGrange, GA
At the Troup County Archives, we are delighted to have received one of the first grants from NHPRC to scan 19th century court records. During this blog, we will share both fun details, like our success in getting volunteers who want to help flatten court records that were first folded in say 1825. We'll also share archival details: how long does it take to flatten files in one document box, how much space do scanned images take, and what have we learned about converting a detailed word file into an EAD file. I am sure at some point, we will have a "things we would have done differently post!" We are taking our position in being a pilot NHPRC scanning project seriously -- we hope to encourage other archival institutions to scan their archival collections in as fast and economical fashion as possible.
We are excited to be working with the Digital Library of Georgia. We can't wait until 19th Century Troup County records are actually posted on the World Wide Web on DLG's website. Our goal is to move from having fifty or so people per use use these documents to having many times that many using the records in the comfort of their living room, library, or office. In the meantime, we have a lot of hard work to do! We will try to update this blog every week or so. If you have questions or comments, please share them at info@trouparchives.org.
Thanks and stay tuned!
Kaye Lanning Minchew
Director, Troup County Archives
LaGrange, GA
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