Keeping the Faith and Sharing it too The Biblical Recorder Digitization Project Vicki Johnson & Rebecca Petersen

A River Runs Through It "They were Methodists, a denomination my father referred to as Baptists who could read."

History of The Biblical Recorder Started in 1833 Founded by Thomas Meredith, a pastor in New Bern, NC The Biblical Recorder documents many themes and trends including: the preoccupations, ideals and controversies that characterized NC Baptist life over a century and a half prominent attitudes and opinions expressed through editorial columns and letters to the editor the development of churches throughout NC the development of Baptist schools and colleges throughout the South examples of advertising and products that were available during the Civil War changes in attitudes and the political views of Baptists in NC and the United States over the decades the history of Baptist benevolence work the experiences of missionaries in China, Africa and Southeast Asia

History of the Baptist Collection at Wake Forest Wake Forest College founded in 1834 ZSR Library's NC Baptist Historical Collection is the official repository for NC Baptist churches and institutions We hold one of the most complete runs of The Biblical Recorder, and it is the most highly used collection in the archives Other Baptist Archives: Mercer University, GA Richmond University, VA Furman University, SC

Permission from the Publishers Editor and Board members of The Biblical Recorder voted on permission They granted permission for digitization The editor wrote a letter to include with the grant proposal

Grant Funding, Outsourcing, and Hosting Dream of keyword search-ability and online access Demand for online access of high use collection Not enough people, money or time to do it on our own Applied for IMLS Grant Outsourced digitization to Olive from existing microfilm reels Digitized Olive worked to digitize materials and get online at their hosted site

Unexpected Challenges Quality, availability, and access to microfilm Unbinding of originals

Mad Rush to Get BRs to Montreal Unbinding

Challenges

Planning and execution of grant was not fluid The distance and locations that the microfilm and paper copies had to travel Time-the grant had to be completed by a certain time Turnover in personnel as well as varied work flows and styles

Olive to host the materials on Remote Server Olive will host o Frees up server space for ZSR o Limits our control o Any changes have to be made through Olive Analytics unavailable Ongoing maintenance (for a fee)

Benefits!! Users benefit Do not have to search paper copies or microfilm Online patron access Keyword searching Frees up space o Sending paper copies (up to 1970) to off-site

Paper Copies to Off-Site

Questions? Please Vicki Johnson or Rebecca Petersen AND, check out The Biblical Recorder site