The Luminary Library Experience: Large scale digitization at Toronto Public Library Agenda Introduction Background The project Current status Implementation Issues and lessons Next steps

The Luminary Library Experience: Large scale digitization at Toronto Public Library Uncharted waters Microfilming The Internet Digitization of collections Scaling up digitization – Large scale versus mass

The Luminary Library Experience: Large scale digitization at Toronto Public Library Definitions Mass digitization - Conversion of whole libraries - Minimal human intervention - Google, Internet Archive Large-scale digitization - Creation of collections - Complete document sets - JSTOR, ECO

The Luminary Library Experience: Large scale digitization at Toronto Public Library Robotic equipment New opportunities Treventus Qidenus 4DigitalBooks Kirtas scanners-munich-2008-final.pdf

The Luminary Library Experience: Large scale digitization at Toronto Public Library Before new technology Books needed to be unbound or flattened Preservation issues Labour intensive and high cost With new technology Provides open-book capture,robot page-turning, dual camera capture, processing software Reduced preservation issues Less human intervention on standard items

The Luminary Library Experience: Large scale digitization at Toronto Public Library The Luminary Library Project Partnership 2007 Kirtas, Ristech and Amazon with various university and public libraries (initially University of Maine, Emory University, Cincinnati Public Library, and TPL) Digitize for Print-on-Demand (POD)

The Luminary Library Experience: Large scale digitization at Toronto Public Library Our goal To digitize and make available, both freely online and for print-on-demand,10,000 volumes of our pre-Confederation Canadian imprints over the next five years. Driver is access Primary sources exposed in new ways to new users Users can search for and purchase titles via Amazon Library receives royalties for each copy reprinted Challenges of the collection Workflow Web-ready versus print-ready

The Luminary Library Experience: Large scale digitization at Toronto Public Library Print on Demand (POD) Library digitizes and sends books with metadata to Kirtas Kirtas processes and sends content to Amazon Amazon loads content on “Historical Reproductions” – printed books are available for purchase TPL retains copies of files, can repurpose its content as desired

The Luminary Library Experience: Large scale digitization at Toronto Public Library

Current status Orientation to production 1,000 books delivered as of end books online on Amazon.com Languages – English 78%, French 18%, German 1.7%, Other 2.3%

The Luminary Library Experience: Large scale digitization at Toronto Public Library Project Implementation Kirtas video Collection Selection Digitization Process Issues and Lessons Learned

The Luminary Library Experience: Large scale digitization at Toronto Public Library Collection Selection Focus on Special Collections – Baldwin Room Copyright-free, public domain Pre-Confederation Canadian imprints Almost 10,000 titles documented in A bibliography of Canadiana (5 vols., ) Many well known titles Detailed guidelines for selecting – constraints from Amazon, Kirtas, TPL Many challenges with historical books (e.g. fragile, heterogeneous, foldouts……)

The Luminary Library Experience: Large scale digitization at Toronto Public Library Digitization Process Before Digitization  Acquiring ISBNs  Access database designed for: - tracking items through the workflow - entering metadata (Special Collections and Digitization staff) - identifying each item uniquely (barcode, bibliography number)

The Luminary Library Experience: Large scale digitization at Toronto Public Library Digitization Process Access Database

The Luminary Library Experience: Large scale digitization at Toronto Public Library Digitization Process Workflow – Digital Conversion  Examination of books  Setup in Kirtas APT BookScan 2400  Software setup – APT Manager  Scanning – automated vs. manual  Operator tasks  Troubleshooting problems (e.g. multiple pages turned at the same time)

The Luminary Library Experience: Large scale digitization at Toronto Public Library Digitization Process Kirtas APT BookScan 2400 – TPL workstation

The Luminary Library Experience: Large scale digitization at Toronto Public Library Digitization Process Kirtas APT Manager software

The Luminary Library Experience: Large scale digitization at Toronto Public Library Digitization Process Workflow – Image Editing  Output of scanning = raw JPEG images  Templating right and left-hand pages – BookScan Editor software  Batch processing multiple books – SuperBatch  Output of batching = bitonal TIFF images

The Luminary Library Experience: Large scale digitization at Toronto Public Library Digitization Process Kirtas BookScan Editor software – templating raw images Raw JPEG image cropping raw image

The Luminary Library Experience: Large scale digitization at Toronto Public Library Digitization Process Workflow – Image Quality Control  Initial processing includes crop, contrast, deskew  Editing bitonal TIFFs after SuperBatch  Global and individual page adjustments in BookScan Editor software  Historical books require more editing!

The Luminary Library Experience: Large scale digitization at Toronto Public Library Digitization Process Kirtas BookScan Editor software – editing bitonal TIFF images BEFORE and AFTER

The Luminary Library Experience: Large scale digitization at Toronto Public Library Digitization Process Workflow – Delivery  Metadata generation – ONIX xml file  Conversion of bitonal TIFFs to a single PDF  Delivery of PDFs, metadata to Kirtas weekly via FTP Statistics Snapshot for averages  No. pages/book = 159  No. books delivered/week = 27.4  No. staff FTE devoted to project = 1.7

The Luminary Library Experience: Large scale digitization at Toronto Public Library Issues and Lessons Learned New Technology  Adopting new hardware and software  Steep learning curve for staff Historical Collections  Many scanning challenges: fragility, size, foldouts, faded text, bleedthrough,….  Numerous books did not meet guidelines  Order of production did not match original plan  More manual than automated page turning

The Luminary Library Experience: Large scale digitization at Toronto Public Library Historical Collections - Issues

The Luminary Library Experience: Large scale digitization at Toronto Public Library Issues and Lessons Learned Cataloguing and Metadata  Missing information in MARC records  Spine title a librarian decision for each book  Pricing model decisions Production Levels  Numerous ramp-up challenges  Nature of materials prevents higher levels of production using automated page turning  Average unit time to produce one book is 2.2 hours

The Luminary Library Experience: Large scale digitization at Toronto Public Library Issues and Lessons Learned Communication  Open communication, planning is key  Alignment across departments of understanding, resources, expectations  Staff dedicated to both collections and access Partnership  Library/vendor relationship is still new  Different kind of partnership – centralized  Mutual support among libraries is growing  Challenges of working with a large commercial organization

The Luminary Library Experience: Large scale digitization at Toronto Public Library Implications/Next steps User group User interface and OCR Production 2009 Explore DOD options (digitization-on demand) Repurposing of Kirtas Content on TPL website

The Luminary Library Experience: Large scale digitization at Toronto Public Library ?Questions? Johanna Wellheiser Manager Preservation and Digitization Services, Toronto Public Library Andrew Lofft Dept. Head, Canadiana Dept., Toronto Public Library