Digitization Panel August 12, 2010 Christopher C. Brown, coordinator Mike Culbertson, Colorado State U. James Mauldin, GPO

Preserving Federal Technical Reports: The TRAIL Project Mike Culbertson Colorado State University Libraries (and member of TRAIL)

In the last decade a number of engineering and government documents librarians have observed, with increasing alarm, that technical reports published under the auspices of federal government before 1975 are, in many cases, not accessible, in poor physical condition or subject to withdrawal from library collections.

To address this problem the TRAIL (Technical Report Archive & Image Library) project was formed in 2005/2006 under the sponsorship of the Greater Western Library Alliance (GWLA).

The mission of TRAIL was established as: To identify, digitize, archive, and provide access to federal technical reports issued, in general, prior to Federal technical reports are defined as scientific, engineering or agricultural reports published under the auspices of the U.S. Government.

In 2008 TRAIL reached agreement with the University of Michigan and Google whereby Google Books would scan the technical reports gathered by TRAIL. The digitized images would then be placed into the Hathi Trust.

In 2010 support for TRAIL shifted from GWLA to the Center for Research Libraries (CRL) through its Global Resources Network

Process

Technical reports are identified, solicited and gathered by the TRAIL Collections Group

They are then sent to TRAIL “Central” at the University of Arizona where cataloging and other processing is performed.

The reports are then sent to the University of Michigan where they are scanned by Google Books and ingested into the Hathi Trust.

Documents with non-standard pages (foldouts, maps, etc.) are scanned by a vendor and stored on a server at the University of North Texas.

Server space for a pilot Web site to provide a temporary search interface and access to the reports has been hosted by the University of Hawaii at Manoa at: index.php?c=1.

Challenges

Funding Locating appropriate content Providing a steady stream of documents for scanning by Google Finding a trustworthy vendor for scanning non- standard size pages Storage of documents until “Central” is ready for them Cataloging disagreements with OCLC

Accomplishments

As of March 2010 TRAIL had scanned: 20,032 documents 1,923,072 pages

The project has digitized available reports from the following federal agencies: Bureau of Mines Atomic Energy Commission National Bureau of Standards Department of Energy Office of Saline Waters Fish and Wildlife Service and several others

TRAIL is the recipient of the 2010 GODORT Documents to the People award.

Preview of Coming Attractions

New search interface, hosted by the University of Washington Libraries, will be available soon.

Switch to CRL has opened up opportunities for involvement to many more libraries.

If you or your library would like to get involved go to: trail/how-join-trail.

Individuals and institutions do not have to be members of TRAIL to provide or suggest content. Go to:

Thanks!

Registry of U.S. Government Publication Digitization Projects GPO Registry, Standards; Projects in depository libraries James Mauldin, GPO

Registry of U.S. Government Publication Digitization Projects The Registry: What it is? Why use it?  Locator Tool  Increases Awareness  Establishes models for future digitization efforts

Standards for Digitization? GPO FDsys Specifications for converted Content (version 3.3) (  What is addressed in this document:  Scanning and format requirements for text, photographs, and graphic materials  Digitization Standards  Required hardware/software configurations

Standards for Digitization? Other groups Federal Agencies Digitization Guidelines Initiative (FADGI)  Collaborative effort by federal agencies to define common guidelines, methods, and practices to digitize historical content in a sustainable manner.   Technical Guidelines for Digital Imaging  Digitization Activities - Project Planning Digitization Activities - Project Planning  TIFF Image Metadata TIFF Image Metadata  Digital Imaging Framework Digital Imaging Framework  Content Categories and Digitization Objectives Content Categories and Digitization Objectives  Gap Analysis Gap Analysis

Standards for Digitization? Other groups U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)  Technical Guidelines for Digitizing Archival Materials for Electronic Access: Creation of Production Master Files – Raster Images (Defacto Standard) 

Standards for Digitization? Benchmarks: Image Capture Benchmarks for Preservation Masters (refer to NARA Technical Guidelines – pp ) Image Types Bit Depth Color Mode Resolution (ppi/spi) File Format Reflectiv e B&W Text Only 1-bitBW-bitonal600 ppi/spiTIFF Color/BW with illustrations 8-24 bitGrayscale / RGB 400 ppiTIFF

Projects In Libraries U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)  Technical Guidelines for Digitizing Archival Materials for Electronic Access: Creation of Production Master Files – Raster Images (Defacto Standard) 

Projects in Libraries

Group Discussion on Activities of the Six- State Participants