Digitization – DigitalKoans

"Google Shows off AI Tool for Reading Handwritten Text by Rewriting It Digitally"

Imagine writing by hand in a paper notebook, then showing the notes to your camera to instantly make them searchable and organize them in context with previous notes on physical pages. If you’re like me and have particularly messy handwriting, InkSight could help turn your chicken scratch into typewritten text that is still accurate to what you scribble.

https://tinyurl.com/2dt685ba

"Improving Accessibility of Digitization Outputs: Eodopen Project Research Findings"

In this contribution, the authors present the results of a trial implementation among EODOPEN partners regarding their digitization workflows, used delivery file formats and the resulting quality of OCR results, depending on the type of digitization output file format. It was shown that partners using the OCR tool ABBYY FineReader Professional and producing scanning outputs in tagged PDF and PDF/UA formats achieved better results according to set criteria.

https://doi.org/10.1108/DLP-09-2023-0080

Paywall: "For the People: How We Make Online LAM [Library, Archive, and Museum] Collections More Democratized"

The article critiques the misconception that online collections democratize artifact information for public consumption and explores the ways in which LAM institutions fall short of living up to their democratic ideals when it comes to digital collections projects. Inspired by others with similar critiques, the authors discuss how LAM institutions can better fulfill the ideal of accessible and equitable access to their collections. The article emphasizes the importance of five areas of digital collections projects: system design, metadata practices, digitization selection and prioritization, labor, and user participation and engagement.

https://doi.org/10.1080/1941126X.2024.2306042

"Harvard Law School Digitization Project Publishes Nearly 7 Million Court Cases Online"

The Caselaw Access Project, also known as CAP, aimed "to make all published U.S. court decisions freely available to the public online in a consistent format, digitized from the collection of the Harvard Law School Library," according to the project’s website. . . .

CAP launched in 2015 through a partnership with Ravel Law, a legal research and analytics startup company. Per the terms of the partnership, CAP received financial support in exchange for Ravel obtaining eight years of exclusivity with the caselaw documents, according to Harvard Law Today, a school-run publication.

https://tinyurl.com/mrxpy558

"CLIR Announces Call for Submissions: Grants for Digitizing Hidden Special Collections and Archives Awards"

The program’s objective is to encourage proposals for the digitization of materials that enrich the public’s understanding of the histories of underrepresented communities, particularly those of people of color and other marginalized populations. These are communities and perspectives that have not received adequate recognition or attention. . . .

CLIR will award grants ranging from $50,000 to $300,000 in the local currency of the recipient organizations. The awarded projects are scheduled to begin on January 1, 2025. . . .

The application process has two stages. The initial application is open to eligible nonprofit collecting organizations located in the United States and Canada. Deadline for submission of proposals is set for 11:59 pm ET on November 1, 2023. During this stage, applicants are encouraged to effectively communicate the significance of the materials and the need for support through this grant. The program’s independent review panel will then select applicants whose initial proposals align closely with the program’s scope and reflect its core values. These selected applicants will be invited to submit a final proposal in early 2024.

https://tinyurl.com/3h9xh32r

"Images, an Overview"

Images have been historical records since the advent of photography. High-resolution photography laid the groundwork for the digitization process known today and has continued to bolster the cultural heritage sector. An overview of images in the context of library and information science (LIS) is a story of how libraries have adopted aspects of the commercial image production environment, expensive digitization equipment, and considerable information technology infrastructure to provide image resources to their users. This entry [of the Encyclopedia of Libraries, Librarianship, and Information Science] discusses images in the LIS field and considers the concepts, tools, and best practices that surround the prevalence of images as primary sources.

https://hdl.handle.net/10657/15041

| Research Data Publication and Citation Bibliography | Research Data Sharing and Reuse Bibliography | Research Data Curation and Management Bibliography | Digital Scholarship |

Paywall: "From Stacks to Screens: Improving Access to Theses and Dissertations with Digitization and Automation"

The purpose of this case study is to share reproducible workflows for digitization, enhanced with automation, that can be adopted by other institutions who aim to increase accessibility and discoverability of their unique institutional research. Few studies have shared their workflows in a detailed, transparent way that can be reproduced by others who are interested in taking on digitization projects to improve access and discoverability via an institutional repository.

https://doi.org/10.1080/07317131.2023.2226433

"Mellon Foundation Funds Digitizing Hidden Collections and Archives: Amplifying Unheard Voices"

The Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) has been granted a $5,000,000 award from the Mellon Foundation to bolster the Digitizing Hidden Special Collections and Archives: Amplifying Unheard Voices regranting program and related operations. . . .

The forthcoming call, Digitizing Hidden Special Collections and Archives: Amplifying Unheard Voices, is set to create a groundbreaking opportunity for eligible nonprofit organizations in the US and Canada to digitize materials in any format. By providing essential funding to a diverse cohort of academic, independent, and community-based organizations, CLIR seeks to unlock access to previously unavailable or underutilized collections. This move is expected to foster broader recognition of the immense value in preserving resources that document the history of marginalized people to the advancement of social justice.

https://tinyurl.com/22nkn5at

FADGI: Technical Guidelines for Digitizing Cultural Heritage Materials, Third Edition

The Technical Guidelines for Digitizing Cultural Heritage Materials: Third Edition (linked below) were developed by the Still Image Working Group in 2022-2023. This document is an update of the 2016 Technical Guidelines for Digitizing Cultural Heritage Materials: Creation of Raster Image Master Files. The latest revision of the guidelines expands on earlier works and incorporates new material reflecting the advances in imaging science and cultural heritage imaging best practice. The Guidelines include shared best practices for still image materials (e.g., textual content, maps, and photographic prints and negatives) followed by agencies participating in the Federal Agencies Digital Guidelines Initiative (FADGI).These guidelines are intended to be used in conjunction with digital image conformance evaluation targets and software. Together, these guidelines and appropriate testing and monitoring systems provide the foundation for a FADGI-conforming digitization program.

https://bit.ly/3Bn6hOm

"Are Searches in OCR-generated Archives Trustworthy?"

The accuracy of searches was tested by performing sample searches of leading newspaper databases. The test revealed several weaknesses in the search process, including an average 18 percent error rate for single words in body text, and a far higher error rates for advertisements. Such high error rates encourage a critical look at the 20-year-old sector.

https://doi.org/10.1515/jbwg-2023-0003

Better World Books and the Internet Archive: "Saving 4 Million Books From Landfill"

The service that BWB provides is an important one for libraries. BWB collects used books from libraries, booksellers, colleges, and universities in six countries, which are then either resold online, donated or recycled. To date, Better World Books has donated over 35 million books worldwide, has raised close to $34 million for libraries and literacy, and has saved more than 450 million books from landfills. Through the partnership with the Internet Archive, BWB has donated more than one million books each year for preservation and digitization, totaling 4 million books to date.

https://cutt.ly/X8CaoCv