Hi Jody,

Thanks for sending along this information about Cabaniss. I'd be
curious to hear how your per-page costs compare with other projects,
such as Oregon State [1] (which I just wandered across in Google).

The notes from your project wiki [2] are really interesting. In
particular the details about linking from the EAD documents to the
item views using the PURLs struck my eye [3]. Did you have a PURL
server already set up at your institution, or is this something you
did as part of this project? Was there a real advantage to doing that
instead of thoughtfully managing a URL namespace with Cool URLs [4]. I
know I'm biased, but it sure was nice to see URLs in use instead of
Handles :-)

I haven't done EAD work in a while, and was wondering what the ns2
namespace is in the linking example on the wiki, e.g.

<dao id="u0003_0000252_0000002" ns2:title="u0003_0000252_0000002"
ns2:href="http://purl.lib.ua.edu/148" ns2:actuate="onRequest"
ns2:show="new"/>

Last of all I was curious about the EAD viewing software you are
developing to stand in for Acumen. Is this work still underway?

Sorry for all the questions. I guess that's what you get for doing
interesting stuff :-)

//Ed

[1] http://wiki.library.oregonstate.edu/confluence/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=19327
[2] http://www.lib.ua.edu/wiki/digcoll/
[3]http://www.w3.org/Provider/Style/URI.html
[4] http://www.lib.ua.edu/wiki/digcoll/index.php/Scripted_Links_in_EADs

On Tue, Mar 1, 2011 at 9:03 PM, Jody DeRidder <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> (Apologies for cross posting)
>
> For Immediate Release
> Contact Person:  Jody L. DeRidder
> Email: [log in to unmask]
> Phone: (205) 348-0511
>
> Completed UA Libraries Grant Project Provides Model for Low-Cost
> Digitization of Cultural Heritage Materials
>
> The University of Alabama Libraries has completed a grant project which
> demonstrates a model of low-cost digitization and web delivery of
> manuscript materials.  Funded by the National Archives and Records
> Administration (NARA) National Historical Publications and Records
> Commission (NHPRC), the project digitized a large and nationally important
> manuscript collection related to the emancipation of slaves:  the Septimus
> D. Cabaniss Papers.  This digitization grant (NAR10-RD-10033-10) extended
> for 14 months (ended February 2011), and has provided online access to
> 46,663 images for less than $1.50 per page:
> http://acumen.lib.ua.edu/u0003_0000252.
>
> The model is designed to enable institutions to mass-digitize manuscript
> collections at a minimal cost, leveraging the extensive series
> descriptions already available in the collection finding aid to provide
> search and retrieval.  Digitized content for the collection is linked from
> the finding aid, providing online access to 31.8 linear feet of valuable
> archival material that otherwise would never be web-available.  We have
> developed software and workflows to support the process and web delivery
> of material regardless of the current method of finding aid access.  More
> information is available on the grant website:
> http://www.lib.ua.edu/libraries/hoole/cabaniss .
>
> The Septimus D. Cabaniss Collection (1815-1889) was selected as exemplary
> of the legal difficulties encountered in efforts to emancipate slaves in
> the Deep South. Cabaniss was a prominent southern attorney who served as
> executor for the estate of the wealthy Samuel Townsend, who sought to
> manumit and leave property to a selection of his slaves, many of whom were
> his children.  Samuel Townsend’s open admission to fathering slave
> children and his willingness to take responsibility for their care,
> combined with the letters from the former slaves themselves, dated before
> and after the Civil War, will inform social and racial historians. Legal
> scholars will be enlightened by Cabaniss' detailing of the sophisticated
> legal mechanism of using a trust to free slaves. Valuable collections such
> as this have a promise of open access via the web when the cost of
> digitization is lowered by avoiding item-level description.
>
> Usability testing was included in the grant project, and preliminary
> results indicate that this method of web delivery is as learnable for
> novices as access to the digitized materials via item-level descriptions.
> In addition, provision of web delivery of manuscript content via the
> finding aid provides the much-needed context preferred by experienced
> researchers.
>
>
>
>
> Jody DeRidder
> Digital Services
> University of Alabama Libraries
> Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35487
> (205) 348-0511
> [log in to unmask]
> [log in to unmask]
>