I have a wide array of experience related to the digitization and online delivery of archival materials. These include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Performing assessments of material for research value and preservation risks to determine prioritization for digitization;
- Designing and management of throughput and quality control workflows for digitization studios for both print and time-based media including set-up of digitization workstations;
- Scanning of slides, negatives, photographs, manuscripts, and oversized film posters following preservation standards and best practices;
- Stitching and generating access-quality derivatives with Adobe Photoshop;
- Working with outside vendors to obtain bids and ensure quality of returned files for time-based media;
- Set-up of forensic workstation and workflow for ingest and description of born-digital materials;
- Metrics tracking and reporting for digitization projects;
- Experience with oversized flatbed and feed scanners, turntables, pre-amps, open reel tape players, audio and videocassette players, digital recorders;
- Experience with Audacity, Steinberg Wavelab, Silverfast Ai, Smartworks Pro, Adobe suite, Handbrake, and various metadata extraction and editing programs;
- Ingestion and description of files through IUB Libraries’ various discovery systems.
This experience was gained as a graduate assistant for Recording Services at the IU Archives of Traditional Music, the Project Assistant for Sound Directions (precursor of the IU Media Digitization and Preservation Initiative) as a Project Manager for the IU Archives of African American Music and Culture – particularly as part of their Grammy grant, and through my ongoing work as the Archivist for the IU Black Film Center/Archive.
The following are the results of some of my digitization projects:
Josef Gugler African and Middle Eastern Film Collection description page at IU Image Collections Online
https://digitalcollections.iu.edu/collections/3r075761m?locale=en
This digitization project involved the use of an Epson Expression XL12000 scanner and a ColorTrac SmartLF Gx+ T56 wide format feed scanner to digitize approximately 900 posters and several hundred lobby cards and small format promotional materials. In addition to scanning many items personally, I trained and managed to student hourly scanning technicians. Additional details on the project are available on the BFC/A’s blog. (Please note that the collection migrated platforms in 2024 and the search interface has changed since the screen capture was created).
2008 Grammy Foundation Preservation Implementation Grant
For this Grammy Foundation-funded project awarded to the IU Archives of African American Music and Culture (AAAMC), I prepared audio cassettes from the Portia K. Maultsby and Michael Lydon collections, worked with a third-party vendor, and performed quality control on the returned files. In addition to time-based media, I oversaw the scanning and clean-up of the hundreds of existing printed transcripts made in the 1980s and ’90s as well as the transcription of items without such a document.
Outside of this grant I oversaw the creation of access files for a number of the AAAMC’s collections and surveyed and prioritized time-based media for preservation digitization by the IU Media Digitization and Preservation Initiative.
While at the AAAMC I also created a workflow for ingesting and managing born-digital audiovisual and image files created by the AAAMC’s director and as part of its conferences and symposiums. I also put in place a means of ingesting files from external hard drives and born-digital recorders received from donors. This work included researching and setting up write-blockers, metadata harvesters, renaming software for replacing problematic file names, checksum programs, and file transfer protocols for migrating items to IU’s mass digital storage system.
Various Photograph Digitization Projects
Along the lines of the Josef Gugler collection, but focusing exclusively on photographic materials, I also oversaw the digitization of the following collections: