Digital Library Center
2004-2005 Fiscal Year Report
DIGITAL REPRODUCTION
The Digital Library Center began processes of migrating systems. The DLC Tracking Database (DTdb), used to manage workflows, was reprogrammed as a C# application. And, the Center began the process of developing new digital library systems, migrating away from those maintained by the Florida Center for Library Automation. DTdb development supports mature metadata records, encompasing the broad array of tasks performed by the Center. Some rudimentary systems, e.g., the stastistics package, were lost but are queued for reintroduction into the DTdb. New digital library systems are Greenstone-based, with several layers of programming collectively known as the UFDC (University of Florida Digital Collections) application. UFDC builds out from Greenstone suites of functions, both public and operational, supporting mature a digital library. Both DTdb and UFDC activity are on going. UFDC is not yet ready for public release.
Digital collections were refined in the course of migration. The digital library, known by the moniker used for programming, UFDC, is constructed to hold umbrella collections, collections and subcollections. These groups are a mix of topical and area-studies collections. Florida and the Caribbean basin are most heavily represented among area-studies collections. The Center continues to maintain, and several of our grant projects are based upon, the concept that all resources can be fixed in place and time. A full list of groups, collections and subcollections is available online.
Normally, items are counted at the lowest level of this heirarchy. Because statistics are not fully supported by the current itteration of the DTdb, statistics are gathered at the group level. Further, the numbers reported below represent hand-counts, rather than the automated tallies of past reports, and are known to include abstractions. Again, because the statistics package is not fully available, this report lists new items only, excluding the more telling image counts. Full accounting will be provided in the 2005/2006 Annual Report, when the statistics package has been restored.
GROUP/COLLECTION/SUB-COLLECTION NAME Africana Collections Architecture and Landscape Design Ballads The Baldwin Library of Historical Children's Literature Caribbean Collections European Collections Florida Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences Collections Florida Digital Newspaper Library Florida Law Florida Photographs Florida Sciences and Technologies Collections Food and Agricultural Sciences Graphic Arts Collections Great Floridians Herbarium Collections The Parker Dexter Howe Library Judaica Collections Multi-Media Florida New World Collections Open Stacks Project : Miscellaneous Materials Performing Arts Collections Psychological Study of the Arts Collections Restricted Collections Archives of the Rossica Society of Russian Philately Samuel Proctor Oral History Collections South American Collections Theology Collections University of Florida Institutional Repository International Wetlands Collections World Map Collections Bibliographic units counted above include some overlap. They also count items scanned, not necessarily items mounted and available. We continue to build and migrate to a new UFDC and away from deployment under FCLA PALMM systems. And, the current numbers are transitional from a system that counted items within sets (e.g., serial volumes) individually to a system that counts items in sets as single units. Aerial Photography, a sub-collection of World Map Collections, for example, previously counted 48,230 units. This set now counts as one unit. Unfortunately, as we collapse serial and serialized items into sets, this transition is not yet complete. The count above totals more than 50,000 units. The DTdb, however, currently tracks more than 29,000 bibliographic units. Reported rates of change are also ambiguous as result of the transition in systems. PALMM umbrella collections, previously counted do not match exactly the UFDC group collections. Food and Agricultural Sciences and International Wetlands Collections, for example, were previously counted as part of the Florida Sciences and Technologies Collections. In short, the numbers should not be trusted during the transition.
Despite the ambiguity of the numbers, 2004/2005 was a year of very large increases in output. New systems and new hardware afforded increased productivity. New hardware including a suite of digital single lens reflex (SLR) cameras, a suite of high-speed paper scanners, and a slide scanner, together with mastery of the microfilm scanner yielded much higher output. The high-speed paper scanners, for example, output at a rate of several thousand pages per hour, compared to under 100 pages per hour using flat-bed scanners. But, while new equipment - the digital SLR camera use in Baldwin scanning, for example - improved productivity, we had a difficult time keeping pace with the project's requirements. Volumes were larger than planned. And, more items than planned were targeted for the SLR unit than for the flat bed unit.
The most challenging aspects of growth, however, were volume and success. High productivity systems have strained our processing capacity. We shifted from networked production systems to portable hard-drive systems in order to keep pace. In general the shift was helpful, though not without new challenges such as the failure of portable drives. Our success was evidenced in our grant track-record. Normally, we 50% of our grant proposals are funded. This year every proposal submitted was awarded. As a result, we're stretched to our limit and will be without flexibility through the end of Fiscal Year 2005/2006. Of the projects awarded, three are of special note. The Florida was selected as one of only six state programs for the NEH-funded "National Digital Newspaper Program". The LSTA-funded "Florida Digital Newspaper Library" will be only the second statewide newspaper project of its kind - the other being in Utah - and the first to digitize current newspapers, migrating filming queues to digital. And, the contract project with the Florida House to digitize its Journal represents a growth opportunity for collections but also provides funds to grow capacity for digitization of bound rare volumes. Each project, numbering into the hundreds of thousands of images, is large relative to past projects.
ANALOG REPRODUCTION
The Digital Library Center acquired the Micrographics Unit from the Preservation Department at the beginning of the Fiscal Year. Our charge was to form and enhance the continuum of reprographic services offered by the Libraries. Implicit in the charge, with dying micrographic technologies and aging equipment was to begin migrating the Unit, now a section of the Center's Imaging Unit, toward digital technologies.
The Brittle Books Program of the former Micrographics Unit was split off to become an Ingest and Bibliographic Control Unit for the Center. This new Unit centralized data entry and tracking, queuing materials for most appropriate treatement. It retained control of the final SOLINET Great Collections Microfilming Project: with its continuation of the Kohler Theology Collection, queuing it for off-site filming. And, it retained control of the microfilm sales program. The sales program, indeed all microfilm duplication, was plagued by the vendor's sluggish performance. The vendor is the only remaining such service nationally, capable of meeting preservation standards and specifications. It is having difficulty both dealing with the increased national demand for its services and replacing personnel who move on to other fields. It's current response lag is three (3) months.
The microfilming program of the former Micrographics Unit became a program of the imaging unit. Student staffing was increased to eradicate backlogs, and, by the end of the year the Florida backlog had been reduced to one year while the International backlog had been reduced to two years. Funds and staffing had been diverted from microfilming to binding in the lead up to migration from NOTIS to ALEPH catalog systems.
MATERIAL TYPE FUNDING Archives Images Internal External Reels Internal External Titles Internal External Volumes Internal External Monographs Images Internal External Reels Internal External Titles Internal External Volumes Internal External Newspapers Images Internal External Reels Internal 290
External Titles Internal External Volumes Internal External Photographs Images Internal External Reels Internal External Titles Internal External Volumes Internal External Serials Images Internal External Reels Internal External Titles Internal External Volumes Internal External Other Images Internal External Reels Internal External Titles Internal External Volumes Internal External TOTAL Images Internal External Reels Internal External Titles Internal External Volumes Internal External
