unearthing strategic partnerships
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THIS SUCCESSFUL 2-YEAR PROGRAM IS THE DIRECT RESULT OF THE STRATEGIC PARTNERING OF
LIBRARIES AND ARCHIVES WORKING TOGETHER TO BRING ABOUT A DIGITAL COLLECTION.
T
he Un iversity of Florida’s Unea rthing
St. A ug ustin e’s Colonial He ritag e is a
federally funded collaborative project
that draws together four different re-
po sito rie s of hidden and frag ile arc hi-
val material . These archives were
pre viously inac ce ss ib le to researc hers
worldwide and are now freely avail-
able in an open source database. By
part nerin g w ith bo th pu blic an d privat e in sti tu tions, th is
initiative digitally preserves and provides access to thou-
sand s of maps, d rawings,
p hoto graphs, and docu -
ments. These items help in
telling—on a global scale—
St. Augustine, F la.’s unique
story as the United States’
oldest city.
Some of the important
a rch iva l i t ems—dat ing
from the 16th century to the
pre se nt—to be “un earthed”
are maps and overlays
of the city; architectural
drawings of historic stru c-
tures; Spanish and Bri t-
ish colonial government
documents; records; photo-
graphs; and site summ aries from key archaeological excava-
tions. This successful 2year program is the direct res ult of
the strategic p artnerin g of libraries and archives working
togeth er to bring about a digital collection.
Significance and Impact
Research in St. Aug ustine ha s long elicited atte ntion from
scholars in history, archaeology, and historic preservation
throughout Florida and the U.S. Unearthing St. Augustine
is the culm ination of more th an 40 years of commitment to
scholarship by the U niversity of Florida (UF) in the study of
historic St. Augustine. The city is situated a m ere 70 miles due
eas t of the unive rsity’s campus in Gainesville, Fla. Established
in 1565, St. Augu stine ha s long identified itself as “the oldest
city” in America because of its early founding da te an d its
remarkable survival as a small community tha t has m aintained
its original colonial grid of
streets and blocks.
The city’s story is one of
diversity. I t is a window into
the lives of Native Ameri-
cans, colonists, slaves, and
free people of color as they
adapted to a region con-
stantly caught in the military
conflicts of expanding em-
pi res and nat io nal st ate s. As
such, St. Augus tine has been
a research mecca for archa e-
ologists, historians, and other
scholars seeking to under-
stan d the complex legacies of
the Spanish borderlands and
the American Southeast. In 2015, the city will celebrate the
450th anniversary of its founding. So this project is timely
(ending Dec. 31, 2014), and it finally brings th e stu dy of St.
Au gustine’s past into a modern research en vironment.
I'l tw y * . COVEIWMM w « XAtieiwiNK ... E. Fl o r i d a .
View of the Governor's House at St. Augustine, 1764
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U n i v e r s i t y o f F l o r i d a
COMPUTERS IN LIBRARIES | Unearthing Strategic Partnerships: Collabora ting With Archives to Build a Local History Collection
Hidden Archives
Un earthin g St. Augustine draws on
unique and rare archival materials that
were difficult to access and man ipula te
in their original form. Now, they’ll be
accessible in an open source digital
format. The project focuses on collectionsfrom established strategic institution al
pa rtn er sh ip s among th e Ci ty of St.
Augustine, the St. Augustine Historical
Society, and the UF Libraries. With the
exception of a few digitized resources,
there is currently no easy way to gain
access to the diverse information that
exists in these repositories.
The resulting interactive digital
collection will be a primary resource for
scholars, students and historical tourists
in colonial and urban history, geography,historic cartography, and cultural heritage
and museum studies. For the first time,
this project will unify disparate resources
held in multiple repositories that are
largely inaccessible to the general public.
It will open access to archival materials
drawn from the following four collections:
• Government House Historic Site
archives—currently inaccessible,
since the state agency tha t oversaw
its creation ceased in 1997 (nowmanaged by UF Libraries)
• St. Augustine Historical Society
Research Library transcriptions
and t rans lated texts—accessible
only by appointm entGovernment House Historic Site's flat files before p roject
• City of St. Augustine Archaeology
Program records and photographs—
accessible only to City of
St. Augustine employees
Government House Historic Site, St. Augustine, Fla.
\ • Herschel Shepard Historic
Prese rvation Collection—available
only as a paged collection in UF
Libraries’ special collections
From the Government House,
project st af f members inve n-
toried and digitized maps and
overlays of the city, architectural
drawings of historic structures,
and related government docu-
ments. This collection was devel-
oped by archaeologists and his -
torians during the long tenure of
the state agency known originally
as the St. Augustine Historical
Restoration and Preservation
Commission (19591967) and
subsequently as the Historic St. Augus-
tine Preservation Board (HSAPB) (1968
1997). The files were originally collected
to provide historical information to guide
HSAPB administrators in the purchase
and development of colonial properties.
Since the closure of this stat e agency in
1997, and in the absence of a librarian
or archivist, these resources have been
closed to researchers .
Since the majority of the Govern-
ment House files are primary source
materials, digitization of these m ateri-
als will bring universal access to thou-
sands of pages of data and images th at
have been accessible only to persons
officially working at the Government
House’s historic site. Visitors to the
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COMPUTERS IN LIBRARIES
closed collection are confronted with
vast amounts of materials in flat file
drawers, filing cabinets, and bankers
boxes with lit tle or no descriptions on
labels. Many flat files are located on
the tops of file cabinets or rolled up andstuck in a corner, further frustrating
rese arch ers’ quests for and access to
these materials. The delicate nature of
these materials, due to age or physical
format (e.g., blueprints or original
architectural drawings on vellum),
makes digitization critical.
From the St. Augustine Historical
Society Research Library, the project
targeted original Spanish documents,
as well as English-language transla
tions. This collection answers frequentrequests from K-12 teachers and re
searchers working on Colonial America
for access to key documents in transla
tion. Aside from items th at are relevant
to the founding and development of St.
Augustine, the files include translatio ns
of Spanish printed sources about Juan
Ponce de Leon and Pedro Menendez de
Aviles, English tr ansla tions of accounts
of Francis Drake’s raid on St. Augustine
in 1586, reports from expeditions, me
moria ls by clergy on conditions in the
Spanish missions, texts on town plan
ning and royal ordinances, and docu
ments pertaining to the building of the
Castillo de San Marcos. Unpublished
research reports and archaeological data
include the colonial history of Native
American and mission communities as
well as documents related to Fort Mose,
a free black settlement.
Ath ird major contribution to the proj
ect comes from the City of St. Augustine
Archaeology Program. It focuses on ma
terials from excavations conducted du r
ing the pas t 20 years by city archaeolo
gist, Carl D. Halbirt. These documents,
site maps, and slides not only reflect
the city’s Euro pean origins since 1565,
bu t a r ich and varied Native Am ericanheritage. Project staffers selected sets
of documents and images from major
excavations, documenting in-ground
features, such as building foundations,
roads and bridges, defense lines, wells,
trash dumps, and animal burials.
The sites to be covered will be se
lected in consultation with the project
advisory board from a field of more th an
500 projects. Those included will be rep
resented online by a summary of their
history and documented by maps and
digital images from the excavations.
Resources from the city’s archaeology
program will provide comparative data
for archaeologists working at other
colonial and urban sites and will also
facilitate the teaching of archaeology
and cultural anthropology.
From the previously private and
unprocessed Herschel Shepard Historic
Preservation Collection, project staff
members digitized records and drawings
of the major preservation and restora
tion work of St. Augustine. The Shepard
Collection, which was donated to UF
Libraries in 2010, documents Herschel
Shepard’s expertise in Florida’s historic
architecture and his many contributions
to preservation and restoration in thestate. Shepard’s work covers the en tire
range of Florida’s architectural past,
including restoration and reconstruction
of historically significant sites. The
total collection of original drawings,
documents, and photographs includes
all of Shepard’s works on the colonial
buildings of St. Augustine. Shepard has
worked in architectural restoration and
reconstruction of St. Augustine build
ings since 1970, and many historic
structu res are documented thoroughly
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COMPUTERS IN LIBRARIES | Unearthing Strategic Partnersh ips: Collaborating With Archives to Build a Local History Collection
with drawings, extensive research notes,
and photographs.
Selection Criteria
The collections and resources select-
ed for this project, as identified previ-
ously, were chosen based on severalcriteria. Qualifying criteria included
the following:
• Researchers’ frequent areas of
interest and demands
• Uniqueness or rarity of the materials
• Ability of the materials to fill in
knowledge gaps
• Restricted to materials either in public domain or legally owned by
project partners
Project Staff Members
A total of 12 UF Libraries’staff mem-
bers and faculty shared the cost of this
effort. The project team was drawn from
AS A COMMUNITY
RESOURCE, THE LAB IS
THE FIRST OF ITS KIND IN
ST. AUGUSTINE AND
AFFORDS UF (AND ITS
PROJECT PARTNERS) THE
ABILITY TO SCAN ARCHIVAL
MATERIALS LOCALLY.
various departments within the librar-
ies depending on areas of expertise or
collections knowledge. Team members
included three collection curators and
staff members from the digital library
center, IT, preservation, and GIS (geo-
graphic information system) spatial
information services departments. The
two grantfunded positions included a
fulltime programmer to develop the
system architecture and user interface
(UI) and a fulltime program manager
to oversee digitization activities and
metadata creation.
Communication was maintained
throughout the project by email, tele-
phone, or in person. Project staffers
were expected to meet on campus in
Gainesville. This occurred on the thirdThursday of every month during the
grant project, unless there was a quart-
erly advisory board meeting within a
week of the project team meeting. In
that case, the advisory board meeting
took precedence, and all project team
members were invited to attend. Project
team meeting minutes were taken and
distributed to all team members via
email after every meeting.
Advisory BoardProject staffers and project partners
established an advisory board to review
l the materials that were identified by
staff members and to further refine
the selection process. The eightmem-
ber board included a key staff member
from each archival collection and was
rounded out with archaeologists, histor-
ic preservationists, and historians who
have expertise in the colonial history of
St. Augustine and Florida. The board
recommended items for inclusion in the project and identified gaps in content
that needed to be filled by additional se-
lection. It contributed, at no cost to the
project, expert guidance on building the
digital collection and designing the UI.
Advisors guided the selection pro-
cess throughout the project by email,
telephone, or in person. They also pe-
riodically evaluated
the UI during devel-
opment and provid-
ed feedback. Board
meetings were held
on a quarterly basis
in St. Augustine, ro-
tating among various
venues and meeting
rooms supplied gratis
by institutional part-
ners. Minutes were
taken at all meet-
ings and drafts were
I approved via email
or at the successive
board meeting. Final
approved drafts, which were archived
in UF’s online institutional repository,
were distributed to all project staffers
and advisory board members.
Imaging Overview
The majority of the digitization ofarchival materials occurred in St. Au-
gustine at the newly established digiti-
zation lab. It was funded by the grant
and is located within the Government
House, which is now managed by UF.
The lab is fully equipped with a large
11" x 17" flatbed scanner, a highcapacity
slide scanner, and a CopiBook overhead
scanner for oversized items (17" x 24").
As a community resource, the lab is the
first of its kind in St. Augustine and af-
fords UF (and its project partners) theability to scan archival materials locally.
The digitization effort included the fol-
lowing steps:
1. Pre-imaging activities —The
project staffers and key advisory
board members coordinated
the transport of original objects
from partner repositories to the
Government House digitization lab
for imaging. The UF conservator
trained the project manager to
properly handle original objects.
Upon arrival at the digitization
lab, the project manager examined
and applied treatments to facilitate
the imaging process. The project
manager was responsible for
tracking the location of all original
objects while at the digitization lab.
The Governme nt House Historic Site's digital preservation lab
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Une arthing Strate gic Partn ersh ips: Co llabora ting With Archives to Build a Local History Collection | COMPUTERS IN LIBRARIES
2. Metadata —Metadata Encoding
and Transmission Standard
(METS) metadata were created
by the on-site project manager
and imported into a tracking
database. The metadata were
enhanced both automatically andmanually as objects moved through
the imaging workflow. A unique
bibliographic identifier (BibID) was
assigned to each processed object.
The METS files include technical
and structural data about each
image, as well as descriptive and
administrative information.
3. Scanning —At the digitization
lab, the project manager scanned
objects and trained and supervised
partner volunteers to scan their
own collection materials. Due to
the lack of a high-capacity internet
connection at the Government
House, the project manager
or project director traveled to
Gainesville biweekly to deliver
portable external hard drives.
All objects were digitized to
meet standard requirements
for the item’s physical format.
Photographs and documents
were scanned at a minimum of
300 dpi, 8-bit grayscale, or 24-
bit color. Maps, architectural
drawings, and other large-format
materials were brought to UF
and imaged at a minimum of 300
dpi using an overhead digital
camera. All imaging was completed
in accordance with established
professional standards.
4. Quality control and derivate
creation —After imaging and image
enhancement, all aspects of image
control and digital package creation
were controlled by an integrated
software package that controls
derivative image formation, quality
control review at the package level,
and deployment to UF servers. The
scan technician derived JPG, JPG
2000, and JPG thumbnail images.
JPG 2000 files with zoom features
are used in the display of large-
format maps and drawings online.
5. Digital package and text
processing —After quality control,
the digital package moved to text
conversion, markup, and METS
file validation. Staff members
ensured that all package-level
metadata conform to the nationalMETS, to local extension schemas,
to UF requirements, and for long
term digital preservation in the
Florida Digital Archive (FDA).
Staffers implemented optical
character recognition (OCR)
processing to produce searchable
text from digital images. The
project manager worked with the
text-processing unit to proof the
OCR-produced text.
6. Post-imaging conservator
review and storage —After
imaging, original materials were
regrouped and returned to the
appropriate repository and partners
confirmed receipt. All partner
repositories store original objects in
the proper environmental conditions
to ensure long-term stability.
7. Digital preservation and
digital content sustainab ility—
In a practice consistent with all
UF digital projects, redundant
digital archives are maintained
in perpetuity. Currently, the UF
Libraries and the FDA maintain
the two primary archives. The
process of
forwarding
original
uncompressed
TIFF images to
the FDA is the
key component
in UF’s plan to
store, maintain,
and protect St.
Augustine’s
object data.
8. Deployment—
Staff members
will create a
project portal
page (due by
Dec. 31, 2014;
it will be located at ufdc.ufl.edu/
USACH). Discoverability of the
digital objects will be enhanced
by a variety of search and browse
options. The primary interface will
be Google Maps-based. Researchers
will be able to conduct keywordand subject searches of all of
the collections simultaneously
from the main project page. In
addition, all digital objects will
be discoverable via the UF digital
collections (UFDC) homepage
(ufdc.ufl.edu), so researchers can
search in combination with all
other digitized materials held by
UF and partner institutions.
System Arch i tec tu reThe Unearthing St. Augustine collec
tion will be delivered electronically us
ing UFDC system architecture. UFDC
operates on an engine named SobekCM
(ufdc.ufl.edu/sobekcm), an open source
software being developed at UF. Sobek
CM currently works in conjunction with
the open source Greenstone digital li
brary system, but the UFDC architec
ture allows for platform independence
and easy migration to other digital li
brary management systems. SobekCM
also allows for online object submittal
and editing of metadata.
Funct io nal i ty and In ter face
The project programmer will enhance
the current UFDC system to provide
Mock-up o f the proposed Google-based interface
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COMPUTERS IN LIBRARIES Unearthing Strategic Partnerships: Collaborating With Archives to Build a Local History Collection
Tabby is a concrete-mixture made from oyster shells, sand, and lime. Since this particular
material cures slowty, it is poured in sections using wooden forms. This process forms visible
layers on the walls of a building.
Interpreting history has played a significant role In the story of the Gallegos House, starting with its
reconstruction. During the 1960s, the site served as a parking lot for a loc al hotel until the St.
Augustine Historic Restoration and Preservation Commission purchased the plot erf land in order
to authentically reconstruct a First Spanish Period structure. During the actual construction of the
Galiegoe House, a we ek-long cra ft demonstration was held In order to demonstrate Spanish
colonial building techniques. A unique fact about the Gallegos House is that it is currentiy the only
house in St. Augustine constructed from tabby. Not the c at kind.
I Traveling back to the history they forgot to tell you
IE
St. Augustine Time Travelers Society blog, created by users of the digita l collection
new, advanced features and function-
ality (due by Dec. 31, 2014). The pro-
grammer will develop the system us-
ing a variety of existing technologies
including SobekCM, the Google Maps
API, JPG 2000, JavaScr ipt, and Flash.
At its simplest, the map interface will
allow users to discover and access re-
sources by clicking on map locations.Users will have the ability to reveal/hide
sites on the map associated with par tic-
ular collections (e.g., excavation sites of
the city archaeologist or buildings
renovated/reconstructed by Shepard).
The interac tive map will be similar to
the userfriendly Google Map interface.
It will include the functionality and
featu res th at u sers expect: zoom, pan,
image rotation, usercontributed com-
ments, and the abilities to print, save,
and link.
G e o r e f e r e n c i n g
In order for the map interface to
overlay newly digitized maps and im-
ages with existing geographical data,
the digitized files were assigned geo-
graphic coordinates. Geographic coor-
dinates were assigned to digitized files
using GIS software. The UF GIS coor-
dinator trained project staffers to use
GIS software to georeference digitized
materials. Geocoded metadata includeselements such as place names, physical
addresses, and construction and de-
struction dates.
Dissem ina t i on
Unearthing St. Augustine will be
promoted broadly to local, national, and
international scholars, as well as teach-
ers and the general public. The City of
St. Augustine’s anniversary in 2015 will provide opportunities for promoting this
project, its pa rtne rs , and i ts outcomes.
[T]HE PROGRAMMING
DEVELOPED FOR
THIS PROJECT IS AVAILABLE
FOR USE IN OTHER
PROJECTS CREATED BY
OTHER INSTITUTIONS.
UF and its partners will create and
disseminate information about the
project and its resources. At the launch
of the project, press releases were
provided to m edia outlets an d listservs ,
both general and subjectspecific. Arti-
cles and postings were published in
jo urna ls , newsletters , and blogs. Con-tributions of digital objects to social
networking sites (such as Facebook,
Twitter, and Instagram) encourage
discovery. Outreach has also included
presen tations at na tion al conferences
and regional meetings.
P r o j e c t S u c c es s a n d S u s t a i n a b i l it y
Only 11,000 digitally archived im-
ages were originally targeted for the
Un earthing St. Augustine project. As of
Aug. 31, 2014, more than 19,900 items
were scanned and ingested into the UF
digital collections. Revealing the vastness
of its research collections, UF digital col-
lections has mounted more than 8 million
items since its inception in 1997. UF’s ex-
isting open access (OA) servers have the
necessary memory and storage to supportand deliver all of the digital images and
metadata created during the project in
perpetuity. UF h as the technology in fra-
structure and programming expertise to
ensure the longterm sustainability of the
resulting interactive digital collection.
Additionally, because it is based in
open source software, the programming
developed for this project is available
for use in other projects created by
other institutions. UF and its partners
are committed to providing universalonline access to these unique historical
resources. This project will encourage
people to explore the earliest days of one
of the oldest cities in North America. By
leveraging the in frastru cture of a large
research university for the benefit of sev-
eral small local history collections, this
project highlights the strength of par t-
nerships between libraries and archives,
offering exciting new opportunities for
par tnering institutions, researchers, and
expert users fa r beyond the duratio n ofthe grantfunded project.
Thomas R . Caswe l l (tcaswell@ufl
.edu) is university librarian in the Arch i
tecture & Fine Arts Library a t the Univer
sity o f Florida. Fie holds an M .L.S. and
a B.A. in a rt history. Caswell provides
reference and instructional assistance in
art, architecture, an d related disciplines.
Additionally , he serves as subject special
ist and collection manager in the areas
of art, art history, historic preservation,
and m useum studies.
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C o p y r i g h t o f C o m p u t e r s i n L i b r a r i e s i s t h e p r o p e r t y o f I n f o r m a t i o n T o d a y I n c . a n d i t s c o n t e n t
m a y n o t b e c o p i e d o r e m a i l e d t o m u l t i p l e s i t e s o r p o s t e d t o a l i s t s e r v w i t h o u t t h e c o p y r i g h t
h o l d e r ' s e x p r e s s w r i t t e n p e r m i s s i o n . H o w e v e r , u s e r s m a y p r i n t , d o w n l o a d , o r e m a i l a r t i c l e s f o r
i n d i v i d u a l u s e .