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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I m a g e c o u r t e s y o f t h e

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 .

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