MISSION STATEMENT
The Purdue University Digital Initiatives (DI) project is committed to the production and maintenance of archival quality digital reproductions from the unique collections in the Purdue University Libraries archives and special collections to be delivered via state-of-the-art networking technology to the University scholarly community and to the world. Digital Initiatives is a collaborative effort of the Libraries Archives and Special Collections, Technical Services, and Information Technology Departments. The collaboration capitalizes on the strengths of the Libraries to deliver unique materials for scholarly and research purposes.
BENEFIT OF THE PROGRAM
The overarching benefit of the program will be to provide access to the University Libraries' vast collection of unique archival materials to faculty, students and the world’s scholarly community. The scholarly community will be able to access finding aids and digital surrogates of many of these collections remotely via the Internet.
GOALS
- Establish best practices for the digitization of archival materials
- Establish best practices for the metadata describing archived materials
- Establish best practices for encoding and delivery of finding aids
- Extend the life expectancy of the archival materials by reducing handling of the original materials
- Increase the visibility of the Purdue University Libraries in the area of digital delivery of information
- Provide best practices guidelines and hardware specifications for the scholarly community
- Digitize currently available collections for scholarly use
- Design scalable workflow for future digital projects
Project Areas
Digital initiatives (DI) has two broad project areas: to develop the delivery of finding aids capitalizing on the strengths of xml and make available digital surrogates of Purdue’s unique collections. The combination of these efforts will make Purdue’s collections to the wider scholarly community.
Finding Aids
DI will develop a template for creating XML files using EAD. This template may be used either for original encoding or for the conversion of legacy finding aids. An XSLT style sheet will be developed to convert the XML files to HTML. Appropriate search engines will be investigated for searching across all of the finding aids.Currently available encoded finding aids are:
• Joseph C. Arthur Papers
• Charles A. Ellis Papers
• Louis Martin Sears PapersOther priority finding aids to be encoded are:
• George Palmer Putnam Collection of Amelia Earhart Papers
• Edward C. Elliott Papers
• Charles A. Ellis Papers, Supplemental
• Frederick L. Hovde Papers
• Glenn L. Jenkins Papers
• Purdue University, School of Pharmacy Records
• Andrey A. Potter Papers
• Granville C. Thompson PhotographsDigital Surrogates
DI will develop standards for image capture using state-of-the art hardware and software. Metadata standards will be developed for describing digital surrogates. Media search and display software will be investigated. Methods of OCR capture will also be investigated.Currently available digital media:
• George Palmer Putnam Collection of Amelia Earhart Papers