Digitizing CUA's Student Newpaper

Conclusion

In terms of digitizing The Tower, the group has framed the procedure with the information gathered during this project. Due to the precedent already set by two fellow consortium members with digitized newspaper archives, American University and Georgetown University, The Catholic University of America will likely use the standards and process recommended by the Digital Collection Production Center (DCPC). The likely steps will include a pricing submission from Olive, the raising of funds, and the actual digitizing of the microfilm. CUA will then be responsible for maintaining and updating the archive information, including a description of the collection.

The Tower team was fortunate to have learned about multiple dimensions of the digitizing process. The actual procedures involved with digitization are much more complex than the scanner and software; both the data describing the collection and individual items within, and the data and software used to create the XML must be used together. Selection, copyright clearance and planning for the process are indicative of merely the beginning of the overall procedure. On the technology side, image size becomes important depending on the size of the collection, maintaining the archive, and even having the right size scanners are all considerations. The options for software are numerous, ranging from vendors who will complete the entire project to open software where everything is done in-house with a wiki community for trouble-shooting.

One problem that universities and libraries almost always have is funding. We learned from digitization project team members at Georgetown a creative way to raise funds and then built upon those ideas. Georgetown raised funds for digitizing The Hoya by contacting previous editors and writers of the newspaper and asking them to donate money for the digitization project. Our team used this idea as a catalyst for another fund-raising idea. CUA could ask alumni groups to sponsor specific years of the digitization project. For instance, the class of 1972 could collectively raise/donate the funds to pay for the digitization of the 1971/72 issues of The Tower.

Reflecting on the experience, The Tower team learned to collaborate, dividing the tasks in order to finish in a limited amount of time. They were able to meet their client's needs to provide background on the digitization process. Upon review of the tasks involved, the group determined that appointing a project manager to oversee assignment completion would have been helpful given the limited amount of time.