The Very Beginning: A Very Good Place to Start

By Christina Manzo, BPL Digital Projects Intern
January 23, 2012

Some time in between Goodnight Moon and The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind, I became absolutely fascinated with beginnings. And with stories, as with the digitization of rare materials, one always finds that the beginning is “the most important part of the work” (Plato, The Republic). “Where do you even start?” a librarian once exclaimed to me. Well, the answer for me was Cape Cod Community College (CCCC). It seems somewhat fitting that one of the mantras of this particular school happened to be “for you, for now, forever, there’s no better place to begin.” It was certainly true for me. It was my first day at the Boston Public Library and I found myself in the back of a Zip Car full of librarians headed to Cape Cod. A very generous LSTA grant is what brought us there, allowing BPL staff (and affiliates) to travel around Massachusetts collecting materials for digitization. But it was also more than that. A passion for preserving history combined with the promise of authentic, handwritten deeds dating back to the founding of Massachusetts can make a librarian trek just about anywhere.

When we arrived at the loading dock, we were greeted by Mary Sicchio, the Special Collections librarian at CCCC. After unloading and returning some already digitized materials, Ms. Sicchio took us to the Historical Collection Room, where we got the chance to examine the documents at length. And I must say, for their age, these documents were in great shape. The paper was in good shape, the ink was readable and the penmanship was gorgeous. There’s something so fascinating about older manuscripts. They jump off the page at you. The handwriting is so distinct that the document just kind of exudes personality. And that’s why I think the work we’re doing is so important. Books, manuscripts, historical documents, these are all living things (not in the sense that we are alive, but in their own, more symbolic way). They have their own personal flavor and without a program like this one, I fear that the life will slowly drain out of the written word.

One of the most distinct features of this collection was the way it was cataloged. Each library has their own system of organization when rare collections are concerned, but this one was particularly unique. So after cracking the code of group and item level data annotations, we decided to check in on the technological side of things. Chrissy Rissmeyer, our Metadata Coordinator, went over the process for creating  solid information architecture to support their records.

After discussing what kind of online cataloging worked best for them and walking the CCCC team through the next few steps of the process, we packed up our Zip Car with as many deeds and handwritten historical documents as we could carry and headed for home. Overall, not a bad first day. Cape Cod Community College was right. For me, for now, forever, there was no better place to start.

While the Digital Commonwealth website is under reconstruction and reconfiguration, some of the content discussed above can be seen at:  http://www.archive.org/details/capecodcommunitycollege. This content will also be linked from the soon-to-be-released CCCC online finding aid database, powered by the open source Archon platform.

The People of Massachusetts Will Have a Digital Library.

For the past several years, the BPL has been digitizing books, photos, maps, manuscripts, prints, and other library materials so that they may be accessible online. This work is done at two state-of-the-art digitization labs in our Central branch in Copley Square. Our digitized collections can be found under the “online collections” tab of our home page. Nearly 100,000 items can be explored and downloaded across a variety of websites.

More recently, we have begun digitizing materials from other libraries, archives, museums, and historical societies from across the state. This work is being funded by a federal grant awarded to us by the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners. The goal of this project is to grow and support Digital Commonwealth, a consolidated statewide digital library system. Organizations with collections they would like to have digitized can apply for this service online. Already, more than 50 different organizations have asked to become partners with us so that they may contribute resources to our state’s digital library system. This is just one example of how we are using technology to make library resources accessible to as many people as possible throughout the city, the state, and beyond.

As part of this effort, the BPL Digital Services team has been traveling to many of our partner institutions to evaluate the items selected for digitization and to offer advice on how to best prepare these materials so that they may be seamlessly uploaded into the Digital Commonwealth system. Emerson College intern, Christina Manzo, has been accompanying us on many of these site visits. In addition to serving as a project liaison and conducting outreach to prospective applicants, Christina will be offering her perspective of the project in a series of blog posts to be featured here on our Compass Blog under the tags “Access and Innovation” and “Center of Knowledge” (principles IV and VI, respectively). Majoring in Communications and Dramaturgy, Christina is an avid and experienced library user and plans to pursue an advanced degree in Library and Information Science soon after she finishes her undergraduate coursework. We hope you enjoy her observations as we strive to extend and connect resources to libraries and library users across the Commonwealth. If there is a library, archives, museum, or historical society in your community that you would like to see involved with this project, please let us know by sending a message to digital@bpl.org!