Harvard University LibraryOpen Collections

Program 

Andrew ClarkJoshua Parker

Rebecca Wingfield

October 16, 2008

LIS462 Digital Libraries (Schwartz)

Harvard University Library Open Collections Program

Introduction

• Aims to “advance teaching and learning on historical topics of great relevance by providing online access to historical resources from Harvard's renowned libraries, archives, and museums” (from OCP mission statement)

 • Favors a topic-based approach to building digital collections.

 • Creates open, useful, and persistent digital objects.

Harvard University Library Open Collections Program

Collections & Content

 Completed projects:• Women Working, 1800-1930 • Immigration to the United States, 1789-1930

• Contagion: Historical Views

of Diseases and Epidemics    In progress:• The Islamic Heritage Project 

• Scientific Exploration and Discovery in the Modern Age Madrāsī, Muḥammad Ṣibghat Allāh.

(1893 or 1894). Hādhā rūznāmah-ʼī maʻahu mīqāt layl wa-nahār wa-sāʼir al-awqāt al-maʻlūmah naqalahu Shaykh Wafā.

(From the Islamic Heritage Project)

Harvard University Library Open Collections Program

Metadata Systems Employed [1]

Descriptive:• Dublin Core; DACS;

CDWA  Technical:• Digital Repository

Service; MIX Structural:• METS

Metadata Standards at Harvard University

Preservation:•  OAIS; PREMIS; LDI

Rights:• Local practiceLocal formats:• VIA; Links to digital objects

Harvard University Library Open Collections Program

Metadata Systems Employed [2]

• Dublin Core • LCSH • Local information 

Full record view for an item in Immigration to the United States, 1789-1930

Harvard University Library Open Collections Program

Search Capability & Discovery [1]

Browsing–by Genre or Subject • Faceted arrays •  Variation in layout/options

Searching

• Keyword search

• Advanced searchLeft-hand navigation from Women Working, 1800-1930

Harvard University Library Open Collections Program

Search Capability & Discovery [2]

Harvard University Library Open Collections Program

Search Capability & Discovery [3]

• Featured collections• Timeline• Browse by genre or subject• Advanced and full-text search

Harvard University Library Open Collections Program

Viewing & Using Content [1]

• Page Delivery Service

Page Delivery Service display of a detail from the title page of Rølvaag, O. E. (1925). I de dage-: riket grundlægges. Oslo: H. Aschehoug & Co.

(from Immigration to the United States, 1789-1930)

• OCRed full text

   

• PDF download  

• Photographs, drawings, and other images are displayed using the Visual Information Access (VIA) catalog.

oiu I. first Communication comes it re; . ■ I from Dr. EmanuelTfimonius, % ?ubl ; c \+~jr Renowned Fellow of the JRoyal lann Society at London, (well known to . some in :, Bi | Boston, who also actually knew the Truth of ' hat the matter of Fact now going to be related J to len Who Writes from Constantinople in December jing 171 3. And -he informs to this Effect-, The

Harvard University Library Open Collections Program

Viewing & Using Content [2]

Original page and OCRed text from Mather, Cotton. (1721). Some account of what is said of inoculating or transplanting the small pox. Boston: Sold by S. Gerrish at his shop in Corn-Hill.

Harvard University Library Open Collections Program

User Services & Special Features• Short topical and thematic essays, including links to items in the collections

• Bibliographies

• "Today's Diary Entries" in Women Working, 1800 - 1930

• Help pages and FAQ, but no link to reference or research support Thematic content available for  Women

Working, 1800 - 1930

• Consistency of the collections and interface

• Functional performanceof the interface

• Quality of images and text

• Scholarly value

• Does the Open Collections Program meet its vision and mission?

Harvard University Library Open Collections Program

Overall Evaluation

Isidore. (1472). Isidori iunioris Hispalensis Episcopi prologus in librum De responsione mundi & astrorum ordinatione: ad Sesibutum Rege[m] incipit feliciter. Augsburg: Gunther Zainer.

(From Contagion: Historical Views of Diseases and Epidemics)

Harvard University Library Open Collections Program

Questions?

This presentation is acompanied by an annotated resource guide.