Sunday, September 30, 2007

Week 5: Nose to the Grindstone

This week has been a turning point in the project: I've progressed from the planning stage to the execution stage. After finalizing my project plan, I continued scanning and reformatting pamphlets and learned how to upload the images to the CONTENTdm server. It's a bit of a learning curve, as there are a lot of details to remember, but the software makes the whole thing pretty easy to do.

I also had my first lessons on metadata. I've only spent a couple of days on that, and I'm still feeling pretty wet behind the ears. I can't say I have a very strong grasp of it yet, so I will need to read up on the rules to get a better understanding of what I'm doing. But I did manage to add descriptions to the four pamphlets that are now available for viewing on the Iowa Digital Library website -- take a look here. There are still some kinks to be worked out, like tinkering with the image sizes so they aren't so huge. The collection won't officially be "unveiled" until the end of the semester, but if you know where to look you can watch it grow as each document is added.

The entire process of scanning the images, organizing the files on the network, cropping and straightening, uploading to CONTENTdm, and adding metadata is pretty time-consuming
(and, frankly, a little mind-numbing after a while...but enjoyable if you have music to listen to). It basically took me all week to complete those four pamphlets. I did lose some time deleting, re-cropping, and re-uploading a couple of pamphlets, because I decided to switch to a "one-up" (one page) display rather than "two-up" (two-page spread). I wasted even more time because I didn't realize I could delete an entire compound object (i.e., a pamphlet) at once rather than one page at a time. I'm sure I will work faster as I go, but it made me realize that trying to complete more than 50 pamphlets might be a bit optimistic given the time frame of the project. I'm going to shoot for that as my target collection size, and if I happen to have time to add more it will be a bonus.

Stay tuned next week, as I continue to reformat, upload, and catalog more pamphlets. I will also need to spend some time figuring out if there are any companies I should be contacting to request copyright permission -- since I have no idea how long that process might take, I'd better get started sooner rather than later.

Sunday, September 23, 2007

4: Recipe Pamphlets Are Like Trees

I had a meeting last week with representatives from Digital Library Services, Special Collections, and Preservation to discuss my ideas about the project and finalize a project plan. It was good to get some new perspectives. For example, as my last post shows I had been sort of tied up in knots over the copyrighted materials in the collection, thinking I should just avoid them. However, I came out of the meeting with a somewhat more relaxed view on this issue.

It was agreed that the effort to digitize the pamphlet collection will likely continue after my initial stint is up, with the goal of eventually publishing most, if not all, of it. Therefore, I was encouraged to go ahead and start seeking copyright permission from major companies represented in the collection. It seems unlikely that any would refuse; it will just be an added detail to take care of.

I was also made aware of a gray area in the copyright world: "orphan works", which are copyrighted works whose owners may be impossible to locate or identify. Many of the pamphlets would meet this description, as they were published by companies no longer in existence. While government legislation on how to deal with orphan works is currently being debated, the bottom line is that these particular pieces may well be fair game for inclusion in the online collection. It's sort of like the philosophical question of a tree falling in a forest - if a copyrighted work is published but the owner isn't around to care anymore, does it make a sound? It's a fine line to walk to avoid breaking the law, while also taking calculated risks when the stakes are low. From what I understand, even in the worst case scenario, the university would simply be asked to remove the images from the website.

The consensus reached at the meeting was that it would be best to start with a sampling of the collection, concentrating on the years 1880 - 1940, with the rest to be added over time after I have laid the groundwork. A few of the oldest ones will need to be prepared for reformatting in the Preservation workshop, but most of the pamphlets are in good shape to be scanned. Speaking of which, I scanned and Photoshopped my first two pamphlets (Wrigley's and Air-O-Mix, of course), and will be learning how to import them to CONTENTdm next week. I'm also working on drafting a written project plan to use as a blueprint in moving forward.

Saturday, September 15, 2007

Week 3: Changing My Tune

I'm getting to know the physical collection very well, having spent hours browsing and noting materials that look like good candidates for digitization. It will be hard to narrow the list down to no more than 100 pamphlets, as there are many I'd like to include, but I think keeping the online collection small is a good thing. Most pamphlets within a given era are similar in style and theme, so choosing a subset of representative ones will give the viewer a pretty good idea of what the rest are like.

I've also been revising my ideas about organization. As I look through the pamphlets, it becomes increasingly clear that using any sort of chronological structure will only create problems. This is because of the publication date/copyright paradox I mentioned in my other posts. I've learned through my research into copyright law that pre-1923 works are public domain, as are those published without notice between 1923 and 1978. Unfortunately, most companies during the latter period made sure to include a copyright notice in their publications, so there are fewer post-1923 pamphlets I'll able to use. The opposite is true of the pre-1923 pamphlets: fewer of them are dated at all. This leaves me working mainly with undated materials.

It's a little confusing, but the upshot is that I've shifted my focus to a more thematic approach. I'm thinking about dividing it into categories along the lines of "food", "appliances and kitchenware", "medicine", and "miscellaneous". Within those categories, the pamphlets would be grouped loosely by time period, but not specifically as such. Other possible themes are pamphlets that relate to manufacturers' health and nutrition claims, or those that demonstrate women's roles and gender stereotypes. However, these would eliminate a lot of pamphlets that aren't necessarily relevant to a specific theme, and I like the idea of being able to include a broader range of materials.

In my last post, I also mentioned the historical research I've been doing. My sources include the books Revolution at the Table by Harvey Levenstein and The Oxford Companion to Food and Drink in America, as well as various online sources such as The Food Timeline. In the Levenstein book, I read about two women -- a cookbook author and a home economist, who were influential figures in the early 20th-century food world -- immediately after having found documents written by both of them among the pamphlets. That was an interesting coincidence, and hit home for me the historical value of the collection. The pamphlets might seem to some like trivial bits of ephemera, but they really do reflect the evolution of American culture in many ways, which is why I think they will be of interest to a wide audience. If nothing else, it's fun to look at the advertising.

Sunday, September 9, 2007

Week 2: The Plot Thickens

As week two draws to a close, it's becoming apparent just how much work I really have to do in one short semester. My main focus so far has been to define the scope of the project, and I have been browsing digital collections online (including the Iowa Heritage Digital Collections, University of Wisconsin Digital Collections, and Documenting Pitt) to get an idea of what would be a realistic size to aim for. After consulting with my project mentor, Nicki Saylor, the consensus seems to be that somewhere between 50 and 100 items would be a reasonable goal. That's something of a relief, because I had envisioned having to deal with a much larger number.

But on the other hand, this creates a new challenge: coming up with a cohesive structure for such a small subset of pamphlets. Should it be either food or appliance pamphlets? Pamphlets from the 1880s through the 1920s? Pamphlets demonstrating the health claims of early product advertisements, or ones that reflect the changing roles of women in the kitchen? Although I am personally more interested in the oldest pamphlets, after much waffling (and again, guidance from Nicki) I'm tentatively planning to feature highlights of the collection in a timeline format, with each decade up through the 1960s or 70s represented. This will allow viewers to get a broad overview of how eating habits and food production have evolved over the course of a century.

Now begins the time consuming task of poring over the thousands of pamphlets, in search of the most interesting and informative ones to include. It feels a little like digging through a treasure chest. My favorite so far is a Wrigley Spearmint gum pamphlet from 1915, which features a "spear-man" reciting nursery rhymes. I'm trying to muster the same enthusiasm for the kitschy ads of the 50s and 60s...they're less unique, and I'm easily distracted by more arcane products like the Air-O-Mix "Whip All" food aerator (which, according to early 20th- century experts, makes food somehow magically more nutritious).

I've also been spending time researching U.S. food history and copyright law - an important issue that could figure into the selection process, as many of the pamphlets are copyrighted. I'll touch on those topics in my next post.

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Week 1: A Bouncing Baby Blog

Say hello to the newest addition to the blogosphere. Before any Web surfers out there in Internetland get too excited, it's all about libraries. Specifically, I will be chronicling my project work as an IMLS Digital Libraries Fellow at the University of Iowa School of Library and Information Science. But keep reading! I promise it will be fascinating.

This semester I've been assigned to the Chef Louis Szathmary Culinary Arts Collection, housed in the Special Collections division of the U of I libraries (Szathmary was an influential Hungarian-American chef, writer, and culinary instructor, who amassed a large collection of food-related materials). This is a good fit for me, because I'm what you might call a foodie. Within the larger collection, there is a sub-collection of vintage recipe pamphlets and cookbooks which are slated for inclusion in the U of I Digital Library. The pamphlets were published by manufacturers, food growers, and other organizations to promote and educate consumers about various products, such as pre-packaged convenience foods or appliances. (to get an idea of what I'm talking about, here are some examples). My job, among other things, is to figure out the scope of the digitization effort and work on designing the collection's website.

So far, I've spent a couple of days looking through the first few boxes of pamphlets and taking notes (there are 96 boxes in all). There are well over 4000 pamphlets, ranging from the late 1800s to the present day. About half of these aren't dated - the best you can do is make an educated guess about their decade of publication. This could prove to be a thorny issue when trying to decide which materials to use (assuming, as I am now, that only a portion of the collection will be digitized to begin with, and will likely be organized chronologically).

I've been working on other things too, but I'll save that for the next post. Now I'm off to the library to look at pictures of food...