NDNP Awardee Interim Performance Report
NEH Award Number: PJ-50038-08
NDNP State: Washington
Submitted By: Marlys Rudeen, Project Director
Report Date: January 31, 2009

INTERIM PERFORMANCE REPORT NARRATIVE

1. Changes in Workplan or Methodology

There have been few changes in the preliminary workplan to this point in the project. However, with the advent of the new DVV and adoption of the new technical specifications, there will be some adjustments in future months. At present, despite occasional bureaucratic delays, the project is on schedule for the first deliverables at the end of January.

The Project Coordinator, Laura Robinson, was hired and began work full-time in September. It was decided that it would be advantageous to have her work part of each week at the University of Washington (UW) campus. This enabled her to supervise student workers directly, and continue to work closely on selection issues with UW staff.

2. Selection or Film Acquisition/Evaluation Activities

Title selection is continuing, and the decision was made to focus on a particular time period with a wide geographic distribution. Accordingly the selection committee looked for titles that covered 1900-1910, with at least one title for each region and the significant towns of the period: Bellingham, Everett, Seattle, Spokane, Tacoma, Vancouver, Walla Walla, Wenatchee and Yakima. At a meeting between UW and WSL on Sept. 12, 2008 both organizations decided on the first titles to be duplicated/purchased. Since both UW and WSL own master negatives, it was decided that each organization would be responsible for managing its own negatives and obtaining the required duplicates for the titles they own.

Both partners have spent some time working with their service bureaus to get acceptable 2nd generation negatives and the required density readings. Since many of WSL’s negatives are held by a third party, this required some research to confirm the location and availability of certain titles.

While this was happening, Laura hired a work study student and began developing the workflow for examining the film and collecting metadata. She began by experimenting with an Access database supplied by our vendor (OCLC) and with Excel spreadsheets. However it was not always possible to get the required programs on the computer available for the student worker, so they began to use the spreadsheet function on Google Docs, a free web-based set of applications. This has worked well, ensuring that Laura and the student can reach the files from any location and providing the ability to link the film evaluation data to the NDNP wiki (see section 3). They are consulting with OCLC to firm up the respective metadata responsibilities.

The first reel was scanned and run through OCLC’s OCR process, and the data and images were shipped to WSL. Laura ran it through the DVV to make sure it validated before beginning the quality assurance process. Using the sample reel, the internal quality assurance processes are being developed.

We did find some incorrect metadata and are creating a work plan to best deal with such errors. One such example of an error was the incorrect attribution of ownership of the tiff images to ‘Minnesota State Historical Society’ in the validated data files (_1.xml files). Laura investigated and determined it came from embedded metadata in tiff files. She located a command-line tool used to extract, write, and view embedded data in image files and is working with the vendor to develop a plan of correction.

Since the latest version of the DVV has arrived, the decision was made to adopt the 2009 technical specifications for metadata on future reels.

3. Award Activities with Collaborating Institutions

A contract with the UW was executed to allow the Washington State Library (WSL) to reimburse UW for two functions: purchase of duplicate film from negative masters owned by UW; and payment of work study worker(s) at the UW Library. Arrangements were also made to provide office space for Laura and student worker(s) at UW.

Laura has established a wiki for the project to use for maintaining files and communicating. The NDNP wiki is located at http://wiki.secstate.wa.gov/ndnp/MainPage.ashx

The wiki provides a method of storing and making available a variety of documents generated during the project, and will provide a coherent record of the project. News and updates also circulate on a project listserv to all participants and committee members.

4. Conversion and/or Vendor Selection The RFP for scanning and OCR was issued on Sept. 15, 2008 and responses were due Oct. 15, 2008. Three proposals were received and evaluated by staff according to a procedure and scoring process developed in consultation with WSL’s contracts office. On Oct. 24, 2008, WSL announced that the successful vendor was OCLC. WSL and its contract office immediately began working on the contract which is now completed.

While contract negotiations were going on, the portable hard drive and mailing cases were purchased, named (after boats in the Washington State Ferry fleet), and shipped to the vendor in Bethlehem, PA.

Film examination and metadata collection were completed for the first title, five reels of the Seattle Republican and related titles. The first reel will be used as the sample reel to be submitted to LOC by January 31, 2009.

A kickoff meeting with OCLC staff has been scheduled for January 7, 2009 to discuss metadata specifics, project structure, communication, and scheduling of work and shipments.

5. Do you have any questions or comments regarding the use of the tools provided by LC (Digital Viewer Validation)?

The DVV has been very helpful and generally easy to use. There were very minor issues with the install and a suggestion made to LOC staff to add text to the documentation for future users. We’ve found that the GUI has been less helpful and more limiting than the command-line options of validation. We intend to use the GUI and perhaps Adobe Bridge for visual validation of the image files.

We are hoping to create scripts and that can output the batch, reel, and issue metadata into various formats for testing and validation.

6. Provide an update on your planned schedule for delivery of digital assets for the award, including samples, to the NDNP repository.

The hard drives purchased for the project have a capacity of 1 TB, requiring between 18-20 reels to fill. Shipments of drives will take place every 6-8 weeks. The table below represents the list of titles and possible substitutes divided by six month periods to assist the staff members responsible for acquiring the negatives, performing the film evaluation and quality control.

Titles			reels	pages	7/31/09	1/31/10	6/30/10
Blaine Journal		12	8400			8400
Bremerton News		10	7000		7000	
Cayton's Weekly		1	700		700	
Colville Examiner		5	6422	6422		
Colfax Gazette		8	4815	4815		
Commonwealth, Everett	1	700		700	
Co-Operative News,   
  Everett			1	700		700	
Everett Herald (sub)	-	-         
Industrial Freedom,   
  Edison			1	700			700
Labor Journal, Everett	3	2100			2100
Leavenworth Echo		6	4200		4200	
Lynden Tribune		6	4200		4200	
Pullman Herald		11	7700	7700		
Ranche and Range		8	5600		5600	
Scimitar, Kettle Falls	3	2100			2100
Seattle Republican		5	4668	4668		
Seattle Star		22	19800		19800	
Spokane Press		10	7000			7000
Tacoma Times (sub)		-	-
Walla Walla Evening   
  Statesman		22       15400			15400
Washington Socialist,   
  Everett			1        700		700	
Wenatchee Daily World	13	9100			9100
Yakima Herald		12	5641	5641	 	 
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Total pages			117646	29246	43600	44800
Total reels		161		41	56	64

7. State briefly the status of any other digitized newspaper activities in your or collaborating partners’ institutions (non-NDNP-funded).

Since July the State Library has put up two more newspaper titles in their internal digital newspaper project, the Yakima Herald (1889-1890), and the Puget Sound Herald from Steilacoom (Mar. 1858-1860). Several more titles are in process. This internal project has been significantly slowed down by budget and staff cuts, and by the fact that some of the personnel involved have significant roles in the NDNP project.

8. Please provide copies of or URLs for any public presentations or publications on topics related to your participation in NDNP (or describe future plans for such).

WSL’s NDNP related news:

• http://blogs.secstate.wa.gov/digitization/index.php/category/digital-collections/newspapers/ndnp/
• Mar. 13, 2009 Washington State Council on Social Studies, Chelan, WA. Presentation on digital collections and primary resources will highlight Chronicling America and NDNP.
  

9. Describe any follow-up issues or questions you would like convey to the NDNP program committee as you begin your digital conversion project.

It is our understanding that the new DVV includes validation of embedded metadata in the image files. Because of such issues as described above we are looking forward to having more robust checking of the metadata in the image files.

Please submit to your NEH Program Officer ([email protected]) with a copy to [email protected], by January 31, 2009.