Softrek2 Shakedown: #SmartTrip 01
Thirty-three years ago Jim and Dave left the East Coast as mobile journalists for Softalk magazine. They scoured the country looking for stories on Apple users doing interesting things with their new computers and to generate enthusiastic interest in Softalk, one of the first home computer magazines. They called this road trip “Softrek” — an auto trek in support of Softalk magazine.
Today Jim and I are on the road, again in support of Softalk magazine, and again looking for people doing interesting things with today’s technology.We have smart phones, laptops, tablets, and digital cameras. We can easily access Google, the Internet Archive, the Digital Public Library of America and scores of other digital sources for any information we need. And anything we write can be on line for anyone to read in just a matter of seconds. We call this #SmartTrip “Softrek2” — in search of digital life in the 21st Century.”
For our shakedown #SmartTrip we are bringing our treasured archive of Softalk magazines to the Internet Archive’s Regional Scanning Center in Fort Wayne Indiana. And, as new Community Representatives for the Digital Public Library of America, we are going to #DPLAfest in Indianapolis.
First Stop: #DPLAfest 2015 — Indianapolis
Although DPLA — the Digital Public Library of America — is a relatively young organization, the idea of building such a national digital library has been a hot topic since the early 1990s.
As hundreds of organizations began building collections of digital resources, a huge body of digital content was rapidly becoming available. But there was no single platform or portal through which to access all of the sources. The need for a national digital library intensified, and the vision for DPLA began to take shape.
The DPLA planning process began in October 2010 and by 2013 the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) was a fact. And, in 2015, as the new cohort of community representatives of DPLA were announced, we felt proud and honored to become a part of this nation-wide agenda. We needed to develop our outreach project — where to begin? #DPLAfest 2015 — our first stop on #SmartTrip 01.
#DPLAfest 2015, scheduled for April 17–18 in Indianapolis, was the second annual Digital Public Library of America gathering of anyone and everyone who supports, contributes to, and benefits from the DPLA. For two days several hundred attendees gathered to engage in workshops, hands-on activities, hackathons, and intense discussions on the current state and anticipated future of digital collections of all kinds.
The opening session for #DPLAfest was held in at the Indianapolis Public Library (Central) — a wonderful mix of wood galleries, huge windows, modern steel, and glass. The atrium with its soaring metal cables, immense open space, and generous cafe seating became the gathering place for early registrants. You couldn’t help but feel that great ideas were secreted away here. It is definitely an impressive building.
Breakout sessions, and workshops were set in the Indiana State Library — an amazing structure dripping with history and character. Exceptional paintings, ceilings, windows, collections, and architectural touches throughout this beautiful building demanded awe and respect. It was a joy to attend sessions in this magnificent library.
The rest of the meetings, hackathon, etc., were found in IUPUI University Library, and the Indiana Historical Society; both equally impressive buildings, each with its own character and outstanding architectural presence.
As newly selected Community Representatives of DPLA, this year’s Fest was an eye-opener. Over 300 people physically attended the two days of sessions and hundreds more virtually attended via Periscope, Meerkat or similar video streaming applications. The pace was brisk; the topics were engaging; the conference locations were outstanding. Everywhere you looked there were people engaged in serious discussions. The ideas gushed like water from a fire hose.
It was very exciting to hear up-to-date information on the state of digital collections, the role of DPLA in support of education, and how e-books are being added into library collections. As new community reps one of the very informative sessions for us was the Community Showcase — an interactive session featuring 90-second poster presentations from members of the DPLA community talking about their outreach activities and special projects.
Since I haven’t been in a big city public library or university research library for a good long while, I was amazed with how things have changed. All of the libraries we visited on this shake down #SmartTrip were alive with activity! No tip-toeing around and speaking in barely a whisper. Each one of these libraries was literally buzzing with people.
As the whirlwind activities of #DPLAfest came to a close, we gathered our thoughts, said goodbye to a whole set of new friends, and packed up our gizmos for the next leg of this #SmartTrip shakedown.
When we set out to do something important with our post-cancer Bonus Round, our immediate choice was to get all 48 issues of Softalk magazine digitized, curated and preserved for future research.
As we packed the old Caddy to leave #DPLAfest and Indianapolis, our excitement quickly built. The commitment we made to celebrate our cancer survival was about to come into play — a full circle on the Bonus Round. With the Softalk magazine boxes carefully secured and Trekky riding along to keep an eye on them, we headed out to the Interstate. Next stop on our Softrek2 Shakedown #SmartTrip, Fort Wayne Indiana.
The Internet Archive Regional Scanning Center — Fort Wayne, Indiana
The Internet Archive is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded in 1996 specifically to build an Internet library. One of its main purposes is to provide permanent access to historical digital content for researchers, historians, educators, people with disabilities, and the general public.
Through collaboration with institutions that already have large volumes of digital content and with organizations large and small that have content in need of being digitized and preserved, the Internet Archive includes texts, journals, photos, audio, moving images, microfiche, software, archived web pages and much more. For a modest price and a little effort, even organizations as small as ours can have important historical content digitized and preserved in the Internet Archive.
To have our Softalk magazine archive ingested into the Internet Archive required getting all the issues to the Mid-West Regional Scanning Center in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Just two hours drive from Indianapolis, the Mid-West Regional Scanning Center is located in the basement of the Allen County Public Library in downtown Fort Wayne.
We were met at the Library’s front desk by Jeff Sharpe, the Internet Archive Mid-West Digitization Coordinator, and Jye Afamasaga, TTScribe Customer & Technical Support Specialist. We had our two boxes of Softalk magazines, Trekky the #SmartTrip mascot, and a super batch of fresh cookies we picked up from a great Amish bakery we found in Fort Wayne. We were here and we were thrilled.
There are all kinds of fail safe processes in place to keep very organized the huge volumes of materials being ingested into the Internet Archive. As Jeff walked us through the ingestion process, it was a momentous moment for us! Having carted these 48 issues of Softalk magazine around for the last 30 plus years, bringing them to the Internet Archive to be digitized, curated, and preserved for the future was truly a thrilling event.
Then we got down to business! The Internet Archive scanning facility consists of a number of work stations covered with black drapes for page scanning and a really huge scanner for very, very large or unusual items. The larger flatbed scanners in the bottom right photo are in the same area but they are used by the LDS Family Search volunteers digitizing genealogy material.
The Softalk archive was scheduled to be scanned using either the Internet Archive’s Scribe system or it’s newest Table Top Scribe system. We had seen the TT Scribe system in action at #DPLAfest 2015. The Internet Archive was one of the fest vendors and Jeff Sharpe was demonstrating its use, which is really quite amazing to watch.
The TT Scribe is an easy-to-assemble, highly portable, safe, and non-destructive digitization system. The V-cradle Table Top Scribe carefully holds bound items (books, magazines, etc., ) in a v-shaped platform so they can be digitized without breaking the spine. A glass plate comes down to flatten the pages but the V-shape preserves the spine. Two cameras suspended above the glass plates capture the image, and a standard wifi connection completes data transfer.
Jeff introduced us to LaDonna Hartmann, one of the top Scribe technicians at the Fort Wayne scanning facility. LaDonna set up the system to be ready to scan the Softalk magazines. She then walked us through using the Scribe system several times until we felt confident enough to try it ourselves.
With Trekky leading the support team, LaDonna and Jeff let us try our hand at using the Scribe. Jim and I each had the incredible opportunity to scan some of our Softalk magazine collection into the Internet Archive system. Jim scanned issue one and I scanned issue two. WOW! What a heady experience. Although scanning is only step one of the total process involved, we just felt so a part of an historic moment.
We appreciated the kindness of Jeff and his team to let us scan the first two issues of Softalk, but we were equally pleased to turn the system back to LaDonna to let her get on with the rest of the process we had requested.
As part of the services available, Scribe technicians will perform both an algorithmic and human review of each image, checking image quality, adjusting color, cropping, and incorporating structural metadata, when needed. For our part, we were ecstatic as we watched LaDonna whip through her process while we captured it on video. She truly is amazingly fast.
After our tour of the Internet Archive scanning center, Jeff Sharpe very kindly gave us a tour of the Allen County Library collections and the stacks and stacks of materials being digitized. The most shocking for me was seeing the enormous microfiche collections — microfiche? (Note: if you are under 25 and reading this…No, a microfiche is not a tiny sushi.)
With a full day behind us and so much to celebrate, we said goodbye to our new friends at the Midwest Regional Scanning Center of the Internet Archive and headed north and west toward Goshen.
Next Stop: Notre Dame University — South Bend, Indiana
The really cool thing about Softrek2 is that you start out with a specific map in mind, but where you actually visit can change as new places are discovered. Take for example our completely unexpected visit to Notre Dame University.
Like many conferences these days, #DPLAfest 2015 included attendees who were physically present, virtual others who followed the event via Periscope or Meerkat video stream, and interested others who tweeted and commented on the ideas being shared from the event. Throughout the fest, the techie set were highly engaged in tweet based discussions among themselves and a bevy of off-site kindred spirits.
It was in just such a tweetup that Jim got to exchanging metadata ideas with Jeremy Friesen, Digital Library Frameworks Specialist at University of Notre Dame. One tweet led to another and a visit to Notre Dame was added to Softrek2 #SmartTrip 01 before heading home to Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
As far back as I can remember, I’ve always been in awe of Notre Dame University. Surely the unique mascot, a Fighting Irish Leprechaun, has had a lot to do with it. And much of it was likely due to the high regard for scholastic excellence that the nuns at St. Joseph’s Grammar and then St. Mary’s High School held for the school and its Catholic foundations. But it wasn’t until I actually stepped onto the campus that I fully understood why Notre Dame has always been so special.
A few years back, Jim and I were elected to attend the Skoll World Forum in Oxford, England. It was an amazing experience to attend the World Forum itself, but even more so to wander the streets in Oxford. Around every corner, down every alley, across every cobblestone you could feel the “shining” of great thinkers.
Not nearly as old, but no less a place of great scholarship is Notre Dame University. Walk the campus, tour the buildings and you feel that same “shining” of great thinkers and exceptional accomplishments.
And much like Oxford, Notre Dame has also had its share of world influencing alumni. But we didn’t come to Notre Dame to revel in the scholastic atmosphere, nor to be awed by the long list of notable alumni. We were actually heading to the Theodore M. Hesburgh Library.
When it opened in 1963, the library was the largest university library building in the world.
On the south wall of the 13 story library tower, is the beloved mural designed by Millard Sheets. The mural depicts a never-ending line of great scholars, thinkers and teachers with Christ at the top as the Great Teacher.
Made up of 81 different types of stones from 16 different countries, for many the mural represents the diversity of the Notre Dame student and faculty body.
But for most, the Word of Life mural is popularly known as “Touchdown Jesus.” With His arms outstretched in welcome to all, Jesus appears to be making a touchdown signal. For fans in the football stadium nearby, it’s a signal that’s not at all hard to believe.
We came to the Hesburgh Library to catch up with Jeremy Friesen to continue the technical discussions started during a tweetup at #DPLAfest, and gently touched upon over dinner the night before with Jeremy in Goshen.
Metadata, graph databases, metamodel subgraphs, CIDOC CRM, executable models, user experiences, modeling vs. coding….the conversation ranged widely across deeply technical issues important to the big data repositories of DPLA, Hathi Trust, and the Internet Archive among many others. It was time well spent in the “deep weeds” of today’s Digital Humanities for these leading edge big data thinkers.
We broke for some lunch and a tour of the campus, and were soon on our way back home to Cedar Rapids. Enjoying the late Spring drive back through Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa we reviewed our first Softrek2 #SmartTrip.
We were gone less than a week, but it seemed so much longer. We learned a great deal, met many new and creative people, visited places we had never been before, and focused our interest on Digital Life in 21st Century America.
On the plus side, there were many. On the minus side — the trip was too short. We would have wanted more time at the Internet Archive Midwest Scanning Center to interview, Jeff, Jye, and LaDonna about the workflow processes.
We wished that #DPLAfest was a day or two longer. For us as new community reps, the fest pace allowed for only brief intros, a broad stroke of ideas, and a quick look at the incredible libraries of Indianapolis.
And finally, we wished we had set an appointment to interview Jenny Frech, the owner of Soapy Gnome in Goshen (and wife of Jeremy Friesen) about the way in which artists are collaborating in crafting community ecosystems in her area. We were particularly taken with the YouTube video on the “crafting community” of Goshen. This artists’ ecosystem concept is absolutely in line with the entrepreneurial community ecosystem ideas we have written about extensively at Sohodojo.com.
There are already a good set of reasons noted above for us to come back to Indiana on another #SmartTrip. So to quote the Indiana native whose Slaughterhouse Five I’ve just finished reading: “So it goes.” And so will we on our next Softrek2: #SmartTrip02.
