Announcing Digital Collections at Boise State University

by Erin Passehl

 

 

Boise State University officially launched the Albertsons Library Digital Collections website in late February 2009. The website (http://digital.boisestate.edu) currently features three collections: Historic Boise State, Len Jordan Collection, and the Western Writers Series Digital Editions. Together, these collections showcase photographs, documents, maps, and other resources from Special Collections documenting the history, culture, and people of Idaho and the American West.

 

The impetus for building publicly accessible digital collections began several years ago, when Kinesiology classes began incorporating Special Collections materials into final term projects on the history of physical education and athletics at Boise State University. Students would use materials such as yearbooks, catalogs, student newspapers, athletic programs, maps, photographs, and departmental records as part of their research. Requests flooded in for Special Collections to scan certain materials for use in presentations and papers. After spending several semesters scanning materials at a low resolution and storing those files, Albertsons Library purchased a license for OCLC's CONTENTdm digital assets management software.

 

The library began by using already created JPEG images as the access copies for CONTENTdm. They were assigned preliminary metadata using the basic Dublin Core schema. After these images were uploaded into the system, Special Collections returned to the University Archives photographic prints files and scanned more images to begin more systematic documentation of campus history, campus life and events, and athletics. Boise State University hired a new archivist in July 2008, at which time Special Collections adapted metadata fields found in the uploaded images. New fields were created and modified with the intent of customizing browse options upon designing the web interface for digital collections. Although metadata fields continue to be updated, the customized browses function across the collection.

 

The Collections

 

Historic Boise State is a growing collection of images from the Boise State University Archives photo collection. The digital collection contains approximately 800 images documenting the history and evolution of the campus, student life, and campus events, from the university's founding as Boise Junior College in 1932 to the present day. The collection can be searched by keyword or advanced search options, such as by date, subject, and across all digital collections. Because Kinesiology students are heavy users of Historic Boise State, three customized browse searches allow students to find images quickly by decade, by building, and by sport. Other browse features may be added after evaluating how the collection is being used by students and the general public.

 

The Len Jordan Collection contains seventy-five photographs of Jordan's career as Idaho governor (1950-1954) and U.S. senator (1962-1972). A few images are taken from Jordan's campaign for governor in 1950. The collection also documents the 1952 Western Governors Conference, which took place in Boise, Idaho. Republican presidential candidate Dwight D. Eisenhower attended the conference and kicked off his national post-convention campaign with a large rally on the steps of the Idaho State Capitol. The collection includes images of Jordan meeting with prominent politicians, both local and national, as well as with everyday Idahoans. Users can search the collection by keyword, year, and the same advanced search options as the other digital collections. The Len Jordan Collection can also be browsed by the offices Jordan held, geographic locations, and by groups of people in the images, such as U.S. presidents.

 

Western Writers Series Digital Editions comprises twenty-three out-of-print booklets of biography and criticism on the American literary west from Boise State University's Western Writers Series. The Western Writers Series began publishing booklets in 1972 meant for both the general public and scholars alike. The majority focus on the life and work of individual writers who have made significant contributions to western American literature and contain biography, critical interpretation, and discussion of the full range of an author's work (see http://westernwriters.boisestate.edu/about.shtml). Each booklet, ranging from 50-60 pages in length, is presented online in PDF format and is full-text searchable.

 

Over the next few semesters, Albertsons Library plans to add photograph collections formed around the lives and careers of Senator Frank Church, Idaho explorer Robert Limbert, and silent filmmaker Nell Shipman, besides continuing to add images to Historic Boise State.

 

For all digital collections, Boise State University Special Collections scanned photographs and other materials using a Microtek ScanMaker 10000XL scanner with Adobe Photoshop software. Digital images and metadata are hosted on a server in Albertsons Library. Images (master, access, thumbnails) are scanned based on guidelines set forth by BCR's CDP Digital Imaging Best Practices, available at http://www.bcr.org/cdp/best/digital-imaging-bp.pdf.

 

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