CR2 Blog the knowledge blog
  • scissors
    April 5th, 2013LISWire aggregatorLISWire

    BETHLEHEM, Pa., April 5, 2013 — The Centre for Newfoundland Studies at Memorial University of Newfoundland's Queen Elizabeth II Library has entered into a new phase of a long-term newspaper digitization project with Backstage Library Works. This phase will increase the digital collection's size to more than 100,000 images, adding some 28,000 pages to the 93,000 already digitized since the project began in 2010.

    Joan Ritcey, head of the Centre for Newfoundland Studies, praised Backstage's work:

    "We looked widely to find a microfilm newspaper digitization company which would create high-res images, excellent OCR-ing and software which would separate individual articles from long columns of text on the screen. Technically, Backstage has given us what we needed.

    "On a personal cooperation level, the Backstage staff is very easy to work with. Our digitization people interact with them regularly and whether our communication regards the return of original materials or discussions around customization, we always get a response from Backstage the same day."

    St. John's, Newfoundland, home of Memorial University, is steeped in a rich history that contributes significantly to the story of the making and life of North America. The Centre for Newfoundland Studies seeks to preserve and tell this history. These preservation efforts include creating a digital collection accessible to students at Memorial University, and to scholars, researchers and hobbyists worldwide.

    Backstage is a partner in this ambitious work, providing digital scans of regional newspapers spanning the 20th century. Digitizing from both microfilm and hard copy, a team of digital experts creates archival-quality TIFF images from which JPEG image files and OCR text are derived, then combined into PDF collections. Backstage also creates METS/ALTO metadata, which provides users a rich search experience in CONTENTdm, the digital asset management system used by Memorial University.

    Since March 2010, Backstage has digitized over 70 reels of microfilm for the Centre for Newfoundland Studies. The quality of the original microfilming does not always meet modern preservation practices, with inconsistent lighting and image densities causing prevalent contrast issues among the older reels. Backstage professionals know how to handle these unique materials for the best end-result, using technologies and practices honed through 15 years of providing archival digitization services and 25 years working with preservation microfilm.

    Kelly Barrall, Backstage digital project coordinator, explained how her team balances the technical demands of the collection:

    "A lot of Digital Imaging processes found in the market today rely primarily on software automation. Instead, at Backstage, our approach to the library's project is to find just the right balance of automation and human intervention. This means we apply custom enhancements or hand cropping to some images. We even refer back to the original microfilm when collecting the metadata during the 100% quality assurance inspection of the images, just to verify that the final results represent the original microfilm content."

    All project consultation, profiling, materials preparation, scanning, metadata creation and customer support for this project will be provided by the Digitization team in Backstage's Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, office.

     

    Joan Ritcey is Head of the Centre for Newfoundland Studies at Memorial University Libraries, St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada.

    About Backstage Library Works

    Backstage's objective is to provide the most technologically advanced and efficient means for delivering professional library services. With over 25 years of experience, the company is known for its expertise in handling complex and unique projects. Backstage specializes in solutions for cataloging, authority control, digitization, preservation microfilm, and on-site needs. In providing services to more than a thousand libraries, large and small, public and private, and in locations across the globe, Backstage has cultivated an understanding of libraries, their mission, their operations, and the challenges they face. Backstage offices are located in Provo, Utah, and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

    Contact

    Richard Covington | Marketing Manager
    Backstage Library Works | Provo, Utah & Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
    Phone: 801.356.1852 | Fax: 801.356.8220
    news@bslw.com | www.bslw.com

  • scissors
    April 5th, 2013LISWire aggregatorLISWire

    4/5/2013
    CONTACT:
    Nathan Curulla
    (888) 900-8944
    sales@bywatersolutions.com

    Texas Library Consortium Chooses ByWater Solutions’ Koha Support

    ByWater Solutions, an open source community supporter and the U.S.’ forefront provider of Koha support, announced today that the Texas Library Consortium is now live on their installation of the Koha integrated library system.

    ByWater Solutions completed the migration for the Texas Library Consortium at the beginning of February and will be providing ongoing Koha support and hosting services for their nearly 42 libraries, 1 million items and 120,000 patrons.

    Jerry Brock, Owner, e-Libris Technologies discussed the decision of switching to Koha with ByWater Solutions:

    “e-Libris Technologies and the Texas Library Consortium chose ByWater Solutions based upon the vendor’s high service rankings, ongoing improvement of the Koha open source software, and their ability to migrate 42 libraries within a single weekend on short notice. The ByWater migration and support teams combined to ensure the transition was successful, and the libraries feel we have taken an important step toward improving service and reliability for their patrons.”

    “We ran into a unique situation when we migrated TLC over to the Koha Community and ByWater” Stated Brendan Gallagher, ByWater’s CEO.

    He continues: “The consortium was faced with a difficult decision: Either renew with their current vendor, have the plug pulled on their hosted system by their current vendor, or trust that ByWater was up to the challenge of a one-weekend migration of a 42 member library system. We are very grateful that the TLC placed their trust in our abilities and experience and it is a testament to the skill of our migration department that this transition occurred without incident. We are thrilled to provide the Texas Library Consortium with the levels of support they deserve and look forward to a long a productive relationship with this growing library system.”

    About Texas Library Consortium:

    Texas Library Consortium serves the residents of Texas via their 42 member libraries. Their collection of nearly 1 million items include books, movies and electronic resources.

    About Koha:

    Koha is the first open-source Integrated Library System (ILS). In use worldwide, its development is steered by a growing community of libraries collaborating to achieve their technology goals. Koha’s impressive feature set continues to evolve and expand to meet the needs of its user base. It includes modules for circulation, cataloging, acquisitions, serials, reserves, patron management, branch relationships, and more.

    Koha’s OPAC, circulation, management and self-checkout interfaces are all based on standards-compliant World Wide Web technologies–XHTML, CSS and Javascript–making Koha a truly platform-independent solution. Koha is distributed under the open-source General Public License (GPL). For more information about Koha, please visit: http://koha-community.org/

    About ByWater Solutions:

    ByWater Solutions is a full service, high quality support and implementation company dedicated to providing libraries with a lower cost, more advanced level of support for their ILS than a traditional proprietary solution can offer. ByWater Solutions has a proven track record in first rate Koha implementation and support with library systems of all sizes. Our highly ranked, comprehensive support is what sets our company apart from any other vendor in the industry. Partnering with ByWater Solutions to support Koha not only lowers the cost of implementing and maintaining an ILS, but more importantly empowers libraries by giving them the flexibility and freedom they deserve. For more information please visit: http://bywatersolutions.com/