Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Carmichael Library completes first stage of digitization project

The staff of Carmichael Library at the University of Montevallo has been working diligently for some time on a digitization project for some of the library’s holdings, and has recently shared the news that the first stage of the project is complete!

The goal of the project is to digitize all the University’s yearbooks and bulletins. Stage One included digitization of the earliest yearbooks and bulletins. These rare and one-of-a-kind items are now preserved and stored on a secure server and are available on the Internet Archives site. Alumni, students, faculty, staff and scholars can now view and download items of interest. These items can even be downloaded to a Kindle!

At a time when funding for such projects can be difficult to find, UM’s library staff was able to pursue this project by utilizing the LYRASIS Mass Digitization Collaborative. The program is supported by LYRASIS members and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The Collaborative provides libraries the opportunity to digitize and share their collections. The project is being managed by Carey Heatherly, an assistant professor at Carmichael Library, with the help of UM student interns. Their work has taken the project to the start of the second stage.

To visit the Carmichael Library Internet Archives site: www.archive.org/details/universityofmontevallo

To view the 1907 edition of the Chiaroscuro, the school’s first yearbook: www.archive.org/details/chiaroscuro11907seni

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