MPLP: A New Tool for Special Collections Access

1. MPLP: A New Tool for Special Collections Access Dennis Meissner Minnesota Historical Society

2. Thesis • Our preeminent access and public service mission is compromised by our chronic inability to function at a meaningful scale • Special Collections holdings, as well as archives • A legacy of missed opportunities: • Audience engagement and impact • Digitization • Discovery and delivery in webspace, at webscale • MPLP approaches , broadly construed, have potential

3. MPLP findings • Processing benchmarks and practices are inappropriate to deal with problems posed by large contemporary collections • Ideal vs. the necessary • Fixation on item-level tasks • Preservation anxieties trump user needs • We achieve only a fraction of our productive potential • Our processing actions contradict our managerial self image

4. Old processing model Process driven

5. Old processing model Process driven Resource insensitive

6. Old processing model Process driven Resource insensitive Artisan quality

7. Old processing model Process driven Resource insensitive Artisan quality High unit cost

8. Old processing model Process driven Resource insensitive Artisan quality High unit cost Lengthy turnaround

9. Old processing model Process driven Resource insensitive Artisan quality High unit cost Lengthy turnaround Stable resources

10. New processing model Audience driven

11. New processing model Audience driven Resource sensitive

12. New processing model Audience driven Resource sensitive Production quality

13. New processing model Audience driven Resource sensitive Production quality Low unit cost

14. New processing model Audience driven Resource sensitive Production quality Low unit cost Rapid turnaround

15. New processing model Audience driven Resource sensitive Production quality Low unit cost Rapid turnaround Uncertain resources

16. Stern advice about resource management Prioritizing goals Achieving high-level program objectives Maximizing cost-effectiveness Practical approaches, not millenial ones A profound change in approach and perspective Making use the preeminent objective Throwing away the cookie cutters Openness to archival innovation Institutional practice limited only by resources Extensible to non-archival collections and formats What MPLP really is

17. Flexible approach to leveraging our collective ability to provide access to research collections Extensible to deal with novel problem spaces Brevity in resource description is positive benefit in networked environments Economical approaches are driving innovations in practice: Description; archival approaches; digitization What can MPLP mean for Special Collections?

18. Elements of extensibility • Taking archival approaches to non-archival materials • Seeing “items” as collections • Adapting EAD finding aids • Using finding aids as discovery and delivery platforms

19. Early Implementers • University of Alaska—Fairbanks • Anne Foster ffalf@uaf.edu • Series level processing of extensive photographs • Lets use drive more intensive processing • Involves donor in processing continuum • Solicits $$ donations from donors for more processing

20. Early Implementers • University of Wisconsin—Oshkosh • Joshua Ranger ranger@uwosh.edu • Series level processing of digitized collections • High-speed bi-tonal scanning of photocopied collection materials • The perfect is the enemy of the good • Move metadata level from item to folder level

21. Minnesota Historical Society • Walter Mondale Papers • NEH “We the People” Project • High productivity + high-value products • http://www.mnhs.org/library/findaids/00697.xml

22. Mondale Papers finding aid

23. Mondale Papers finding aid

24. Minnesota Historical Society • Walter Mondale Papers • NEH “We the People” Project • High productivity + high-value products • Rethinking items as collections • Photographs (albums and loose images, as well) • Sheet music • Bound publications • Maps • Oral histories • Audio and moving image materials • Digitizing collections at scale

25. Photograph collections http://www.mnhs.org/library/findaids/sv000057.xml

26. Sheet music collections http://www.mnhs.org/library/findaids/sv000057.xml

27. Telephone directories

28. Minnesota Historical Society • Walter Mondale Papers • NEH “We the People” Project • High productivity + high-value products • Rethinking items as collections • Photographs (albums and loose images, as well) • Sheet music • Bound publications • Maps • Oral histories • Audio and moving image materials • Digitizing collections at scale

29. Why should we digitize? • Expose collection materials to users, 24-7-365 • Not for preservation (we already have the originals) • Create bigger audience impacts • Harness the power of Zipf’s Law • Implement user choices: Scan on Demand

30. How should we digitize?PDFs: low-cost digital carriers http://www.mnhs.org/library/findaids/00744.xml

31. The (im)Perfect PDF • Perfection—the leading cause of program death • Scan with flatbed, camera, or photocopier • As fast as possible (whatever works) • JPEG quality (300 ppi max) • Bundle images into a single PDF • OCR, if it can be done cheaply

32. The (im)Perfect PDF • Throw away the JPEGs! (no preservation value) • Create strong filenames • No added descriptive metadata (inherit from context) • Archival finding aids carry metadata, discovery, and access burden • RLG’s Scan on Demand white paper: http://www.oclc.org/research/publications/library/2011/2011-05.pdf

33. PDFs: low-cost digital carriers http://www.mnhs.org/library/findaids/00744.xml

34. PDFs: low-cost digital carriers http://www.mnhs.org/library/findaids/00744.xml

35. “The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago. The next best time is now.” --African proverb quoted by economist Dambisa Moyo dennis.meissner@mnhs.org