About this project: book digitization of Michigan Manual of Freedmen's Progress

A collaborative effort of Mitch Kachun, Associate Professor, Western Michigan University History Department; Sharon Carlson, Director of Archives and Regional History Collections, and the Digitization Center of WMU Libraries with help from the Kalamazoo Public Library has made it possible. The goal of the project was to have comprehensive access by history students, researchers and colleagues to this out-of-print book in the classroom and for research anywhere. Financial support is from the History Department's Burnham Macmillan Endowment fund and the College of Arts and Sciences Faculty Research and Teaching Awards program.

A summary of the technology work flow follows. Image capture was done on an OpticBook scanner to capture the page as close to the gutter as possible without stressing the binding. Tif files were saved. Then as original files went through Optical Character Recognition, where proofing, spelling, and formatting adjustments were made.

Challenges of lightly printed text and complex charts were solved with recreation of some pages as word processing documents which were put into the sequence of the book when the final pdf files were made. Metadata was done at the item level with standard subject authorities and keywords added. It was determined to put the files on the Internet at a permanent url location for usability by a wide audience in addition to links from Western's Library Catalog. Link to WMU catalog record

Copyright 2008 Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan, for the digital version all rights reserved. The digital version is available for educational use under 'Fair Use' guidelines. For additional permission and further information contact the WMU Libraries, Digitization Center, lib-dc@wmich.edu

The original item is a book is a non-circulating volume in the WMU Archives and Regional History Collections, Kalamazoo, Michigan. (Link to web site)

Links to the item will be available through the WMU Libraries Catalog WestCat; WMU History Department website; WMU Archives and Regional History Collections, where the original book is also housed; MelCat (Michigan’s elibrary); WorldCat (a global catalog of library collections); and the Digitization Center at WMU Libraries website. News release link (pdf).

The Digitization Center is a full service center within Waldo Library that offers comprehensive digitization and planning for access, preservation, and research and is available to estimate custom digitization projects for the University and community partners.

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