Navigating “A Road from Hell”

This project was CAHC's first attempt at a large-scale digitization project. We established new relationships with vendors, created and implemented workflows, and rapidly generated large quantities of digital files that required long-term storage. The roadblocks we encountered along the way allowed us to develop creative solutions and grow as an organization. With this project as a model, we are now better prepared to undertake future mass digitization efforts.

Since we partnered with two other repositories and sent much of the material to vendors for digitization, our collaborators had to trust that we would safely transport and handle their irreplaceable collections. While CAHC had sent some of our own audiovisual holdings to a vendor in the past, we had never shipped paper documents or large items like scrapbooks or maps. This necessitated some innovative packaging. The project archivist, Danielle Butler, created a custom shipping box by combining several smaller boxes using copious amounts of duct tape. Named the "franken-box," it did the trick and got our partner's oversized maps safely to the vendor. For another shipment, we rehoused manuscript materials from document boxes into acid-free record cartons. These were placed on pallets, shrink-wrapped, and sent out the loading dock on an 18-wheeler.

Another complicating aspect of this project was the variety of formats it encompassed. In addition to approximately 300,000 standard and oversized paper documents, both bound and unbound, there were three dimensional objects, photographs, and multiple forms of audiovisual carriers including Betacam, VHS, mini digital video cassettes, 16 mm film, audio cassettes, and mini audio cassettes. The audiovisual items went to a different vendor and were shipped in locked plastic tubs.

Partway through the project and thanks to the receipt of the grant, we were able to leverage resources for the purchase of CAHC's own overhead scanner, a SupraScan Quartz A1. While none of the grant funds went toward the scanner, we now had the ability to do some of the digitization in-house. This was especially helpful for some of the more fragile documents like decades-old newspaper clippings and comb-bound booklets. Adding an overhead scanner to CAHC's Digital Services Lab allows us to more efficiently digitize manuscript collections whether en masse or by patron request.

Digitizing such a high volume at preservation standards, especially the audiovisual material, resulted in many terabytes of data that must be maintained for years to come. Since the goal of this project is increased accessibility, we want to ensure that these files remain stable indefinitely. We are supported in this effort by our own server in the data center managed by the university's IT Services, the first one for our department. Thanks to this grant, we've enhanced partnerships not only cross-institutionally but also within our own university.

Finally, this project spurred CAHC to process an addition and convert the legacy finding aids for two collections included in the grant. While most of our finding aids have been converted from PDFs to Encoded Archival Description (EAD), these two collections are more complex and required updated description and partial rehousing. Now that the finding aids are in EAD, we can embed links to the digital files and make them available via Arkansas Records Catalog and ArchiveGrid, increasing their accessibility around the world.

In the end, we created over 441,061 digital files totaling 24 terabytes. "The Road from Hell" allowed CAHC to build its own roads into large-scale digitization that will benefit the university, state, and researchers for years to come.