Digital Collections

University of Maryland Libraries Collaborate on Memorial Book Project

levjen — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 14:42:05 +0000

University of Maryland Librarians are collaborating in a project to update a Memorial Book, which was published in 1961 and lists students and alumni who were killed in World War I, World War II and the Korean War.

For the complete story, see:

Memorial Book Project Transforms Names into Real People

To facilitate this collaboration, the UM Libraries digitized the Memorial Book, and it is available online through Digital Collections@UM:

Memorial Book, University of Maryland, 1961

Rare Books relating to Maryland in the Civil War

levjen — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 15:38:11 +0000

The University of Maryland has digitized over 50 books relating to the history of the Civil War in Maryland and they are now available for viewing at the Internet Archive. Titles include:

Memorial of Anna Ella Carroll, asking compensation for service rendered the United States in the war of the rebellion - Carroll, Anna Ella
A History of the Army of the Potomac - Stine, J. H. (James Henry)
Letter to president, on subject of slave enlistments : State of Maryland, executive department, Annapolis, September 28th, 1863 … - Maryland. Governor

In addition, the University of Maryland Libraries have numerous items relating to the Civil War in Maryland in their own Digital Collections@UM, including:

More information about collections relating to the Civil War in Maryland…

In Transition: Selected Poems by the Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven

levjen — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 12:37:02 +0000

The University of Maryland Libraries are pleased to announce the newest digital collection: “In Transition: Selected Poems by the Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven,” edited by Tanya Clement. An electronic edition of poetry by the Dadaist artist, performer, and poet Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven, this scholarly edition began as part of the dissertation entitled The Makings of Digital Modernism by Clement. The edition comprises digital surrogates and transcriptions of multiple manuscript versions of twelve poems by Freytag-Loringhoven. The original manuscripts are from the Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven papers, which are among the holdings in the Special Collections of the University of Maryland Libraries. For the edition, Clement created the TEI P5 XML-encoded transcriptions which comprise poetry drafts and scholarly annotations and introductions for each poem; the edition also includes images of original manuscripts as well as theoretical essays. Within the edition, these objects are incorporated into the free, open-source Javascript application called the Versioning Machine (http://v-machine.org/), which takes advantage of the TEI’s robust standards for parallel segmentation by allowing for cross-comparisons among the encoded texts. Clement augmented the Versioning Machine specifically for this edition in order to incorporate intra- and inter-lineal comparisons. The digital surrogates of the poetry drafts and the TEI-encoded texts are cross-searchable with the UM Libraries’ other digital collections within the Libraries’ Fedora digital epository system. “In Transition” represents an ongoing effort to make the poetic work of Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven freely available online.

Historic University Football Film Available via Digital Collections

levjen — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 18:44:15 +0000

In 2008, the University Archives received a grant from the National Film Preservation Foundation (NFPF) to preserve the 16 mm film of the November 6, 1948, Maryland vs. South Carolina football game. This is one of the oldest surviving pieces of UM athletics footage and is the only known copy of this game. Due to its advanced state of deterioration, this film has not been available to researchers and Terrapin fans for decades. The NFPF was created by the U.S. Congress to help save America’ film heritage, and its grant process is highly competitive. The grant provided funds for an off-site contract vendor to produce a new high-quality negative and projection print as well as to create a video format for patron access.

The digital version of this film is now availalbe through Digital Collections@UM.

Football: Maryland (19) vs. South Carolina (7)

Rare Civil War Sketchbook Now Available Online

levjen — Tue, 19 May 2009 15:52:49 +0000

The sketchbook of a Civil War prisoner is now available via Digital Collections @ UM. Confederate soldier John Jacob Omenhausser was imprisoned at the Union prison camp in Point Lookout, Maryland, from June 1864 to June 1865, near the end of the American Civil War. While at Point Lookout, Omenhausser documented prison life in sketchbooks with vibrant watercolors. His paintings were annotated with captions and dialog and, while intending to be humorous, often touch upon the grimmer aspects of camp life. Because he had relatives in the North, Omenhausser may have had an easier time obtaining supplies to make his life more bearable during that year. The University of Maryland Libraries owns one of only a handful of Omenhausser sketchbooks in existence, and our volume, with 62 color paintings, is the largest single collection. The sketchbook resides in the University of Maryland’s Historical Manuscripts unit, and is part of the Maryland Manuscripts Collection, which consists of approximately 5,200 individually cataloged letters, diaries, military and court records, ledger books, and printed ephemera (broadsides, handbills, etc.) related to the Maryland region–principally dating from 1750 to 1900.

American Memory at the Library of Congress has 43 images online from the Omenhausser sketchbook located at the New York Historical Society.

University of Maryland Yearbooks Now Online!

levjen — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 13:39:05 +0000

The University of Maryland Libraries has digitized its yearbooks from 1897-1970 as part of its participation in Lyrasis’s Mass Digitization Collaborative. The first issue of the yearbook, entitled Reveille, features a history of what was then known as the Maryland Agricultural College, and was over 130 pages in length. The yearbook name changed to the Terrapin in 1935, and grew in size along with the campus. The 1970 edition of the yearbook was over 560 pages. Each yearbook may be downloaded as an Adobe PDF file, or viewed online at the Internet Archive using their “Flip Book (beta)” option. In addition, each yearbook may be searched individually for names and events.

Mass Digitization Collaborative

levjen — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 15:10:05 +0000

The University of Maryland Libraries were part of a 14-library pilot project with PALINET and the Internet Archive to digitize a selection of rare and significant books from the participants’ collections and make the electronic versions available via the Internet Archive’s website.

The program is funded by the PALINET membership and supported in part through a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The development of a mass digitization service is the first component of PALINET’s collaborative
digital collection strategy. The initial focus is on mass digitization of text.

The University of Maryland Libraries submitted eleven reels of microfilm containing the university’s course catalogs from 1859 through 1945 as part of the pilot project. These course catalogs document the early history of the Maryland Agricultural College through the end of World War II and online access to them will be a valuable asset to both researchers and to staff.

Links to the PDF files of the catalogs are available on the University Archives website. As additional catalogs and other materials are added to the Internet Archive, they will be available through the Internet Archives’ University of Maryland portal.
For more information about the PALINET Mass Digitization Collaborative, please visit PALINET’s website.

Dave Kennedy and Jennie Levine present at Mid-Atlantic Digital Library Conference

Sean Daugherty — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 16:20:18 +0000

On July 9, DCR co-managers Dave Kennedy and Jennie Levine hosted a presentation at the 2008 Mid-Atlantic Digital Library Conference (MADLC) entitled Implementing a Digital Repository with Fedora. The talk focused on the development and implementation of the University of Maryland’s Digital Collections repository, based on the Fedora digital asset management platform.

The presentation explored the technical and organizational issues faced in mounting a relatively complex architecture with limited resources, as well as the various metadata schemes used in the system and the development of an API, object and content classifications, and web services. Issues of migration, authentication and archival storage featured prominently in the discussion. The presentation concluded by addressing future enhancements and plans for development, as well as stumbling blocks and lessons learned from the process of building a digital collections repository.

The PowerPoint slides of the presentation are available for viewing here.

World’s Fair Collection Earns Top Honors

Sean Daugherty — Mon, 19 May 2008 18:32:47 +0000

The decision was unanimous. A Treasury of World’s Fair Art and Architecture has won the Worldwide Books Award for Electronic Publications given by the Art Libraries Society of North America. Patricia Kosco Cossard, Architecture, Planning, and Preservation Librarian, is the collection’s creator. The digital library provides access to artifacts, virtual tours and contextual essays covering a broad number of world’s fairs. The awarding committee said Cossard’s work was a grand undertaking and a significant contribution to the arts area disciplines.

Kate Murray presents at Maryland Library Association Annual Meeting

Sean Daugherty — Mon, 12 May 2008 20:14:42 +0000

Date: May 16, 2008

Kate Murray presents “Sticky-shed, Dropouts and Warping: Issues in Preserving Your Audiovisual Collections.” This talk, sponsored by the MLA’s Academic Research Libraries division, addresses the broad issues in preserving audiovisual media, including the exploring the unique challenges inherent in audiovisual collections, examining survey and assessment tools, and discussing a variety of migration strategies to continue access to content. The presentation focuses on digital reformatting policies at UM Libraries.