National Historical Publications and Records Commission Grant Proposal:
The Austin History Centers Cemeteries Division Records Collection Project Summary Projects Purpose and Significance: The Austin History Center (AHC), the local history division of the Austin Public Library in Austin, Texas proposes a one-year project that will quickly and efficiently digitize approximately 300 items from the Cemeteries Division Records Collection and make them freely available to the public through the University of North Texas (UNT) Portal to Texas History. The project will give access to information currently hidden in AHCs archives, including a wealth of genealogical sources and records about those interred in the five cemeteries of the collection. Local and state historians will have interest in this project and the free access through the Portal will provide national and international genealogists and scholars a new source of knowledge about Austins heritage. Methods: AHC will digitize all of the Cemeteries Division Records Collection by partnering with the University of North Texas Portal to Texas History to host and maintain the digital collection. The documents will be digitized according to the standards stipulated by the Portal. The Portal allows the public to search collections throughout the website, providing digitized images and their associated metadata about the item, along with the name of the contributing partner. The site is very user-friendly, providing links to partners and related collections, citation tools, and detailed metadata. Plan of Work: All of the Cemeteries Division Records collection will be digitized with the help of graduate student interns at UT who are to be trained and supervised by the project manager Grace McEvoy, AHCs Archives Media Specialist. The interns will be trained on handling the collection materials, scan them to the Portals standards and 2
crop the digital images for online display, and input the required metadata. After the interns are trained, AHC will begin to digitize the collection, sending the first fifty scanned items the Digital Project Unit for quality control and feedback, and then the rest of the collection will be digitized. After the entire collections digitization an external hard drive with the digital files will be shipped to the Digital Project Unit for evaluation and upload of images and metadata for the Portal. They will then train AHC staff on the Portals editing account system where we can then input the collection metadata. The collection will be released to the public on the Portal and a press release will be created for the AHC website, social media will be produced by AHC and the Portal, and the Portals marketing. Products: This project will result in approximately 300 digitized images of the Cemeteries Collection accessible through University of North Texas Portal for Texas History. The Portal website will provide a platform for users to search, browse, and interact with the collection. AHC will provide a website press release which can be shared through social media outlets and free marketing through the Portals free e- newsletter, Beyond the Bytes, as well as media coverage and the Portals Facebook page. The Portal is a resource for educators and maintains a website specifically for the reason called Resources 4 Educators, which website encourages educators to guide students to the use of primary resource. The Portal is also involved in projects to develop the usability of the Portal and its collections. AHC will also monitor digitization statistics, which will be used to write a report to measure success and to be used in journal publications. Personnel: 3
Grace McEvoy, Archives Media Specialist, Austin History Center Managing Molly Hults, Processing Archivist, Austin History Center Mike Miller Archivist, Austin History Center Performance Objectives: 1. Digitization of the 300 approximate items and access be given through the Portal for Texas History. 2. The project will keep the costs to $6,746.58 with cost per item at an average of $22.49. 3. Approximately 6,000 usages per month 4. AHC will monitor the pace of digitization, providing statistics for reference in the event of future digitization projects 4
The National Historical Publications and Records Commission Grant Proposal: The Austin History Centers Cemeteries Division Records Collection Introduction Cemeteries are one of the easiest ways to access history, a type of outdoor museum full of new discoveries from the past. While they can be considered a spooky pastime for thrill seekers, cemeteries are a key component to genealogical study and several scholarly writings. Even so, gravestones can only divulge so much historical information, usually offering little more than a name and dates of birth and death. It is the story behind the gravestones that often give information about cemeteries inhabitants and the history of the cemeteries city. Records kept by city officials of interments, maps, daily reports, and monuments have the potential to reveal much more than autobiographical information, exposing hidden treasures and stories never before known. The Austin History Center, the local history division of the Austin Public Library in Austin, Texas, provides the public with information about the history, current events, and activities of Austin and Travis County. The Center is host to over 1,200 manuscript collections that contain the papers and records of city and county history, along with maps, oral history/audio, periodicals, photograph, and video collections. 1 Within the manuscript collection is the Cemeteries Division Records collection from the Austin Parks and Recreation Department. The collection contains records of the five city owned cemeteries: Oakwood, Oakwood Annex, Austin Memorial Park, Evergreen, and
1. The Austin History Center, accessed March 1, 2014, http://library.austintexas.gov/ahc. 5
Plummers. 2 It is the Austin History Centers goal to digitize this collection for online public access to be used for genealogical activities and scholarly writings. National Significance and Collection Description The Cemeteries Division Records collection primarily consists of bound ledgers and index books containing burial date, name, age, gender, ethnicity, and other information about individual burials in the cemeteries. The collection also contains information maps and diagrams of each cemetery, monument information, and administrative information. The oldest cemetery, Oakwood, dates back to 1839 when Texas was a republic, while the other cemeteries date from 1915 to 1980. 3 As a public institution, virtually all of AHCs holdings are available to researchers and the majority of the collections have online descriptions and finding aids. In order to facilitate public access, a basic level of processing is achieved as new records are accessioned. The Cemeteries Division Records collection inventory can be accessed through the Texas Archival Resources Online. According to TAROs statistics website, the Cemeteries Collection was viewed 227 times in January 2014, the second-most visited collection of the Austin History Center repository. 4
Genealogical research has become a popular hobby for many Americans, especially with the advent of the Internet and websites like Ancestry.com. These sites
2. Austin (Tex.). Parks and Recreation Department, Cemeteries Division Records, accessed February 18, 2014, http://www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/aushc/00165/ahc-00165.html. 3. Austin (Tex.). Parks and Recreation Department, Cemeteries Division Records. 4. Texas Archival Resources Online: Administrative Pages, last modified February 3, 2014, http://stats.lib.utexas.edu/taro.lib.utexas.edu/201401/aushc.html. 6
allow users to view historical documents in searchable databases in order to connect to the past. It is through collaboration with archives like the Austin History Center that gives the public access to the historical manuscripts, photos, and maps for their genealogical research. For example, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has partnered with several digitization projects to make National Archives holdings available online. 5 Through digitization partnerships with Ancestry.com and fold3.com, the military records collection from Ancestry.com, users are able to make connections with family history that can be passed down for generations. Because of NARAs collaboration with Ancestry.com, more than 750 million names and 70 million images of records have been accessible to Ancestry.com users for a fee. 6
Findagrave.com also provides information about cemeteries and individuals buried in them, claiming to have 112 million grave records. The site relies on contributors with information and photos about various gravesites across the world and is maintained by a team of administrators that maintain the site. 7 Findagrave.com currently contains photos and data on Oakwood cemetery and an extensive listing of Plummers cemetery, but none on the rest of AHCs collection cemeteries. It is the Austin History Centers mission to procure, preserve, present and provide historical records that make up Austins unique story and by digitizing the records from the
5. Digitization at the National Archives, accessed March 1, 2014, http://www.archives.gov/digitization/partnerships.html. 6. Ancestry.com: Family meets history, accessed March 1, 2014, http://www.ancestry.com/nara_new. 7. Find a Grave, accessed March 1, 2014, http://www.findagrave.com/. 7
Cemeteries Collection, genealogical researchers can access a part of Austins history beyond those found on Ancestry.com and Findagrave.com. 8
There are several well-known and celebrated people buried at the Oakwood and other cemeteries in the Cemeteries Collection, including sports stars and legendary Texans. The Oakwood Cemetery is the resting place of Albert Sidney Burleson, a US Congressman and Presidential Cabinet Secretary; Andrew Jackson Hamilton, a Texas Governor and US Congressman; Ima and James Hogg, the former a philanthropist married to the latter, a Texas Governor; and Oran Milo Roberts, Sr., a Civil War Confederate Army officer and Texas Governor. 9 Dick Night Train Lane, Hall of Fame Professional football player, is buried at the Evergreen Cemetery, 10 while football players Bill Spot Collins and Noble Doss are interred at the Austin Memorial Park Cemetery. 11 There are also several confederate soldiers buried in the cemeteries of the collection and the Administration Records contains information about a Jewish cemetery in Austin. 12 With the Cemeteries Collection digitized, genealogists, historians, and fans will have easier access to a plethora of information about these individuals.
8. The Austin History Center. 9. Browse by Cemetery: Oakwood Cemetery, accessed April 10, 2014, http://www.findagrave.com/php/famous.php?page=cem&FScemeteryid=5704. 10. Browse by Cemetery: Evergreen Cemetery, accessed April 10, 2014, http://www.findagrave.com/php/famous.php?page=cem&FScemeteryid=3500. 11. Browse by Cemetery: Austin Memorial Park Cemetery, accessed April 10, 2014, http://www.findagrave.com/php/famous.php?page=cem&FScemeteryid=2187. 12. Austin (Tex.). Parks and Recreation Department, Cemeteries Division Records. 8
The Austin History Center also hopes to provide greater and easier access to the Cemeteries Collection for scholars and writers. As with personal genealogical research, cemeteries are a common source of information about people of the past for scholarly writings and historical books. Books recounting myths and legends such as Bill Harveys Texas Cemeteries: The Resting Places of Famous, Infamous, and Just Plain Interesting Texans rely on archival information. 13 Even travel guides such as Final Destinations: a travel guide for remarkable cemeteries in Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana can be created using archival documentation like that found at the AHC. 14 Cemeteries can also reveal information about a citys history, especially in its location, any ethnic or religious divisions within the cemetery, and monument building. By digitizing the Cemeteries Collection, scholars and writers will have the ability to do research outside of the reading room. Access Methods The Austin History Center will digitize all of the Cemeteries Division Records Collection by partnering with the University of North Texass Portal to Texas History to host and maintain the digital collection. The Portal to Texas History is maintained by UNTs Libraries Digital Project Unit and provides guidance and digital services for its partners. The Portal gives worldwide access to its database, allowing its collection of 3.8 million digital files to be seen and used broadly. While the Cemeteries Collection
13. Bill Harvey, Texas Cemeteries: The Resting Places of Famous, Infamous, and Just Plain Interesting Texans (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2003). 14. Bryan Woolley et al., Final Destinations: a travel guide for remarkable cemeteries in Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana (Denton: University of North Texas Press, 2000). 9
contains information about Austin, researchers nationwide will be interested in the information it includes for genealogical and scholarly research. AHC has contributed to the Portal in the past and maintains a positive relationship with the Digital Project Unit. Currently, the Portal hosts twelve collections from AHC, consisting of 5,891 items with a total of 904,605 uses. These collections include the General Collection Photographs of 1,256 items, the Neal Douglass Photography Collection of 3,811 items, and the Texas History Collection of 60 items. In 2013, the Austin History Centers digital collections on the Portal received a total of 307,746 item uses, 15 which is defined as any interaction a user makes with any part of a digital item within a thirty minute window. 16 The Portal reports a total of 500,000 uses per month and is free for users, giving worldwide access to the public. 17
The collection consists of 14.4 linear feet of material in eleven boxes and fifteen oversized ledgers with approximately 300 items, all of which is to be digitized by AHC. While the Portal offers its partners the option of hiding items from the public to ensure security of information, all of the Cemeteries Collection will be available to the public. There are no restrictions on use of the collection and while the ledger books in the collection cannot be photocopied due to preservation concerns, digitizing them will allow wider access. The documents will be digitized according to the standards stipulated by the Portal to Texas History. We will provide the Portal the information about the
15. Statistics for Austin History Center, Austin Public Library, accessed April 10, 2014, http://texashistory.unt.edu/explore/partners/ASPL/stats/. 16. Usage Statistics, accessed April 10, 2014, http://texashistory.unt.edu/help/faq/usage/. 17. The Portal to Texas History, last modified March 5, 2014, http://texashistory.unt.edu/. 10
collection, scan the items, send the digital images to them, and use the processed metadata to describe the items in the collection. The Portal will then upload and digitally preserve the digital content while providing free online access to be used by researchers and the public at large. The Portal for Texas History allows the public to search collections throughout the website, giving users easy access to millions of digitized items. The site provides the digitized image and metadata about the item, along with the name of the contributing partner. Not only will the Portal give wider access for users, it provides useful information for the Austin History Center, including statistics on individual items. The site is very user-friendly, providing links to partners and related collections, citation tools, and detailed metadata. Plan of Work UNTs Libraries Digital Project Unit explicitly states the steps to be taken in order to complete a digitization project as a partner of The Portal to Texas History, as well as metadata, scanning, and equipment standards. UNT gives Portal partners four options for a projects completion called modules, each with varying levels of involvement in the digitization process. 18 AHC chose Module 4 because it offers us control of the physical collection, some of which is fragile, as well as control of the metadata, while maintaining both the AHC and Portals standards. We feel that this particular module will create a balance between the responsibilities of AHC and the Portal and also offers experience to interns from the University of Texas, which is an important community commitment AHC holds for future information professionals.
18. Steps to Complete Your Project, accessed March 1, 2014, http://www.library.unt.edu/digital-projects-unit/steps-complete-your-project. 11
All of the Cemeteries Division Records collection will be digitized with the help of graduate student interns at UT whom are to be recruited through the universitys listservs and career services. The digitization will be managed by Grace McEvoy, AHCs Archives Media Specialist, who will be responsible for supervising and training student interns and communicating and working with the Portal. The interns will be trained on handling the collection materials, scanning them to the Portals standards and cropping the digital images for online display, and inputting the required metadata. AHC currently has Fujitsu scanners for scanning documents at high-speed output resolution, Epson Flatbed Expression scanners for larger documents, and Plustek OptiBook scanners that will be used for books and ledgers. These scanners meet the Portals standards and will be used by the interns to digitize the collection. Grace McEvoy will assist in the digitization of the collection, providing quality control and troubleshooting. After the interns are trained, the first fifty items will be scanned and given unique identifiers as per the Portals requirements. Those items will be sent to the Digital Project Unit for quality control and feedback, and then the rest of the collection will be digitized. After the entire collections digitization, including the addition of any necessary metadata collection not available, an external hard drive with the digital files will be shipped to the Digital Project Unit for evaluation and uploading of images and metadata to the Portal. They will then train AHC staff on the Portals editing account system where we can then input the collection metadata. The collection will be released to the public on the Portal and a press release will be created for the AHC website, social media will be produced by AHC and the Portal. 12
The following plan of work has been adapted from the Portals project steps from Module 4. 19
Austin History Center Staff Portal to Texas History Staff January to February 2015 Work with Portal contact to determine feasibility and costs Complete the all required project agreements and forms Recruit and train graduate interns from University of Texas
February to March 2015 Assign unique identifiers Scan the first 50 items and submit the files to the Digital Projects Lab for review Make any corrections required by the Lab
April to June 2015 Scan our remaining items Ship collection content to the Digital Projects Lab Confirm delivery of shipped content Evaluate digital files to ensure that they meet established Standards; communicate any problems to AHC Create super-template for metadata Complete upload of files to the Portal July to August 2015 Notify us when our collection is available in the Portal Return digital media
19. Portal Model 4 Project Steps, accessed March 1, 2014, http://www.library.unt.edu/digital-projects-unit/portal-model-4-project-steps. 13
Set up AHCs editing system account (user names and passwords) Provide training on the Portal's editing system for metadata records Review AHCs initial ten metadata records and provide feedback August to November 2015 Create metadata records that comply with Portal Input Guidelines Submit AHCs first ten records to the Digital Projects Lab for review Make any corrections required by the Lab and then create metadata records for our remaining items Complete collection metadata
December 2015 to January 2016 Collection released to public on Portal website AHC website press release
Project Products The Austin History Center maintains a website connected to the Austin Public Library website with information about collections, outreach, exhibits, and news. AHC will provide a website press release which can be shared through social media outlets such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and Pinterest. 20 By partnering with the Portal, AHC will be giving free access to the Cemeteries Division Records collection. The Portal website will provide a platform for users to search, browse, and interact with the
20. Austin History Center News & Events, accessed April 3, 2014, http://library.austintexas.gov/ahc/news-and-events. 14
collection. By partnering with The Portal, AHC will have the advantage of free marketing through the Portals free e-newsletter, Beyond the Bytes, which is sent to subscribers and includes information about new collections. The Portal also receives occasional media coverage and keeps its own Facebook page. It is a resource for educators and maintains a website specifically for the reason called Resources 4 Educators. This website encourages educators to guide students to the use of primary resources. 21
Finally, the Portal is also involved in projects to develop the usability of the Portal and its collections, including Interface Optimization for Genealogists, The National Digital Newspaper Program, and The Texas Digital Newspaper Program. AHC will also monitor digitization statistics, such as the rate of scanning, cropping, and metadata entry into the Portals system. Each intern will be required to make note each items digitization, the information compiled by Grace McEvoy who will create a report for AHCs records. The statistics and report, along with other performance information, will be used to determine in the Cemeteries Collection digitization project was successful and the strategy one to be used in the future. The report may also evolve into a paper to be published in journals such as Library and Information Research and Information Sciences in order to share our results with other library and information professionals. Personnel Skills and Qualifications Grace McEvoy is the Archives Media Specialist and will the main supervisor of the Cemetery Project. She has experience with creation, organization, and storage of digital image files and will train the interns from the University of Texas. As the
21. Resource 4 Educators, accessed April 3, 2014, http://education.texashistory.unt.edu/. 15
Managing Archivist for the Austin History Center, Mike Miller will be the top supervisor of the Cemeteries Collection digitization. He has worked with archival materials since 2000 and is familiar with working with the AHC collections in digital and analog formats. Molly Hults, Processing Archivist at the Austin History Center and has also worked at the Microsoft Studios Media Archives as the Senior Access Services Manager. At AHC, she is responsible for registering incoming donations, arranging and describing archival collections and will assist Grace McEvoy and the project interns with metadata. The interns for the Cemeteries Collection digitization project will be recruited through the University of Texas, specifically from the School of Information. The iSchool is a graduate program dedicated to training future information professionals in the fields of libraries, archives, museums, information architecture, usability, and other areas in the field. By providing iSchool students with the opportunity to work with AHC staff in digitizing the Cemeteries Collection, they will gain the experience of standardized digitization practices, including file creation and metadata. AHC will in turn have the necessary workforce to digitize the collection in a timely manner. Finally, the University of North Texas Digital Projects Lab staff works to digitize, form, and describe the materials for inclusion in the Portal for Texas Historys collections. Hannah Tarver is the Digital Projects Supervisor of the Digital Projects Lab and will be our main point of contact with the Portal. She has worked at the Digital Projects Lab since 2009 and has overseen several of the Portals digitization partnerships. Derek Rankins is the Digital Imaging Technician with the Digital Projects Lab with six years of experience in digitization and will be a valuable resource in 16
digitizing the Cemeteries Collection. He will also be responsible for the review of AHCs digitized records. 22
Performance Objectives The project will be evaluated on AHCs ability to meet the following performance objectives: 5. Unless digitization of an item creates preservation issues, all of the 300 approximate items will be digitized and each of them will be available through the Portal for Texas History. 6. The project will keep the costs to $6,746.58 with cost per item at an average of $22.49. 7. The average usage statistic for an AHC collection of comparable size to the Cemeteries Collection in 2013 was approximately 6,000 per month. 23 We therefore estimate similar usage for the Cemeteries Collection, although with the type of information available in the collection, that number may be expected to rise soon after its digitization. 8. AHC will monitor the pace of digitization, providing statistics for reference in the event of future digitization projects. Budget While the AHC has had previous experience with successful digitization projects, because of the size the collection, a large amount of time and personnel will be required
22. Library Staff & Department Directory, accessed April 13, 2014, http://www.library.unt.edu/staff-directory/digital-projects-lab/by-dept. 23. Statistics for Chalberg Collection of Prints and Negatives, accessed April 10, 2014, http://texashistory.unt.edu/explore/collections/CCPN/stats/. 17
to complete the project. With grant funding, AHC will have the ability to devote these resources to the project as well as hire four graduate student interns. Grace McEvoy will carry most of the responsibility of the project, monitoring the interns, compiling statistics, and creating a report after the projects completion. Molly Hults and Mike Miller are expected to devote time for periodical meetings with McEvoy and providing any assistance necessary throughout the project. The grant will also provide funds to purchase two four-terabyte external hard drives for the storage of the digitized files, one of which will be send to UNTs Digital Project Lab. Estimated Budget Personnel Hours Devoted Cost Grant Funds Grace McEvoy, Archives Media Specialist 100 $21.95/hour $2,195.00 Molly Hults, Processing Archivist 50 $23.62/hour $1,181.00 Mike Miller, Managing Archivist 20 $28.48/hour $569.60 Intern (4) 200 $12/hour $2,400.00 Shipping and Insurance UPS Next Day Air
$49.37
$49.37 Equipment WD My Book 4TB USB (2)
$399.98
$399.98
Total Cost: $6,746.58
Cost per Item: $22.49
18
Bibliography Ancestry.com. Ancestry.com: Family meets history. Accessed March 1, 2014. http://www.ancestry.com/nara_new. Austin History Center. News & Events. Accessed April 3, 2014. http://library.austintexas.gov/ahc/news-and-events. Austin History Center. The Austin History Center. Accessed March 1, 2014. http://library.austintexas.gov/ahc. Findagrave.com. Browse by Cemetery: Austin Memorial Park Cemetery. Accessed April 10. 2014. http://www.findagrave.com/php/famous.php?page=cem&FS cemeteryid=2187. Findagrave.com. Browse by Cemetery: Evergreen Cemetery. Accessed April 10. 2014. http://www.findagrave.com/php/famous.php?page=cem&FScemeteryid=3500. Findagrave.com. Browse by Cemetery: Oakwood Cemetery. Accessed April 10. 2014. http://www.findagrave.com/php/famous.php?page=cem&FScemeteryid=5704. Findagrave.com. Find a Grave. Accessed March 1, 2014. http://www.findagrave.com/. Harvey, Bill. Texas Cemeteries: The Resting Places of Famous, Infamous, and Just Plain Interesting Texans. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2003. Texas Archival Resources Online. Austin (Tex.). Parks and Recreation Department, Cemeteries Division Records. Accessed February 18, 2014. http://www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/aushc/00165/ahc-00165.html. Texas Archival Resources Online. Texas Archival Resources Online: Administrative Pages. Last modified February 3, 2014. http://stats.lib.utexas.edu/taro.lib.utexas.edu/201401/aushc.html. U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. Digitization at the National Archives. Accessed March 1, 2014. http://www.archives.gov/digitization/partnerships.html. University of North Texas. Resource 4 Educators: The Portal to Texas History. Accessed April 3, 2014. http://education.texashistory.unt.edu/. University of North Texas Libraries. Portal Model 4 Project Steps. Accessed March 1, 2014. http://www.library.unt.edu/digital-projects-unit/portal-model-4-project-steps. University of North Texas Libraries. Library Staff & Department Directory. Accessed April 13, 2014. http://www.library.unt.edu/staff-directory/digital-projects-lab/by- dept 19
University of North Texas Libraries. Statistics for Austin History Center. Austin Public Library. Last updated April 18. 2014. http://texashistory.unt.edu/explore/ partners/ASPL/stats/. University of North Texas Libraries. Statistics for Chalberg Collection of Prints and Negatives. Last updated April 18. 2014. http://texashistory.unt.edu/explore/collections/CCPN/stats/. University of North Texas Libraries. Steps to Complete Your Project. Accessed March 1. 2014. http://www.library.unt.edu/digital-projects-unit/steps-complete-your- project. University of North Texas Libraries. The Portal to Texas History. Last modified March 5, 2014. http://texashistory.unt.edu/. University of North Texas Libraries. Usage Statistics. Last updated April 18. 2014. http://texashistory.unt.edu/help/faq/usage/. Woolley, Bryan et al. Final Destinations: a travel guide for remarkable cemeteries in Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana. Denton: University of North Texas Press, 2000.