Digitizing Historical Documents at the Mint

This week I found a rather old web article that describes a relatively early effort at creating cyber-infrastructure in the realm of the social sciences, namely the digitizing of historical records and photos at the United States Mint.

The article, posted in 2001, briefly describes a digitization effort at the Mint that involved 225k pages, 5k photographs, 2.6k microfiche reels, and over 400 monographs being scanned and stored on servers as tif files and pdf files for display. Two separate databases were used to keep track of the resulting digital output, one for accessioning and item records, and a second for increased cataloging and description. The databases each possessed both internal and external interfaces. Finally, finding aids were put on the web via EAD.

What struck me about this article is that it lists specific difficulties encountered in digitizing historical records, many of which still plague us nearly a decade later. For example, Rothfeld bemoans the lack of funding for large projects such as at the Mint. While electronic storage space has become remarkably cheaper, scanning unique items by hand remains a labor intensive, costly process. Furthermore, software costs and limitations often determine what precisely a collection can do. Rothfeld also found it problematic to be attempting to instill "tech people" such as the database designers with the full idea of how historical archives get used. Conversely, her archivists did not program. Finally, Rothfeld noted that the big challenge that remained for her project was achieving interoperability with other, outside valuable sources and incorporating outside materials into the Mint's online collection.

The answer to those problems, of course, is to further the cyber-infrastructure, not just in terms of the goods (i.e. digital replications of historical or other social scientific data) but also in terms of channels of information. Of particular importance, I think, is the education aspect of building cyber-infrastructure. Many of the problems Rothfeld encountered would have been mitigated if the programming and historical/archival planning skills had been vested in the same individuals. With a higher level of 21st century information literacy, cross-trained individuals would also be able to better take advantage of some of the low-cost open source software that can be customized to be at least somewhat field specific.

In conclusion, while it is encouraging that much historical (and other social scientific) data is finding its way into a digital format, further effort does need to be spent on developing cyber-infrastructure within the field.