Proni
Digital Library
This digital library has been prepared in fulfillment of a
class assignment for ILS-655
Southern Connecticut State University
Dr. Yan Quan Liu
Fall, 2005
© Amy Proni, 2005
Project Notes
I began the project thinking that the FileMaker Pro database might
provide a good structure for my materials, which include scanned and
digital photos and documents, as well as music and movies. I spent
about 20 hours before deciding that it was too cumbersome to use, and I
really hated the web interface. I didn’t have the technical expertise
to be able to shape the look of the interface.
I had read about Greenstone, and thought that might be a usable
structure (overkill, really, for the size of my project) because that
software runs on Mac OS X, and we have a Mac web server. Unfortunately,
a Greenstone administrator really needs to have more programming
experience (either in UNIX or PERL) than I have. I gave up on that
after 35 hours, including one exasperating weekend where I begged a
good friend to help me with it. I will owe him favors for a long time
for that.
After all that I decided to just go with my gut instinct and create a
project out of HTML. Some parts of the project were quite challenging.
I bought a flat-bed scanner and selected some of the family photographs
that we had been given. It took 14 hours to get the scanner (a CanoScan
8400F) to “talk” to my Apple Macintosh PowerBook G4. I ended up using a
trial version of Adobe Photoshop Elements v.3.0 to manipulate the
digital images, as well as Apple’s iPhoto software. I purchased
QuickTime Pro, and used it in conjunction with the Apple software
iMovie to import, export, and manipulate family movies that my
brother-in-law had converted from 8mm film to digital. All in all I
worked on the project for about 200 hours, including scanning and
resizing the documents and images, creating the index, and adding
metadata to each file.
I looked into different options for a search strategy, and realized
that this was more of a problem than I had expected. My husband did not
want the library to be searched by Google spiders, and I didn’t want to
add a commercial advertising-based product to my site. (Note: as of
December 1st, that is a moot point: it has already been found by
several search engines. As of December 2nd, I have added new code to
the head of the main pages: <META name="ROBOTS" content="NOINDEX,
NOFOLLOW"> which may block further spider searches.) I may be able
to add a search feature in the future, but don’t have time right now to
fully investigate and implement the appropriate code. What I have done
instead is to add metadata keywords in the heading of each document (to
aid in future searching) and created an index that is cross-referenced
and provides direct links to pages. Access points are available to
different sections of the collection through links at the top of each
page.
Strengths of the collection: diversity of materials in two languages;
options to see images as part of the overall story (small size) or as
the story in and of themselves (in larger size); breadth and quality of
the materials.
Weaknesses of the collection: inadequate representation of all family
members; not enough materials from different time periods; indexing may
not be exhaustive.
This was not an easy project; it has required much concentration, as I
had to be able to envision the project in multiple dimensions. Not only
was I concerned about the relationships between the files and folders,
the images and their respective pages, but also about the relationships
between the individuals. I wanted to be able to effectively tell their
story through this digital library. Ultimately, I feel that I have
succeeded. Could it have been done better? Yes, of course. No project
is perfect. The final results might have been better if I had exercised
more logic in selecting and arranging the images by date.
Unfortunately, I did not locate some of the oldest photographs and
documents until late in the process, and did not want to re-label each
image file. The arrangement of some images was also rather haphazard,
which is regrettable and something that I may change in the future.
Having said that, I must also say that all of the URL links are
relative; this is very useful when moving the collection as a whole
from one server location to another.
The peer review process was useful in that one classmate suggested a
way that I could improve the look of the section titled “Organization
of the collection” on the home page. She also noticed that I had
forgotten to include a statement on the maintenance of the digital
library, so I added that to the “Services and features” section. Final
revisions and editing, and arranging the files so that they could be
burned onto a compact disc, required about 40 hours.
I take away from this project confidence that has been gained in
creating and managing a rather large website. My career goal is to work
as an independent information professional, providing research and
consultation for clients on an as-needed basis. I am very pleased with
the results of my hard work on the Proni Digital Library. Even though
it is not directly related to librarianship, I feel that I am now
adequately prepared to create a similar project for clients, or even to
teach others about the difference between a digital library and basic
website. The difference is in the details.
I could not have created this digital library without the assistance
and support of my partner, Tullio Proni. From the server to the
software, from the technical books to the scanner, every time I said
that I needed to buy something else for the project, Tullio said
"okay." Every librarian should be so lucky. Duilio Proni was kind
enough to provide archived movie files and still images from his
personal website, and moral support when the going was rough. P. Crone
also offered technical assistance and encouragement. I am also grateful
to friends J.D. Combs, M. Sinkula, and classmates J. Bassett, C.C.
Hung, and E. Wassmer.
Thank you all.
Last updated 2005-12-02. AP.