DCAPS/Kheel Center Collaboration Begins
It is with much enthusiasm that we begin digitization of the Kheel Center’s collection of Collective Bargaining Agreements. Over the next two years, Digital Consulting & Production Services (DCAPS) will digitize upwards of 2000 agreements, representing contracts from the American educational services and retail industries. The series selected range in length from two pages to two hundred, and span from the 1930s to the 1980s.
Barb Morley, digital archivist within Kheel, delivered the first shipment of Collective Bargaining Agreements to DCAPS for digitization in late July. This consisted of 2 linear feet of agreements from the educational sector– a mix of bound and unbound items, and color and black and white material. In order to digitize the material most efficiently, we established a workflow that identifies agreements that can be easily disbound for scanning with a Fujitsu sheetfed scanner. Items that cannot withstand disbinding will be scanned with a Zeutschel 10000TT overhead camera. So far we have scanned the first shipment and are almost through the second. All scanned agreements will undergo rigorous quality control inspection as well as optical character recognition (OCR) for search and discovery of the content within. Currently we are right on schedule, and expect things to progress smoothly.
Once digitized and online, these CBAs will provide unprecedented access and opportunity for historians, social scientists, and the general public to analyze the role of organized labor in America. The project is being funded by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, an independent federal agency that preserves and shares records with the public. We are thrilled to be a part of this exciting and important initiative.
The DCAPS project team includes Bronwyn Mohlke, project management and quality control; Shakhya Bodhiwamsa, lead digitization technician; and Mira Basara, OCR specialist.
Danielle Mericle
Coordinator, Digital Consulting & Production Services