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Byron Herbert Reece Digital Library
About
Byron Herbert Reece
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Letters
Broadrick
Dickson - page 1
Dickson - page 2
Notes for Lecture in Ohio
Notes for Sermon
Photographs
Farm
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About
the BHR Digital Library
Production Notes
Other useful links:
Byron Herbert Reece Society
Young Harris College
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Faithfully, Reece
Production Notes
The production of the Byron Herbert Reece Digital Library was a learning
experience on several levels. While I have done web sites before, most of
them have involved text and gathering links. This was by far the largest
undertaking that involved images. That made it, by far, the most difficult
project I have attempted.
Scanning
The first problem I discovered was outdated equipment and software. The
scanner available to me was a HP ScanJet 6100c that was purchased in about
1998 with grant money. It is attached to a student use computer in the
library, and has only Corel 6.0 availabe to process images. I found on
several occasions that the station was not available to me during times
the library was open for student use, so I quickly found my scanning had
to be done on weekends or very early in the morning. Because of the age
of the equipment, I chose to save my scanned images in TIFF format. I
thought - wrongly perhaps - that this would be the easiest format to move
from place to place and to adjust as I developed my web presence. I named
each file in what I thought was logical order by date.
Importation of
files
Of course TIFF files are not viewable on the web, so the files needed
to be converted to either JPEG or GIF files. I chose JPEG for resolution,
especially on the letters which are sometimes a little difficult to read,
even in the original format. My first attempt at converting them was to
open them in Fireworks and convert them one at a time. I then discovered
the batch command in Fireworks. Unfortunately, I authorized the creation
of new file names on this attempt, and ended up with file names that were
very long, and lost most of the identifying information that I wanted
to use to organize the images. I
reprocessed the original images and was able to keep the identifying information
while quickly converting all the images to JPEG file format.
I then discovered
the "Create Web Photo Album" command in Dreamweaver. At first glance,
this seemed like an ideal solution to the creation of thumbnails and a
good starting point for creating the web page. However, I was not able
to figure out how to change the order of the photographs. Again, my naming
system created problems in that the computer did not recognize my ordering
system. For example it put the file named "sermon11" right after the one
named "sermon1". Letters named "...august231946" were grouped with other
files named"...august....", not sorting by calendar years.
When I tried to move
the files within the pages, I had no success. I ended up creating the
web pages in Dreamweaver, then manually adjusting the size of each image
as it was placed in the page. I manually inserted the links to enable
viewing each thumbnail image as a larger image as well.
Lessons learned
First, I believe it is time for my library to invest in some new imaging
equipment and software. While the project was accomplished on what was
available, I do not think we are serving our students or ourselves with
such out of date equipment.
Second, I think this
is an example of a skill where a training session or tutorials would have
been very helpful to me. I am usually a person who prefers to sit with
the new software and a manual and figure it out for myself. I can't help
but feel that a few hours spent with someone who actually knew what they
were doing would have saved me many, many hours in the long run.
Future plans for
the Byron Herbert Reece Digital Library
After evaluation of this project, it will be amended and added to the
Duckworth Library, Young Harris College website. There is resurgence of
interest in Reece in the South right now, and this access to information
will be valuable to scholars and the interested public. This site will
also save "wear and tear" on some of the more fragile items in the Reece
Collection at the library. Many of the letters were written on highly
acidic paper, and they are increasingly fragile. Digital images will serve
the interest of most people, and the originals can be maintained for a
longer period with less handling.
There are several
other collections of letter that need to be added, more images, and several
poems that have not been collected anywhere else. These images will be
added as time permits.
Updated on
November 28, 2003.
Send any comments to Debra
Branson March
This digital
library has been prepared in partial fulfillment of the requirements
of
ILS655-70 at Southern Connecticut State Univeristy.
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