6. Ephemera ‘ the minor transient documents of everyday life…’ Maurice Rickards ‘ the ephemera of today becomes the evidential data of tomorrow ...’ John de Monins Johnson
and included the 18th century parliamentary papers, Archival sound recordings, British Library 19th century newspapers, Medical journals backfiles, NewsFilm Online and Online historical population reports.
Recognising the potential historical value of printed ephemera, John (de Monins) Johnson (initially a papyrologist but, from 1925, the Printer to the University) assembled his collection of printed ephemera between about 1923 and 1956. He collected retrospectively, with 1939 as a cut-off point, and while the majority of material dates from the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries, there is ephemera dating back to 1508 [2 fragments of a printed indulgence - printed by Pynson]. [Pretty wide spread of pre-1800 material, much of it with a political theme (elections, squibs, etc.) [Project pre-1800 strengths in Booktrade, some Advertising, some Prints] [Already digitised much 18th century Entertainment] Originally housed at the Oxford University Press (where it was known as The Constance Meade Collection of Ephemeral Printing, after one of the Collection’s major benefactors), it was transferred to the Bodleian Library in 1968. There are now in the region of 1.5 million items in the Collection, and it is from these that material has been selected for the digitization project.
The main Collection web-page, with links to the catalogue, finding aids and other projects can be found here… >
And so to the project itself… See separate sheet
See separate sheet
… here is the fifth. As you can see, a gory detail from a murder broadside, a strong design on the cover of a hat manufacturer’s advertisement, a rather ornamental plate from a publisher, a similarly ornamental theatre playbill, and a print of what seems to be a country dance or some such. There are various options in the brown bar towards the top, and also above it a ‘quick search’ free-text option, in which we’ve entered the search term ‘Alhambra’. We press ‘Go!’ and >
Right, as the service still has a few months before it is launched, I can only show you some screen shots from the test version to illustrate how it will work. There are 5 versions of the entry page (which will change each time you refresh or log on), each with five different images representing the five subject areas covered – here are 4 of them, and…>
.. It gives us our results – 152 of them. A basic entry, with a thumbnail of the first image associated with the record. There are various options on the right, saving and archive options in the green list at the top, and filter options in the beige list below. We scroll down >
Let’s say we know what we’re looking for is a folded sheet, we click the physical form option from the filter list, and select the folded sheet option. >
Now we only have 8 items to choose from. Let’s choose the first one. >
We have a basic record, with the image below.
As you can see, above the main image is a thumbnail with a red square which helps you to navigate as you zoom and move about within the image. At the bottom, options to zoom in and out, to move left, up, down and right, and to rotate the image.
Here we’ve zoomed in on a clown, and in the thumbnail in the corner the red outline box tells us where we are in the image as a whole. >
We’ve seen the basic record, now we see the full record which illustrates just how detailed these catalogue records are. All entertainments mentioned, venue, date etc., all composers (from Library of Congress authorities where possible), all performers (again from authority files where available)… >
We scroll down, again extremely detailed description throughout… subject and illustration information from Library of Congress authorities and thesauri, and from IconClass as necessary. You may notice some of this needs cleaning up a bit but these shots were taken while it was very much at the development stage >
A quick illustration of the rotation option – here we have a theatre programme with adverts at the top and along the side. If we want to read the advert for champagne on the right, we simply rotate…
> > > >
Discussions began almost 2 years before a public announcement was made in Dec. 2004 Google brings resources and technical expertise that OULS could never generate in-house. OULS’ extensive holdings make possible economies-of-scale which make the project attractive to both parties (e.g. fitting-in with the planned large-scale movement of stock into the new OULS Depository) C19th holdings: large collection, generally in good condition, amenable to scanning and OCR, large runs held physically close together make bulk operations feasible
Empower a project leader or a management team to define and articulate the mission of the project and the steps needed to reach goals Select leaders and key staff with requisite experience; clearly communicate mission and goals of the organisation; and create an atmosphere that encourages an entrepreneurial spirit, including a willingness to test new ideas. Craft a strong value proposition Create a resource that offers unique value and continue to add value to the resource based on an understanding of users’ needs. Find creative ways to lower the direct costs of running the project Secure contributions from the host institution; outsource work through vendors and other external partnerships; work with volunteers Cultivate sources of revenue to cover both direct costs and ongoing upgrades Experiment with different revenue models to find the ones that are the best fit for the project; show willingness to try new models; cultivate the ability to identify and communicate the value of the resource to the target audience (of customers, authors, subscribers and so forth) E.g. Subscription, licensing to publishers, licensing to users, custom services & consulting, corporate sponsorship/advertising, author fees, endowment, grants, donations Establish a system of accountability and measurement of the success of the resource and the revenue model. Establish goals and targets and determine the balance between financial and mission-related returns; assess progress towards mission-based and financial goals and targets