This document provides an overview of the Wisconsin Heritage Online (WHO) program and guidance for libraries, archives, and museums on building digital collections. WHO helps organizations across Wisconsin digitize and share local histories online. The document discusses planning a digital project, including defining goals, audiences, budgets, and digital preservation strategies. It also offers practical tips on selecting materials, scanning, adding metadata, and promoting completed digital collections.

1. BUILDING DIGITAL
COLLECTIONS
E M I LY P F O T E N H A U E R
P R O G R A M M A N A G E R , W I S C O N S I N H E R I TA G E O N L I N E
E P F O T E N H A U E R @ W I L S .W I S C . E D U

2. TODAY’S AGENDA
• Introductions
• Tell us about yourself
• Wisconsin Heritage Online—
who are we and what do we do?
• Planning a digital project
• Defining goals
• Determining audience and
stakeholders
• Budget and funding
• Digital preservation
• Putting your plan into action
• Selecting materials
• Scanning
• Metadata
• Promoting your project
• Wrap-up and final thoughts Waterford Public Library/University of
Wisconsin Digital Collections

3. WHAT IS WHO?
• Wisconsin Heritage Online helps
Wisconsin libraries, archives, historical
societies and museums digitize and
share online the unique histories of
their communities and our state.
• Sponsored by Wisconsin Library
Services (WiLS)
• Supported by a grant from the Nicholas
Family Foundation
• Other core partners: Milwaukee Public
Library, Wisconsin Historical Society
and University of Wisconsin-Madison
• 68 members from across
Wisconsin, including local historical
societies, museums, academic
libraries, public libraries, and special
libraries, contribute annual Eager Free Public Library/University of Wisconsin
Digital Collections
membership dues

4. WHAT DO WE DO?
• Bring resources together.
• The wisconsinheritage.org website is a
free one-stop search portal for more
than 120,000 digital resources from
Wisconsin collections, including
photos, postcards, maps, yearbooks,
scrapbooks, letters, diaries, oral
histories, artifacts and much more.
• Provide training and support.
• Members receive hands-on, in-
person training in all the steps
involved in building a digital
collection.
• Host collections.
• Database software and server space
are available to organizations without
the resources to develop and host
their own. Iowa County Historical Society

5. WHAT DO YOU MEAN, DIGITIZE?
• Selecting materials
• Reformatting materials
(scanning or
photographing)
• Adding metadata
(descriptive
information)
• Making available online
• Storing and maintaining
digital files and data
(digital preservation) Wisconsin Historical Society

6. PLANNING A DIGITAL PROJECT
• Identifying your goals
• Identifying your
stakeholders, partners
and audience
• Budget
• Funding
• Planning for digital
preservation
New Berlin Historical Society

7. IDENTIFYING GOALS: WHY DIGITIZE?
• Go where your
audience is
• Reach new audiences
• Improve access to
“invisible” materials
• Protect fragile or
heavily used materials
• Learn more about your
collections
• Contribute to our
collective knowledge South Wood County Historical Museum

8. POTENTIAL AUDIENCES
• Local residents
• Students and teachers
• Genealogists
• Specialists (Civil War re-
enactors, railroad buffs)
• Academic researchers
• Curious Wisconsinites
• Everyone!
College of Menominee Nation

9. STAKEHOLDERS AND PARTNERS
• Board
• Staff and/or volunteers
• Local experts
• Community members
• Chamber of Commerce
• Local government
• Students
• Other organizations in
your
community/county/regio
n
McMillan Memorial Library, Wisconsin Rapids
• Who else?

10. POTENTIAL PROJECT COSTS
• Flatbed scanner
• Outsourcing imaging to a
commercial vendor
• Digital camera and
related equipment
• Internet access
• Storage for digital files
• Archival storage supplies
• Be sure to budget for
TIME and SPACE
Merrill Historical Society

11. FUNDING
• Grants
• Historical societies: WI Council
for Local History mini-grants
• Public libraries: LSTA
Digitization of Local Resources
grants (Dep’t of Public
Instruction)
• Donations
• In-kind contributions
• Tech support
• Equipment use
• Biggest expense is TIME
• Paid staff time
• “Free” volunteer time
• Students/interns
Ripon College

12. DIGITAL PRESERVATION
• Definition from the Library of
Congress:
• The active management of digital
content over time to ensure
ongoing access.
• Two threats to digital content:
• Obsolescence
• Physical damage
• Digital preservation is not
simply file storage/backups.
• Good practices now
(preservation file
formats, consistent file
naming, thorough metadata)
help ensure future access. Beloit College

13. DIGITAL PRESERVATION QUICK TIPS
• Save more than one
copy of each file
• On more than one type
of storage media
• In more than one
location
• Document
what, where, when
• Spot-check annually
• Migrate as necessary
Wetherby Cranberry Library

14. STORAGE OPTIONS
• Cloud storage service
• Google Drive
• Amazon
• DuraCloud
• Local network
• RAID device
• External hard drive
• Archival quality (gold)
CDs or DVDs
Take into account potential
future storage needs.
Villa Terrace Decorative Arts Museum

15. PHYSICAL PRESERVATION
• Don’t compromise
collections care in order to
digitize
• A digital project can be an
ideal time to assess
collection conditions and
rehouse materials
• Resources for collections
care:
• Wisconsin Historical Society
Field Services staff
• Wisconsin Archives Mentoring
Service
• National Park Service
Conserve-O-Grams
Richland County History Room

16. TIPS FROM OTHER DIGITIZERS
• If I could do it all over
again, I would:
• Tackle a smaller group of
materials at first
• Make sure two people
started the project at the
same time so we could help
each other
• Start with a clearer plan
• Take the time to sort and
research the physical
collection before digitizing
• Have firm deadlines to help
me stay on track
Langlade County Historical Society

17. PUTTING YOUR PLAN INTO ACTION
• Digital imaging
• Scanning photographs
• Scanning texts
• Object photography
• File naming
• Metadata
• What is it?
• Basic elements
• Where does it go?
Milwaukee Public Library

18. SELECTING MATERIALS
• Photographs
• Postcards
• Letters
• Diaries
• Scrapbooks
• Yearbooks
• Newspaper clippings
• City directories
• Local histories
• Magazines
• Pamphlets
• Maps
• Artifacts/3-D objects
• Oral histories
• Sound recordings Appleton Public Library
• Video recordings

19. SELECTING MATERIALS
Y/N This item is rare or unique to our
collection.
Y/N This item holds a particular
significance in our community.
Y/N This item is frequently requested by
our patrons/visitors.
Y/N This item or very similar items are not
found anywhere else on the Internet.
Y/N There is enough accurate information
available about the item to add useful
context for our audience (for
example, we know or can find out
names of people, locations, dates).
Y/N We have the appropriate equipment
to create an accurate, high-quality
digital copy of this item (for example,
item is not too large to fit on scanner).
Y/N This item is in stable condition and will
not be damaged by scanning or other
handling.
Neville Public Museum of Brown County

20. CONSIDERING COPYRIGHT
• Disclaimer: I am not a
lawyer
• Owning a physical item does
not necessarily mean you
hold the copyright to that
item
• Public domain = no longer
under copyright. In the US
in 2012 that means the item
was:
• published before 1923 –OR–
• Unpublished; creator died
before 1942 –OR–
• Unpublished; unknown
creator; made before 1892
UW-Milwaukee Libraries

21. CONSIDERING COPYRIGHT
• Works under
copyright, copyright holder
is known:
• Contact copyright holder IN
WRITING to request
permission to make available
online
• Works presumed to be
under copyright; copyright
holder is unknown or
cannot be located
• Due diligence has been made
to identify and locate
copyright holder
• Be prepared to remove item
from digital collection if Three Lakes Historical Society
challenged

22. DIGITAL IMAGING
• Goals of imaging:
• Create a digital
representation that’s
faithful to the original
item
• Create the highest quality
image file you can
achieve with available
resources
• Scan once—don’t expect
to return to re-digitize
UW-Madison Archives

23. SCANNING PHOTOGRAPHS
• Scan all photographs in 24-
bit color, even if image is
black and white
• Scanning resolution (ppi)
depends on size of original
item
• Longest side of item longer
than 7” = 300ppi
• Shorter than 7” = 600ppi
• Save two copies of each
scan:
• High resolution TIFF (20-
40MB) for archiving and
printing
• Lower resolution JPEG (1-5MB)
UW-La Crosse
for online
collection, email, easy access

24. TIP: USE YOUR HISTOGRAM
• A histogram is a graph that
shows the distribution of dark
and light pixels in a digital
image
• Using the Histogram function
improves the accuracy/fidelity
of your scan
• Do a preview scan
• In
advanced/professional/custom
mode, select the Histogram
function
• Move the left and right sliders to
each end point of the histogram
• Do not move the sliders INTO
the histogram
• Scan the image

25. TIP: LEAVE A BORDER AROUND IMAGE

26. SCANNING DOCUMENTS
• Handwritten texts
• Scan in 24-bit color to
retain character of
original
• 300-400ppi is generally
sufficient
• If feasible, create a
transcription
• Use care when unfolding
papers or handling tightly
bound volumes
Wisconsin Historical Society

27. SCANNING DOCUMENTS
• Printed texts
• Scan in 8-bit grayscale or
24-bit color
• 300ppi is generally
sufficient
• Use OCR (Optical Character
Recognition) software to
make the text computer-
searchable
• May be provided with your
scanner software
• ABBYY Fine Reader
• Adobe Acrobat
• OCR is never 100% L. E. Phillips Memorial Library, Eau Claire
accurate, but that’s ok

28. NAMING YOUR FILES
• Use only lower case letters, numbers, and dashes or
underscores
• Don’t use spaces or punctuation
• Use leading zeroes for consecutive numbering. For
example, a multi-page letter could have file names
mac001.tif, mac002.tif, mac003.tif, etc.
• Tie your file names to existing catalog numbers if possible
• Document any file naming conventions you develop
• Examples:
• Photograph with accession # 2011.32.1 = 201132001.tif –OR–
2011_32_001.tif
• Series of images by photographer John Smith =
smith001.tif, smith002.tif, smith003.tif
• Not so good: Glassplate16039 Auto repair in basement 025.tif

29. METADATA: WHAT IS IT?
• Information about stuff
• Technical metadata =
information about the
digital file (size, type, etc.)
• Descriptive metadata =
information about the
content of the item (what
are we looking at?)
• Lets users find what
they’re looking for
• Organized, standardized,
consistent, searchable
Grant County Historical Society

30. METADATA ELEMENTS
Field Name Sample Data
Title DiVall barber shop
Creator F. C. Bartle
Date 09/12/1925 OR 1920-1930
Materials Photographs
Subjects Barbers; Barbershops
Description Ralph DiVall (left) and Edwin T. Baltes (right) shave
two men seated in barber chairs. According to a
family history on file at the Society, DiVall operated
this barber shop from the 1920s until his retirement
on July 1, 1966.
Location Middleton, Dane County, Wisconsin Middleton Area Historical Society
Collection DiVall Family
Rights statement This material may be protected by copyright law. The
user is responsible for all issues of copyright.
Identifier 2006.01.12
File name 2006_01_12.jpg

31. ASSIGNING TITLES
• Descriptive and unique
• Capitalize first word and
proper names
• Not so good:
• Woman and man
• Woman and man, trees
• Good:
• Woman, man and child in
apple orchard
• Ida and Peter Swartz with
son James in apple orchard, New Berlin Historical Society
Wausau

32. ASSIGNING SUBJECT HEADINGS
• Subject headings are terms or phrases
assigned to an item to facilitate
searching and filtering a collection.
Consistent use of subject headings can
help link related content in your
collection and across disparate
collections.
• A controlled vocabulary is a
standardized, pre-determined list of
subject headings.
• Some examples of controlled
vocabularies:
• Thesaurus for Graphic Materials
• Library of Congress Subject Headings
• Getty Art and Architecture Thesaurus
• Nomenclature 3.0
Mineral Point Historical Society

33. ASSIGNING SUBJECT HEADINGS
• Generate your own “tags,” then
search for approved terms. Look
at similar items for examples.
• Copy terms exactly (most terms
are plural).
• Consider the following
categories of subject headings
to simplify term selection:
• People (Age/Gender; Occupation;
Ethnicity)--WHO
• Building or environment--WHERE
• Activities or events—WHAT
• There is no one right answer! New Berlin Historical Society
• Agriculture, Farmers, Trees

34. SHARING CONTENT ONLINE
• Software solutions compatible
with the WHO portal—must
be OAI-PMH-compliant
• CONTENTdm (hosted by
Milwaukee Public Library)
• ResCarta
• Omeka.net (Gold, Platinum plans)
• Not directly compatible with
WHO (but can be moved to a
compatible option)
• PastPerfect Online
• Omeka.net (Basic, Plus, Silver
plans)
• File Maker Pro
• Microsoft Access
Wisconsin Folksong Collection, UW-Madison
• Excel spreadsheet

35. You and WHO: Once a month, WHO “harvests”
your metadata and images from
How Wisconsin Heritage Online CONTENTdm into the
works with local collections wisconsinheritage.org
web portal
YOU send your low-resolution images WHO uploads your metadata
and metadata spreadsheets to WHO in and low-resolution images to a
batches (first batch = 20 server provided by Milwaukee
items, subsequent batches = 50+) Public Library, using
CONTENTdm database software
YOU reformat YOU create catalog YOU share your digital
your original records (metadata) using collection with your users in
materials (scan or the spreadsheets and two ways:
photograph) guidelines we provide --your custom CONTENTdm
collection (your content only)
--the WHO
portal, wisconsinheritage.org
YOU store your (content from across the
high-resolution state)
images

36. ENCOURAGING USE OF YOUR COLLECTIONS
• Google is not enough
• Organizations are moving
away from “if you build
it, they will come” approach
• Bring your content to your
audience—find them where
they already are
• Let them look behind the
curtain and see projects in
progress, warts and all
• Participatory archives
concept—shared
authority, community Milwaukee Public Library
engagement

37. WHO PROMOTIONAL EFFORTS
• Quarterly email
newsletter
• Facebook
• facebook.com/wisconsin
heritage
• Twitter
• twitter.com/wiheritage
• Tumblr
• wiscohisto.tumblr.com
Rock County Historical Society

38. LOCAL PROMOTIONAL EFFORTS
• Add introduction/background
information on your own website
• http://www.newberlinhistoricalsociety.org
• Highlight an item of the
day/week/month
• https://www.facebook.com/lacrosse.
history
• Host an opening event
• Whitefish Bay Public Library
• College of Menominee Nation
• Host a slide show or exhibition
• South Wood County Historical
Museum
• Mineral Point Historical Society
• Press release to local media
• What else? South Wood County Historical Museum

39. WHAT NEXT?
Interested in participating in Wisconsin
Heritage Online?
• Submit a Request for Consultation.
Provide us with some basic
information and we’ll be in touch
to help you plan a project.
• Become a member.
Annual membership dues are $50.
• Schedule a training session.
We provide on-site, customized
training to help get your project up
and running.
Marquette University

40. THANK YOU!
E M I LY P F O T E N H A U E R
P R O G R A M M A N A G E R , W I S C O N S I N H E R I TA G E O N L I N E
E P F O T E N H A U E R @ W I L S .W I S C . E D U