Printers’ Marks

About the Project

Working name: Printers’ Marks
Sponsors: Sabrina Pape and Ron Patkus
Duration: Summer 2012
Nature:
[Text; image; text+image; GIS; audio/video; other]		 Text and images
Project track: 2 – VCL project with special considerations
Date prepared: 2012-08-01

Background / Purpose

The printers’ marks throughout the Main Library have been of interest to researchers and Vassar community members since they were installed in the early 20th century.  A published volume, A list of the printers’ marks in the windows of the Frederick Ferris Thompson Memorial Library, Vassar College, is available online.  We will digitize this volume to provide scans with very high resolution, as well as undertake a research project to document the printers, marks, and current locations of each plate.  Additionally, we will photograph the current marks in situ.  We will apply for a Ford Scholar to assist us in this work in Summer 2013.

Scope

Phases of project
Based on item temporal coverage		 Phase 1: Photograph plates, scan images
Phase 2: Develop research with Ford Scholar
Phase 3: Publish online project
Number of items to be digitized TBD – there are 16 pages in the volume, and 66 current windows.  We will splice marks from the TIFFs created from the book as well; there are 82 marks.
Total number of images
Assumption: one JPG derivative per each archival image created		 16 TIFFs page + 16 JPGs page + 82 TIFF marks + 82 JPG marks + 66 TIFFs windows + 66 JPGs windows = 328 images
Total number of records TBD
Special considerations Photography may be difficult

Location of Physical Items

Book is located in Special Collections; windows are dispersed throughout Main Library.

Hardware/Storage

System type System Space required
Archival image storage  digcol 164 images;  6560 MB
Derivative item storage  digcol  164 images; 1640 MB
TOTAL SPACE NEEDED  8200MB / 0.8 GB

Software

Image capture: Scanners and cameras to Photoshop
Metadata capture and storage: Islandora
Final product display: Islandora

Scanning specifications

We will scan at 400ppi, 3000px for largest dimension. Individual marks at 1200ppi.

File Naming Convention

Formula

For book:

  • Prefix: pmarks
  • ID:  book
  • ID part: page number (left pad 3 digits)
  • Delimiter: underscore

Example:

Page 5: pmarks_book_005

  • Archival file: pmarks_book_005_a.tif
  • Service file: pmarks_book_005_s.tif
  • Derivative: pmarks_book_005.jpg

 For extracted images per page:

  • Prefix: pmarks
  • ID:  book
  • ID part: page number (left pad 3 digits)
  • ID part: wing (e.g., “West Wing 4th” = ww4)
  • ID part: image number in sequence (left pad 3 digits)
  • Delimiter: underscore

Example:

Page 5, John Besson 1923 mark:

pmarks_book_005_ww4_001

  • Archival file: pmarks_book_005_ww4_001_a.tif
  • Service file: pmarks_book_005_ww4_001_s.tif
  • Derivative: pmarks_book_005_ww4_001.jpg

For windows:

  • Prefix: pmarks
  • ID: photo
  • ID part: wing (e.g., “West Wing 4th” = ww4)
  • ID part: image number in sequence (left pad 3 digits)
  • Delimiter: underscore

Example:

John Besson 1923 mark: pmarks_photo_ww4_001

  • Archival file: pmarks_photo_ww4_001_a.tif
  • Service file: pmarks_photo_ww4_001_s.tif
  • Derivative: pmarks_photo_ww4_001.jpg