Category Archives: archives and special collections

Technology in the Libraries: a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the digital Miscellany News and other student publications

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What could be better than having digital access to every issue of the Miscellany News and all of its predecessors dating from 1872 to just last year? And what if we threw in a few more titles from Vassar’s illustrious student publishing past, like the liberal mag Left of Center, the feminist paper Womanspeak, or the conservative Vassar Spectator? Not impressed? What if we made the whole kit and kaboodle full-text searchable?

Well it’s happened. You can find all that and more at: http://newspaperarchives.vassar.edu

The public face of this website is remarkable, but the technology that goes on behind the scenes to make it work is amazing!  Here is a glimpse into the two biggest technical challenges with digitizing any newspaper: readability and searchability.

Readability: making it easy to read newspapers online

Imagine that you’re holding this week’s copy of the Miscellany News in your hands.  Your brain discerns certain aspects of the newspaper immediately: there are the articles themselves; there are titles, subtitles, and bylines for each article; articles might span multiple columns or multiple pages; and pictures are available.  It all makes sense to you, but it’s not so easy for a computer to figure these things out.  How can we recreate what your brain knows so easily in a set of computer files?  We have to come up with a series of rules for the computer to follow each article.  For example, once we have scanned a newspaper page and extracted text from it, there are some telltale signs that one article ended and the next one began, such as a string of all capital letters forming a title.  The computer can also probably figure out columns, too.  But if we can read through a few sample scanned pages and start teaching the computer what goes with what, we can then process a whole series of pages more quickly.  The “what goes with what” part is a standard that the Library of Congress developed called METS.  METS files tie together articles with each other, then pages, then issues, then volumes – in other words, we rebuild all of the rules for a newspaper in the METS files.

Big win: we can turn pages, flip back and forth, and click on individual articles, all online.

Searchability: making it easy to search things online

It’s not enough just to read articles.  Don’t you want to be able to find every reference to a certain event on campus?  You can’t really do that without searching, unless you’re willing to read all 54,370 digital pages.  When we extracted all that text from the scans, we had searching in mind!  We used another standard called ALTO, which is a file that builds a map of each page’s text by recording the coordinates of every word on that page.  So, when you search for “Raymond Avenue,” for example, you don’t just learn what issues had that term.  You can go directly to the right date, the right page, the right article, the right column, and the right paragraph in one click – and the term will be highlighted for you!

The final result: the Vassar College Libraries Newspaper Archives contains 4,255 issues and more than 163,000 articles, all fully searchable and readable online.  You can browse by publication, view by date, and download articles.  It’s a great resource for all things Vassar – and an impressive feat of technology, too.

Joanna DiPasquale is the Digital Projects Librarian at Vassar College Libraries.  Contact her at jdipasquale AT vassar.edu.

The Fortnightly Cattarian

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Fortnightly Cattarian, May 1906

It’s not obvious why some items are special enough to be in Vassar’s Archives and Special Collections Library. The cuneiform tablets: obviously special. Vassar’s copy of the U.S. Constitution? Yup, special. The first editions of Dickens? In original serial form? Without a doubt, special. But what about The Fortnightly Cattarian? Weird? Yes. Wacky fun? Indubitably. But should it be in Special Collections? The answer is yes, but why? Let’s investigate.

The Fortnightly Cattarian, “a magazine devoted to the advancement of the domestic cat,” was published from 1903-1907. Its founder and editor, Mabel Cornish Bond, was a physician, parasitologist and (much later) an analyst specializing in the “Psychic Re-education Method of Jung.” Between the Cattarian’s covers, the cat fancier of the day could find news of prominent cat clubs and catteries, advertisements for kittens and cat studs, advice on cat care, cat-centric humor, and updates on cat-related legislation.

Lunch Time at the Drexel Kennel

The key to why we have the Cattarian here in Special Collections is nestled in the middle of the last paragraph: Mabel Cornish Bond. Among her other claims to fame, Bond was a member of Vassar’s Class of 1889.  One component of our rare book collection is the Vassar College Alumnae/i  Collection, which includes a variety of material published by our graduates. So, even if the Cattarian‘s only possible use was telling us something about Mabel Cornish Bond, that would be enough to keep it in our collection. [We can’t actively collect the work of every Vassar graduate, but what we do have is an important source of information on our alumnae/i and their life beyond Vassar.]

But the Cattarian tells us about more than Mabel Bond. Ever wonder how our country became so obsessed with pets? The Cattarian might offer some clues – or at least raise some constructive questions.  By the turn of the century, when Bond was developing her public interest in cats, the world of “cat fancy” (the appreciation and/or breeding of cats) was expansive and varied. There were national and local cat clubs, a myriad of cat-related magazines, and annual cat shows in several major cities (though, ironically, many cat shows were in conjunction with poultry exhibitions). This makes the world of the cat seem awfully cheerful, but in reality, it concealed a darker situation. A piece Bond wrote in 1903 about conditions at some of those cat shows reveals that many cats didn’t survive the festivities. Dangerous means of transport, poor ventilation, fluctuating temperatures, bad food, and easily spread disease made cat shows a perilous proposition for many cats. While cat fanciers were ramping up the cat shows and taking cute pics of their (surviving) tabbies for magazines, the ASPCA was in the early years of its war against animal cruelty, and the first professional American veterinarians were trying to bring order to the world of animal health. Mabel Bond used the Cattarian to bridge the world of cat fancy and animal welfare, combining her medical knowledge with a love of felines to improve the lot of U.S. cats.

The Cattarian is an artifact from an era of change in the world of domestic animals. It might have some really silly pictures of kitties, but we’re pleased and proud to have it in our Special Collections.

Cream of Maine

Laura Streett is the Archivist at Vassar College Libraries.  Contact her at lastreett AT vassar.edu.

Mounting the Werner Pfeiffer exhibition

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Posted on behalf of Ron Patkus, Director of Archives and Special Collections

On the surface, the installation of an exhibition in the library seems like a pretty straightforward affair: two or three times a year a librarian will bring a cart full of materials from the Archives and Special Collections Library upstairs and spend a morning or an afternoon placing them in the cases near the main lobby.  In reality though, the process is more complex.  Planning for the exhibition can take weeks and even months, as a librarian determines what will be on display and where.  A conservator usually assists by creating custom-made mats, enclosures and other constructions that preserve the materials during the exhibition period.

This fall the installation of “Re-examining books: Book Objects and Artist Books by Werner Pfeiffer” was especially interesting and challenging, for a number of reasons.  First, unlike any previous exhibition, this one actually has not one but three venues: the Main Library, the Art Library, and the Art Center.  Rather than taking just one day, in this case the installation took an entire week!  The exhibition invitation and catalog physically reflect the three areas: when folded out, the invitation is a three-sided document, and the catalog, rather than being read in a straight linear fashion, is actually composed of three different sections, running different ways.

Invitation

 

Second, unusual materials were displayed in the library.  Rather than books and manuscripts, as is normally the case, this time sculptures were presented, while books and prints were showcased in the Art Center.  This re-arrangement of materials goes against the traditional presentations one expects to see.  The approach presented certain challenges for the library, as some of the sculptures needed special attention to be displayed properly.  The largest piece, titled “Suspended,” required several people to put it in place, as a special beam had to be hoisted against walls in the hallway, and then the parts of the sculpture had to be hung from it.

Another aspect of this installation that was different from others is that many people, not just a librarian from Special Collections, were involved.  Thomas Hill, the Art Librarian, played an important role in setting up the exhibition in the two library venues, while Patricia Phagan and others in the Art Center assisted in the creation of a display there.  Moreover, the artist, Werner Pfeiffer, was himself deeply involved in all aspects of the mounting of the exhibition.  He built special pedestals and devices for displaying and hanging the sculptures, and lent assistance in the arrangement of items in particular cases.

 

The sculptures and artist books in “Re-Examining Books” challenge us to re-think the place of books in our lives and in our culture.  They do this in ways that are often provocative and sometimes unnerving.   Interestingly, not only do the items in the exhibition challenge us to engage in a process of reflection, aspects of the exhibition (multiple venues, atypical arrangements, and intensive collaborations) do this too.

Please join us for this exhibition’s opening reception in the Art Library, Thursday, September 6th from 5-7 pm.