BHL Scanning Priorities 2010

2010 Scanning Selection Recommendations & Workflow

BHL Collections Committee: Bianca Crowley, Grace Costantino, Christine Giannoni, Becky Morin, Matt Person, Connie Rinaldo, Trish Rose-Sandler, Diana Shih, Judy Warnement, Don Wheeler, Joe deVeer

Beginning November 1, 2010

Scanning Selection Changes

For many BHL members, the "low hanging fruit" have been picked from our shelves and scanned, so what now? Scanning selection in the past had been governed by dividing up the major subject areas of natural history among our libraries. With such limited funding for digitization over the next scanning phase, there is a need to more carefully select which titles or volumes that will be digitized.

This document articulates guidelines for selecting and prioritizing titles for scanning as recommended by the BHL Collections Committee. Please take these guidelines under consideration as you plan for your scanning workflow needs going forward. Ultimately, it is understood that the decision to scan materials is at the discretion of the scanning library. There are many factors such as the condition of the physical materials, shipping requirements, and scanning workflow resources that may outweigh these guidelines. For any questions or concerns, please contact Bianca Crowley crowleyb@si.edu.

Various Selection Sources

Over the course of the next scanning phase, BHL institutions will receive selection suggestions from a variety of sources:

1. Permissions - in-copyright titles for which BHL has received permission to scan past 1923
2. Botany or Zoology priority title lists - titles identified as having high importance for the fields of Botany and Zoology. Please see BHL Priority Titles for more information on how these lists were generated.
3. Gap-fills - volumes still outstanding for already scanned titles in BHL
4. Requests from users via the Gemini request form or from users within our respective institutions

Order of Importance

The following priorities are recommended, in order of importance, to guide the selection process. This is only a guide. Ultimately, scanning selections are at the discretion of each institution:

1. Titles/Volumes for which we have permission to scan
2. Gap-fill volumes for titles already-in-BHL that are part of the Botany or Zoology priority title list
3. Titles on the Botany or Zoology priority title list that are not yet in BHL
   1. Titles not in BHL but digitized by other library projects will be marked as "minor" priorities. BHL may be able to ingest these titles in the future. The digitization source, scan quality, B&W scans, absence of fold-outs, etc. may require that we re-scan the materials.
4. Gap-fill volumes for titles already-in-BHL that are NOT on the Botany or Zoology priority title list
5. Titles from the Botany or Zoology priority title list that require “special handling“ -- any material that cannot be scanned through the standard workflow, i.e. shipping carts of books to an IA scanning center
6. Requests for titles that are NOT on the Botany or Zoology priority title list
7. Requests for titles that require “special handling” that are NOT on the Botany or Zoology priority title list

Workflow Considerations

Coordinating Scanning Issues in Gemini

Going forward many titles will require a "potluck scanning" approach, where two or more BHL members must step in to provide complete holdings. Therefore, scanning selections will be communicated via Gemini. The system is ideal for coordinating scanning where specific titles and volumes need to be addressed. It will help us to effectively:

• coordinate among multiple institutions to fulfill gaps in a serial run or a series of related preceding and succeeding titles
• track and fulfill user requests for scanning
• manage the scanning of permissions titles
• flag or indicate the priority level for titles to be scanned

For help using Gemini, see: BHL Gemini User Guide.doc

Use of the Scanlist and monographic deduper tools still applies. Gemini can help to resolve issues surrounding the scanning of specific volumes where the Scanlist has fallen short. Gemini also helps us to keep track of any portal editing needs that occur as a result of different BHL members scanning different volumes of the same title.

Again, the Gemini issues are provided as a selection guide. Any titles/items that your institution has been waiting to scan are fair game.

Scanning via the BHL FedEx Account

BHL members who do not have funding to cover scanning are welcome to use the BHL FedEx account (username: BHLFedex | password: P0rt@l) to ship volumes to a scanning institution.

• The scanning institution covers the cost of scanning, tracks shipments, and performs QA on the scanned items; their name appears as the "Sponsor" in BHL
• The shipping institution must complete portal edits to show their name as the "Contributing Library" in BHL
• Shipping address: c/o Gilbert Borrego
  Smithsonian Institution Libraries
  Digital Services Division
  10th St. & Constitution Ave. NW
  MRC 154
  Washington, DC 20013

Conference Calls

There will be a conference call for BHL Staff to ask any questions related to scanning priorities and working in Gemini. Please indicate your availability: http://www.doodle.com/8qusbefnkd6b3u3h.

As always, please feel free to contact Bianca Crowley crowleyb@si.edu OR 202-633-2239 for any Gemini and/or collections related issues. Grace Costantino is also available for any Gemini questions dukeg@si.edu OR 202-633-1709.