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Project announcement and consultants needed



The Pathfinder Library System is very pleased to release the following
digital project announcement and RFI for project consultants.  This
message is being cross-posted; please excuse any duplication.  Judi
Hoffman, the Project Director, will be attending the Society of American
Archivists conference in Denver this week; if you would like to talk to
her about the project or the consultant positions, please leave a note for
her on the board near the registration table with a number in Denver at
which you can be reached.

*********************************************************

        Historic Newspapers in Digital Times


The Pathfinder Library System in Grand Junction, Colorado, is pleased to
announce its undertaking of a statewide LSTA project that will explore
digitizing, indexing, copyright, and other issues relating to historic
Colorado newspapers, and how to make those unique resources accessible
over the Internet to students, researchers, and other potential
users.  This "proof-of-concept" pilot project intends to scan, in a
variety of scales and formats, the daily Aspen Times for the year
1887; perform various methods of OCR (Optical Character Recognition) on
those digital images in an attempt to generate acceptable text files for
full-text keyword and other indexing; create a searchable database of
content indexes with links to the newspaper images and text files; and
develop a prototype website for the entirety of the project.  We will also
be contracting with a copyright attorney to research and offer opinions
concerning all of the issues surrounding copyright and newspapers.  In
addition, we will be contributing the metadata records created for the
scanned images to ACLIN's (Access Colorado Library and Information
Network) proposed union catalog of digitized Colorado newspapers and the
Colorado Digitization Project's union catalog.

Our goal in this innovative project is twofold:  to test the feasibility
of digitizing and indexing historic Colorado newspapers as a means of
providing enhanced access to and educational use of unique materials; and
to provide a model for scanning, indexing, and making accessible historic
newspapers for use by other libraries, historical societies, and
archives.  Information institutions worldwide are struggling with how to
access their holdings of crumbling newspapers, many of which are the only
extant copies, and we hope that this project can provide a modelcomplete
with prototype website and databaseon how those newspapers can be
digitized and indexed, thus saving others from having to "reinvent the
wheel."

Our partners in the project are the Pitkin County Library in Aspen (who
contributed $20,000 cash to the project), the Aspen Historical Society,
the Colorado Digitization Project, the Aspen Elementary School, and the
New Zealand Digital Library at the University of Waikato.

The Pathfinder Library System, which will serve as the administrative and
fiscal agent for the grant, is one of the seven regional library
cooperatives in Colorado.  Pathfinder has been in existence since 1976 and
over the years has managed in excess of one million dollars in LSCA and
other grant funds.  Among the projects it has implemented are the MARMOT
library network, the first large-scale deployment of microcomputers
throughout Colorado, and the Colorado Cooperative Purchasing
Project.  Pathfinder also hosts one of the regional scan centers
implemented by the Colorado Digitization Project (CDP).  Judi Hoffman,
Digital Librarian and administrator of the CDP regional scan center for
Pathfinder, will be the Project Director.

For more information on the project, you may view the grant proposal
narrative at
<http://www.colosys.net/pathfinder/AboutPathfinder/HistoricNewspapers.htm>
or contact:

                Judi Hoffman, Project Director
                Pathfinder Library System
                1048 Independent Avenue, Suite A-119
                Grand Junction, CO  81505
                jhoffman@colosys.net

********************************************************************

        Request for Information


The Pathfinder Library System, one of the seven regional library
cooperatives in Colorado, is seeking consultants for a statewide LSTA
project grant they have been awarded by the Colorado State
Library.  "Historic Newspapers in Digital Times" will explore scanning,
creation of metadata, full-text indexing, copyright, and other issues
relating to historic Colorado newspapers, and how to make those resources
accessible over the Internet to students, researchers, and other potential
users.  For more details on the project, please see the attached
announcement or the grant proposal narrative on the Pathfinder website at
<http://www.colosys.net/pathfinder/AboutPathfinder/HistoricNewspapers.htm>.  We
are looking for the following project consultants who can help make this
plan a reality; consultants may be individuals, organizations, agencies,
or other groups:

Scanning/OCR Consultant ($5000)
The Scanning/OCR consultant will be asked to examine best practices for
scanning of historic newspapers and creation of Optical Character
Recognition (OCR) or data conversion files for fielded and full-text
indexing; outline standards for scanning and OCR/data conversion
consistent with those standards already set by the Colorado Digitization
Project (CDP); define quality control standards for the project; evaluate
current firms providing preservation-quality scanning and OCR or data
conversion services; make recommendations concerning which firm(s) to
use; work with the selected firm(s) to insure quality and accuracy in both
the scanning and OCR/data conversion; and monitor and evaluate
product.  Prefer experience with scanning and OCR of archival materials,
particularly large-format text materials with inconsistent or broken
fonts.  We anticipate that scanning will take place in the fall and winter
of 2000 and OCR work in early 2001 (if it is not done concurrently), with
a formal written report by the Scanning/OCR Consultant on the issues and
decisions made due by April 1, 2001.

Database and Web Design Consultant/Programmer ($20,000)
The Database and Web Design Consultant/Programmer will be responsible for
making the desired project database and web interface--particularly its
indexes and searching capabilities--a reality.  They will look at the
scope of the project and evaluate possible database products, including
SiteSearch from OCLC <http://oclc.org/oclc/menu/site.htm> and Greenstone
from the New Zealand Digital Library <http://www.nzdl.org> as well as
other commercial or shareware programs.  It is important that speed of
access and scalability be addressed in achieving an end product that
effectively and efficiently links the newspaper images, metadata, and
indexes in a manner compatible with ACLIN (Access Colorado Library and
Information Network) <http://www.aclin.org>, the Colorado Digitization
Project (CDP) <http://coloradodigital.coalliance.org>, and Z39.50
searching.  Ultimately, the success of the project will be the interface
that people use to access the digital images: the Database and Web Design
Consultant/Programmer will design and code a model website, easily linked
to ACLIN and the CDP, that will insure quick, convenient access to the
images.  We anticipate that the integrated project website will be in
place in May 2001, with a formal written report by the Consultant on the
issues and findings due by June 1, 2001.  This position requires an
expertise in designing simple-to-use interfaces that access very large and
complex databases.  Pathfinder may also have future web and database
programming needs.

The project began in July, so we are hoping to fill these positions as
soon as possible.  If interested, please respond by September 20, 2000,
with a resume, references, and a letter detailing your qualifications--and
other similar databases and/or websites you have created that we may look
at--to:

                Judi Hoffman, Project Director
                Pathfinder Library System
                1048 Independent Avenue, Suite A-119
                Grand Junction, CO  81505
                970-242-2418
                jhoffman@colosys.net

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