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SUCCESS STORIES

Tahoe Maritime Foundation provides support to maritime activities, history & education.

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Tahoe Maritime Foundation Final Report

February 24, 2023

We are deeply grateful for the support received from the Tahoe Maritime Foundation. Your contribution allows us to further our mission of “connecting people to the world’s waters and to one another” helping to foster a high level of social capital in our community. Our collections-based, community-focused strategy relies on our ability to provide access to our important collections with stories of our collective maritime cultural heritage.

The purchase of the Zeutschel OS 12002 Large Format Scanner supported a number of activities aimed at providing access to our collections, and can be evaluated in several ways, including:

  • Increase in the number of hidden collections that are digitized and available for research in a high-quality format.

  • Supports the creation of content for the Museum, including programming, exhibits, videos, and blogs.

  • Easily scan large-format materials (prints, maps, charts) to be uploaded into the catalog.

  • Capture a full page of bound materials, thus allowing researchers access to all the information that resides in the gutters.

  • Improve efficiency, reducing the demand for the Chief Photographer’s time, thus allowing him to focus his time on those items that cannot be placed on the scanner (3D); allowing more for inputs into the digital catalog.

Installation and testing:

  • Staff have received training on the equipment, and are working toward greater knowledge acquisition and experimentation with the software.

  • As a test, we have been scanning the entirety of Operation Neptune, a rare copy of the Allied Command naval operation plans for the World War II D-Day invasion. Once the main pages are completed, the Library and Archival Materials Conservator will stabilize several folded maps included in the volume, which will be scanned after treatment.

Here's a video about the new large format scanner.

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Chief Photographer Brock Switzer trains Volunteer Anne Fairchild as they test the new Book Scanner. Anne is scanning Top Secret documents (released by the National Archives) from Operation Neptune, the Naval component of Operation Overlord (D-Day invasion of Normandy, France, during WWII).

                                                                                           

Positive impact of the scanner for our stakeholders of Museum staff, researchers, and general Museum patrons:

  • Ability to produce higher resolution scans of library and archives material that Museum Staff can scan for themselves, without having to wait for the Chief Photographer to add the object to his photography schedule.

  • Ability to produce higher resolution scans that we can upload to the internal “Collective” database as usable access copies. Items added to the Collective serve as source material for blogs, social media content, articles, programs, and exhibitions.

  • We have already served a patron during testing phases, by scanning an early 20th century journal and letter written by her great-grandfather during WWI. We have also provided her with PDF copies and advice on preserving this special piece of her family’s legacy.

Challenges encountered:

  • One challenge so far has been the learning curve with the software. The back end of the system is not as user friendly as we expected, and requires a small level of coding to get the file naming and exporting correct. Once calibrated, users will be able to sit down and select a menu preset for what they’re scanning, and be successful.

  • We have had to develop an understanding for exactly how to best scan rare books in a way that is safe for each object. Library and Archival Materials Conservator Emilie Duncan and Chief Photographer Brock Switzer have been working together to determine best practice recommendations and develop standard operating procedures.

Projects going forward:

  • We have several projects planned for the scanner including scanning Chris-Craft ledger pages, Chris-Craft hull cards, and plates from the rare book collection.

    • The Mariners’ Library is the repository for the Chris-Craft Boat Company archives, dating from the 1920s to the 1980s. It’s a very popular collection for enthusiasts, with an archivist specifically assigned to its curation. We serve an average of four hundred Chris-Craft patrons per year.

         ○    The Library holds approximately 5,000 rare books published from the early sixteenth century through the mid-nineteenth                     century. Phase 1 for rare book plate scanning has involved our interns, who have been creating descriptive inventory lists of                 all the plates in rare books.

                           ■ Example records that have been added to the Public Search Catalog, due to scanning on the new equipment,                                         including copies of the inventory lists:

                                 https://catalogs.marinersmuseum.org/object/LB1170    5 volume - 5 inventories attached to record

                                 https://catalogs.marinersmuseum.org/object/LB26035   2 volume - 2 inventories

                                 https://catalogs.marinersmuseum.org/object/LB31695

          ○   Phase 2 of rare book plate scanning will involve the Chief Photographer and Librarian training Museum staff and interns on 

               the equipment.  The interns will be able to scan the inventoried book plates and add them to the internal Collective.

                             ■    Each Public Search Catalog record will have an updated note that the Library has digitized images of the plates,                                     which are available to researchers upon request.

                             ■    Interns will gain new skills, thereby contributing to their workforce development.

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