Brandeis Libraries: Honore Daumier Lithographs

BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES
DAUMIER PROJECT
1ST INTERIM REPORT
October 2001 - March 2002

SUMMARY:

Digitization Services Contract finalized.
964 lithographs digitized by March 31, 2002
Two Graduate Students hired and trained.
500 Digital Images fully cataloged
Software Contract finalized.
Installation of software scheduled for April, 2002

REPORT:

INTERNAL ACCOUNTING PROCEDURES
Upon notification of the grant award internal accounting procedures were discussed with the University’s Office of Sponsored Programs. Two accounts were created: one for direct charges to grant funds and one to track cost-sharing contributions. The Project Manager met with an accountant from the Office of Sponsored Programs to review budgets and paperwork needed.

STUDENT ASSISTANTS
A job description for the graduate students to be hired for grant work was finalized on November 2 and submitted to the Office of Student Employment. The positions were advertised to Graduate Students in December. One student began work on January 22, 2002 (the start of the Spring semester). This student is a native French speaker. A second student who had expressed interest in the position failed to contact the Project Leader at the start of the semester. After waiting two weeks to hear from the student (who was coming from France), the Project Leader offered the position to a third graduate student with experience in cataloging and archival processing.

LITHOGRAPH PREPARATION
The Project Leader and the Preservation Officer created a checklist to be completed for each lithograph as it is reviewed prior to being sent for digitization. The data for each lithograph is entered into a spreadsheet. Each shipment of lithographs will have a completed spreadsheet of checklists giving in detail the condition of the lithographs and the suggested course of preservation treatment. It was determined that the lithographs will remain on their mats for digitization. It takes the Project Leader and the Preservation Officer an average of two hours per box of lithographs (one box contains approximately 70 lithographs) to review each lithograph for preservation purposes and to label each lithograph for digitization. Four boxes of lithographs constitute one shipment to the vendor.

VENDOR CONTRACT
In October the Project Manager and Project Leader visited the workplace of the vendor chosen for the digitization work. A subcontract with the vendor to provide digitizing services was finalized on November 20, 2001. The first shipment of lithographs (230 lithographs) was picked up by the vendor on December 11, two weeks ahead of our projected timetable.

DIGITAL IMAGES
The Project Leader checks 25% of each shipment of digital images for quality control. To date no significant problems have been found. The preservation images (in TIFF format) are immediately copied from the vendor’s CD-ROM to a dedicated server for storage.

CATALOGING
The graduate students were quickly trained to create bibliographic records in MARC21 format for each image. The cataloging is keeping pace with the digitizing. To date approximately 500 images have been fully cataloged, and another 300 records are waiting for the Art & Architecture Thesaurus headings, supplied by the Project Leader.

WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT
The Project Manager and the Project Leader met in December with the Subject Specialists who will be responsible for providing much of the content for the Daumier website (Humanities Librarian, Social Sciences Librarian, Creative Arts Librarian).

The design for the front page of the website was finalized on February 1: http://lts.brandeis.edu/research/archives-speccoll/daumier/. The major areas of content for the site will be: Daumier & His World; Search the Database; Introduction to the Project; About the Project; and Copyright. The front page contains a link to the IMLS website.

PUBLICITY
The Project Manager contacted the University’s Office of Media Relations to arrange publicity. Articles have appeared in the student newspaper, The Justice; on the campuswide email mailing list for staff and faculty; and in the staff newsletter, The Reporter. The grant announcement was featured for a time on the University’s website. The Libraries immediately put up a special webpage announcing the grant and describing the project. This page was updated in January with details of progress to date. The new project website, which went live on February 1, was announced via email mailing lists : the Digiline list, ACRL/NE (Association of College and Research Libraries/New England), BLC (Boston Library Consortium), and the Massachusetts MetroWest Regional Library System.

In February the Project Manager and the Project Leader met with the designer for the University Publications Department to discuss the creation of bookmarks featuring different Daumier lithographs. The deadline for receipt of the finished bookmarks is April 30.

On February 20 the Project Leader made a formal presentation about the Daumier Project to the Brandeis University National Women’s Committee. On March 13 the Project Leader also spoke briefly about the Daumier Project at the annual Rolde Lecture on campus (this year featuring a program on the Perseus Project, managed by Tufts University).

The Project Manager will continue to pursue publicity outside of the campus venues. Information on our Daumier project was recently provided to the editor of Advanced Technology/Libraries. Our IMLS project was also highlighted in the vendor’s publicity announcing our purchase of the DigiTool software module.

SOFTWARE PURCHASE
The Project Manager began working with Ex Libris USA, Inc. in November to negotiate a contract for the purchase and maintenance of the DIGITOOL software module. An agreement was reached on January 20, 2002. The contract has now been finalized and the first meeting to discuss implementation was held on March 5. The installation of the software is scheduled for the week of April 15.

FUTURE ACTIVITIES:

The installation of the DigiTool software module will be the major activity in the second six-month period of our grant project. The software will link the digital images of the Daumier lithographs with the descriptive metadata given to each image. Library users will be able to search the database of images using keyword and subject-heading terms.

Our Daumier website will also receive increased attention during this time period. In addition to essays and research guides on Daumier, we hope to add audio files of French poetry written during Daumier’s lifetime, linking the files to appropriate digital images of Daumier’s lithographs.

The cataloging of the digital images has gone much smoother than anticipated, thanks to the skills of our graduate students. Cataloging will continue during this coming time period, with the additional work of assigning subject headings from the Art & Architecture Thesaurus.

BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES
STUDENT JOB DESCRIPTION

TITLE: Daumier Project Assistant

WORKPLACE: Main Library / Special Collections

STUDENT LEVEL: Level 6 / Graduate

SUPERVISOR: Librarian for ILS Development and Special Collections

GENERAL FUNCTION:

Under the direction of the Librarian for ILS Development and Special Collections, assists in cataloging lithographs in the libraries’ Integrated Library System.

This position is part of a two-year grant-funded project to digitize and catalog nearly 4,000 Daumier lithographs. The project will require 24 hours/week of student assistant work. We anticipate hiring two Project Assistants who will each work 12 hours/week. Work will continue during the Summer Session. The Academic Year wage for this position has been set at $12.00 per hour. Work will begin in January, 2002.

EXAMPLES OF RESPONSIBILITIES:

Creates a bibliographic record for each lithograph;
Inputs bibliographic description into the Integrated Library System;
Links the bibliographic record to the digitized lithograph;
Keeps statistics;
Assists in documenting the progress of the grant project;
Performs other duties as assigned.

REQUIRED SKILLS:

Graduate M.A. or Ph.D. candidate; related research or work experience; familiarity with computers and computer applications such as word processing and online bibliographic records; good English language skills; dependability; meticulous attention to detail.

PREFERRED:

Familiarity with the French language.

BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES
DAUMIER PROJECT

EXAMINATION REPORT CATEGORY OPTIONS

Paper Type:

Design Medium and Technique:

Condition of Supports and Attachments:

Condition of Paper:

Mechanical Damages:

Discoloration:

Treatment Recommendations:

| |