As coloring fans ourselves, we couldn’t help but toss our hat into the ring. We’ve already shared a University Archives coloring book this week, but today we turn our gaze outward to our beloved city of Scranton.
A volume of the George W. Scranton lettersA peek inside at the copy-pressed letters
The Lackawanna Historical Society’s Scranton Family Papers collection includes 19 bound volumes of over 9,000 letters written by George W. Scranton, Joseph Hand Scranton, and William Walker Scranton, dating from 1850 to 1917. The Scranton Family collection is quite large; the full set has over 11,000 pages. Our goal for this Scanathon was to completely digitize the first two volumes of the collection: the George W. Scranton Papers (approximately 414 letters, 625 pages), which cover the time period June 1850 through June 1854.
The Historical Society also loaned us a box of loose correspondence from the Scranton Family, with letters to and from Joseph H. Scranton, Seldon T. Scranton, George W. Scranton, and William W. Scranton, dating from 1841 through 1874.
Participants
We knew we’d need a lot of help, and the History Department stepped up. Faculty member Dr. Adam Pratt came and brought students from his HIST140: Craft of the Historian course. The Royals Historical Society also volunteered in force. In total, more than 30 students came to the Library to work three-hour shifts. Staff members from the Lackawanna Historical Society and Scranton Public Library joined in, working side by side with our students.
Digitization
History Department volunteers at the Scribe Station
Bound volumes are always difficult to scan. Luckily, we got some extra help from the State Library of Pennsylvania, which loaned us their brand new table top Scribe Station for the weekend. The Scribe Station is part of a new initiative to support the digitization of important cultural heritage materials in the state of Pennsylvania, and we were the first to sign up! We also used the Library’s flatbed scanners to digitize the loose correspondence.
The result? Success! Not only did we completely digitize both George W. Scranton volumes, we also made a serious dent in the loose letters. Over the course of the weekend, volunteers created 1,608 digitized images (over 20 GB).
Why digitize? The most important reason is access. Up until now, the George W. Scranton volumes have only been accessible to researchers visiting the Lackawanna Historical Society in person. Digitization and online publication will make the letters much more accessible (and full-text searchable!) to historians, students, genealogists, the citizens of Scranton, and any other interested members of the public. Digitization also helps to protect and preserve the papers, which are in rather fragile condition – most researchers will be able to use the digital versions, reducing the wear and tear and decreasing the risk of damage to the original physical volumes.
Description and Transcription
Volunteers hard at work on metadata
The Scanathon wasn’t just about scanning, though. In order for digitized images to be discoverable and useful, they need to be described. In between shifts on the scanners, our volunteers captured descriptive information (called metadata) about the letters and prepared a spreadsheet that we can use to prepare the digitized images for online publication. Lackawanna Historical Society volunteers had previously prepared transcriptions of the George W. Scranton volumes (thank you!!), which our volunteers copied into our metadata spreadsheets. We also got a start on transcribing the loose correspondence — our students really stepped up to the challenge of reading scrawling, 19th-century cursive.
What’s Next?
The Scanathon may be over, but our work isn’t done quite yet. In the next few weeks, Scranton Public Library and University of Scranton Library faculty and staff will match up the digitized letters with the descriptions and transcriptions and publish them online in the Lackawanna Valley Digital Archives. (To get a sense of how they will look, take a look at this letter that we digitized a few years ago as part of a collaborative Civil War digital history project.)
Update: Full volumes (sans transcriptions) are live on Internet Archive!! (Volume 1 – Volume 2)
Early next year, the letters will also be discoverable in the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) via the brand new Pennsylvania Digital Collections Project service hub. The University of Scranton and the Scranton Public Library are both founding members and active participants in this statewide initiative, so we’re thrilled to be able to give this new digital collection the exposure it deserves.
Acknowledgements
Weinberg Memorial Library, Scranton Public Library, and Lackawanna Historical Society staff putting our heads together to calibrate the Scribe Station (photo courtesy of Julia Frakes)
This was our first Scanathon, and it was certainly a learning experience. Perhaps the most important lesson learned was how wonderful it is to have help and support from so many people. Our deepest thanks go out to: Weinberg Memorial Library faculty and staff (especially Sam Davis, Sheli McHugh, Mary Kovalcin, Sharon Finnerty, Kym Fetsko, Kevin Kocur, Ian O’Hara, and work study Kate Reilly), History Department faculty and students (especially Dr. Adam Pratt and RHS president Julia Frakes), Lackawanna Historical Society staff and volunteers (especially Sarah Piccini and the Martin Family), Scranton Public Library staff (especially Scott Thomas, Martina Soden, Sylvia Orner, and Elizabeth Davis), and the State Library of Pennsylvania (especially Alice Lubrecht and Bill Fee). We’ll scan with you any day!
How could a recently orphaned, 10-year old homeless South African boy ever be called Lucky? Over the grave of his dead mother, Lucky makes a promise to make something of himself. Leaving the security of his remote Zulu village for the big city with the hope of going to school, he arrives on the doorstep of an uncle who has no use for him. Lucky then falls in with Padme, a formidable Indian woman with an inherent fear of Africans, who takes him in as she would a stray dog. Together, unable to speak each other’s language, they develop an unlikely bond. Through an odyssey marked by greed, violence, and ultimately belonging, Lucky shows how a child’s spirit can bring out decency, humility and even love in adults struggling to survive in the new South Africa.
Directed by Avie Luthra this award-winning South African film is in Zulu, Hindi and English with English subtitles.
Please join us on Tuesday September 22nd at 7pm in Room 305 of the Weinberg Memorial Library for this free event. Jean Lenville, Assistant dean of the Library, will lead a discussion after the film.
This film is open to faculty, staff, students, and the public. Please email Sharon.finnerty@scranton.edu for more information.
This month the Weinberg Memorial Library is hosting its annual Faculty Scholarship Exhibit in the Library’s 5th floor Heritage Room. The exhibit features books, journal articles, and presentations produced by University of Scranton faculty members since 2012. The exhibit, organized by academic department, provides an overview of the diversity and quality of scholarly accomplishments by the University’s faculty.
Please take a few minutes to explore the exhibit and learn about the variety of interests that University of Scranton faculty have studied and written about in the past few years. Congratulations to the University faculty members on all of their recent scholarly successes!
For further information please contact Michael Knies, Special Collections Librarian, michael.knies@scranton.edu, (570) 941-6341.
Tomorrow morning at 9:15 am, the City of Scranton will kick off its year-long Sesquicentennial Anniversary Celebration. Scranton was incorporated as a city on April 23, 1866, so next spring (April 23, 2016) will be the city’s 150th birthday.
While the University of Scranton itself wasn’t around back at the very beginning (founded in 1888, we just celebrated our 125th anniversary in 2013-2014), we’re proud of the close ‘town and gown’ relationship we’ve had with the city of Scranton throughout our shared history.
Here at the Weinberg Memorial Library, we’re looking forward to joining in the fun throughout the anniversary year. Beginning in May, each month of the City celebration will highlight a decade (or two) in the city’s history, and here on our Library blog we’ll be highlighting how the University grew alongside the city during that time.
Our University Archives and Helen Gallagher McHugh Special Collections include many rare and unique resources related to the history of the City of Scranton, its residents, and its major institutions. For example, the Library holds the records of the International Correspondence Schools of Scranton – and in the fall, we’ll be exhibiting materials from this collection in celebration of the 125th anniversary of ICS (now known as Penn Foster), which was founded in 1891.
At the state level, we’re collaborating with other academic and public libraries on a broad initiative to establish a Pennsylvania service hub for the Digital Public Library of America, which will make Pennsylvania history and cultural heritage more accessible and discoverable to students, teachers, genealogists, historians, scholars, and others in our communities and around the world.
So happy birthday, Scranton! Let’s get this party started.
At the conclusion of the Panel Discussion, artists from Mongolia will perform traditional music and dance. Reception to follow. Reservations encouraged.
The Jay Nathan, Ph.D., Visiting Scholar Lecture Series
The Jay Nathan, Ph.D., Visiting Scholar Lecture Series invites international scholars from economically challenged and politically suppressed nations to visit the University of Scranton to address issues that will enlighten and benefit students, faculty and the community-at-large. Its purpose is to enrich the intellectual life or share a cultural exposition in the arts or music for both The University of Scranton and our Northeastern Pennsylvania community. This annual lecture initiative will highlight the research and contributions of guest scholars of international repute who will visit the University to discuss timely and timeless subjects. While visiting campus, scholars will deliver presentations on topics of interest to the academic community and meet informally with attendees, students and faculty.
The Jay Nathan, Ph.D., Visiting Scholar Lecture Series
The Jay Nathan, Ph.D., Visiting Scholar Lecture Series invites international scholars from economically challenged and politically suppressed nations to visit the University of Scranton to address issues that will enlighten and benefit students, faculty and the community-at-large. Its purpose is to enrich the intellectual life or share a cultural exposition in the arts or music for both The University of Scranton and our Northeastern Pennsylvania community. This annual lecture initiative will highlight the research and contributions of guest scholars of international repute who will visit the University to discuss timely and timeless subjects. While visiting campus, scholars will deliver presentations on topics of interest to the academic community and meet informally with attendees, students and faculty.
The International Film Series presents a free screening of The Little Girl Who Sold the Sun (La Petite Vendeuse de Soleil) on Wednesday November 19th at 7 p.m. in the Moskovitz Theater in The DeNaples Center. Dr. Annie Hounsokou will lead a discussion following the film.
Set in Dakar, Senegal The Little Girl Who Sold the Sun is director Djibril Diop Mambety’s tribute to street children. It tells the story of Sili Lam, a resilient twelve year old paraplegic who is the lone girl in the competitive world of male newspaper vendors. With the local policeman suspicious of her good fortune when she sells all her newspapers and the newsboys taunting her, can Sili persevere and rise above her difficult circumstances?
The Little Girl Who Sold the Sun is in Wolof with English subtitles.
This event is open to faculty, staff, students and the public. Please email sharon.finnerty@scranton.edu for more information.
Film series sponsored by a University of Scranton Diversity Initiative Grant through the Office of Equity and Diversity.
One of our goals here at the Weinberg Memorial Library is to encourage thoughtful exploration of new technologies – we see experimentation as an important part of thinking and learning. Also, sometimes we just like to play with cool new toys. For both reasons, we were delighted to receive a visit earlier this summer from local drone photography team Access Aerial, who gave us the Library’s very first drone flyover along with a demonstration of their equipment.
We’ll confess – we had an in! Access Aerial’s two pilots, Lee DeAngelis and John Culkin, are also staff members in the University of Scranton’s Information Resources division. In their day jobs as Senior Systems Administrators, Lee and John help us keep the Library’s infrastructure running smoothly. Off hours, though, they’re out flying unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) over community events, giving us a new perspective on our local landscape. Back in June, Lee used his drone to capture aerial footage of the Scranton Cooperage fire, demonstrating the potential value of drones in local journalism (and even getting a mention in Fortune). In July, Access Aerial photographed the construction of the brand new library at nearby Marywood University (we’ll admit that a tiny bit of librarian jealousy may have prompted us to set up our own appointment).
At the end of August, Lee and John brought over one of their Phantom drones for a demonstration at the Library. Their Information Resources coworker Ray Frey, also a UAV enthusiast, brought his own homemade drone along for the fun.
Overall, the experience has left us feeling quite majestic. From all of us here at the Weinberg Memorial Library, huge thanks to Access Aerial! We can’t wait to see what you’ll photograph next.
P.S. Feel like you missed out on the fun? Lee and John will be bringing a drone back to the Library on November 13, 2014 at 12pm for “Everything You Wanted To Know About Drones, But Were Afraid to Ask!” They’ll be giving a presentation and demonstration (weather permitting) as part of the Library’s Technology On Your Own Terms workshop series. Faculty and staff can sign up at www.scranton.edu/ctleregistration.
