taking your genealogy collection to the world

Taking Your Taking Your Genealogy Genealogy

Collection to the Collection to the WorldWorldLoren FantinLoren FantinWalter LewisWalter Lewis

@@OurDigitalWorld.orgOurDigitalWorld.org

OurDigitalWorld.orgOurDigitalWorld.orgNot-for-profit organization that evolved out of Knowledge Ontario

we come from library and archive backgrounds

What we doWhat we do

We partner with organizations in managing, preserving and sharing our digital assets.

We make local community history globally accessible.

We advocate for digital cultural heritage as a public good: sharing, access, attribution, and reuse

How we do thatHow we do thatDiscoverable, online access to over 4 million digital assets and community stories: videos, scrapbooks, images, newsletters, etc.

Offer the VITA toolkit for creating and managing multimedia collections, indexing and newspaper projects, including hosting, individual and regional sites

The largest Ontario newspaper archives (one of the largest free newspaper archives in the world)

Easy search and access to over 33,000 government documents from the Legislative Library collection

Trusted resource for digitization project planning

VITA toolkitVITA toolkitV(ideo)

I(mage)

T(ext)

A(udio)

and a bunch of other things that didn’t make a good acronym

Layers of DiscoveryLayers of Discovery

––Johnny AppleseedJohnny Appleseed

search.OurOntario.

ca

news.OurOntario.canews.OurOntario.ca

Regional sitesRegional sites

the four Public Libraries of Halton Region

LocalLocal

ink.ourdigitalworld.orgink.ourdigitalworld.org

All from a single point of data entry

vitatoolkit.cavitatoolkit.ca

CopyrightCopyrightLife of author (likely the editor) + 50 years

Note: Although not based in law, some organizations have applied a 90-year rule to newspapers, so that newspapers more than 90 years old are considered to be in the public domain.

1926

Indexing doesn’t require copyright permission

What to digitize?What to digitize?

Indexes?

Clippings?

Microfilm?

Originals?

Card IndexesCard Indexes

ElectroniElectronic c

IndexingIndexing

Source files …Source files …

Authex, dBase (III to IV), FoxPro, MS Access, SQL Server, MySQL, PostgreSQL, InMagic

MS Excel, MS Word, Dynix (Pick)

XML, HTML, CSV

the more structure the better, but transforming is cheaper than re-keying

Why bother?Why bother?Your electronic indexes are better than any generation of OCR (the exceptions are born-digital resources)

we can clean up (or at least identify) marginal records

dates in 2061 or 984 or missing

mastheads from “Goergetown”

linked open data (titles; place of publication, etc. ) and other semantic web elements

ClippingsClippings

from the Vertical File…from the Vertical File…

Microfilm conversionMicrofilm conversion

does n’t require the originals

does require a good print (no scratches / good contrast)

machine processing is faster and cheaper

used vs unusedused vs unused

Microfilm mishapsMicrofilm mishaps

OriginalsOriginals

best source

risk of damage during digitization

more time; more expensive

generally, better OCR

Damaged originalsDamaged originals

Whitby Chronicle, 3 Sep 1857, p. 3

Cheap NewsprintCheap Newsprint

Multiple Sources …Multiple Sources …

indexing or issues

black and white or colour

born digital or digitized

… browse or search and transitioning between them

OCROCRHI 3 do LiOSl do Connor do 2 do Watson do 3 do do do

Cousin 1 do do do 8 Johnson Ho do do 1 do

Kavs do I do 2 do do

York 3 do 3 do Pearson do do

1 do I do

Richards do 1 do Wall do 1 do Ross do 1 do Rooney I do 1 do Larkin do 2 do Poirson 3 do A do

Ferguson 2 do 2 do Bailey 5 do 3 Jos Fcrg do do Smart 1 do 1 do Lost

Western Herald (Sandwich, CW), 22

July 1842, p. 2 quoting Courier (Montreal, CE)

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wordStart="true" wordFromDictionary="true" wordNormal="true" wordNumeric="false" wordIdentifier="false" wordPenalty="0" meanStrokeWidth="33" charConfidence="66" serifProbability="255">T</charParams>

<charParams l="1201" t="210" r="1220" b="230" wordStart="false" wordFromDictionary="true" wordNormal="true" wordNumeric="false" wordIdentifier="false" wordPenalty="0" meanStrokeWidth="33" charConfidence="85" serifProbability="100">H</charParams>

<charParams l="1220" t="209" r="1238" b="230" wordStart="false" wordFromDictionary="true" wordNormal="true" wordNumeric="false" wordIdentifier="false" wordPenalty="0" meanStrokeWidth="33" charConfidence="100" serifProbability="100">E</charParams>

<charParams l="1238" t="209" r="1243" b="231" suspicious="true"> </charParams>... </formatting>

</line></par>

</text>

<word x1="92" y1="1505" r="100" b="1516" fs="4." ff="ArialNormal">LEWIS<ends x2="156" y2="1513"/></word><word x1="158" y1="1506" r="171" b="1517" fs="4." ff="ArialNormal">Waller<ends x2="206" y2="1517"/></word><word x1="219" y1="1508" r="226" b="1517" fs="4." ff="ArialNormal">and<ends x2="245" y2="1517"/></word><word x1="311" y1="1509" r="318" b="1518" fs="4." ff="ArialNormal">are<ends x2="335" y2="1518"/></word><word x1="347" y1="1509" r="355" b="1521" fs="4." ff="ArialNormal">pleased<ends x2="402" y2="1520"/></word><word x1="91" y1="1522" r="98" b="1531" fs="4." ff="ArialNormal">announce<ends x2="158" y2="1532"/></word><word x1="168" y1="1521" r="174" b="1532" fs="4." ff="ArialNormal">the<ends x2="191" y2="1532"/></word><word x1="200" y1="1522" r="210" b="1533" fs="4." ff="ArialNormal">birth<ends x2="237" y2="1532"/></word><word x1="247" y1="1523" r="255" b="1534" fs="4." ff="ArialNormal">of<ends x2="260" y2="1533"/></word><word x1="313" y1="1523" r="322" b="1533" fs="4." ff="ArialNormal">daughter<ends x2="378" y2="1534"/></word><word x1="395" y1="1522" r="407" b="1534" fs="4." ff="ArialNormal">Erin<ends x2="428" y2="1534"/></word><word x1="92" y1="1536" r="101" b="1547" fs="4." ff="ArialNormal">Elizabeth<ends x2="158" y2="1547"/></word><word x1="171" y1="1539" r="178" b="1548" fs="4." ff="ArialNormal">on<ends x2="187" y2="1547"/></word><word x1="196" y1="1537" r="206" b="1548" fs="4." ff="ArialNormal">December<ends x2="268" y2="1548"/></word><word x1="302" y1="1538" r="306" b="1548" fs="4." ff="ArialNormal">1983<ends x2="329" y2="1550"/></word>

Acton Free Press (Acton, ON), 18 Jan 1984, p. 21

OCR: modern filmOCR: modern film

SearchingSearching

Neilson … in HaltonNeilson … in Halton

Robison … in KingstonRobison … in Kingston

Making connections…Making connections…

Good hunting!Good hunting!Walter Lewis (wlewis@ourdigitalworld.org)

search.ourontario.ca

news.ourontario.ca

ink.ourdigitalworld.org

ourdigitalworld.org + vitatoolkit.ca