Buried Treasure: Digitizing a Hidden Library Collection

Miraida Morales Rutgers University School of Communication & Information miraidam@gmail.com @MiraidaM on Twitter

The project:to build a digital library of heraldry design

Rutgers University Princeton University Puerto Rico

The man:Roberto Beascoechea Lota

b. 1915-d. 2004

1956: went to work at the newly formed Institute of Puerto Rican Culture as a historian and advisor

Eventually to become Director of the National Library of Puerto Rico

The collectionUnprocessed

Organized in folders by municipality only

Handmade sketches, handwritten notes, bibliographies, correspondence, invitations to official unveilings, telegrams, drafts of heraldry description, glossaries of heraldic terms, official memoranda

Sketch of flag of Vieques date: August 10, 1975signed by RBL

Cataño, Sketches for coat of arms & flagdate: unknown

Cataño, studies for coat of armsdate: unknown

The process

PlanningInventory

& Selection

Platform, metadata scheme

DigitizationUploading files

& metadata creation

Prototype & Digital Library

3 months

SupportTools:

HP Scanjet N9120 Document Flatbed ScannerExternal Hard DriveGreenstone ManualOnline resources

Personnel:

2 librarians5 full-time staff members2 part-time staff members2 IT staff, shared

ChallengesBudget: $0

Government holidays: 5 in July alone

AC system in the Library broke

No access to scanner or hard drive until last week in June

Government closures due to tropical storms

The challenges

Tropical Storm IreneTropical Storm Emily

The outcome

Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña http://www.icp.gobierno.pr/

Biblioteca Nacional de Puerto Rico http://www.icp.gobierno.pr/bge/index.htm

Heráldica Municipal http://icp-5.icp.gobierno.pr/greenstone/cgi-bin/library.cgi?site=localhost&a=p&p=about&c=herldica&l=en&w=utf-8

Looking aheadGrant proposal to:

• Upgrade interface

• Develop better resource discovery

• Bilingual access points

• Grow the collection

• Provide guides to the collection for different users: teachers, students, artists, researchers, children, general public

• Develop & carry out a marketing strategy

¡Gracias!

Guide to Images & ReferencesBeascoechea Lota, R. (1975). Boceto a color de la bandera de Vieques. Biblioteca Nacional de Puerto Rico.

Beaschoechea Lota, R. (n.d.) Bocetos lineales del escudo y la bandera de Cataño. Biblioteca Nacional de Puerto Rico.

Beascoechea Lota, R. (n.d.) Bocetos lineales a mano para el diseño del escudo de Cataño. Biblioteca Nacional de Puerto Rico.

Berkowitz, B. (2011, August 22). Analysis: Hurricane could boost insurance pricing. Reuters. Retrieved from http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/22/us-hurricane-insurance- idUKTRE77L6SE20110822

Defense Department. (2010). The Institute of Heraldry celebrates 50th anniversary. (Defense Dept. Doc. No. WLNR21832363). Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office.

Gobierno de Puerto Rico. (2010). Escudo de Puerto Rico. Retrieved from http://www2.pr.gov/SobrePuertoRico/ SimbolosNacionales/ Pages/Escudo.aspx

Hammond, J. (2011, August 22). Day 234: UK and world weather report-hurricane Irene and tropical cyclone Harvey. BBC. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/23degrees/ 2011/08/day_234_uk_and_world_weather_r.html

Quiñones, E. (2011, April 18). Princeton University Bulletin. 100(8), 1.

Rutgers University. (2011, October 7). In Wikipedia. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rutgers_ University# Coat_of_arms

Scherer, R. (2011, August 2). Tropical storm Emily moves west in Caribbean. Will it hit US Coast? The Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved from http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/ 2011/0802/Tropical-storm-Emily-moves-west-in-Caribbean.-Will-it-hit-US-coast

Torres. (1965, March 25). Junta de directores del Instituto Puertorriqueño de Cultura Hispánica. In El mundo, 2nd ed. Retrieved from http://bibliotecadigital.uprrp.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/ELM4068& CISOPTR= 426&CISOBOX=1&REC=14