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| ALS to John Croft, 1900/05/31, "FN makes plans to see Croft and expresses joy at the "news that the war is over." |
The Florence Nightingale Digitization Project (2014) is an
international digital collaborative of digitized written correspondence by
Florence Nightingale. Known for leading the first team of British female nurses
sent to the Crimea war and establishing nursing as a viable profession for
women, Nightingale’s life events are documented through her correspondence
addressing various subjects from concerns such as the Crimean war, reforming
nursing practice, Indian sanitation and the use of medical statistics, to
personal and family matters.[1]
Through collaboration between the Florence Nightingale Museum in London,
England, the Boston University Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center, the
Royal College of Nursing, and the Wellcome Library (University College London),
the project permitted the accessibility to a collection across institutions and
the Atlantic Ocean, with other institutions still encouraged to collaborate.
Currently, the database contains over 2,000 digitized letters and is freely accessible
to the public through a web portal hosted by Boston University, which links to
the partners' websites.[2]
The digitization project successfully serves as a resource
for students, scholars, researchers, nurses, and those fascinated with Florence
Nightingale. The project operates through Boston University’s custom-made open-source
technical infrastructure coined Archive
Manager, a web-based “content management system which allows archivists to
enter descriptive metadata during the cataloguing process, manage digital
objects, and create online searchable finding aids.”[3]
Archive Manager enables connectivity
through substantial Library of Congress authority files and standardized
subject terms. Searching the database, researchers are offered “suggested
subject terms,” but can also search by personal entities, corporate entities,
subjects, collections, language, or keyword searching. The database is
interactive with zoom, slideshow, and thumbnail capabilities, paired with
appropriate metadata. The website is functional with working links to the
involved constituents’ digitized materials, making the database highly
recommended across various institutes of scholarship and research. Found in
library guides and listed among other digitized collections of letters and
diaries, the University of Washington acknowledges that “letters and diaries
provide a personal angle on history,” therefore the collaborative digitization
of Florence Nightingale’s letters provide a wholesome primary source collection
of a historical life.[4]
The documentation of the project, featured on the website of the Florence Nightingale Museum, elaborated on the complexities and possible barriers encountered. Published documents including a draft plan and reports from April 2012 to February 2013 reveal project progress updates, issues, suggested strategies, and decisions.[5] The draft plan addressed project preparation for digitization suggesting the following: a basic option with scanned images, full text transcription, fully catalogued letters, a foundational option with additional functionality of authorial changes, or an enhanced option which would also include high level technical functionality and interlinking between letters and digitized collections.[6] Due to funding and feedback from contacted institutions, the basic option was selected as the foundational level. Aims of the project hoped “to form and improve relationships with current and future museum stakeholders and partners; to improve access to the letters to a wider audience; to ensure the sustainability of the project; and to provide impetus for other holders of Nightingale’s correspondence to undertake their own digitisation projects so that we may form a linked, searchable series of collections that are accessible globally.”[7]
Issues of concern were constantly addressed in various project reports. Heavily cited concerns include copyright, transcription workflow, and technical difficulties. For the letters of Florence Nightingale owned by the Florence Nightingale Museum and partially held by the London Metropolitan Archives, the museum had to seek permission from the Henry Bonham-Carter Will Trust to digitize the materials.[8] After receiving copyright permission, the project was warned that the Henry Bonham-Carter Will Trust does not hold copyright for all materials involved. However, it was advised to not continue to seek copyright permission due to the expected lack of challenges when reproducing Nightingale’s letters.
*A number of letters that were written by Nightingale but have had replies written over the same pages; since copyright in cases such as these was not clear, these letters have not been made available but will be added in the future when we have clarified the legal situation to reproduce these letters online.[9]
Transcription of the letters done prior to 2012 required updates and reformatting as transcriptions were in MS Word documents and XML, which complicated the migration into TMS (The Museum System) requiring HTML formatting. Some letters in particular also needed to be translated. Technical difficulties included issues of reformatting, an updated content management system (TMS 2012) and establish an extensive platform for contextualization that would surpass the changes of the foreseeable digital future. The project also had severe time restraints with a set end date. There was substantial risk that the project would not be sufficiently complete according to the planned time frame. In order to prevent risks, extensive training and training manuals were provided to incoming collections assistants regarding technical upkeep and addition digitization internships were offered to Museum Studies or Librarianship students.[10] Across institutional boundaries, these issues surely prompted possible setbacks; but due to the effective communication, clear documentation, quality assurance and consultation as outlined in the project plan, the Florence Nightingale Digitization Project is a successful enterprise.[11]
The Florence Nightingale Museum, the Boston University Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center, the Royal College of Nursing, and the Wellcome Library, among other unmentioned cooperative institutions, gained a functional, extensive, digitized product of Florence Nightingale’s letters, an enduring valuable resource to scholars and researchers, a prime example of outreach, and acknowledgment of collaboration across various cultural and institutional boundaries. The digitization project appears highly successfully with functional interoperability across institutional websites featuring quality high-resolution digitized material. The project continues to be inclusive and welcomes repositories holding additional letters to contribute their materials.[12] Boston University Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center Director, Vito Paladino, is caretaker to 300 of Nightingale’s letters, explains how “archives shouldn’t be competing, that you should pool your resources and put your subject out there the best you can.”[13] This international digital collaborative aspires to emphasize that exact concept of collaboration. Individual institutions and their repositories have a right to maintain the original physical documents, but if applicable, it is highly encouraged to unite information sources and provide access to valuable information. The project itself offers a prime example of outreach. Paladino comments on the accessibility, “How many people would be able to come here from hospitals all over the world and look at them? For me, this brings the letters into the light and makes her work and theories more accessible.”[14] Since digitization, the letters of Florence Nightingale are now fully accessible online which eliminates previous obstacles of distance between institutions.
Future possibilities for the Florence Nightingale Digitization Project are dependent on the enhancement of digital asset management and further funding. As it stands now, the site is fully functional and high quality. However, as years pass and technology improves, it is uncertain to believe that the technical infrastructure will remain operative or even accessible. It will be necessary to practice routine maintenance checks, back-up significant data, and continue collaboration between the four main institutions and other collaborating constituents.
Reflection:
Researching collaborative projects across multiple LAMs institutions proved to be slightly challenging. Many of the IMLS grants are awarded for specific requests at libraries, archives, or museums for detailed individual projects. When searching past awards on the IMLS database, a search feature of “museum-library collaboration” grants did not provide an extensive amount of examples. It was easier to discover interesting projects through an institution’s website, which is how I discovered (and remembered) the Florence Nightingale Digitization project. It seems the classic silo effect is alive and well, which I noted later within the research of this digitization project. Each institution that collaborated in digitizing the letters of Florence Nightingale has an individual perspective on spearheading the project. For example, Boston University claims to have spearheaded the project because of Archive Manager, but The Florence Nightingale Museum only acknowledges institutions in the UK on their website.
It seems that digitization projects are collaborative projects with standardized method that can cross over the institutional and cultural boundaries. But, is it simple for an institution to digitize their individual holdings and just link them to a collaborative space? Is this digitization project simply four silos placed into a bigger silo?
This project is still successful in my opinion because of the quality of the product, its outreach to users, and cross-collaboration—which mainly included the compilation of grant funding. As we progress into the future of our technologically advanced libraries, archives, and museums, digital collaborations seem to be an innovative and rewarding way of promoting our collections.
The documentation of the project, featured on the website of the Florence Nightingale Museum, elaborated on the complexities and possible barriers encountered. Published documents including a draft plan and reports from April 2012 to February 2013 reveal project progress updates, issues, suggested strategies, and decisions.[5] The draft plan addressed project preparation for digitization suggesting the following: a basic option with scanned images, full text transcription, fully catalogued letters, a foundational option with additional functionality of authorial changes, or an enhanced option which would also include high level technical functionality and interlinking between letters and digitized collections.[6] Due to funding and feedback from contacted institutions, the basic option was selected as the foundational level. Aims of the project hoped “to form and improve relationships with current and future museum stakeholders and partners; to improve access to the letters to a wider audience; to ensure the sustainability of the project; and to provide impetus for other holders of Nightingale’s correspondence to undertake their own digitisation projects so that we may form a linked, searchable series of collections that are accessible globally.”[7]
Issues of concern were constantly addressed in various project reports. Heavily cited concerns include copyright, transcription workflow, and technical difficulties. For the letters of Florence Nightingale owned by the Florence Nightingale Museum and partially held by the London Metropolitan Archives, the museum had to seek permission from the Henry Bonham-Carter Will Trust to digitize the materials.[8] After receiving copyright permission, the project was warned that the Henry Bonham-Carter Will Trust does not hold copyright for all materials involved. However, it was advised to not continue to seek copyright permission due to the expected lack of challenges when reproducing Nightingale’s letters.
*A number of letters that were written by Nightingale but have had replies written over the same pages; since copyright in cases such as these was not clear, these letters have not been made available but will be added in the future when we have clarified the legal situation to reproduce these letters online.[9]
Transcription of the letters done prior to 2012 required updates and reformatting as transcriptions were in MS Word documents and XML, which complicated the migration into TMS (The Museum System) requiring HTML formatting. Some letters in particular also needed to be translated. Technical difficulties included issues of reformatting, an updated content management system (TMS 2012) and establish an extensive platform for contextualization that would surpass the changes of the foreseeable digital future. The project also had severe time restraints with a set end date. There was substantial risk that the project would not be sufficiently complete according to the planned time frame. In order to prevent risks, extensive training and training manuals were provided to incoming collections assistants regarding technical upkeep and addition digitization internships were offered to Museum Studies or Librarianship students.[10] Across institutional boundaries, these issues surely prompted possible setbacks; but due to the effective communication, clear documentation, quality assurance and consultation as outlined in the project plan, the Florence Nightingale Digitization Project is a successful enterprise.[11]
The Florence Nightingale Museum, the Boston University Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center, the Royal College of Nursing, and the Wellcome Library, among other unmentioned cooperative institutions, gained a functional, extensive, digitized product of Florence Nightingale’s letters, an enduring valuable resource to scholars and researchers, a prime example of outreach, and acknowledgment of collaboration across various cultural and institutional boundaries. The digitization project appears highly successfully with functional interoperability across institutional websites featuring quality high-resolution digitized material. The project continues to be inclusive and welcomes repositories holding additional letters to contribute their materials.[12] Boston University Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center Director, Vito Paladino, is caretaker to 300 of Nightingale’s letters, explains how “archives shouldn’t be competing, that you should pool your resources and put your subject out there the best you can.”[13] This international digital collaborative aspires to emphasize that exact concept of collaboration. Individual institutions and their repositories have a right to maintain the original physical documents, but if applicable, it is highly encouraged to unite information sources and provide access to valuable information. The project itself offers a prime example of outreach. Paladino comments on the accessibility, “How many people would be able to come here from hospitals all over the world and look at them? For me, this brings the letters into the light and makes her work and theories more accessible.”[14] Since digitization, the letters of Florence Nightingale are now fully accessible online which eliminates previous obstacles of distance between institutions.
Future possibilities for the Florence Nightingale Digitization Project are dependent on the enhancement of digital asset management and further funding. As it stands now, the site is fully functional and high quality. However, as years pass and technology improves, it is uncertain to believe that the technical infrastructure will remain operative or even accessible. It will be necessary to practice routine maintenance checks, back-up significant data, and continue collaboration between the four main institutions and other collaborating constituents.
Reflection:
Researching collaborative projects across multiple LAMs institutions proved to be slightly challenging. Many of the IMLS grants are awarded for specific requests at libraries, archives, or museums for detailed individual projects. When searching past awards on the IMLS database, a search feature of “museum-library collaboration” grants did not provide an extensive amount of examples. It was easier to discover interesting projects through an institution’s website, which is how I discovered (and remembered) the Florence Nightingale Digitization project. It seems the classic silo effect is alive and well, which I noted later within the research of this digitization project. Each institution that collaborated in digitizing the letters of Florence Nightingale has an individual perspective on spearheading the project. For example, Boston University claims to have spearheaded the project because of Archive Manager, but The Florence Nightingale Museum only acknowledges institutions in the UK on their website.
It seems that digitization projects are collaborative projects with standardized method that can cross over the institutional and cultural boundaries. But, is it simple for an institution to digitize their individual holdings and just link them to a collaborative space? Is this digitization project simply four silos placed into a bigger silo?
This project is still successful in my opinion because of the quality of the product, its outreach to users, and cross-collaboration—which mainly included the compilation of grant funding. As we progress into the future of our technologically advanced libraries, archives, and museums, digital collaborations seem to be an innovative and rewarding way of promoting our collections.
[1] http://blog.wellcomelibrary.org/2014/04/florence-nightingale-letters-available-online/
[2] http://hgar-srv3.bu.edu/web/florence-nightingale/about
[3] Ibid.
[4] http://guides.lib.uw.edu/c.php?g=341342&p=2303516
[5] http://www.florence-nightingale.co.uk/the-collection/digitisation-project.html
[6] http://www.florence-nightingale.co.uk/images/documents/digitisation_project/draft_project_plan_and_decision_summary_cover_sheet.pdf
[7] Ibid.
[8] Ibid.
[9] http://www.florence-nightingale.co.uk/images/documents/digitisation_project/Letters_Digitisation_Project-Update_February_2013.pdf
[10] http://www.florence-nightingale.co.uk/images/documents/digitisation_project/draft_project_plan_and_decision_summary_cover_sheet.pdf
[11] Ibid.
[12] http://hgar-srv3.bu.edu/web/florence-nightingale/about
[13] http://www.bu.edu/today/2016/making-the-work-of-florence-nightingale-available/
[14] Ibid.
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