Federal Depository Library Conference

October 17-20, 2004

Digitizing the Good War: Government Publications and Perspectives on WWII

Joe Milazzo, Librarian Government Information and Map Resources, SMU
Keith Weimer, Government Information Librarian, University of Richmond

A joint presentation of two separate digitization projects involving military pamphlets distributed by GPO: http://worldwar2.smu.edu/ and http://oncampus.richmond.edu/is/library/digital/america_at_war/Gateway.html

Issues discussed included copyright holding on items such as Newsmaps, the collection management products used (Encompass at U of Richmond; Endeavor Voyager at SMU), tips in the digitizing process (cleanup of images was needed in most cases); cataloging decisions, and issues with labeling digital files to provide for correct ordering of digital objects in the default index.

Also discussed was the difficulty of meeting the standards set by GPO for digital collections of government works.

The idea that these projects functioned more as ‘proof of concept' than as state-of-the-art demonstrations of creating digital collections.

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