The document summarizes the State Library of Pennsylvania's efforts to crowdsource the transcription of materials related to the Civil War using the Scripto transcription software. It provides an overview of the library's history and digital projects. It then details the challenges faced in installing and implementing Scripto on a Windows server, including lack of documentation, dependency issues, and firewall restrictions. Screenshots of the Scripto interface for the main page, registration, images, and transcription are included.
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2014 01-25 scripto-presentation
1. Crowdsourcing the Civil War
At the State Library of Pennsylvania
Alice L Lubrecht, Director of Library Services
William T. Fee, Digital Collections and Authority Librarian
January 25, 2014
American Library Association
3. Mission:
The primary role of the State
State Library of Library of Pennsylvania is to
collect, preserve and provide
Pennsylvania
access to materials for, by and
about Pennsylvania for the
information and research
needs of all branches of state
government, libraries and the
public.
January 25, 2014
American Library Association
4. Origins of the State Library
Traces origins to 1745
Ben Franklin and the General
Assembly
The Statutes at Large and
English maps
First housed in Independence
Hall Philadelphia, PA
January 25, 2014
American Library Association
5. Dauphin County
Court House
circa 1820
PA State Capitol,
Burning Feb. 2, 1897
Annex Building, Capitol Complex
circa 1930
January 25, 2014
American Library Association
Main Entrance to the
Forum/Education Building
5
6. Ben Franklins Kite & Key Experiment
19 October 1752 Pennsylvania Gazette
January 25, 2014
American Library Association
7. Digital Projects of the State Library
Online collection of historical documents,
articles and publications
Full-text resources on Pennsylvania history,
including the Civil War, Benjamin Franklin,
Abraham Lincoln and Fort Necessity
January 25, 2014
American Library Association
8. Focus in the Last Year?
Gettysburg Materials
January 25, 2014
American Library Association
10. WinXP as a test box
Commonwealth standard
Not Linux or Unix
No apt-get or sudo commands
Completely wrong file structure
Permission problems
Only certain versions of programs and underlying dependencies are
usable
Missing documentation
Zend version
Installing Scripto
Can require a knowledge of both Linux and Windows structures, etc.
January 25, 2014
American Library Association
11. Testing
Bitnami stacks
Multiple Apache servers
One dependency fails, they all do
Encyclopedia of Life
Underlying dependencies failed
Wouldnt fully install
FromthePage
Git client from GitHub
Installed somewhere
Never found it
January 25, 2014
American Library Association
12. Scripto
Requires Zend 1 framework
2 weeks to get an answer
Documentation assumes Linux knowledge
Little to no information on Windows install
Documentation scanty
Eventually installed in Drupal
Moved to outside servers due to firewalls and security
Outside server techs installed WordPress version
Registration through MediaWiki
January 25, 2014
American Library Association
#5: Established in 1745, the library maintains and provides access to vast and varied collections of print materials, newspapers, maps and atlases, and rare books that tell the history of Pennsylvania and its people. The library has chosen to digitize selected rare and Pennsylvania specific items in an effort to make them more widely available, both through our own website and now through Internet Archive. The State Library is now located in the Forum Building, immediately behind the Capitol in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania but we havent always been there.The first volumes owned by the Commonwealth make up the 420 volumes that comprise the General Assembly Collection. In 1745, Benjamin Franklin, as Clerk of the Assembly purchased the 7 volume set of the British Common Law Statutes at Large. In essence, the State Library was Bens other library. The first, of course, being the Library Company of 1731. Since these books were housed in Independence Hall, Philadelphia from 1745-1779, it is likely that these very books were consulted by the members of the Continental Congress during their Philadelphia tenure. The fact that these books are still in existence and many, in their original bindings, is in itself miraculous.
#6: The various components of the collections which comprise the Rare Books Library have survived several disasters over the last two & half centuries including:RAVAGES OF TIME & HISTORYWarInvasionFireMoistureRelocationBritish Invasion:Collection hidden in the fields of Easton PA when Philadelphia fell to the British.Continental Congress sending dispatchers to retrieve books to right laws to prove we were a civilized country to FranceCivil War:Moved from Hbg. to Phila. in ear shot of Lees TroopsCapitol Fire:The 78 year old Capitol Bldg burned to the ground in less then four hours and smoldered for several days after.It was the Senate Librarian Miller who pulled the Fire Alarm at 12:30 pm 2/2/1897, by 4 oclock pm the building collapsed.Shortly after the initial firm alarm was activated it was realized that the Capitol would be a complete loss, as many records as possible were removed from the Capitol to the Annex Bldg directly adjacent to the burning building.At that time the Annex Bldg, which did housed the State Library, was thought to be fire proof.Only the heroic and untiring efforts of the Hbg. Fire Dept combined with a veering of the wind saved this building from the same fate as the Capitol.Transferred from Building to Building:The State Library Collection were transferred from the Annex Bldg to its new home in the Education/Forum Bldg in 1931-32.Minor Move within Building:Within the Education/Forum Bldg the Rare Book Room was relocated from its original location on the Ground Floor due to structural and other problems from that location to another on the second floor of the building.
#7: The State Library has the most extensive collection of Pennsylvania newspapers from Colonial times to the present. This is one volume of bound newspapers from the early 1750s published by Benjamin Franklin and also containing his famous Kite and Key experiment on page 2!