Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Milestone in the digital library

Sister Cecilia Louise Moore, CSJ, Mount President,
tests a communications satellite hookup for the 39th
Eucharistic Congress under way in Bogota, Colombia.
FOR ONE PROJECT OR ANOTHER, WE'VE NOW SCANNED several hundred historic photos, a few of which we've occasionally shared in this little blog.

Today, with about two dozen newly uploaded images, we've passed the 100 mark, including this gem showing Sister Cecilia Louise Moore, CSJ, trying out some brand-new satellite broadcast technology.

These pictures are searchable in our online repository, http://stmary2.sdlhost.com (opens in same window), and it's worth exploring the interface to learn the search options. There's a lot of hyperlinked data so you can see related photos.

A hundred photos do not a repository make. (At the Los Angeles Times, where we did a stint in the digital archives, there were a million). These things are time-consuming to build because we have to be so careful with the descriptive material, known as metadata.

Nevertheless, it's gratifying to see this thing grow. A hundred down... thousands and thousands to go!