Creating Access for Historic Texas Soil Surveys: A Digitization Case-Study
Fall 2006/Spring 2007
reserve stipulations
back to Reviews & Professional Writing
back to TXSS Paper
About the Project
| scope of project: all Texas soil surveys prior to 1950 |
- some obtained via ILL
- smaller format
collection development policy
- slightly arbitrary
- (year- and state-based)
- about 99 in that category
- also supports these subjects/fields:
- soil history
- science (especially the history of science)
- geography
- government documents
- not many early up
- maybe a few for North Carolina, as well
not for scientific value; value is:
- cultural
- historical
- understanding the science of the time
Soil Survey History & Background
earliest soil surveys
- US Agricultural Field of Operations, Bureau of Soils
- books = reprints = (stoll pag.?)
- adv. sheets - bureau operations soils
- not certain what order they were issued in
- detail level varies
audience
- unsure of original audience
- SS's started before the 1930's soil erosion problems
- now used for farmers, gardeners, builders, man-made lakes
- some land-grant boundaries
maps & printing
- soil types
- other feature = as valid landmarks?
- how were they done?
- dissertation on old soil survey process; currently being digitized
- varies per map: schools, etc.
- key on each map for types of soil
- later maps tell what each type of soil is good for
- also include topo-map-like symbols
- some tell base map (?)
- privately printed: 6-8 printers (in NY and WS); don't know publishers' precise role
- most are the same scale: 1" = 1 mile
- size of maps vary widely
books
- newer books often have photo plates
- some have other figures/tables, etc.
Digitization Process
- Sorting
- QC (Quality Control)
- Deskew
- ReSize
- OCR
- Metadata
- ToUpload
- automated process: scripts
- Uploaded
- (Display Interface)
while the object is in the lab
- quality control of image is checked
- metadata is created
- ideal (particularly for descriptive metadata)
Scanning
book scanning
- books were scanned on the Zeutschel; a few on the Betterlight (QC bitonal)
map scanning
- Betterlight scanback camera for maps (Mary O'Connor did the scanning)
- map up against vacuum easel (for photo)
- supported by magnets and the vacuum
- kept map smooth to decrease fold lines
- each scanned with color target and magnet ruler (crosstick)
- probably not yet color profiled
Display
- will use Zoomify for magnification and navigation in Portal to TX History
- need more maps to justify a better portal viewing application
Metadata
book & map metadata
- metadata for each (created at different times)
- different dates for each; maps issued separately from book?
- maps = publication date of book (iffy)
- coverage date = date on map
Each SS record contains many creators and contributors.
Parent agency changed: US Agricultural Soil Survey Department, US Agricultural Experimental Station, corporate authors (also sometimes US AES)
Eventually, the relation field will have a permalink (once all uploaded) to the linking book or map. Using the relation field to connect the soil survey map with its appropriate book volume.
- Relation field (for map): title and volume number of the book.
- MAP TITLE has part: BOOK TITLE, VOLUME #.
- Physical Description field: volume # of #.
collection issues
- all metadata records contain "soil survey" somewhere so that they can be easily pulled together as a collection
- not yet labeled as a collection
- their collection is under the broad "Texas History Collection" label assigned to the Portal to Texas History
maps
- sometimes lonen L. (???) listed participants
- sometimes different date (coverage date in metadata)
- put them in the notes field
- are searchable as keywords
- credited corporate authors only
- base map credit - contributor (as "cartographer")
- full records advocate notes (flexible system)
- can add keywords that aren't controlled vocabulary
- try to use LCSH for Portal browse
- more description on maps than on books
books
- description taken from TOC
- list counties (helps discovery)
- will be OCR'd (helps discovery)
- not sure if will OCR maps (did OCR newsmaps)
- ask Mark about QC and cost/benefit for page highlighter/keyword
list of published soil surveys - print copy in A&I (online now)
- National Res. Conserv. Serv.
- didn't always scan each year for each area
- need to contact them about "online," Y/N
- monthly catalog to identify call #'s
M (???) - ss maps for TX Dept. Transportation (subcontractor) - lab
UNT = scanned at higher resolution
TX Albany - wanted photos (???)