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G2S Project Code: 2020-VA-85657
State: Virginia
Fiscal Year: 2020
Grantee
Library of Virginia

Project Director
Director Name: Kathy Jordan
Director Phone: 804-692-3913
Director Email: Kathleen.jordan@lva.virginia.gov
General Information
Title: Cultural Heritage Access and Engagement (CHAE)
State Project Code: CHAE
Start Date: 10/01/2020
End Date: 09/30/2021
Abstract: This project is focused on the development of new tools, services, and programs that foster user engagement with and access to cultural heritage materials and government records, encouraging the public to explore collections in interesting and flexible ways.

The COVID-19 pandemic continued to impact this project during the 2020-2021 reporting year. The Library was able to continue continue and even expand our virtual user engagement and crowdsourcing opportunities through our transcription platforms, Making History: Transcribe and From the Page. This also allowed us the opportunity to provide even more content for our transcription volunteers. In September of 2021, we also started a Slack channel for our volunteers and hope that will facilitate conversations between us and among the "crowd".

The Library also participated in a collaborative effort with 8 other state archives and From the Page to develop enhancements to the platform.  We were also able to restart the Virginia Digital Yearbooks project in March 2021, when the scanning centers reopened and public library personnel were able to return to their buildings and prepare collections for digitization. 

State Goal: Facilitate access to information and the discovery of knowledge and cultural heritage for the purpose of cultivating an informed and engaged community.
Budget Information
LSTA
MATCH-State
MATCH-Other
Total
$133,643.65
$0.00
$0.00
$133,643.65
Intent(s)
Improve users’ ability to discover information resources.
History
Activities
Activity Details
Title: Transcribe-a-Thons
Narrative: The Library resumed Transcribe-A-Thons in January 2021, with one special event in November 2020. The events have all been virtual, including our annual Transcribe-a-Versary in September 2021. 

The challenge with virtual transcribe events is that people do not need to participate in the event to do the work. Staff invited guest speakers and created a segment called "Featured Footnote" to bring more interaction and information to the events. In addition, the team created a Slack workspace for volunteers to ask and answer questions (lva-transcribe.slack.com). 

In 2022, the Library will resume in-person Transcribe-A-Thons one Saturday per month and will offer
virtual Transcribe-A-Thons one Wednesday per month.
Intent: Improve users’ ability to discover information resources.

Activity: Instruction
Mode: Program
Format: Virtual
Other: Volunteer opportunity for the general public, students, researchers, etc. to crowdsource transcription of Library of Virginia content


Quantity
Session length (minutes): 120
Number of sessions in program: 0
Average number in attendance per session: 22
Number of times program administered: 14


Partner Information
Organization Type of Partner Organization(s):
Libraries: No
Historical Societies or Organizations: No
Museums: No
Archives: No
Cultural Heritage Organization Multi-type: No
Preschools: No
Schools: No
Adult Education: No
Human Service Organizations: No
Other: No


Legal Type of Partner Organization(s):
Federal Government: Yes
State Government: No
Local Government (excluding school districts): No
School District: No
Non-Profit: No
Private Sector: No
Tribe/Native Hawaiian Organization: No


Beneficiaries
Is the activity directed at the library workforce: No
For a targeted group or for the general population: General


Locale
Is the activity state-wide: Yes
Specific Locations: No
Library Types
Public Libraries: 0
Academic Libraries: 0
SLAA: 0
Consortia: 0
Special Libraries: 0
School Libraries: 0
Other: 5
Question 1: I learned something by participating in this library activity.
Strongly Agree: 93
Agree: 23
Neither Agree nor Disagree: 3
Disagree: 0
Strongly Disagree: 3
Non-Response: 2
Question 2: I feel more confident about what I just learned.
Strongly Agree: 60
Agree: 51
Neither Agree nor Disagree: 7
Disagree: 1
Strongly Disagree: 2
Non-Response: 3
Question 3: I intend to apply what I just learned.
Strongly Agree: 61
Agree: 46
Neither Agree nor Disagree: 9
Disagree: 2
Strongly Disagree: 2
Non-Response: 4
Question 4: I am more aware of resources and services provided by the library.
Strongly Agree: 78
Agree: 33
Neither Agree nor Disagree: 7
Disagree: 1
Strongly Disagree: 2
Non-Response: 3
Question 5: I am more likely to use other library resources and services.
Strongly Agree: 73
Agree: 33
Neither Agree nor Disagree: 12
Disagree: 2
Strongly Disagree: 1
Non-Response: 3
Activity Details
Title: Transcribe Collection Development
Narrative:

During the course of the year, the Library and its volunteers completed thousands of transcriptions, adding 17,267 completed total pages since September 2020 via our Making History: Transcribe platform. 

On-going projects include Virginia Untold: The African American Narrative, World War I History Commission Questionnaires, Angel Visit Baptist Church records,  Naturalization records, various church records and other manuscript collections round out the offerings from this year. 

The Library also hosted a collection of photographs for the John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. The Albert Durant Photography Collection provides a priceless visual history of African American life in Williamsburg, Virginia, and surrounding communities from the late 1930s to the early 1960s, and the Library was pleased to be able to offer our platform to our colleagues at another institution. 

Over 20,000 (multipage) new items were added to Transcribe/From the Page (an additional platform); with nearly the same number exported. The Library is working on implementing Rosetta for preservation/digital asset management. These materials are being ingested into the system, but delivery to the public is delayed due to an issue with Primo VE's (our discovery layer) ability to process full text. The issue has been escalated with support and will hopefully be resolved soon. 


Intent: Improve users’ ability to discover information resources.

Activity: Content
Mode: Creation
Format: Digital


Quantity
Number of items digitized: 20,122
Number of items digitized and available to the public: 20,122
Number of physical items: 0
Number of open-source applications/software/systems: 0
Number of proprietary applications/software/systems: 0
Number of learning resources (e.g. toolkits, guides): 0
Number of plans/frameworks: 0


Partner Information
Organization Type of Partner Organization(s):
Libraries: No
Historical Societies or Organizations: No
Museums: No
Archives: No
Cultural Heritage Organization Multi-type: No
Preschools: No
Schools: No
Adult Education: No
Human Service Organizations: No
Other: No


Legal Type of Partner Organization(s):
Federal Government: No
State Government: No
Local Government (excluding school districts): No
School District: No
Non-Profit: No
Private Sector: No
Tribe/Native Hawaiian Organization: No


Beneficiaries
Is the activity directed at the library workforce: No
For a targeted group or for the general population: General


Locale
Is the activity state-wide: Yes
Specific Locations: No
Library Types
Public Libraries: 0
Academic Libraries: 0
SLAA: 0
Consortia: 0
Special Libraries: 0
School Libraries: 0
Other: 0
Activity Details
Title: Yearbook Digitization Project
Narrative:
Obviously, COVID-19 had a huge impact on the Digital Yearbook Project, since public libraries were closed, as was the scanning centers used for the project. 
Shipments of yearbooks recommenced in March 2021. Between March and October 2021, the following projects were completed (total 499 volumes, 91,327 pages): 
Bedford Public Library - 36 volumes, 4802 pages
Central Rappahannock Public Library - 121 volumes, 26,440 pages
Library of Virginia - 30 volumes, 4789 pages
Lonesome Pine Regional Library - 113 volumes, 18,256 pages
Mecklenburg County Public Library - 13 volumes, 1744 pages
Newport News Public Library - 55 volumes, 12,140 pages
Portsmouth Public Library - 71 volumes, 13,396 pages
Russell County Public Library - 60 volumes, 9760 pages
In addition, Library of Virginia staff created a LibGuide to facilitate access to digital yearbook collections: https://lva-virginia.libguides.com/yearbooks
According to analytics available from the Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/libraryofvirginia?tab=about), the Digital Yearbook Project was viewed by people (bots removed) 225,064 times between October 2020-September 2021.
Month  Views by People (not bots)
Oct 2020  22124
Nov 2020  23144
Dec 202016394
Jan 202123137
Feb 202121398
Mar 202121158
April 202116676
May 202118571
June 202114756
July 202115284
August 202116267
September 202116155
Total views:225064


Intent: Improve users’ ability to discover information resources.

Activity: Content
Mode: Creation
Format: Digital


Quantity
Number of items digitized: 499
Number of items digitized and available to the public: 499
Number of physical items: 0
Number of open-source applications/software/systems: 0
Number of proprietary applications/software/systems: 0
Number of learning resources (e.g. toolkits, guides): 1
Number of plans/frameworks: 0


Partner Information
Organization Type of Partner Organization(s):
Libraries: No
Historical Societies or Organizations: No
Museums: No
Archives: No
Cultural Heritage Organization Multi-type: No
Preschools: No
Schools: No
Adult Education: No
Human Service Organizations: No
Other: No


Legal Type of Partner Organization(s):
Federal Government: No
State Government: No
Local Government (excluding school districts): No
School District: No
Non-Profit: No
Private Sector: No
Tribe/Native Hawaiian Organization: No


Beneficiaries
Is the activity directed at the library workforce: No
For a targeted group or for the general population: General


Locale
Is the activity state-wide: Yes
Specific Locations: No
Library Types
Public Libraries: 8
Academic Libraries: 0
SLAA: 0
Consortia: 0
Special Libraries: 0
School Libraries: 0
Other: 0
Activity Details
Title: From the Page Enhancement Collaboration
Narrative: The Library collaborated with From the Page and eight other state archives (Alabama, Florida, Indiana, Maryland, Missouri, North Carolina, and Texas) to develop enhancements and features to the software. (https://fromthepage.com/). 

The developments included enhancements to the review role (approving the work of volunteers), metadata description, quality control, and a "spreadsheet feature" that facilitates the indexing and  transcription of materials in ledger format. The spreadsheet feature is especially important to the Library as major projects - such as our NHPRC grant funded project to transcribe Free Black Registers (https://www.archives.gov/nhprc/awards/awards-11-19 for info), which are often in "ledger" format. 
Intent: Improve users’ ability to discover information resources.

Activity: Content
Mode: Other
Format: Digital
Other: Served on Steering Committee for the development of new tools and enhancements to the transcription platform From the Page


Quantity


Partner Information
Organization Type of Partner Organization(s):
Libraries: No
Historical Societies or Organizations: No
Museums: No
Archives: No
Cultural Heritage Organization Multi-type: No
Preschools: No
Schools: No
Adult Education: No
Human Service Organizations: No
Other: No


Legal Type of Partner Organization(s):
Federal Government: No
State Government: No
Local Government (excluding school districts): No
School District: No
Non-Profit: No
Private Sector: No
Tribe/Native Hawaiian Organization: No


Beneficiaries
Is the activity directed at the library workforce: No
For a targeted group or for the general population: General


Locale
Is the activity state-wide: Yes
Specific Locations: No
Library Types
Public Libraries: 0
Academic Libraries: 0
SLAA: 0
Consortia: 0
Special Libraries: 0
School Libraries: 0
Other: 0
Project Outcomes
Project Outcomes
List any important outcomes or findings not previously reported:

Please briefly describe the importance of these outcomes and findings for future program planning:

Explain one or two of the most significant lessons learned for others wanting to adopt any facets of this project:

Do you anticipate continuing this project after the current reporting period ends:
Yes
Do you anticipate any change in level of effort in managing this project:
Yes
Explain:
We do plan to move to a new transcription platform in 2020-2021. This may be an upgrade to Omeka S and their new offering, Datascribe, out of George Mason University.
Do you anticipate changing the types of activities and objectives addressed by the project:
No
Explain:

Was an evaluation conducted for this project:
No
Was a final written evaluation report produced:
No
Can the final written evaluation report be shared publicly on the IMLS website:
No
Was the evaluation conducted by project staff (either SLAA or local library) or by a third-party evaluator:
Third-Party
What data collection tools were used for any report outcomes and outputs:
Did you collect any media for the data:
What types of methods were used to analyze collected data:
Other:
How were participants (or items) selected:
What type of research design did you use to compare the value for any reported output or outcome:
Exemplary: No
Exemplary Narrative
Project Tags: crowdsourcing, transcription, archives