Archival Skills - Toledo Library Projects

The Local Geneaology and History Department of the Toledo Lucas County Public Library system gave me the opportunity to work behind the scenes and in the archives. In Spring 2020 from January to the beginning of March, I worked on digitizing newspaper clippings and books about Toledo's history. Two days a week, I would report to the library and work on a project.

Each project would consist of me using one of the scanners (either a flatbed scanner or planetary book scanner) to upload raw, unedited images of the content to the server. After everything was scanned, I would then use the FastStone editing software to touch up images. It is important to note that editing these images only included tasks such as blurring out a metal spatula, or one of my fingers, from a page where I had to hold it open. Digitizing books and other materials from the archives is meant to preserve the authenticity of the image. The goal is to get as clear of a picture as possible.

After everything was edited, I would go into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet to document metadata about the object I digitized. I would write down information such as the date(s) of publication, author, location (both city name and latitude/longitude coordinates), number of pages, etc. Once I filled out the metadata, I would go over it with the head of the department, John Dewees, where we would correct any mistakes I made. It is much more tedious than you would expect! When all was checked over, he would then upload the digitized material onto ohiomemory.org, a website that most library archives in Ohio use to preserve history digitally.