Developing and supporting 21st-century research and scholarship
by: Scott Hollander, Libraries Web Manager and Interim Coordinator of Digital Collections

Did American poet Robert Frost actually hold office hours at the University of Buffalo in 1927? Why was actress Elizabeth Taylor on the UB campus in September of 1957? And what was U.S. Senator Al Gore doing in Niagara Falls, NY on April 1, 1990? To answer these questions, one could spend hours analyzing fragile print materials in the University Archives, but with just a few mouse clicks, each question can easily be answered without ever setting foot on campus. This is due to the fact that Robert Frost, Elizabeth Taylor, and Al Gore all “reside” within the online world of the University at Buffalo Libraries’ Digital Collections at digital.lib.buffalo.edu.

What exactly is a digital collection? As the name implies, such collections contain material that has been digitized according to prevailing standards, described in such a way as to facilitate its discovery and use, preserved so that the digital collection will be accessible over the long term, and, finally, published online. The University Libraries’ digital collections encompass a wide variety of formats, including photographs, print materials, audio recordings, artworks, artifacts and other resources. Our digital collections are created to support the teaching and learning activities of UB faculty and students, enhance scholarship and research, and increase access to rare or fragile items that may be too delicate to be handled regularly by the public.

The idea of developing a system to house the Libraries’ digital collections was first conceived more than a decade ago. The university’s former Educational Technology Center convened a group of interested faculty and staff to explore the feasibility and desirability of a creating a campus-wide platform for digital assets. A census and needs assessment survey was developed by the group and distributed to all UB faculty, with the survey results providing a needs-based argument for future exploration of a campus model. Following an intensive product evaluation period, considering such factors as common criteria for data management, underlying database structure, end-user functionality, interoperability, support, scalability and costs, CONTENTdm© software was adopted as the Libraries’ central digital asset management system. After a brief testing period, UBdigit, the Libraries’ first digital collections platform, was successfully launched in 2004.

Today, the Libraries’ Digital Collections Team supports two main platforms for UB’s digital collections, and coordinates several special digitization projects. Many digital collections are still available in UBdigit utilizing the CONTENTdm© system; however, the original UBdigit site has grown significantly since 2004. The Libraries currently offer more than 40 distinct collections that cover such diverse subject areas as African American studies, American literature, architecture, biology, medicine, music, psychology and UB history. All of the Libraries’ digital collections provide centralized access to UB’s diverse inventory of legacy and teaching collections for purposes of instruction, scholarship and archival preservation.

One of the particular strengths of the UB Libraries’ digital collections is the wealth of material related to the university’s long history. University Archivist John Edens has made the preservation of UB history a top priority, and the “Best of the UB Archives” website highlights the UB story through the use of captivating photographic images and text drawn from such collections as the University at Buffalo Student Newspapers, the Clifford C. Furnas Collection, the Buffalonian Yearbooks, the Black Student Union Periodical Collection, the Bison Magazine Covers, and the Opinion Newsletter.

University at Buffalo Student Newspapers, 1921-1950, is one of the Libraries’ most popular digital collections, providing access to two student newspapers published at UB more than half a century ago. Two fascinating articles included in this collection describe Robert Frost’s visit to the University of Buffalo in November, 1927. The poet’s visit is the topic of “New England Poet Charms Large Lecture Audience,” an article published in UB’s student newspaper, the Bee, on November 18, 1927. According to the Bee, Robert Frost held office hours in Hayes Hall and was “at the service of students and faculty” while he was on campus.

Digitized images in the Clifford C. Furnas Collection include several photos of Elizabeth Taylor taken during her visit to Buffalo and UB in 1957. Taylor and her third husband, Mike Todd, spent four days in Buffalo as part of the city’s 125th anniversary celebration, and the couple presented a live bull, named Buster, to the “Spirit Committee” of UB’s cheerleading squad.

The University at Buffalo also holds the premier collection on Love Canal, one of this country’s most notorious and infamous hazardous waste sites. The widely-utilized Love Canal Images collection is a digital archive of photographs, maps and posters related to the Love Canal environmental disaster of the 1970s. The online collection includes a photo of then-Senator Al Gore who visited Niagara Falls, NY in 1990 to protest the resettlement of a portion of the Love Canal neighborhood. The Love Canal Images collection forms part of the larger Love Canal Collection available in the University Archives.

Funding for the creation of several UB Libraries’ digital collections was provided by the Western New York Library Resources Council through the Regional Bibliographic Data Bases and Interlibrary Resources Sharing Program. Digitization of these collections underscores the University Libraries’ ongoing commitment to preserving UB’s significant history.

The other major platform for digital collections at UB today is the Institutional Repository (repository.buffalo.edu). Launched in 2009, this is a digital collection that captures, preserves and disseminates intellectual property created within the University at Buffalo community. Institutional repositories typically house “grey literature,” a term that refers to papers, reports, technical notes or other documents produced and published by academic institutions and various research organizations that are generally not distributed or indexed by commercial publishers. The University at Buffalo Institutional Repository is designed to store the university’s grey literature and promote UB-based research and intellectual property by enabling its discovery via the Web. Authors and/or publishers hold copyright over their content and all rights are reserved. While still in its infancy, it is hoped that the UB Institutional Repository will eventually increase scholarly self-archiving and further support open access scholarly communication behavior.

As the Libraries’ digital collections initiative enters its second decade, future plans include the addition of streaming media, such as audio and video content. The Poetry Collection recently completed a grant-funded project to reformat, catalog and make accessible over 1,000 cassette and reel-to-reel audio recordings of poetry materials held in the collection.

The UB Libraries are actively developing new digital collections using an interdisciplinary contributor model in which contributor proposals are solicited, vetted and prioritized for production by the Digital Collections Team. Despite limited resources, the Libraries are committed to digitizing and preserving as much significant content as possible. But time is of the essence. For example, much of the material featured in “The Best of the UB Archives” website was originally issued on newsprint and is now in extremely fragile condition, the result of heavy use over the years. Contributions to our Digitization Fund will help ensure that all former issues of the Spectrum and other UB student publications are preserved and accessible.

For more information about supporting this initiative, please visit: library.buffalo.edu/giving/digital-collections

The Spring 2011 issue of UB Libraries Today, the newsletter of the University at Buffalo Libraries, is now available. And be sure to visit the Library News blog for all the latest library news.

Spring 2011 Articles:

• 60 Years of the Spectrum
• Student Poets
• Meet Nancy Schiller
• International Scholars
• Student Donors
• 2011 Research Prize
• Finding Lockwood

Located in the University Archives, the Design Archive contains both textual and visual material. The foundation for the archive rests with the extensive Darwin D. Martin/Frank Lloyd Wright holdings. Recent additions have been coordinated with the School of Architecture and Planning.

The New York State Archives and the Archives Partnership Trust have selected the University Archives and the Jewish Buffalo Archives Project/Bureau of Jewish Education of Greater Buffalo to receive the 2010 Debra E. Bernhardt Annual Archives Award for Excellence in Documenting New York’s History.

The award is presented to an organization in New York State that has demonstrated leadership in improving the documentary record of New York State. This year’s award recognizes the University Archives and the Bureau of Jewish Education of Greater Buffalo for their efforts in facilitating partnerships between community agencies, educational institutions, cultural and professional organizations, along with many other organizations, to document the Jewish community in Buffalo. Read about the Jewish Buffalo Archives Project at <http://library.buffalo.edu/archives/jbap/about.html>.

The Clifford C. Furnas Collection, now available in the University at Buffalo Libraries Digital Collections, consists of photographs and memorabilia celebrating his life and career. Clifford C. Furnas (1900-1969) was a scientist, educator, and administrator.  He became the ninth chancellor of the private University of Buffalo in 1954. After guiding the university through the merger process with the State University of New York in 1962 Furnas became the first president of the State University of New York at Buffalo.

The Clifford C. Furnas Collection
http://ubdigit.buffalo.edu/collections/lib/lib-ua/lib-ua004_Furnas.php

Now on display in the Special Collections Research Room, a special exhibit in memory of the University at Buffalo’s 13th president:
“A Very Good Time”: William R. Greiner and the University at Buffalo, 1967-2009 .

See the University Libraries exhibit page for more information.

The University at Buffalo Libraries are proud to announce the availability of a new tool that will vastly improve access to finding aids for our unique archival collections. The database stores finding aids from University Archives, the Poetry Collection, the Law Library, and the Music Library. It operates using the eXtensible Text Framework (XTF) system developed by the California Digital Library.

The database can be accessed directly at http://libweb1.lib.buffalo.edu:8080/xtf/search. Associated pages contain information about UB’s archival collections, Encoded Archival Description as a format, and the structure of UB’s EAD finding aids. The database has also been added to the UB Libraries list of Databases by Title under “Finding Aids at the University at Buffalo Libraries“.

What are finding aids?  Finding aids are guides to archival records, personal papers, or manuscripts. They describe a collection’s origins, contents, and organization in more detail than the library catalog describes books. They are tools to help researchers determine if a collection contains useful information and where that information is located.  Visit About UB Finding Aids for more information.

A new online resource on the Love Canal Collections in the University Archives is now available online.

This resource includes links to the Love Canal collections finding aids, an image gallery, a clipping database, and an introduction to the history and background of the events that occurred at Love Canal.

In April 2008 Acheson Hall was renamed Kapoor Hall after noted Pharmacy alumnus, John N. Kapoor. The new facilities in Kapoor Hall will be new home for the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences and include associated research and teaching laboratories, vivarium, classrooms, a working hospital pharmacy, pharmacological care clinic, and office spaces. The renovation is expected to cost $65 million and to be completed by August 2011.

See the Development of the UB campuses: South Campus buildings — Kapoor Hall for more information.

Introducing a brand new online resource available for searching the University Archives’ Biographical File.

The Biographical File is contained in forty file drawers and includes newspaper and periodical articles, photographs, and other material about the lives, careers, and deaths of UB faculty and staff, illustrious alumni, famous visitors, and benefactors of the University. Millard Fillmore, the first Chancellor of the University, has a file as does the current President John B. Simpson.