Technical Information About This Project

Image Creation

The images were scanned on Agfa Duoscan T2000 XL flatbed scanners. These scanners can accommodate transparent media, however the images for PDCL were created from the original source material. This collection encompasses a wide range of photographic media.

Uncompressed master color TIFF files were created on the Agfa Duoscan T2000 XL and archived to CD-ROMs. JPEG files were created from the TIFF files in either color or grayscale and saved in a variety of formats to facilitate download speeds, readability and detail visibility.

A paper prescanning form was used by the Scan Technician to capture descriptive and administrative metadata for each item. This metadata, along with a unique seven-digit identifier and complete MARC cataloging information, was entered via web forms into a fully relational MS Access database by the Scan Technicians and Free Library Catalogers. Technical metadata was embedded in the TIFF header during digitization.

The presentation and the administrative portions of the web site are programmed in Cold Fusion with some JavaScript menu and validation features. All data entry for this application suite is fully automated. The site is mounted on a Windows 2000 server.

Credits

All narrative content was researched and written by subject specialists on staff at the Free Library of Philadelphia.

Staff and volunteers of the Free Library Web Development Department developed all graphics as well as all scripts and programming that create access to and views of the narrative content, the database and images. Intellectual content was derived from MARC cataloging records created by the Cataloging Department of the Free Library of Philadelphia.

Reproductions

Requests for reproductions should be directed to Reproduction Services.