Institute of Museum and Library Services

Digitization & Preservation of Selected Afro-Cuban & Cuban Exile Collection
National Leadership Grant 1999

GRANT PROPOSAL

The University of Miami has amassed a unique and valuable collection of materials relating to Cuba, known as the Cuban Heritage Collection. The objectives of the proposed project are to:

1. preserve unique and rare materials
2. provide improved access to these materials
3. test alternate conversion technologies
4. test extended indexing techniques
5. publish an electronic (CD-ROM) product

The principal outcomes of the proposed project will be:

1. an online collection of materials that will be available to scholars and the public
2. a methodology that will provide the basis for the conversion of other parts of the collection
3. a methodology for providing extended access to the collection
4. a model application of technology that can be used by other libraries or museums seeking to preserve their collections

The University proposes to select representative samples from the varying types of materials that make up the Collection and to convert the materials into a digital format using two types of conversion technology. The digital output will be used to create a database of digital files that will preserve the materials and provide non-destructive access. We intend to use the digital output from the conversion process as input to an indexing process via OCR technology. The indexing process will create a database of metadata records and full text indexing. The indexing process will provide a far greater depth of indexing and hence increase the information value of the Collection.

Two delivery mechanisms are to be tested as part of the project: a web page and a CD-ROM. The University recognizes that the conversion of some materials raises questions of copyright and intellectual property. The proposed project will address these problems by initially selecting materials that are in the public domain. Where copyright exists, we will seek permission to make digital copies from the copyright holders.

The Xerox Corporation will actively support the University in the project. Xerox will contribute both equipment and personnel and its research facility, Xerox PARC, will supply a recently developed device for testing and evaluation.

The University of Miami has had a close relationship with Cuba since it was founded in 1926. Initially the links were through the University of Havana, but given the geographic proximity of Miami to Cuba these links inevitably broadened. Up to 1959, the University of Miami established a strong library collection of materials relating to Cuba, including many rare items. In the post 1959 era the University's Cuban collection continued to grow and was made even more significant by the addition of materials generated by, and relating to, Cubans who were exiled in the United States as a result of the Cuban Revolution of 1959.

Since the appointment of Esperanza de Varona to the University's Richter Library in 1980, the collection has been substantially expanded, particularly in the areas of personal papers and materials from Cuban exiles. In recognition of the growing importance of the Collection and its many unique resources, in 1998 the University created an independent unit under the direction of Mrs. de Varona to be known as the Cuban Heritage Collection.

The University has further recognized the importance of Cuba as an area of scholarship by establishing a Cuban Studies program within its School of International Studies. The University of Miami is not alone in its creation of a Cuban Studies program. The University of Pittsburgh, Tulane University and Florida International University all have similar programs. The expansion of these programs reflects an increasing interest in the area and suggests that there is a growing demand for relevant information.

The administrator of this proposed project will be Esperanza de Varona, a professionally qualified librarian and archivist. She has many years' experience with and an intimate knowledge of the Cuban Heritage Collection. She is also fluent in Spanish. As project director, Mrs. de Varona will be responsible for the overall coordination of the project and for monitoring its progress. The manager of the project will be Lesbia O. Varona, who is also a professionally qualified librarian with an intimate knowledge of the Cuban Heritage Collection and fluency in Spanish. As project manager, Ms. Varona will be responsible for the day-to-day operations of the project and ensuring that any problems reported by the production supervisors or the quality assurance officer are documented and resolved. Lyn MacCorkle will be the Collection's web site advisor and web mistress. Ms. MacCorkle will be responsible for coordinating the design and implementation of the site as well as managing its continuing operation. Lyn MacCorkle is a professionally qualified librarian with a doctorate from Florida State University. She was responsible for the design and development of the Richter Library's web site and is the web mistress of the site. Richard J. Goodram will be the consultant to the project and will be responsible for coordinating the technology being used. Mr. Goodram is a professionally qualified librarian with over thirty years' experience in information systems design, integration and operation. In addition to Goodram's specific role of technology coordination, he will be available as an advisor to the project and will assist in the design of the data structures, Web site and CD-ROM publications.

The Cuban Heritage Collection is recognized as the foremost source of materials about Cuba and its culture that exists outside Cuba. The Collection spans nearly 300 years and contains over 250,000 items including rare books, journals, periodicals, newspapers, manuscripts, personal papers, postcards, photographs, oral histories on videotape, maps, and posters. These materials date from the early Colonial Period to the present day. Scholars from around the world rely on the Collection as a primary source for research into Cuban history, genealogy, culture and the Cuban exile experience.

Of particular note are the collection of Cuban Exile Periodicals Collection that contains approximately 100,000 issues of over 800 titles that were published by Cubans in the United States after 1959, and the Masnata Collection which is the foremost collection of Cuban genealogy. The Cuban Heritage Collection also contains the personal papers of several prominent individuals such as Lydia Cabrera (over 150,000 pages), Laureano F. Batista Falla (99,500 pages) and Dolores Marti de Cid (202,000 pages). Also of great interest to scholars are the corporate papers of The Truth About Cuba Committee, Inc. (390,000 pages). The Collection contains some 15,000 photographs (many included in the collections of personal papers), 1,375 postcards (dating from the early 20^th Century) and 230 maps (dating from the late 17^th Century).

Mrs. de Varona describes the Collection in this way:

"Through the Cuban Heritage Collection the University of Miami is helping to preserve the intellectual heritage of Cuban exiles and Cuban Americans. These publications are a chronicle of the hopes and aspirations of Cuban people all over the world, but in particular in the United States. They chronicle the struggle to maintain a unity of purpose and of the need to preserve, add to, and transmit their culture. These materials are heroic, not only in terms of the hardships which had to be overcome to salvage historic documents or to achieve publication of current writing, but also with regard to the very nature of the exile soul striving to be one again, someday, in a free Cuba."

Serving Scholars and the Public

The Cuban Heritage Collection is an active resource for scholars both in the United States and abroad. In addition to those scholars who are able to visit the Collection, it serves an extended clientele through its inter-library loans service. Members of the public are also served by the Collection and have made frequent use of its resources. The use of the Collection by the public has led to the acquisition of important materials of interest to scholars. Donations of personal papers and other materials from individuals using the Collection have been a significant source of primary research material.

The Collection is also actively used by the media. Radio, television and newspaper reporters consider the Collection and its staff a valuable resource when covering a variety of stories concerning Cuban history, the Cuban exile experience and Cuban-American relations [see Attachment No.2].

The Cuban Heritage Collection has particular significance for Miami and Southern Florida. Cuba is only ninety miles to the south and the population of expatriate Cubans in the Miami area numbers about 600,000.

However, as the relationship between Cuba and the United States continues to undergo rapid political, social, and economic change there is a growing need for access to information to support national and international policy development. The Cuban Heritage Collection contains a large amount of information, much of it not available elsewhere, that is pertinent to this process. The University is geographically and historically very well placed to facilitate the efforts of government bodies to develop economic, political and cultural relations with Cuba into the next century.

Although it is anticipated that the greatest use of the Collection will continue to be by American scholars and researchers it has, as already mentioned, considerable significance for international scholars as well [see Attachment No.2]. In addition selections from the Collection will be exhibited in Spain during 1999 and there is a continuing interest from scholars of Caribbean and Latin American nations.

The Collection is presently housed in inadequate accommodations with too little space and inadequate temperature and humidity control. A significant amount of the Collection is recorded on materials that have a relatively short shelf life, for example, newsprint on paper with a high acid content or oral histories recorded on non-archival quality videotape.

The University is currently planning an entirely new accommodation for the Collection as part of its Richter Library Renovation Project. Present schedules plan the completion of this new space by May, 2001. Plans include a climate control system which will slow down the decay of materials, however, due to the nature of the materials, the decay will continue. Although the new accommodation will dramatically improve access to local use of the Collection, it will not address the problems of providing remote access to and non-destructive use of fragile materials.

Through this proposed preservation and digitization project, the University will progressively provide permanent, archival quality copies that may be accessed both locally and remotely. Our priority is to convert a core of the most significant material to create a digital collection that will be of the greatest use to scholars and the public. The University intends to share the results of this project with institutions that are faced with similar problems of preservation, access and delivery.

Digitizing
The University intends to use two types of processes to convert materials to digital format. The first process will be based on scanning technology. The second process will use digital camera technology. A project utilizing these two approaches will provide information of use to archivists, curators, and librarians about the productivity associated with each, and the types of materials that are more appropriate to convert using one or other of the technologies.

The University's hypothesis is that flat bed scanning will be best for sheet based, printed materials and that the digital camera will be best for rare bound materials, particularly MSS or decorative print. It is also anticipated that the conversion of each page will be significantly more expensive using the digital camera process.

Indexing
The University also proposes a dual approach to create increased access to the Collection. The first approach will be to create MARC compatible records that will be linked to the digital images created by the conversion process. The data definition of these records will be established during the first stage of the project and will be determined by a combination of an analysis of the materials and by the limits of the hardware/software systems being used. The second approach will be to generate full text files for certain materials using OCR software.

The results of applying OCR technology to the output of the digitizing process may vary between the two digitizing processes. These comparative results will be valuable in evaluating approaches to create expanded access to other collections.

The digital output from the conversion process (scanning, digital photography, cataloging and indexing) will be stored on a RAID mass storage device using mixed magnetic and optical storage. During production, the data will also be secured by a three-generation system of backup storage and then be written into optical archival storage. When the digital information is made available to the public, it will be offered in two levels of clarity. These two levels will allow users to choose between image quality and speed of download.

The objectives of the initial selection are to identify materials that are representative of the Cuban Heritage Collection but are also of significance in their own right. At the same time the University wishes to avoid copyright problems and has thus selected materials that are not copyrighted. Another objective is to commence the preservation of materials that are at high risk. The selection of Afro-Cuban and Cuban Exile materials with additional materials that reflect the richness of the Collection achieves these objectives.

The items selected for Phase 1 of the project are:

1. The Lydia Cabrera Collection
   This collection consists of approximately 150,000 pages of personal papers of one of the 20^th Century's leading writers of Cuban folklore who is also an internationally known chronicler of Afro-Cuban culture.
2. Eight Periodicals from the late Nineteenth Century
   Although the runs of these periodicals are incomplete, they represent an important resource for the cultural and political history of Cuba.
3. Twenty-five Books published in 1749
   These works contain significant information about Cuban history, culture, economics and politics. Many are exceptionally well illustrated.

A detailed list of these materials together with descriptive annotations is included [see Attachment No.3].

In addition, during Phase 1, a small sample from the Cuban Exile Periodicals Collection and a small number of photographs will be processed to establish workflow models and productivity levels.

The selection of the group of materials for Phase 2 will be influenced by the experience gained in the initial conversion. However, strong candidates are:

1. The Laureano F. Batista Falla Collection - 99,500 pages of personal papers
2. Exilio - a literary quarterly published in New York from 1965 to 1973 and featuring leading Cuban exile writers
3. The Pedro Pan Collection of photographs - 2,700 photographs associated with the "Pedro Pan Operation" that secretly transported 14,000 children from Cuba to the United States from 1960-1962

The selection of these materials has been made to address the urgent need for the preservation of parts of the Collection and to create a digital database that will be of significant use to scholars. At the same time, the processing of these materials will provide the University with experience in operating a large-scale conversion project using complementary technologies. The selected materials also provide a range of cataloging and indexing samples and contain several levels of graphic information (illustrations, line drawings, photographs, etc.) as well as many types of written information (manuscript, typescript, printed). The development of techniques for the effective storage of, access to, and presentation of these various types of material will also provide information that will be of use to future digital conversion projects.

The most urgent need that is addressed by the digital conversion program is that of preservation. However, a second and valuable goal is to improve remote access to materials that are presently only available locally. The improvement in access involves two elements: the first is providing better indexing and the second is creating a better delivery mechanism.

The proposed Web site will include an interface to the indexing and retrieval functions discussed previously. It will also provide an effective mechanism for the delivery of information from the Collection to remote users.

Methodology

The technical staff of the University has substantial experience in the design, creation, administration, and maintenance of Web sites. The library staff has considerable experience in designing, operating and maintaining Web pages and in teaching students and scholars how to effectively use the Internet as an information resource. The skill of our technical and library staff is particularly relevant to the creation of a Web site that will provide international access to the digitized materials from the Cuban Heritage Collection.

Initially, the Web site will contain small but representative samples of the materials being converted. These materials will be stored on a local server using RAID mass storage. The site will be reviewed by selected University library and teaching faculty and tested by students. The results of the review and testing will be used to refine the Web site before adding additional material.

Several rare books held by the Cuban Heritage Collection are of such significance that other libraries are likely to be interested in acquiring their own copy. Five of these books have been chosen for publication on CD-ROM. Once produced, CDs of these titles will be distributed to selected libraries for evaluation and comment.

A single book will be used to test the workflow system and the design of the CD-ROM product. Experience in the CD-ROM publication of this book will be used to adjust both the workflow and the design of subsequent products. A local vendor with experience in this type of publishing will be engaged to help with this task.

Local, National and International Impact

As documented earlier, the Cuban Heritage Collection has a demonstrated significance at the local, national and international levels and attracts a growing number of scholars, graduate students and media representatives each year. The loss of a significant proportion of the Collection is inevitable if no preservation action is taken in the near future. A growing proportion of the Collection will become effectively unusable as the materials become too fragile to allow normal access and use. Digitization would also ensure the preservation of these irreplaceable materials if a hurricane were to strike Miami.

The University has made the decision to support an expanded Cuban Heritage Collection and has allocated funds to hire additional staff and to acquire additional materials. The University has received a gift of one million dollars to provide an improved accommodation for the Collection and is actively seeking gifts that will enable the construction of a separate facility for the Collection. The new facility is planned to incorporate improved environmental controls and a more useful space for visiting scholars. The University is also seeking an endowment for a head curator and endowments to support visiting scholars. The University expects that it will be successful in attracting a significant proportion of these gifts within the next two years.

The University's newly developed Cuban Studies program will attract graduate students from across the United States and from abroad. The Cuban Heritage Collection will provide much of the information that will enable graduate students and faculty to undertake the research associated with this program.

The Cuban Studies program will increase the visibility of the Cuban Heritage Collection both nationally and internationally. It is anticipated that there will be a commensurate increase in the scholarly use of the Collection.

The Federal government's current foreign policy initiatives involving United States/ Cuban relations are already creating an environment where knowledge about Cuba and Cubans is becoming a vital resource for government and business. To be most effective, this resource must include information relating to Cubans in the United States (Cuban Americans and Cuban Exiles) and the political and social structures that have been developed by these groups since 1959.

The scholarly and applied research that is facilitated by the Cuban Heritage Collection has produced and will continue to produce books, reports and analyses that provide valuable political, economic and cultural resources. The support that the Collection will provide for the Cuban studies programs at the University of Miami and other universities will also have a profound effect.

Although the primary objectives of the project are preservation and, through the preservation process, improved access, it is anticipated that the project will generate new information about conversion and preservation technology that will be used in new combinations.

This includes information about:

1. capacity of the technologies to create archival quality digital records
2. cost of conversion
3. capacity of the technologies to generate effective full text indexes
4. cost of creating the indexes
5. benefits and problems associated with providing alternate resolutions

During the two year cycle of the project, all developments in appropriate standards and protocols will be monitored, and where practical, applied. The result of this monitoring program will be included in the project's reports.

The proposed project is planned as the first stage in the conversion and preservation of the Cuban Heritage Collection. The project has been designed to be a multi-stage program, providing a technological infrastructure of hardware and software systems that will allow future preservation programs to be developed at lower capital cost. It has also been designed to provide management information that will enable the University to continually improve quality and productivity. This information will be distributed for the use of other institutions.