[Metadatalibrarians] UA Libraries Grant to Pave the Way for Low-Cost Digitization of Cultural Heritage Materials

[Jody DeRidder]

Press Release  (apologies for cross posting)

The University of Alabama Libraries has been awarded a grant from the
National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) National Historical
Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) to digitize a large and
nationally important manuscript collection related to the emancipation of
slaves:  the Septimus D. Cabaniss Papers.  This digitization grant
(NAR10-RD-10033-10) will extend for 14 months beginning January 1, 2010
and will provide researchers online access to an estimated 44,563 images
for the minimal total cost of only $71,516, only $1.87 per page.

The model to be used for digitization is designed to enable institutions
to mass-digitize manuscript collections at a minimal cost, leveraging the
extensive series descriptions already available in the collection finding
aid to provide search and retrieval.  Digitized content for the collection
will be linked from the finding aid, providing online access to 31.8
linear feet of valuable archival material that otherwise would never be
web-available.  Every month the newly digitized content will be added to
the online finding aid to provide improved access.  Software and workflows
developed to support the process are made freely available from the grant
website: http://www.lib.ua.edu/libraries/hoole/cabaniss

The Septimus D. Cabaniss Collection (1815-1889) was selected as exemplary
of the legal difficulties encountered in efforts to emancipate slaves in
the Deep South. Of particular interest are the materials related to the
estate of Samuel Townsend, a heavily litigated estate where practically
all associated materials were used as evidence in the courts.

In 1853, S.D. Cabaniss, a Huntsville, Alabama, attorney, was employed by
the wealthy unmarried Samuel Townsend to draft a will that would allow him
to manumit and leave property to a selection of his slaves, many of whom
were his children.  Townsend was concerned because the will left by his
brother Edmund, seeking to do something similar, had been held void by the
courts.  Townsend was concerned that his own will could be held void, and
hired Cabaniss to draft a will which would protect the interests of his
chosen heirs.

In part, the will would provide for the emancipation and removal of forty
of his slaves to a free territory, where they would be educated.  This
will, and the litigation surrounding it, are exemplary of the struggle
between the ruling pro-slavery sentiment of the Deep South during this
time, and the more humanistic sentiment of actual slave-owners seeking to
free their own children.
As such, the Cabaniss papers are a rich resource for cultural, historical,
sociological, psychological, legal and political science researchers of
this time period.  These papers were recently processed under another
NHPRC grant, NAR06GRANT-048 "Bringing Alabama's African American History
to Light."

Already several thousand images of these valuable materials are online,
and can be accessed from http://acumen.lib.ua.edu/u0003_0000252.  More
content will continue to be added monthly until the project is complete in
February 2011.  Usability testing is included in the grant project, and
results will be publicized.




Jody DeRidder
Digital Services
University of Alabama Libraries
Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35487
(205) 348-0511
jody at jodyderidder.com
jlderidder at ua.edu