Digital Initiatives
The digital initiatives program of Morris Library is a combination of unique collections and services that support learning, teaching, course development, and research. Our mission is to support the institutional objectives of the university through the acquisition of electronically published information, the creation of reformatted digitized resources, and the provision of access to a repository of digital materials.
Have an Idea for a Digital Project?
SIU Carbondale faculty and staff are encouraged to review the digital projects checklist in order to help determine whether they are ready to submit a digital project proposal. Be sure and consult our list of campus and local resources along with our librarians as you plan your digital project.
In addition, the Library's Digital Initiatives Group (DIG) will work with you to explore the proposal. Provide as much information as you can when completing the proposal form.
DIG and Library Affairs would like to work with faculty and staff on projects that are important to their department and student success. It will require a balance between a very limited staff, limited resources, and other projects.
Projects
Digital Collections
CONTENTdm digital collection management software runs our growing Digital Collections website of rare and unique images, documents, oral histories and sound recordings from our archives, special collections, and other campus units.
Digital Exhibits
Omeka open-source software showcases our Digital Exhibits highlighting our unique and rare materials.
Open-Access Publishing
Open Journal Systems and Open Conference Systems tools from OpenSIUC can be used to publish open-access e-journals and conference proceedings.
Data Management
Data management projects can be placed in the OpenSIUC repository for dataset file storage (files up to 1.5GB, most file types, no interface replication). Librarians can also assist in locating subject-specific data repositories that meet the needs of a project’s data management plan.
Consortial Digital Projects
CARLI Digital Collections
CARLI Digital Collections was established in 2006 as a repository for digital content created by member libraries of the Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois (CARLI) or purchased by the consortium for use by its members. CARLI Digital Collections uses the CONTENTdm digital asset management tool to describe and deliver digital representations of myriad special collections including printed and manuscript materials, images, and sound recordings. It also guarantees researchers access to cross-institution and cross-collection searches integrating previously disparate and possibly remote special collections.
Confluence and Crossroads: The Civil War in the American Heartland
Confluence and Crossroads is a digital repository through which researchers, students, scholars, genealogists, historic interpreters, authors, and members of the general public can access information pertaining to the Civil War in southeast Missouri and southern Illinois.
Historypin
Digitized postcards and historic photographs of old buildings and street scenes pinned to a Google map at their current or former location. These images depict Southern Illinois University Carbondale, the city of Carbondale, the city of Murphysboro, and other Southern Illinois cities and towns.
Internet Archive
The Internet Archive serves as the platform for many of the digital resources on this list, including the university's yearbooks, annual catalogs and Board of Trustees reports, commencement programs and other serial and individual works.
Umbra: Explore African American History
Digital Projects Resources
Please note that these links are provided as a convenience and for informational purposes only; they do not constitute an endorsement or an approval by Southern Illinois University Carbondale’s Morris Library. SIU Carbondale bears no responsibility for the accuracy, legality, or content of the external site, or for that of subsequent links. Contact the external site for answers to questions regarding its content.
BIGDAWG High Performance Computing Cluster (HPCC)
BIGDAWG is used to support computationally intensive research activities at the University. Users include research professors, graduate students, and undergraduate students. BIGDAWG benefits SIU by supporting existing grants, helping to obtain future grants, supporting research that results in publications, assisting graduate students with thesis and dissertation research, and providing a platform for senior research projects.
Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE)
Morris Library 1st Floor, available to SIUC faculty, teaching assistants, and staff. Video and image production and video digitization (see below), instructional design, lecture capture, and more.
Video and Imaging Production and Digitization (CTE)
Offers scanning and digitizing services that allow you to convert print formats to online formats to more easily share them and conversion and integration of old and new media.
Student Center Marketing and Graphics
Location: Fourth floor of the Student Center room 403. Target Audience: Student Center departments, Registered Student Organizations (RSOs), students, and the community. Whether you’re looking for banners, brochures, flyers, oversized printing, postcards, t-shirt designs, newspaper ads or other printed promotional pieces to grab your audience’s attention, Marketing & Graphics has competitive rates and will work within your budget for promotional campus materials on campus.
Sound Core Music & Video
Sound Core works with various analog and digital media formats to back, convert, duplicate, and transfer to many formats.
Paper & Photographs Digitization
Backstage Library Works
Provides consulting, digitization, and microfilming services for books, oversized material, flat media, and negatives. They have experience working with fragile and unique material. Their processes, metadata and output meet FADGI standards.
The Crowley Company
Services include document and oversized material scanning, book scanning, microfilm and micrographics services, and image hosting. Crowley is designed to work on high-volume projects and has a minimum requirement fee. Their output can be specified (TIFF, JPEG, PDF, etc.) by the client.
HF Group: Digital Solutions
Provides digitization services for bound and loose material, including large format items. Also works on microform, AV, and negatives as well as has post processing services for images.
Innovative Document Imaging
Document, newspaper, microform, and book scanning. IDI also has a web based document management service.
Luna Imaging, Inc.
Digitizing services for bound materials, documents, and negatives (including nitrate and glass-plate.) They can also image 3-D objects. Has their own digital asset management system.
PTFS, Inc.
Scanning services for books, oversized documents, photographs, and microform. Follows NARA digitization guidelines.
Moving Image Digitization
American Video Transfer
American Video Transfer specializes in video-to-DVD and film-to-video transfer, but are also capable of digitizing audio.
Colorlab
Colorlab specializes in telecine film transfers, to film or to digital formats, film preservation and archival services, as well as digital moving image services.
George Blood
Concert Recording, Audio Preservation, Video Preservation, Film Preservation, Film Digitization, for analog and digital video and audio formats.
Preservation Technologies
To accommodate the full range of possible media, we have developed two types of studios: multiple ingest studios for cassette-based media and specialized studios for fragile or difficult legacy formats.
Preserving The Past
Film restoration, film & video editing, and analog to digital transfers.
Scene Savers
Film digitizing and transfer, as well as restoration, repair, transfer and digitization of motion picture film and video, audio and still images.
Sound Recording Digitization
American Video Transfer
Specializes in video-to-DVD and film-to-video transfer, but are also capable of digitizing audio.
The Audio Archive, Inc.
Digitization and restoration services for multiple formats.
Creative Audio Works
Digitization and restoration services for multiple formats.
Graphic Audio
Graphic Audio's Preservation Lab specializes in preserving obsolete analog audio recordings to high quality digital format. Using 30+ years of knowledge and experience, we are able to offer exceptionally high quality analog to digital conversions for practically any type of audio media.
SoundSaver
Steve Smolian Sound Studios restoration services for multiple formats.
Digital Projects Checklist
Before you get started with your proposal, think about the following elements of planning a digital project:
- Who exactly will use my digital project? SIU students? K-12 students? Researchers? The public at large? How will I make sure this project is used?
- What value will my project have for my anticipated users? Does this project give people access to something significant and unique? Does it give them access to content in a new way?
- Who owns the copyright for the materials in my project? Was it made before 1923, and is therefore in the public domain? Can I identify the copyright owners for all of these materials?
- Who owns the physical materials to be used in my project? Are they in Morris Library’s Special Collections or another institution? Have I contacted this institution to secure use of these materials?
- How will my project be funded, short-term and long-term? Have I identified sources of funding for the cost of digitizing materials, the cost of saving them on a server, and the cost of the personnel needed to complete the project?
- What software or web publishing platform will I use to make this project accessible in an interactive or user-friendly way? What example projects would I like to model my project after: what are they using to make their project accessible?
- What metadata scheme will I use to make my project findable with search tools?* Metadata schemes are essential for "tagging" a digital project. Have I talked to a library faculty member about metadata?
Questions about these checklist items and what they mean? Contact the Digital Initiatives Groups at Morris Library at dig@lib.siu.edu.
* For more information see Tulane University’s Metadata Best Practices.