The document discusses the digitization efforts of the American Geographical Society Library to preserve and provide access to its photographic collections. It describes how over 69,000 nitrate negatives were digitized through an NEH-funded project to save the historic images from deterioration. As part of this work, a pilot project digitized 4,000 film negatives from the Harrison Forman Collection, documenting his expeditions to northern Tibet. Digitization helps remove barriers to access posed by analog formats and lack of description by making the visual resources searchable online and integrated with descriptive information.

1. Tales from the Field
Discovering Hidden Collections in the
AGSL's Photo Archives
Krystyna K. Matusiak, krystyna.matusiak@du.edu
Library & Information Science Program, University of Denver

2. “Hidden”
Film-Based Photographic Collections

3. Digitization at the AGS Library
 The American Geographical Society Library (AGS Library)
http://www4.uwm.edu/libraries/AGSL/index.cfm
 Housed at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee-Libraries
 Digitization of image and map collections since 2001

4. Digitization at the AGS Library
 Saving and Sharing the AGS Library’s Historic Nitrate Negative
Images http://www4.uwm.edu/libraries/digilib/NEHgrant/
 Two-year project (2010-2012)
 Preserving and providing access to over 69,000 nitrate negatives
 Funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities
 The pilot project – 2008
 4,000 film negatives
 Harrison Forman Collection
 Expeditions to northern Tibet
Tibet: http://www4.uwm.edu/libraries/digilib/tibet/index.cfm

5. Visual Resources in Library
Collections
Barriers to Access

6. Documentary Photography
 Photographic prints
 A small percentage of visual materials in library collections

7. Barriers to Access
 Organization of analog image collections
 By original creator
 The lack of subject access

8. Barriers to Access
 Inaccessible analog image formats
 Glass plates
 Film negatives
 Slides

9. Barriers to Access
 The lack of item-level description in original source collections

10. Digitization of Visual Materials
Removing the Barriers
Example: The Harrison Forman Collection

11. The Benefits of Digitization
 Expanded access to primary sources
 Extended search capabilities of digital text
 The potential to integrate resources in multiple modes of
representation
 The ability to bring together scattered research materials
 Making available a new body of historical evidence
 The conversion of visual materials recorded on difficult-to-access
analog formats
 Providing item-level description of digitized resources
 Discovery of “hidden” collections

12. Removing the Barriers
 Access to the visual content
Changde (China), refugees await to receive assistance at an assembly after the Battle of Changde
The Harrison Forman Collection. American Geographical Society Library, University of Wisconsin-
Milwaukee Libraries. http://collections.lib.uwm.edu/u?/agsphoto,9797

13. Removing the Barriers
 Providing item-level description and access points

14. Harrison Forman (1904-1978)
 An adventurous American journalist,
photographer, and explorer
 A member of the American
Geographical Society (AGS)
 His extensive photographic
collection (30,000 film negatives +
4,000 prints + 50,000 slides) is
housed at the AGS Library
 The film negatives have been
digitized as part of the preservation
project funded by the National
Endowment for Humanities (NEH)

15. Harrison Forman in China

16. Harrison Forman in Tibet

17. Harrison Forman in Poland

18. Harrison Forman in Poland
 Arrived in Warsaw late August 1939
 Captured images of the city just a few days before the war
broke out
 Documented the outbreak of the World War II
 Evacuated from Poland at the end of September through
Romania
 Managed to get out some of the film rolls (20% according to
his estimates)

19. Bringing to Light the “Hidden” Collection

20. Providing Item-Level Indexing

21. Unique Images

22. Unique Images

23. Bringing Together Scattered Materials
 Photographs
 Prints
 Negatives
 Newspaper clippings
 Articles
 Forman’s diary

24. Providing Online Access
http://www4.uwm.edu/libraries/digilib/pol/index.cfm

25. Revisions