About the Digitization Project

Since the inception of CHARM, one goal has been to digitize and provide access to the primary source materials contained in the CHARM collections to facilitate their use in theses, dissertations, articles, monographs, statistical studies, documentaries and other value-added products. Furthermore, digitization and online access to these primary source materials will foster a greater understanding and appreciation of the role of agriculture and rural life in shaping the history and future of Mississippi and the nation. To facilitate this goal, the Library and the Division of Agriculture provided funding to hire a part-time staff member and student assistants to assist in organizing and digitizing the materials found in the CHARM collections. Through a grant provided by the United States Small Business Administration in 2006, the Libraries increased the number of staff devoted to digitizing materials in the CHARM collections and the Congressional and Political Research Center that relate to agriculture and rural life. The grant resulted in hiring four full-time staff members and two FTE students for one year to work on the digitization of these collections. Additionally, the grant provided funding to acquire OCLC's CONTENTdm, a digital media archive, to house and provide access to these resources. This grant will further enhance the depth of the digital, online collections and will greatly improve the quality of the project's online presence.

The digitization project adheres to strict conservation and preservation standards to ensure the integrity of these often rare and fragile documents. High-quality, digital representations (TIFF images) of the resources are created and archived for future use. The TIFF images are used to create web display versions (JPG/PDF) and added to the CONTENTdm server. Metadata added to each piece facilitates searching for materials within the collection. Researchers will be able to search the collections by image type, description, name, subject headings, time period and other descriptors.

For additional information concerning the CHARM digitization project, contact Stephen Cunetto; (662) 325-8542; scunetto@library.msstate.edu.