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EvCC Yearbooks Digitization Pilot Project: Home

By sharing our story we hope to encourage peer institutions to implement digitization initiatives that will unlock and make discoverable more local historic collections

Pilot Project Overview

Everett Community College's Library Media Center (LMC) is in the preliminary stages of preparing historic college materials for digital preservation and cataloging. These collections include the college's yearbooks and our student newspaper The Clipper. As part of this work, 22 college yearbooks were sent out for digitization to test the quality of an independent digitization service recommended by the Everett Public Library’s NW History Room: OCI Records Conversion. This test was a success and produced high resolution scans of the college’s historic yearbooks.

During the 2018-2019 academic year, the LMC received funding from a Washington State Library Digital Heritage Grant to develop local standards, practices, and/or policies related to digitization, metadata creation, digital preservation, etc. This grant is supported with Library Services and Technology Act funding provided by the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services (iMLIS) through the Washington State Library, a division of the Office of the Secretary of State (OSOS).  Additionally, a trial subscription was secured to a digital asset management system CONTENTdm.

Under these provisions, the digitization pilot project seeks to:

  1. Develops institutional capacity to carry out and sustain digital initiatives.
  2. Supports regional and/or statewide approaches to digitization and the use of digital cultural heritage collections.

The goal of this pilot project was to perform test cataloging using preliminary policy and procedure. Feedback from the project team will be used to identify areas for improvement and development. Additionally, the draft documentation will be disseminated to Washington State’s Community and Technical Colleges. By sharing our story, we hope to encourage peer institutions to implement digitization initiatives that will unlock and make discoverable more local historic collections.

This LibGuide documents the outcomes of the pilot project. The format supports outreach by providing easy online access to the following draft outputs.  Additionally, if you would like to copy our LibGuide to support local digitization initiatives, please do!

  • ​Policies – Guiding standards and principles used to direct digital initiatives based on best practices in the archives community.
  • Procedures – Specific activities performed to implementing best practices described in our policy documentation, such as cataloging in CONTENTdm, or when physically preparing materials for preservation.
  • The Matrix – A data dictionary documenting the metadata terms, definitions, and associated descriptive standards.
  • Glossary – Because CONTENTdm does not have a data dictionary, we have the opportunity to develop our own.
  • Catalog Records – For the 22 digitized yearbooks created using the above policy / procedure. (No longer available.  Expired October 2019 per the trial subscription.)
  • Recommendations –  Feedback from the project team identifying areas for improvement and development in all areas of the project.
  • Bibliography – List of sources used during the project.

Read the bios below of the staff who worked to make our pilot project a success!

Pilot team from left to right: Heather Jean Uhl, Paloma St. Louis, Lauren Weidlich

Heather Jean Uhl - Project Manager

Heather Jean Uhl is a faculty Librarian at Everett Community College's Library Media Center where she is the Acquisitions & Cataloging Department Supervisor. She received her MLIS from the University of Washington.  She received BAs in Art History, Studio Art, and a Museum & Gallery Certification from Humboldt State University.  She worked on digitization initiatives at the Henry Art Gallery and special collections at Wing Luke Asian Museum.  She regularly presents research on Studio Ghibli films at pop-culture conventions and teaches ART228D: The World of Anime & Manga.  When she isn't grudingly sewing wedding dresses for friends (don't ask), she loves spelunking in old buildings and taking selfies with ghosts.

Lauren E. Weidlich - Digital Cataloging Specialist

Lauren E. Weidlich has worked in the interrelated fields of archives, museum collections, and records management for ten years, mainly in nonprofit or government settings. She has worked to bring order to everything from a living history museum collection spread over 2 house and 3 barns to the records of the United States Environmental Protection Agency. She is a graduate of the University of Washington's Masters in Library and Information Science program, earned her B.A. in Anthropology from DePaul University in Chicago, and obtained a post-bachelor's paralegal certificate from the University of San Diego. When not nerding out over metadata, Ms. Weidlich practices Reiki on her pets, enjoys suspenseful horror, and eagerly awaits the new Pearl Jam album.

Paloma St. Louis - Historic Materials Assistant

Everett born and raised, Paloma St. Louis is the official Historic Materials Assistant/unofficial Metadata Magician and answer to the question, “What would happen if Frida Kahlo and Dorothy Parker had a kid?” An EvCC alumna, she went on to get bachelor's degrees in English and Humanities at the University of Washington and is a former candidate for a Masters in Library and Information Science at UW's iSchool. Most of her professional work has focused on Archives, Indigenous Systems of Knowledge, Equity and Social Justice. Wild Paloma sightings are rare, but she can generally be spotted at karaoke or out on the dance floor. Otherwise, she’s at home: reading; researching; creating art; thinkin’ ‘bout revolution; practicing meditation, yoga, and her sweet "Fly Girl" dance moves; or watching much too much tv.