Browsing by Author "Nisenson, Jason"

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    Digitizing the Winnifred Eaton Reeve Fonds Project: Sometimes it Takes a Village
    (2024-05-29) McKillop, Christena; Nisenson, Jason; Ruddock, Kathryn
    The University of Calgary’s Archives and Special Collections houses the Winnifred Eaton Reeve archive, a popular collection for literary researchers investigating Winnifred Eaton Reeve, a pivotal early Chinese North American fiction-writer who assumed the Japanese persona “Onoto Watanna.” Winnifred Eaton Reeve (1875-1954) was a successful novelist in North America as well as a Hollywood editor, story and screenplay writer. This collection stands as the second most frequently consulted fonds in our literary archives. The inherent fragility of the artifacts mandated extreme caution during every interaction, underscoring the need for digitization to safeguard and enhance accessibility for present and future Winnifred Eaton Reeve enthusiasts. The rising demand for digital access from external academic researchers became the catalyst for a full-scale digitization project. This project was unique not only as it encompassed digitizing the entire collection but because a cross-departmental team was created to handle the project. The presenters will discuss how the complexities of a team approach for the digitization project – from retrieval, description, and handling of fragile materials to addressing metadata mapping, sensitive content, and navigating changes in the Canadian copyright act, substantially updating the finding aid and creating an online research guide drew upon a wide-range of information experts from across the library system. Insights from our first endeavor in digitizing an entire archival collection will be shared, offering lessons learned and future directions.
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    ItemOpen Access
    Shedding light on an important archive: digitizing the Winnifred Eaton Reeve fonds
    (2024-06-14) McKillop, Christena; Nisenson, Jason; Ruddock, Kathryn
    The Winnifred Eaton Reeve fonds, a significant collection in the literary archives at the University of Calgary, chronicles the works of Winnifred Eaton Reeve (1875-1954), a pivotal early Chinese North American fiction-writer who assumed the Japanese persona “Onoto Watanna.” This collection became the focal point of a comprehensive digitization project driven by substantial demand from academic researchers. This project was unique as it encompassed digitizing the entire collection. The session will include a brief overview of our first venture in digitizing an entire archival collection during a time of change. Attendees will learn about our approach to this digitization project and its multifaceted aspects that needed to be considered. The inherent fragility of the artifacts mandated extreme caution during every interaction, underscoring the need for digitization to safeguard and enhance accessibility for present and future Winnifred Eaton Reeve enthusiasts. Significant challenges and opportunities encountered during the project will be highlighted, including metadata mapping across disciplines, managing sensitive content, and adapting to unforeseen changes in the Canadian copyright landscape as well as substantially updating the finding aid and creating an online guide to increase access to the collection. With the successful completion of the digitization project, access collection either the physical or digital can be an effective way to raise awareness of this important Canadian author and generate new understandings through researching Winnifred Eaton Reeve’s life and works.