The Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress

Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/alhtml/malhome.html

Collection Principals

The Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress digital collection is made up of 20,000 documents. The collection is organized into three "General Correspondence" categories that include: incoming and outgoing correspondence, drafts of speeches, and notes. The majority of the material is from the 1850s through Lincoln's presidential years, 1860-65. The selection process is not discussed and so we don’t really know why any item was chosen to become part of the digital extension of this collection.

Metadata

The metadata available for the collection items is not rich. Title, category (correspondence, draft, etc.), date of creation, author (correspondences include letters to and from President Lincoln), file format and size. There is also a transcription option to view typed versions of the material.

Object Characteristics

Building the Digital Library lists offers information on the digitization process. The Abraham Lincoln Papers were microfilmed and indexed in 1947. The Lincoln Papers microfilm was raster scanned from a duplicate negative microfilm. The scanning was performed offsite by Preservation Resources. The digital images were produced in JPEG File Interchange Format (JFIF). The images are 8-bit grayscale.

Intended Audience

Who hasn’t heard of Abraham Lincoln, right? Anyone interested in general American history or are interested in conducting research on Mr. Lincoln’s manuscripts would be interested in this collection. Organizations looking for best practices to guide their own efforts in creating a digital archive would find the specific information on the digitizing process bountiful and informative.

Collection Principals

The Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress digital collection is made up of 20,000 documents. The collection is organized into three "General Correspondence" categories that include: incoming and outgoing correspondence, drafts of speeches, and notes. The majority of the material is from the 1850s through Lincoln's presidential years, 1860-65. The selection process is not discussed and so we don’t really know why any item was chosen to become part of the digital extension of this collection.

Metadata

The metadata available for the collection items is not rich. Title, category (correspondence, draft, etc.), date of creation, author (correspondences include letters to and from President Lincoln), file format and size. There is also a transcription option to view typed versions of the material.

Object Characteristics

Building the Digital Library lists offers information on the digitization process. The Abraham Lincoln Papers were microfilmed and indexed in 1947. The Lincoln Papers microfilm was raster scanned from a duplicate negative microfilm. The scanning was performed offsite by Preservation Resources. The digital images were produced in JPEG File Interchange Format (JFIF). The images are 8-bit grayscale.

Intended Audience

Who hasn’t heard of Abraham Lincoln, right? Anyone interested in general American history or are interested in conducting research on Mr. Lincoln’s manuscripts would be interested in this collection. Organizations looking for best practices to guide their own efforts in creating a digital archive would find the specific information on the digitizing process bountiful and informative.