Early planning: Freedom Summer Digital Collection
In January 2009, Jacky Johnson -Western College Archivist- and I submitted a grant proposal to the Ohio Humanities Council (OHC) to digitize the Freedom Summer collection currently housed at the Western Memorial Archives. The primary materials include journals, diaries and letters written by the college students and civil rights participants in the training in Oxford, Ohio.
Currently, users who want to access the collection must visit the Western Memorial Archives and browse the collection manually. However, in April we received the award letter 
and the work is already in progress. By the end of September 2009, we plan to launch the Freedom Summer Digital Collection (FSDC).
In the last two weeks, I’ve spent some hours working on the project planning and workflow. Obviously, I’ve been consulting with colleagues, testing file settings, and contacting students who will help us scan documents and convert videos.
The FSDC will provide users to:
a) search –either at the collection or page level
b) browse by topic, name, or place
c) print transcript of manuscripts or video interviews
The digitization project aims to create a dynamic and friendly website for students and researchers as well as help preserve the originals.
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