DIGITZING NUR-i-AFSHANSaving the Last Copy of an 18Saving the Last Copy of an 18thth Century Century Magazine from ExtinctionMagazine from Extinction

Bushra A. Jaswal

● American College of Greece, Athens11th Annual AMICAL Meeting and Conference. 14-17 May, 2014

Chief Librarian and Associate Professor,Forman Christian College, Lahore. Pakistan

Forman Christian College (FCC) was founded in 1864 by Dr Charles W Forman, a Presbyterian missionary from the USA. Initially known as the Lahore Mission College, the name was changed to Forman Christian College in 1894 in honor of the founder. 2014 is the year of 150th Anniversary of FCC.

FCC was nationalized by the Pakistani government in 1972 and remained under government control until March 2003 when it was returned to its former owners, the Presbyterian Church (USA). The College began a new era in 2003 and hopes to continue to build on its strong heritage.

In 2004, under the Charter awarded by the the Government of Punjab, Pakistan awarded the status o a University and it now offers baccalaureate, masters and M Phil degree programs.

The Forman Christian College

Forman Christian College (FCC) was founded in 1864 by Dr Charles W Forman, a Presbyterian missionary from the USA. Initially known as the Lahore Mission College, the name was changed to Forman Christian College in

1894 in honor of the founder.

FCC was nationalized by the Pakistani government in 1972 and remained under government control until March 2003 when it was returned to its former owners, the Presbyterian Church (USA). The College began a new era in 2003 and hopes to continue to build on its strong heritage.

In 2004, under the Charter awarded by the Government of Punjab, Pakistan awarded the status o a University and it now offers baccalaureate, masters and M Phil degree programs.

Current Year 2014 is the year of 150th Anniversary of FCC.

The Forman Christian College

The Ewing Memorial Library

THE EWING MEMORIAL LIBRARY has existed as long as the Forman Christian College (FCC). Its history and progress has been closely following the development and expansion of the Forman Christian College, from the modest beginnings in the late 19th century, to a renowned Boys College of the subcontinent and now a University of nationwide prominence today, the Library has closely followed the footsteps of its parent institution.

The three-floor FC College library building was built in 1943.

The building was dedicated after the name of Dr. Sir J.C.R. Ewing , the second Principal of the College on 3rd March, 1945.

Being more than a Century old, Ewing Memorial Library has a number of Old and Rare Books and Archives on its shelves

The Dying Archives Challenge I came across this rich collection of rare books and Newspaper

archives, when I joined FCC as the first University Librarian, in 2007.

The three-floor FC College library building was built in 1943.

Since ages the Librarians have been collecting and storing the human knowledge and passed it on to the coming generations of users.

Past Librarians of FCC had fulfilled their responsibility to pass more than a century old record of knowledge on to our times – It was now my responsibility - But ……….. The paper had reached the last days of its age.

Would it be possible to pass this huge bulk of high value information on to the next generation? – Paper was too brittle to endure usage –

As the first step, I moved them under restricted access to save further deterioration.

Digitization was the Solution – Yes! Digitization endeavors, normally have three Reasons :

• - a need to preserve endangered library resources,

• - improvement of the efficiency of information search mechanisms, and

• - improves access to library resources.

We had all the three valid reasons to digitize in our objectives

- But - Such a big bulk of old paper needed huge budgetary resources for Digitization

Nur–i-AfshanNur-i-Afshan is a bi-weekly News

Magazine which published from 1873 to 1944.

It’s a primary resource for not only local and international news summaries, government postings, commodity prices, and advertisements of that time, but also opinion articles, essays, proverbs, and poems.

Gives the researcher an invaluable insight into the thinking, concerns, and ideas of the nineteenth century Indians

Nur–i-AfshanAbout twenty years of material have already

been lost (from 1944 to 1966) and many of the remaining pages have been damaged by moisture or insects.

The issues available were printed on highly acidic paper, because it was cheap, and now in a precarious state. Paper has already past its usual survival date and fast deteriorating. If not preserved, the information contained will be lost to the world forever.

Having combed regional and national libraries, it is clear that Forman Christian College’s Ewing Library holds the only available copies of the periodical.

Multiple historical research publications carry references of Nur-i-Afshan and its availability at Ewing Memorial Library

The British Library Endangered Archives Program• Preliminary Application : A team of 3 persons from FCC started

working on the Digitization Grant and by August 2012, a Preliminary Application was submitted to the British Library.

• There was some explanations dialogue and on December 17, 2012, we were informed that the International Advisory Panel would like to invite us to submit a detailed application for a grant, based on our preliminary proposal.

• By February 2013, the Final Grant Application was submitted.

• On May 20, 2013, the final approval of the project was received. This is the third EAP Project in Pakistan. Further Detail of this Project is available on the British Library Endangered Archives Program Website at following url:

http://eap.bl.uk/database/overview_project.a4d?projID=EAP660;r=6334

STARTING the Digitization ProjectThe Grant Money was received in

October 2013 : Project Equipment Book Eye Scanner, Computers hardware , UPS, Printer and digitization software was Ordered in November, 2013.

The equipment was received and installed in December 2013

During the wait for receipt of orders, the policies and guidelines for use of scanning and metadata standards and controlled vocabularies were prepared and Workflow Instructions were prepared for the staff for the digitization work.

STARTING the Digitization Project1. A room was prepared with furniture, Work Tables, Computer

orkstations, Four Internet Nodes and appropriate Electricity installations.

2. The CANON Book Eye4 scanner was installed and configured on a static IP address

3. Two Project staff members were hired: 1) Document Scanning and Imaging Assistant 2) Metadata Indexing Librarian

4. A visit to Karachi was organized to study the scanning work being done on EAP566: Endangered Urdu periodicals: preservation and access for vulnerable scholarly resources, as well as at the Sindh Archives to demonstrate the data organization, indexing and scanning procedures to the project staff.

5. The Digitization work started on March 12, 2014. The First sample was uploaded on EAP FTP Directory for inspection, on March 24, 2014.

Need for an Online Digital ArchivesThe EAP660 Project, required the high-resolution scanned

images were to be sent to the British Library Endangered Archives Program, upon completion of the year-long Project

These images will be then processed and uploaded to the Digital Library to have Noor-i-Afshan in a usable form for our scholars

In order to speed up the access, Ewing Memorial Library planned to build an Online Digital Collection for FCC users, using copies of the images scanned for EAP660 Project.

AMICAL and OCLC Support

• As a Member of AMICAL’s RESPOND Program, the Ewing Memorial Library had access to a free hosting instance of CONTENTdm : Digital Collection Management Software

• AMICAL 2013 in Rome, a workshop on the OCLC CONTECdm software provided an opportunity to learn the software.

• The knowledge and facility obtained encouraged to build the Ewing Memorial Library Digital Archives

The Developing Nation BluesThe Story of this success was not as smooth as it looks. There were serious

challenges :

1. Human resources was the First issue. Local Library Schools are not teaching document imaging, scanning, digitization, metadata or Digital Libraries – We had to do on-the-job training. – Had to work with them on one-on-one basis. Still have to do in-depth checking before upload.

2. Scanning and imaging supplies little things like color separation chart, document cleaning brushes and accessories and equipment had to be imported. The scratch proof and glare proof glass or Malinex sheets could not be found locally. We had to find indigenous solutions – like using normal window glass plastic sheets- We have to buff them weekly with scratch removing car polish and use a Dark Room. I feel envious when I see online catalogs of archival digitization aids so easily available.

3. Being alone in the country to use a complicated software like ContentDM is an agony. Thanks to Jeff Gima to always come up with instant help whenever I was stuck – But I had to learn through self-study and multiple options testing and trial and error.

Noor-i-Afshan Digital ArchivesNoor-i-Afshan Digital Archives is the first Online

Collection of Ewing Memorial Library Digital Archives Some more collections are in plan for future.

A test version of Noor-i-Afshan Digital Archives has been published at:

http://cdm16779.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/

Partners of Initiative

Five Partners have separately contributed to the success of this initiative:

1. The Endangered Archives Program – British Library - UK

2. OCLC – Dublin – Ohio- USA

3. AMICAL - Paris

4. Ewing Memorial Library – FCC - Pakistan

5. Center for Dialogue and Action – FCC - Pakistan

I have to thank AMICAL and OCLC in general and the personal encouragement and support from Jeff Gima in particular - for being there on each of my desperate call for help to make this idea a success.

Thanks!

Wondershare software