Mission: The goal of the 'Digital Library of Wheaton College Postcards' is to create a browsable web page that also serves as a gateway to the 'Wheaton College Postcards' site. The goal of both digital library sites is to make the Wheaton College archival postcards more accessible to users and to better preserve the original postcards through less frequent handling.
Use: For quick and easy browsing click on the 'Browse Images' tab in the string across the top of each page. Choose any named postcard link on the left and you will be taken to the image and descriptive Dublin Core data attached to that postcard image. These 40 images and their respective data reside on this Yola site. If you click on a thumbnail image you will be taken to a NITLE web page in DSpace to view the image. To return to this 'Digital Library of Wheaton College Postcards' use your browser 'back' arrow.
The 'Subject Index' is a fun way to explore the postcard collection. Choose any of the building names or descriptive Library of Congress terms and the link takes you to view one or more of the 59 postcard images at the NITLE site. Remember to return to this 'Digital Library of Wheaton College Postcards' use your browser 'back' arrow.
Click on 'Browse by Date' above and go to the Wheaton College Postcards site to search the entire digitized collection of 59 postcard images by date. For best browsing choose any decade, such as 1910, and browse the postcard images beginning with the year 1910. To return to this 'Digital Library of Wheaton College Postcards' use your browser 'back' arrow.
Collection policy and Scope: The digitized postcards include the most interesting and diverse postcards stored in a box in the Wheaton College Archives. Of the approximately 100 postcards of Wheaton College held in the Archives the criteria for selecting postcards for inclusion in the digital library were: those in fair to good condition, views of buildings from different angles, historical buildings whose names had changed or were torn down, and interesting campus views of statues, woods, bridge, pond, and aerial views showing different sections of the campus. Portraits, similar views, and postcards with excessively yellow pictures were not selected to be included as part of this digital library.
Organization of collection: The selected postcards were originally scanned as archival grade TIFF images using 24 bit color, 600dpi with pixels set at 4,000 for the long edge and approximately 2,000 for the short edge. Due to copyright considerations and quicker Internet viewing it was decided to convert the TIFFS into lower quality JPEG images. If a user wishes to request a higher quality image, then, permission would need to be obtained from the publisher. Over half of the postcards selected have no publisher information on them. The decision was intentional to not group the collection into categories due to the overlapping and arbitrary nature of any potential categories.
Resource descriptions: DSpace (Dublin Core) software is used for the digital repository at the NITLE website. Manakin is the front end to DSpace in the 'Wheaton College Postcards' digital library at the NITLE site. The metadata in both digital libraries include Library of Congress approved marc subject headings. Image descriptions include: the measurements of each postcard; any photographer and publisher information available; and, whether the postcard is black and white, color, or hand panted.
Service Features: The JPEG images are of low quality and, as such, may be opened and copied. At the 'Wheaton College Postcard' site digital reference services are available by clicking on the Manakin ‘contact us’ email link at the bottom of each page. This section is a part of the NITLE consortium requirement. The email goes to a NITLE staff member who notifies their contact at the Wheaton College Library. Due to the fact that the 'Wheaton College Postcards' NITLE site is my creation for this assignment I will be the contact for that collection for as long as I work at the Wheaton College Library. If anyone wishes to have a higher quality image in Tiff format they will need to request it. Wheaton College Archives staff will attempt to contact the publisher to get permission to send a higher quality TIFF image. A contact page is provided for any questions about this 'Digital Library of Wheaton College Postcards' site.
Planned Website Maintenance: If it becomes possible to set up a local search function using FreeFind prior to 12/4/09, then, a search page will be added to this site and instructions revised accordingly. The only routine maintenance scheduled is to check for and repair any broken links once each semester. This Yola web site containing the 'Digital Library of Wheaton College Postcards' will be deleted within one week following the receipt of the SCSU MLS degree. The 'Wheaton College Postcards' digital library will be reviewed and updated as needed each summer. More postcards from the Wheaton College Archives may be added, however, there are no plans to add any more at this time.
