NOTE: This report should be considered an addendum to the more complete narrative report submitted in August on our project.

Here follows the August report.
WASHINGTON STATE LIBRARY DIGITAL IMAGES INITIATIVE
Grant No. G-2067

NARRATIVE REPORT
ELLENSBURG PUBLIC LIBRARY
August 30, 2000
Submitted by Celeste Kline, Project Manager

I. TITLE
The completed pilot test project is "Through Open eyes, Ninety Five Years of Black History in Roslyn, Washington."
The CONTENTdm database of photographs and metadata is hosted by Washington State University Library at http://content.wsulibs.wsu.edu/cgi-bin/go.exe?CISOROOT=/eplone. Our project also includes a web page for the narrative that accompanies the photos. It is located at http://epl.eburg.com/roslyn.html.

II. COLLECTION
A. Selection and description: We selected a photographic exhibit of forty two black and white images. The exhibit of these family photographs was created some years ago to celebrate the Black History of Roslyn, Washington, a town in upper Kittitas County. The exhibit was originally a project of the Ellensburg Public Library that was funded by the Washington Commission for the Humanities. A five page pamphlet, written by Charles Lovell for the exhibit was also used in our project. By choosing this exhibit, we avoided the time it would take to select a small group of photos from a large collection. It was also a cohesive collection with a theme already established.

The photos in the exhibit were organized on tag boards and had aged. Many of them were old, some had lines from breaks, some were dark and had uneven contrast. It was necessary to have new prints made from negatives for scanning. This cost was born by the library.

Many of the subjects of the photos were scantily identified in the exhibit, and it was necessary to research additional information for entering metadata information. In some cases, it was not possible to find additional information, since the people involved in the original exhibit are no longer available.
In the process of doing additional research, more materials were identified that would add much to the exhibit. However, in the interest of keeping the project focused on its original intent, these materials were not used, but were set aside for future expansion of the database. These include photographs, newspaper articles, documents, and oral histories that were done about the same time as the exhibit.

The time period of the photographs in the exhibit is from August 1888 through the early years of the century to about 1922. A few of the later descendants were also included. The exhibit describes a unique population in Washington history. The Roslyn mining strike and its resolution with the emigration of Blacks to work in the mines was a significant event in labor and mining history in the state of Washington. This information, as far as we know, exists in very few places in historical archives in the State. Indeed, the Ellensburg Public Library is the only repository known to us for most of these materials.

This information is significant to persons doing research in Black history, and labor and mining history in the state, and to students of history in our elementary schools and through college. It is also of general interest to anyone curious about the history of our area.

Information used to create metadata includes personal names, dates, topical search terms, ownership statements, and contributors to the original exhibit and current digital project.

B. Copyright: All materials in the exhibit were given to the Ellensburg Public Library by the families involved for the library to use for public information. People who donated their photos and their memoirs did so to insure they would be saved for posterity and with the hope that they would be used for educational purposes. The agreement with the Washington Commission for Humanities stipulates only that the materials cannot be sold for profit.

III. PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Resources: The Roslyn exhibit is part of the Ellensburg Public Library's archival history collection.

Staff resources included a librarian skilled in historical research and very knowledgeable about the library's archival collection. A second staff member was skilled in working with photographs using scanning software and creating computer files for further use and skilled in creating web pages. A third staff member was skilled in cataloging and used the CONTENTdm software for entering metadata. The library director has managed a number of grant projects for the library in the past. However, none of the staff members had experience in creating a digitized database.

The library had a computer station, which was limited in capacity but could be used for training and the initial work on the photographs. It had been purchased for other purposes and so a new computer was soon purchased for this project with grant funds.