LSCM Pilot Project 2 with University of North Texas Libraries

  • Last Updated: July 10, 2024
  • Published: July 21, 2023

Overview

Launched in 2021, LSCM Pilot Projects are focused initiatives designed to benefit the FDLP community and enhance the National Collection of U.S. Government Public Information. These projects are jointly-conducted with Federal depository libraries. Learn more by visiting the LSCM Pilot Projects page.

Pilot Project Opportunity 2 was open for submissions between March 1 and April 15, 2022, and the University of North Texas (UNT) Libraries was selected as the second LSCM Pilot Project participant in July 2022. 

Since that time:

  • The collaborative LSCM/UNT Libraries team drafted a detailed project plan.
  • The team conducted a preliminary inventory of approximately 800 World War II-era military technical manuals held at UNT Libraries.
  • LSCM staff visited UNT and conducted an onsite digital-imaging collection-level assessment in April 2023 in order to select the best copy of duplicate titles from the collection and ensure all publications were in acceptable condition for digitization.
  • 643 of the UNT military technical manuals were prepared for digital-imaging by the GPO digitization team and then transferred to the selected digitization contractor in April 2024.
  • These digitized, historic UNT military technical manuals are projected to be available for permanent public access via both GovInfo and the UNT Digital Library in summer 2025. The print publications will be returned to UNT Library and will be included in their Preservation Steward collections.

The hands-on preliminary inventory work was conducted by the UNT team, with project management and SME consultation provided by the LSCM portion of the team. Pilot Project 2 goals include digitizing these War Department and Department of the Army titles and ingesting those digital surrogates into GovInfo. In addition, GPO has committed to supplying those digital surrogates to the UNT Digital Library team for ingest into that Digital Preservation Steward repository. LSCM staff will also enable discovery of these titles via the Catalog of U.S. Government Publications. Finally, UNT has committed to supporting the permanent preservation of these titles in the tangible format by including them in the UNT Libraries Preservation Steward collections. Work on Pilot Project 2 is expected to continue through FY24.

Updates

Resources and Background Information

GPO staff Abby McDermott (Collection Management Librarian, Pilot Project 2 Lead) and David Walls (Preservation Librarian) visited UNT Libraries April 17 - April 20, 2023, and conducted a collection-level assessment of 840 items. UNT Libraries staff pictured below include Robbie Sittel (former UNT depository coordinator), Betty Monterroso (current UNT depository coordinator), Sam Riney, Mark Phillips, and Mary Ann Venner. Once the UNT Pilot Project 2 military technical manuals were shipped to GPO, other LSCM staff team members met to review the items and make decisions about digital-imaging methods and requirements. Pictured in those photos below are Abby McDermott, David Walls, Suzanne Ebanues, Jessica Tieman, Ben Petersen, and Jacob Kowall. Manuel Dennis, Stephen Kharfen, and Lorelei Sensabaugh are also members of the LSCM Pilot Project 2 team.