Lessons learned: Collaborating to digitise Yiddish-language collections at Cornell
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Lessons learned: Collaborating
to digitise Yiddish-language
collections at Cornell
Received (in revised form): 4th August, 2021
Barbara Morley
Digital Archivist (retired), Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation & Archives at Cornell University, USA
Barbara Morley is a former digital archivist at the Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation
& Archives at Cornell University. She has also held leadership positions in the Society of American
Archivists Labor Archives Roundtable and the New York Archives Conference. She earned her MLS with a
concentration in archives management from the University at Albany, State University of New York, and a
Digital Archives Specialist certificate from the Society of American Archivists.
Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation & Archives, 227 Ives Hall, ILR School, Cornell University,
Ithaca, NY 14853–3901, USA
Tel.: +1 607 255 3183; E-mail: blm2@cornell.edu
Steven Calco
Research Archivist, Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation & Archives at Cornell University, USA
Steven Calco is a research archivist at the Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation &
Archives, where he provides reference, instruction and outreach to Cornell and the scholarly community
at large. Steven holds a master of library and information science with a concentration in archival studies
from CUNY Queens College and an MA in labour studies from the Murphy Institute, CUNY School of
Professional Studies.
Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation & Archives, 227 Ives Hall, ILR School, Cornell University,
Ithaca, NY 14853–3901, USA
Tel: +1 607 255 4318; E-mail: sc2899@cornell.edu
Elizabeth Parker
Technical Services Archivist, Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation & Archives at Cornell University, USA
Elizabeth Parker is the technical services archivist at the Kheel Center for Labor-Management
Documentation & Archives. She serves on the Inclusive Descriptive Practices Task Force, the Collection
Development Task Force on Anti-Racism and Just & Equitable Futures, and the Content Collection
Policy Group for Cornell University Library’s Digital Collections Portal. She holds a master of library
and information science with a concentration in archival studies from CUNY Queens College, an MA in
classical studies from Columbia University and a BA in history and classical studies from Colby College.
Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation & Archives, 227 Ives Hall, ILR School, Cornell University,
Ithaca, NY 14853–3901, USA
Tel: +1 607 255 3183; E-mail: eep63@cornell.edu
Abstract This paper describes a grant-funded collaboration between Cornell University
Library, the Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation & Archives, Digital
Consulting and Production Services, and faculty members from Cornell’s Jewish Studies
Program to select, digitise, describe and disseminate English and Yiddish-language
records created between 1930 and 1953 by the Jewish People’s Fraternal Order division of
the International Workers Order. To serve researchers in the Yiddish-language community
as well as English readers, Yiddish-language documents were partially translated and
110 Journal of Digital Media Management Vol. 10, 2 110–128 © Henry Stewart Publications 2047-1300 (2021)
Collaborating to digitise Yiddish-language collections at Cornell
transliterated to reduce the language barrier and facilitate discovery and analysis. The
project required a wide variety of specialists to communicate effectively and negotiate
goals, workflows and standards. As this paper discusses, responsibilities such as file and
document management, metadata creation and review, and quality control are especially
demanding when working with documents composed of a language and alphabet
that most of the project participants do not understand. Challenges and opportunities
encouraged collaborators to re-evaluate and redesign certain existing workflows, and
reaffirmed the benefit of others. The online dissemination of the records has opened
access to a global audience, promoting scholarly work based on the digitised records
along with greater interest in related analogue collections.
KEYWORDS: Yiddish, digitisation, project management, metadata, quality control, labour
archives, collaboration
INTRODUCTION participants were able to read Yiddish. The
In the early 20th century,Yiddish was a resulting online collection not only supports
vital communication medium for millions research, teaching and learning by former
of people, including large numbers of JPFO members, scholars and the general
immigrants to New York. As many of these public, and draws attention to the Kheel
immigrants joined labour unions, collections Center’s related analogue collections, but also
in the Kheel Center for Labor-Management fills significant historical gaps and highlights
Documentation & Archives at Cornell the contributions made by underrepresented
University include countless documents communities of Yiddish-speaking Americans
created by Yiddish speakers to educate that had been hidden by language barriers
the public and mobilise participation in and historical bias against both communist-
cultural, economic and political activities. leaning and socialist-leaning organisations.
One such collection is the Jewish People’s
Fraternal Order (JPFO) — a division of
the International Workers Order (IWO). BACKGROUND
Following a complex undertaking to preserve, The Kheel Center is Martin P. Catherwood
digitise, describe and disseminate selected Library’s rare and distinctive collections unit.
documents from these records, this collection It is part of Cornell University’s ILR School,
is now available to a global audience. This which was originally founded as the New
interdisciplinary work required generous York State School of Industrial and Labor
grant funding, responsive technology and Relations in 1949.1 It is the largest repository
insightful project design and management to documenting labour and management in
succeed. Historians, archivists, conservators, North America. During the past decade, the
metadata and digitisation specialists and Kheel Center has worked on several projects
systems-oriented librarians worked to bridge to increase access to Yiddish-language
the disciplinary divide. Collaboration among materials. Despite significant language
skilled, knowledgeable stakeholders enabled barriers, these documents were selected for
them to respond to the opportunities and attention due to the wealth of materials in
challenges that arose while negotiating Yiddish at the Kheel Center and the need
roles, workflows, goals and standards. to preserve a language the use of which has
Project planning and implementation were been in steady decline since the Second
complicated by the fact that only three World War.2
© Henry Stewart Publications 2047-1300 (2021) Vol. 10, 2 110–128 Journal of Digital Media Management 111
Morley, Calco and Parker
Curtis Lyons, the Harriet Morel Oxman ILGWU’s The Ladies’ Garment Worker,
Director of Catherwood Library, took printed in both English and Yiddish in the
special interest in digitising Yiddish-language same publication from 1910 to 1918. As
materials during his leadership of the none of the project staff could read Yiddish,
Kheel Center, privately describing Yiddish however, no descriptive metadata were
as the ‘lingua franca of unions’ during the created for that content.
early 20th century. With the Center’s The Kheel Center began to explore
strong collecting focus in the garment partnerships with institutions that had
industry, many holdings include Yiddish- Yiddish-language materials and staff able
language materials in such collections as to read the language. A collaboration
the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ with the Modern Records Centre at the
Union (ILGWU), the Amalgamated University of Warwick in the UK to offer
Clothing Workers of America and the documents for crowd-sourced translation
International Fur and Leather Workers foundered,4 as did a second discussion about
Union, as well as grassroots organisations presenting Gerechtigkeit on the National
including the International Workers’ Order Library of Israel’s digital collections portal.
(IWO). As Central and Eastern European Unfortunately, the lack of expertise in
immigrants joined New York City’s garment translating Yiddish, working with volunteer
industry, people of different nationalities used labour, changing institutional priorities and
Yiddish to communicate with each other. technical issues, forced the Kheel Center to
This contribution is demonstrated in the rethink this strategy.
ILGWU’s broadsides and posters used to As Curtis Lyons has privately commented,
promote labour actions, many of which were when it comes to successful inter-
written in Yiddish.3 institutional collaborations, there is no
Recent scholarly and institutional substitute for two people ‘clicking’. This is
endeavours to preserve Yiddish were apparent in the Kheel Center’s collaboration
spearheaded by the Yiddish Book Center with the Yiddish Book Center (YBC),
(https://www.yiddishbookcenter.org/) and a cultural institution on the campus of
the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research Hampshire College dedicated to preserving
(https://www.yivo.org/). Due to their the Yiddish language.
efforts, the importance of the language in In 2015,YBC’s Director of Collections
understanding the cultural contributions of Initiatives, Eitan Kensky, contacted former
Jewish Americans became apparent, leading Kheel Center Director Cheryl Beredo to
to the recognition of the need for more propose a joint project. The two worked
preservation, digitisation and translation well together and the YBC became a
efforts by repositories with significant valuable ally. After Kensky left the institution,
Yiddish holdings. Lyons saw an opportunity the web developer and digital projects
to work with other institutions to make the librarian, Amber Kanner Clooney, worked
Kheel Center’s Yiddish-language documents with colleagues and students to create
accessible to future generations. and translate metadata and to disseminate
Kathryn Dowgiewicz, then ILGWU Gerechtigkeit on the YBC’s existing portal of
project archivist, oversaw some Yiddish Yiddish-language materials.5
text digitisation projects, including the Gerechtigkeit was the first periodical
digitisation of the microfilmed publication ingested in the YBC portal, which previously
Gerechtigkeit, the Yiddish version of the focused exclusively on books. It was then
ILGWU publication Justice which was added to the Internet Archive, providing
published from 1919 to 1969 and the new levels of access to the publication. As a
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Collaborating to digitise Yiddish-language collections at Cornell
further service to the community, students newspapers, educational materials, political
from the YBC created metadata in Yiddish pamphlets, musical programmes and many
and transliterated headlines into Roman other items in English,Yiddish and other
characters so users could search in both languages.
formats. Due to the software’s inability to
discern newspaper columns and generate THE ARTS AND SCIENCES GRANT
useful, searchable text, however, they were
In 2012, Cornell University Library (CUL)
unable to use optical character recognition
and the College of Arts and Sciences’
(OCR) on the newspapers.
(A&S) Visual Resources Advisory Group8
As of May 2021,YBC has uploaded
were allocated funds to award digitisation
598 issues that have been viewed over
grants to A&S faculty and graduate students
5,500 times, serving a community of users
making personal, library or university
specifically interested in Yiddish-language
resources accessible to a wider group of
materials. This project was the Kheel
users. Cornell University’s Grants Program
Center’s first successful collaboration with
for Digital Collections in Arts and Sciences
an outside group in providing access to
(A&S grant)9 allows for a holistic approach
Yiddish-language materials. Also available
to digitisation and dissemination projects
from the ILR School’s digital repository,
in consultation with Digital Consulting
DigitalCommons@ILR,6 Gerechtigkeit has
& Production Services (DCAPS), CUL’s
garnered approximately 10,000 downloads
high-end digitisation service for the Cornell
since June 2014.
community.
When Jonathan Boyarin and Elissa
Founded in 2003, DCAPS describes
Sampson, Jewish Studies professors at
itself as:
Cornell, became aware of the Kheel Center’s
rich Yiddish-language resources, they
‘a virtual group that spans multiple
proposed a partnership to digitise material in departments within CUL, including
the IWO collection highlighting the Jewish Library Technical Services and Cornell
People’s Fraternal Order (JPFO). University Library IT. Our dynamic staff
The IWO was founded as an immigrant includes librarians, photographers, metadata
fraternal order providing high-quality, specialists, web designers, programmers, and
low-cost health and burial insurance to its project managers’.10
members. Characterising the organisation,
Sampson notes that ‘While the vast majority In 2016, Boyarin and Sampson applied
of the IWO’s members — ~200,000 at its for an A&S grant to digitise parts of the
peak right after World War II — did not IWO collection, becoming the grant’s
belong to the Communist Party of the principal investigators (PIs). Using their
United States of America, the IWO’s politics deep subject knowledge and fluency in
and leadership were largely aligned with Yiddish, they were able to provide new
those of the Party’.7 In 1953, due to the insights into the collection’s meaning
Cold War ‘Red Scare’, the organisation was and research value. Their partnership
dissolved by the State of New York and its offered deep analysis of the documents,
records and assets seized. suggesting use cases that digitisation and
In 1960, the Kheel Center acquired this access could support. Sampson affirmed the
collection from the Liquidation Bureau of scholarly value of the IWO/JPFO archives
New York. The collection includes 54 linear documenting the group’s progressive work
feet of memos, minutes, correspondence, organising around race, ethnicity, gender,
convention proceedings, broadsides, immigration, language and the arts during
© Henry Stewart Publications 2047-1300 (2021) Vol. 10, 2 110–128 Journal of Digital Media Management 113
Morley, Calco and Parker
the rise of anti-Fascist activism from 1930 An item-level review by conservators
to 1953. identified documents needing treatment to
facilitate digitisation and anticipated future
handling. Good conservation practices
PROJECT PLANNING determine optimal treatment for each
After the A&S grant proposal was shortlisted document with respect to its digitisation and
for funding, Barb Morley, the Kheel Center use context. If collection stewards predict
digital archivist, Dianne Dietrich, the an analogue master will get additional
DCAPS coordinator and central project handling as an outcome of digitisation and
manager, DCAPS team members and the resulting scholarly interest, conservators
PIs worked together to refine the project decide whether stabilisation is needed to
proposal, establishing clear goals and facilitate heavier use in teaching, research or
deliverables that met user needs and cultural physical exhibits. Additional treatment can be
heritage institution standards. Based on undertaken later if uses are more demanding
these, they defined the project’s scope and than anticipated.12
objectives, created workflows, identified With all available information in hand,
required skills and resources, and gauged the the DCAPS staff build the budget. DCAPS
timeframe and budget necessary to meet works on a cost-recovery model, and each
project goals. project adds to an understanding of the
The Kheel Center’s collection equipment, facilities, people, knowledge and
management database is scripted to compile time required to do each task, reducing the
folder-level container listings for each difference between the estimate and actual
collection in Excel spreadsheets, and the cost of a project. Budgeting for specific
PIs used the IWO/JPFO listing as the project inputs and outputs is challenging.
basis of their collection review, identifying Efforts to design and build sustainable
candidate folders for inclusion in the project. collections require planning up front, but
As experienced researchers, the PIs decided also continued monitoring and maintenance
which additional descriptive metadata were over many years. These budget elements
needed to support intellectual analysis of the must try to account for the dynamic,
material, including folder contents, document technical array of design and functional
language, genre, condition, size, format and options, as well as the changing preservation
historical context, and selected high-priority and access environment, making real-world
folders. For those folders, the digital archivist expenditure forecasting very difficult (see
added the folder-level filename root to the Figure 2).
spreadsheet and student assistants wrote Based on this thorough analysis by an
that alpha-numeric string on folders to aid experienced team, the Visual Resources
the digitisation team (see Figure 1).11 The Advisory Committee decided to fund the
spreadsheet was available to project partners IWO/JPFO project due to the collection’s
in Cornell’s online file sharing service, Box high research value and unique scope. This
(https://it.cornell.edu/box). formalised the first collaboration between
For technical aspects of the work, the the Kheel Center and faculty from the
DCAPS staff reviewed selected folders, noted Jewish Studies Program and between those
document types and formats, evaluated faculty members and DCAPS. It built on the
legibility, fragility and condition along digital archivist’s 15 years collaborating with
with digitisation strategies, skill levels, file DCAPS team members on digitisation
management needs and time requirements. work.
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Figure 1: Excerpt of exported folder list from collection 5276, with document descriptions and comments from the PIs
115
Morley, Calco and Parker
Figure 2: DCAPS budget for the IWO Digitisation Project
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Collaborating to digitise Yiddish-language collections at Cornell
Figure 2: (continued)
TECHNICAL CONSIDERATIONS Artstor’s JSTOR Forum was selected as
Two of the biggest considerations and the metadata creation tool because it is an
hurdles to any digitisation project are open source program developed in concert
the technological underpinnings and with its user community. While the curated
the comfort of stakeholders with these selections of digitised materials have both
tools. CUL is fortunate to have specialists item-level metadata and a collection landing
to oversee digitisation, file management page, the portal was not designed to host an
and management of the Library’s Digital online exhibit as the PIs initially hoped. The
Collections Portal.13 The portal is the distinction between a portal for discovery
preferred delivery system used by CUL to and an exhibit space frequently causes
host and provide access to digital assets. In friction in digitisation and dissemination
the IWO/JPFO project, one goal was to have projects.
the selected materials uploaded to an online Providing full-text access to multilingual
dissemination platform with descriptive collections in a digital environment
metadata and a landing page to contextualise presented additional challenges. To support
the curated materials. To make the full-text searching in documents, file
collection accessible, the Yiddish and English management specialist Mira Basara used
components of the digitised materials had to Abbyy Finereader 15 OCR processing
be taken into consideration. Although CUL software (https://pdf.abbyy.com/), giving
uses HathiTrust as a valuable portal for other Yiddish-language readers a way to do
documents, it was not chosen because of the keyword searching with Hebrew
strict criteria for mixed-language collections. characters.
© Henry Stewart Publications 2047-1300 (2021) Vol. 10, 2 110–128 Journal of Digital Media Management 117Morley, Calco and Parker
OCR technology has its own hurdles. back so they can be accomplished within the
These include interpreting columns in text, resource constraints of the grant.17 Years of
recognising typefaces that may not be clear experience have also made it clear that some
to the algorithm, reading originals of mixed elements in a project may need fine-tuning
quality which may not render readable or full revision during implementation.
text, and the inability to interpret most As acknowledged by the former Kheel
handwritten documents. Despite these issues, Center Director, projects must have sufficient
the PIs felt it was important to provide a time to go ‘off the rails’.18 When a problem
basic level of accessibility for the Yiddish- arises, participants need time to recognise it,
reading community. Time limitations diagnose it, develop and evaluate options, and
for non-Roman character training and implement them, along with any cascading
processing led CUL’s file management adjustments that might be indicated. DCAPS
specialist to focus additional energy on has weekly project management meetings to
collaborating with digitisation specialists to assess progress, refine workflows and solve
ensure high-quality captures for potentially problems, and uses Confluence, a project
problematic documents. management and documentation tool,
to connect teams and departments from
designing workflows and estimating budgets,
PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION AND through documenting decisions and tracking
MANAGEMENT progress.19 DCAPS also uses Zoho20 to track
Trusting relationships are essential for inputs, outputs and billing.
effective collaboration14–16 and are enhanced Managing resources is especially
by shared experiences with effective problem challenging with new types of grant projects
solving. Although difficult compromises can as, after implementation begins, unanticipated
leave residual stress points, for a project to variables can arise. Each component, human
succeed there must be good communication, or technical, must be available at the right
and the plan must have well-defined, time for projects to move through phases
achievable project scope and goals that smoothly, employing sequenced assets
match available resources, with clear efficiently. This remains the case at the tail-end
participant roles. of a project when file delivery, quality control
Catherwood Library Director, Curtis (QC) and rescans or metadata clean-up occur,
Lyons, emphasised the value of face-to-face after many participants have reallocated their
discussions to forge strong, personal time and resources to other work.
relationships among partners. Grant kick-off Unspecified assumptions, resource
meetings allow large, interdepartmental teams limitations and conflicting priorities may
to contextualise the project from multiple delay anticipated progress or block success.
perspectives while clarifying one another’s Three sources of difficulty were noteworthy,
roles and available resources. Frank discussions costing unbudgeted time and money for
help identify unforeseen opportunities and the Kheel Center, PIs and DCAPS. These
potential stumbling blocks and support included planning for labelling analogue
effective problem-solving based on mutual masters with their corresponding file names,
understanding and trust. Discussing creating metadata for Yiddish-language
responsibilities, expectations, capacities and documents and QC for surrogate files and
boundaries helps avoid setting unachievable metadata.
goals and minimises project scope creep. For typical Kheel Center digitisation
Proposals that are unrealistically large or projects, student assistants provide essential
technically demanding need to be scaled labour, contributing both subject knowledge
118 Journal of Digital Media Management Vol. 10, 2 110–128 © Henry Stewart Publications 2047-1300 (2021)Collaborating to digitise Yiddish-language collections at Cornell
and skills. Student assistants usually work Because the creation of highly detailed
with the digital archivist to review the metadata took longer than the budgeted
collection and create item-level metadata. six months, a second metadata assistant had
They pencil the assigned file name on the to be hired to create metadata for English-
corresponding document before digitisation language documents. The assistants lacked
to ensure that the analogue master, associated relevant historical knowledge and required
metadata and digital surrogate are assigned extensive training and supervision, creating
matching identifiers that conform to the unanticipated demand on the metadata
Kheel Center’s file-naming convention. librarian’s time. A further — appropriate, but
The A&S grant programme includes unbudgeted — expense was the university’s
digitisation, file management and item-level requirement that temporary employees
metadata creation for documents previously working longer than six months should
described at the folder level only, so the receive standard employee benefits.
digital archivist did not follow the typical Historians describing similar materials for
workflows. The digital archivist incorrectly the scholarly community emphasise historical
assumed that the digitisation team would significance, underscoring the importance of
label analogue masters as they assigned file detailed descriptive metadata. The metadata
names during digitisation. When analogue records created by the metadata assistants
masters, files and metadata were delivered did not meet the expectations of the PIs,
to the Kheel Center, the planning oversight who then spent many days correcting and
became obvious. Digital collections student enhancing the initial entries with more
assistants spent many days comparing extensive summaries in the description field
analogue masters with digitised content and (Figures 3 and 4). This level of detail was
labelling originals with the file name as part more typical of online exhibition curation
of the QC process — a costly oversight even (or what one project participant called
at student wage rates. ‘research data’), deviating from common
Metadata creation was also challenging. metadata field use and exceeding customary,
Because A&S grant PIs have deep subject item-level allowances for library metadata.21
expertise, they or their research assistants The supervisors’ lack of Yiddish-language
typically create metadata for funded projects. expertise made it difficult to evaluate
During the application and planning phase metadata as they were being created and
of the grant, the PIs were not aware that they to identify issues in their infancy. Were this
would be expected to create the metadata massive investment of time in collection
and the DCAPS staff did not realise the PIs description undertaken as a regular practice,
could not allocate time to do that work. it would result in richer item-level records
When this misunderstanding was discovered, but would also hinder the institution’s ability
DCAPS hired a part-time, temporary, to describe, present and maintain large
metadata assistant who reads Yiddish. collections.
This large digitisation project was one of Detailed work was done to translate and
the first projects handed off to Jasmine Burns, transliterate each title, which the PIs felt was
the newly hired visual resources metadata important so English-language researchers
librarian. Despite her strong background could acquire a cursory understanding of
in metadata creation and management, the documents. This required two alphabets
this would be the first time that Burns had — Romanised Yiddish and Hebrew script
been responsible for supervising a metadata — in the title field to help meet accessibility
assistant working in another language — all goals and transliteration standards. PIs used
while still learning about CUL and her other transliteration guidelines developed by the
responsibilities. YIVO Institute for Jewish Research — the
© Henry Stewart Publications 2047-1300 (2021) Vol. 10, 2 110–128 Journal of Digital Media Management 119Morley, Calco and Parker
Figure 3: JSTOR Forum description field, work types, Note field
120 Journal of Digital Media Management Vol. 10, 2 110–128 © Henry Stewart Publications 2047-1300 (2021)Collaborating to digitise Yiddish-language collections at Cornell
Figure 4: Portal front end, displaying the metadata as seen by users
framework predominantly implemented orthography’.23 The PIs also made sure to
by publishers and scholars.22 To ensure include original transliteration and English
consistency with YIVO standards, the translations from the source documents
transliterations made by assistants were themselves in the metadata, even where
saved in a shared ‘review’ folder, which the standardised Yiddish had also been entered
PIs edited as needed. The reviewed files into the fields. This was done to respect the
were then moved to an ‘approved’ folder grammar and orthography of the creators of
from which the metadata librarian was able the documents.
to batch upload the revised entries. The Yiddish names presented unique hurdles.
PIs often used in-depth analysis of related In the metadata profile, the names are given
documents to make decisions on complex in Hebrew script, Romanised Yiddish and
translation and transcription issues. For English (Figure 5). When these documents
example, Professor Sampson discussed the were created, there was no standardised
‘ambiguities in the use of a common Yiddish system to transliterate Yiddish and there was
word like Chaver (Khaver), which can mean intense societal pressure to anglicise names.
brother, comrade, friend, member, etc, and This led to inconsistency in the names
can be spelled with Hebrew orthography used by prominent figures and meant that
or in a few instances with Russian Yiddish every name authority used in the metadata
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Morley, Calco and Parker
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Vol. 10, 2 110–128
© Henry Stewart Publications 2047-1300 (2021)
Figure 5: JSTOR Forum backend, showing metadata for correspondents; the ‘Working’ tab shows name authority fields in English and Yiddish for
reviewCollaborating to digitise Yiddish-language collections at Cornell
had three distinct entries and needed to be duplicate or missing pages that cannot be
checked by the Yiddish metadata assistant, captured more clearly or completely.
the metadata librarian and the PIs. Mindful For Kheel Center digitisation projects
of unintended changes to the approved done in collaboration with DCAPS, DCAPS
entries, the metadata librarian customised staff members do the first round of QC and
the JSTOR Forum interface, blocking Kheel Center digital collections student
fields so the Yiddish and transliterated name assistants do a second, comprehensive review.
authorities could be checked against English This ensures that every analogue master has
name authorities without risking alterations a corresponding digital surrogate; that the
to already approved metadata. file name for each analogue master is correct,
Labour issues surrounding metadata pencilled on the back of the master, and that
creation and enhancement have a large it matches the surrogate files; that each file
impact on the project team and the final is complete and correctly assembled when
product. It is very easy for a challenging compared with the analogue master; that
project to consume more time and resources there are preservation TIFFs and access PDFs
than allocated, potentially short-changing that have undergone OCR scanning; that the
other work.24 As the visual resources metadata describe the document; and that
metadata librarian pointed out, description is the correct document image is paired with
an iterative process that requires a mechanism the metadata record. Any corrections that the
to allow collection stewards to create student assistant or digital archivist is unable
necessary changes with minimal impact on to make are communicated to DCAPS using
metadata librarians. the shared spreadsheet. DCAPS staff note
Toward the end of the project, Professor their questions, suggestions or corrections
Sampson did two rounds of enhancements in the spreadsheet, ensuring that each
in the JSTOR Forum that were checked participant knows the status of each issue and
and uploaded by the metadata librarian. The the project as a whole.
PIs later had opportunities to edit metadata Even with a detailed workflow to help
in spreadsheets, making it easier for the reviewers stay on track, QC for large sets
metadata librarian to check any amendments. of text is arduous, especially if reviewers
As noted by Sampson and Boyarin, requiring do not read the language’s script. Despite
PIs to create the metadata limits the number not reading Yiddish, one particular digital
of faculty and graduate students who can collections student assistant, Serina Moheed,
propose projects. Most lack time to create was frequently assigned QC work because
metadata while meeting other departmental of her sustained attention and ability to
requirements for promotion or graduation.25 identify errors. Moheed likened her process
of reviewing Yiddish-language documents
to the examination of photographs: along
QUALITY CONTROL with her colleagues, she would look for
QC is labour-intensive, and much more right-justified content and occasional
difficult than one might think, requiring Arabic numerals to establish orientation;
sustained, resolute attention to detail. Full consult Yiddish-learner websites and lists
QC is a time-consuming step that few of days and months to establish order and
projects can afford but most could benefit proper assembly; and compare graphics and
from. Many plans allocate QC resources the positions of advertisements to check
to one-fifth or one-tenth of the content, for duplication. Moheed and the DCAPS
supplementing notes made by digitisation digitisation specialists recommended that,
staff documenting faded, torn, skewed, rather than making QC the last stage of the
© Henry Stewart Publications 2047-1300 (2021) Vol. 10, 2 110–128 Journal of Digital Media Management 123Morley, Calco and Parker
project, it should begin much earlier and be managers and has since assigned one person
done in small batches to reduce the intensity to manage A&S grants, and added project
of the work and improve success rates. management to two digitisation specialists’
Interestingly, the clean-up portion of the responsibilities. The DCAPS coordinator
project posed some of the most significant noted that this project influenced the way
questions. What does reasonable and she incorporates long-term sustainability and
responsible QC look like for digitisation ongoing stewardship with library partners
and metadata creation? Does ability to read during project planning.26
the language affect the percentage of QC Strategically important outcomes included
work undertaken? Who has the knowledge insights into the most successful ways to
needed to recognise the meaning of errors collaborate with a wide variety of partners
and systematically explore other records and new understandings regarding the best
that might have related issues? Who has the ways to share information and communicate
requisite attention span to make detailed the goals and expectations of different
comparisons, and what conditions would communities of practice. Ad hoc workflows
support their success? How can timely and built on interpersonal relationships are
effective QC and problem remediation often weak and require adjustment as they
be ensured when new projects have been encounter conflicting tools and workflows.
undertaken and staff time has been budgeted Jasmine Burns reiterated the importance of
elsewhere? well-defined goals, setting clear expectations,
defining deliverables and timetables, and
formalising these in clear documentation.27
OUTCOMES These decisions provide a solid foundation
At the end of a project, a wrap-up meeting for detailed project planning, progress
allows collaborators to discuss what went assessment and tactical adjustments, if needed.
well, what could be improved, and whether This shared understanding can be expressed
each unit achieved its goals. It facilitates in a memorandum of understanding or
holistic analysis of each participant’s collaboration statement, a written agreement
contribution to the grant and provides describing the goals and products of the
a chance to celebrate the collaboration. collaboration, naming the partners and
The IWO/JPFO project had a long tail of contributions each will make, and indicating
metadata creation and enhancement, QC the timeline on which each aspect of the
and file and metadata correction, including work will be accomplished.
an unusual delay due to the COVID-19 Since working on this project, the
pandemic. It is only drawing to a close now metadata librarian has created a robust and
in 2021. structured template for metadata creation
Challenges and opportunities during the in JSTOR Forum. She has also used
IWO/JPFO digitisation project allowed JSTOR tools to create linked data menus
collaborators to re-evaluate and redesign using subject headings from authorised
some long-standing divisions of labour, vocabularies. This increases consistency
task assignments, tools and workflows, and across collections and allows for greater
reinforced the benefit of others. The head discoverability as the metadata are pushed to
of Conservation realigned assignments various hosting platforms. This also creates an
to take better advantage of available staff easier interface for those who find it difficult
with needed expertise. The Digitisation to use the full interface effectively and has
and Conservation Services Director allowed for greater consistency among digital
highlighted the need for more project collections’ metadata.
124 Journal of Digital Media Management Vol. 10, 2 110–128 © Henry Stewart Publications 2047-1300 (2021)Collaborating to digitise Yiddish-language collections at Cornell
For the Kheel Center, this project provides materials encouraged project participants to
a roadmap for future work describing apply for a second round of funding to add
and providing access to multilingual and to the digitised collection.
non-Roman script collections. With Other important outcomes include
the globalisation of the supply chain, numerous related donations to the Kheel
documenting labour issues inherently Center, an oral history programme
includes the ability to describe and make established with former IWO/JPFO
available records in a wealth of languages and members, and increased interest from
orthographies. There are numerous gaps in scholars and the general public in accessing
the archival record surrounding the lives and both digital and analogue IWO materials.
contributions of marginalised workers. The Research archivist Steven Calco is now
successful description and dissemination of able to provide patrons with genealogical
the Yiddish-language records offers guidance assistance using Yiddish-language resources.
for future collaborations to make such In 2018, he connected a Holocaust
materials available. survivor and war orphan with articles and
Thanks to the creative design and photographs from Gerechtigkeit, as well as
programming efforts of the DCAPS web team a digitised video of her participation in
working with the PIs, the digitised materials the 1950 ILGWU convention as a cultural
went live on CUL’s Digital Collections ambassador from war-torn Europe.30
Portal in May 2018 (Figure 6). The IWO/
JPFO digital collection has widened access
to information about the Yiddish Left and CONCLUSION
given scholars a new avenue to study Yiddish
In the past, the availability of
language and heritage. In addition to the
Yiddish-language records in high-use Kheel
rich document description, the landing page
Center collections drew the attention
features a 3,700-word essay, ‘Fellow Travelers:
of archivists and scholars, but very few
From Popular Front to Cold War’, written by
could read the language. Contributions
Sampson and Boyarin, exploring the IWO/
by content specialists,Yiddish-readers and
JPFO digital collection, detailing the history
technical specialists has resulted in not only
of the organisation and highlighting areas
preserved, digitised documents but also
of potential interest for scholars.28 It also
rich metadata transliterating and translating
includes a timeline and bibliography to help
essential elements of the documents, enabling
contextualise the materials.
discovery and access by both Yiddish and
Sampson, Boyarin, a group of Jewish
English-language readers.
Studies scholars and Kheel Center archivists
The online resources created during
worked together to organise a week-long
this collaborative project foster community
virtual conference, ‘Di Linke: The Yiddish
engagement, project development and
Immigrant Left from Popular Front to
scholarly inquiry in the Kheel Center’s
Cold War’ in December 2020, examining
Yiddish-language collections. As Rokhl
the complex history of the IWO/JPFO.
Kafrissen notes:
Conference presentations were based
on digitised materials from the IWO/ ‘It’s hard to describe just how fascinating
JPFO digital collection.29 Six hundred this material is, and how important is
people from around the world were in the work being done in its archive. The
attendance, including former JPFO members, IWO and JPFO have been so thoroughly
interdisciplinary scholars, digital humanists, scrubbed from Jewish American history,
researchers, students, activists and the general and American history, that most of us
public. Re-energised interest in these simply have no reference point.’31
© Henry Stewart Publications 2047-1300 (2021) Vol. 10, 2 110–128 Journal of Digital Media Management 125Morley, Calco and Parker
Figure 6: Excerpt from collection landing page
126 Journal of Digital Media Management Vol. 10, 2 110–128 © Henry Stewart Publications 2047-1300 (2021)Collaborating to digitise Yiddish-language collections at Cornell
As with so many large projects, undertaking References
the documents’ conservation, digitisation, 1. Kheel Center (2021) ‘Kheel Center for
Labor-Management Documentation & Archives’,
description and dissemination required available at: https://catherwood.library.cornell.edu
grant funding that was available, along /kheel/about/ (accessed 6th May, 2021).
with project expertise, as part of Cornell 2. Roses, J. (1996) ‘A dead language, “Yiddish lives”’,
University’s Grants Program for Digital New York Times, 7th July, available at: https://www
.nytimes.com/1996/07/07/magazine/a-dead-lan
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challenges, designed and managed workflows, (Justice)’, available at: https://www.yiddishbookcenter
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highly collaborative effort culminated in 6. DigitalCollections@ILR (2021) ‘Gerechtigkeit (Yid-
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Sampson, Jasmine Burns, Jill Iacchei, 2021.
13. Cornell University Digital Collections (2021) ‘About
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Basara, Patricia Fox, Rhea Garen, Serina digital.library.cornell.edu/about (accessed 6th
Moheed, Simon Ingall and Tre Berney May, 2021).
14. Dietrich, P., Eskerod, P., Dalcher, D. and Sandhawalia,
for participating in interviews about
B. (2010) ‘The dynamics of collaboration in multi-
their collaboration in the digitisation and partner projects’, Project Management Journal,Vol. 41,
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Marcie Farwell, Patrizia Sione and Wesley 15. San Martín-Rodríguez, L., Beaulieu, M.-D.,
D’Amour, D. and Ferrada-Videla, M. (2005) ‘The
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16. Bond-Barnard, T.J., Fletcher, L. and Steyn, H. (2018)
projects and a stronger paper. ‘Linking trust and collaboration in project teams to
© Henry Stewart Publications 2047-1300 (2021) Vol. 10, 2 110–128 Journal of Digital Media Management 127Morley, Calco and Parker
project management success’, International Journal of 23. Elissa Sampson, personal communication, June 2021.
Managing Projects in Business,Vol. 11, No. 2, 24. Jasmine Burns, personal communication, December
pp. 432–457. 2020.
17. Dianne Dietrich, personal communication, 25. Elissa Sampson and Jonathan Boyarin, personal
December 2020. communication, December 2020.
18. Cheryl Beredo, personal communication, January 26. Ibid., ref. 17 above.
2021. 27. Ibid., ref. 24 above.
19. Atlassian. (2021) ‘Accomplish more together’, 28. Cornell University Digital Collections, ref. 7 above.
available at: https://www.atlassian.com/software/ 29. Cornell Cast (2021) ‘Di Linke: the Yiddish Immigrant
confluence Left from Popular Front to Cold War Conference
20. Zoho. (2021) ‘Your life’s work, powered by our life’s Videos’, available at: https://www.cornell.edu/video/
work’, available at: https://www.zoho.com/ playlist/di-linke-conference (accessed 6th June, 2021).
21. Baca, M., Harpring, P., Lanzi, E., McRae, L. and 30. Beduya, J. (2020) ‘Family ties abound in Cornell Uni-
Whiteside, A. (2020) ‘Description’, in ‘Cataloging versity Library archives’, Ezra Magazine, 26th
Cultural Objects: A Guide to Describing Cultural Works October, available at: https://news.cornell.edu
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org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04 /CatalogingCultur- -university-library-archives (accessed 6th May, 2021).
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22. Yiddish Wit (2021) ‘YIVO Transliteration Chart and dog named Labzik can teach us about communism’,
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128 Journal of Digital Media Management Vol. 10, 2 110–128 © Henry Stewart Publications 2047-1300 (2021)You can also read
