JAPANESE INTERNMENT CAMP COLLECTION
ASU DIGITAL REPOSITORY

Robert P. Spindler
rob.spindler@asu.edu
February 2018

IT ALL STARTED IN THE VAULT, 2005

PRESERVATION CONCERNS

Charlie Leight Photo, ASU Now

BOUND PAPER HAD BEEN MICROFILMED BY
STATE LIBRARY

Charlie Leight Photo, ASU Now

STATE LIBRARY’S RECORDS MANAGEMENT
DIVISION SCANS MICROFILM – 27 CD’S

CD’S CONTAINED 5,119 HI-RES CONSECUTIVELY
NUMBERED TIFF PAGE IMAGE FILES

THE PROJECT GOES ON HIATUS FOR A LOOONG
TIME
•

I needed help batch processing all the TIFF page images, compressing them
and/or converting to jpegs because file size was too large

•

I loaned three sample CD’s to ASU Library’s Information Technology area (2005)

• I was asked to work on other projects (fall 2005)
• The three sample CD’s were returned to me in 2015, “Do you know what
these are?” they asked…
• My Adobe Acrobat skills had improved and I had it on my desktop

BY VIEWING THE FOLDER AS LARGE ICONS, I COULD SEE THE MASTHEAD
OF EACH EDITION AND IDENTIFY INCLUSIVE PAGES

USING ADOBE ACROBAT’S “COMBINE FILES INTO
A SINGLE PDF” FUNCTION
•

I uploaded the TIFF page image files for each edition

•

Used the Optimize Scanned PDF Document Processing Tool

•

Compressed the files

•

Applied Adobe’s Optical Character Recognition (OCR) engine

THEN I SAVED EACH EDITION FILE, COMPILED
ALL THE EDITIONS INTO ONE MONTH AND
SAVED THE FILE AGAIN

THEN THERE WAS DENSHO

I CREATED THE ASU DIGITAL REPOSITORY
COLLECTION, CATALOGED THE RUNS AND
UPLOADED THE FILES

21 MONTHS LATER (APRIL, 2017) WE HAD A
COLLECTION OF THE NEWSLETTERS ONLINE

THEN, WE WENT BACK TO THE VAULT FOR
MORE

CAMP PHOTOGRAPHS, ETHEL MANNING
PAPERS, ADD’L EDITIONS PURCHASED 1982

DIGITAL LIBRARY MAKES HEADLINES AT ASU

Charlie Leight photo, ASU Now

THE STORY WAS PICKED UP BY MEDIA IN LOS
ANGELES AND JAPAN

Photo courtesy Kyodo News Los Angeles

THEN WE HEARD FROM TWO FAMILIES
•

“I just started checking out the archive, but I am so excited. I had family in Poston and
cannot wait to read through the documents to connect more to our family history. I was
particularly excited when I noticed the Ethel Manning Papers. I learned of her within the
past few years when I became a school librarian and this triggered a memory in my
grandma that I blogged about here.”

•

“I pulled the photos and one with the 3 female graduates of Gila River caught my
eye. One of them looked just like my aunt who was in Gila River, so we sent the photo to
her as she is still living in Los Angeles and asked her if she recognized the photo. It was
her !! and she knows the other two females in the photos. She was shocked to see the
photo!”
• (left side in photo) My aunt: Lillie Miyagishima (maiden name Tomooka).
• (middle in photo): Teruko “Terry” Akiyama
• (right in photo): Michiko “Veronica” Yamaguchi

MASTER TIFF PAGE IMAGES REMAIN UNCOMPRESSED WITH
MONTHLY PDF’S IN DIGITAL PRESERVATION QUEUE

JAPANESE INTERMENT CAMP COLLECTION
ASU DIGITAL REPOSITORY

Robert P. Spindler
rob.spindler@asu.edu
February 2018