Scribe digitization workflow

Scope: This contains the basic workflow that CSD staff perform for Scribe/Internet Archive projects, including integration with HathiTrust

Unit: Collection Strategy & Development, Stacks Maintenance & Retrieval

Contact: Candice Brown

Date last reviewed: 03/10/2025

Date of next review: 03/10/2026

• Create a Scribe project based on subject matter, publication date (out of copyright), etc., and pull books from stacks or request from LSC/other libraries.

• Create a picklist for Scribe Operator, change Process type in Alma to “Acquisition technical services (SCRIBE)”, and deliver cart of books to Scribe Operator.

• Once complete cart of books has been scanned by Scribe Operator and returned to CSD, change Scribe status to DONE and return books to Stacks Management or branch Libraries where they will be scanned again and receive their final status of “in place.”

• When monthly invoice is sent from Internet Archive, reconcile invoice by checking each scan in IA to make sure it is set to the correct privacy setting, pages properly turn, scan matches title of book, etc., and create metadata in Aleph based on information sent in invoice. A 955 field is added to the bib record to include the IA identifier, ARK, and any volume information. A second 035 field is also added to the record.

• Upload MARC file containing bib record numbers to HathiTrust via FTP server.

• When report is returned from HathiTrust, evaluate for any errors and correct those that appear. An acknowledgement record is always sent regardless of errors being present. Error reports are generated by Hathi and most commonly include incorrect identifiers (normally a typo) in the record.

• If errors occur and are corrected, re-send corrected file in next FTP batch.