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Staff

Digital Collections Faculty and Staff

Digital Collections Student Assistants

  • Nicole Garcia-Contreras
  • Alfredo Lim
  • Rexxor Agdeppa
  • Erika Garces
Awards

PROJECT AWARDS

2010 National Council on Public History Project Award for the Nevada Test Site Oral History Project - The Outstanding Public History Project Award recognizes excellence in work completed within the previous two calendar years (2009 and 2010) that contributes to a broader public reflection and appreciation of the past or that serves as a model of professional public history practice.

2008 OHA Award for the Nevada Test Site Oral History Project - 2008 Oral History Association Elizabeth B. Mason Project Award (Honorable Mention) for outstanding use of oral history.

STAFF AWARDS

2019 - Emily Lapworth, Outstanding Library Faculty Scholarship Award in recognition of outstanding contributions to the Libraries in the area of scholarship.

2018 - Kelsey Lupo, Library Spring Inspirational Customer Service Award; this award is designed to acknowledge and reward individual staff efforts in providing excellent customer service to library patrons.

2016 - Emily Lapworth Innovative Solutions Award; recognizes a library faculty member or professional staff member for demonstrated innovation and creative thinking to solve a problem or challenge or to improve upon an existing practice in the provision of library services and resources. These award winners demonstrate that new and different approaches, coupled with high energy and a willingness to take a risk, can result in exciting outcomes.

2013 - Cory Lampert - UNLV McPhee Librarian of the Year Award in recognition for expertise and skill in moving a project from conception to implementation to assessment, the establishment of a highly cooperative and productive work environment, and efforts to make library collections available as widely as possible. In addition, the award recognized a substantial record of scholarship, a role in consistently securing grants, and a commitment to local, regional, and national service. Highlighted impact of this work in bringing the University Libraries' digital collections national recognition and stature.

2013 - Cory Lampert and Silvia Southwick Innovation Showcase at UNLV Academic Achievement Gala; selected through a campus-wide refereed selection process by the UNLV Office of the Provost to present a poster to highlight and celebrate high-profile faculty research.

2012 - Silvia Southwick Innovative Solutions Award; recognizes a library faculty member or professional staff member for demonstrated innovation and creative thinking to solve a problem or challenge or to improve upon an existing practice in the provision of library services and resources. These award winners demonstrate that new and different approaches, coupled with high energy and a willingness to take a risk, can result in exciting outcomes.

2011 - Cory Lampert Emerald Publishing Outstanding Paper Award – One of three Commendable Papers.

2011 - Cory Lampert Outstanding Library Faculty Service Award in recognition of outstanding contributions to the University Libraries in the area of service.

2008 - Cory Lampert Outstanding Library Faculty Scholarship Award in recognition of outstanding contributions to the Libraries in the area of scholarship.

2008 - Silvia Southwick Outstanding Library Faculty Scholarship Award in recognition of outstanding contributions to the Libraries in the area of scholarship.

2007-2008 - Kathleen Marx, Library Classified Staff of the Year Award; recognizes a classified staff member for concern for the library and its goals, attitude toward fellow employees, students, faculty and the public (availability, cooperation, courtesy, friendliness, helpfulness, enthusiasm) , exceptional work achievement, and/or creativity and initiative in developing new services or ideas which enhance operations.

Technology
Technical Development Projects
Digitization Lab
  • Rowe 8501 large format scanner
  • Phase One / Capture One / Digital Transitions rapid-capture system
  • Hasselblad Slide scanner
  • Bookeye Scanner
  • Epson flatbed scanners
  • Microfilm readers
  • Digital camera / copy stand
Phase One camera

PHASE ONE

A versatile camera that can capture documents, manuscripts, photos, newspapers, musical scores, letters, post cards, and other flat objects in all sizes and shapes, up to a maximum of 30 x 40 at a rate up to 30x faster than traditional book scanner solutions. With the addition of a Film Kit, you can digitize 35mm up to 11x17 inch film, and has pattern holders for 35mm film. 120mm film. 4x5 inch film. 8x10 inch film. All editing can be done within the system software. Digital Transitions Division of Cultural Heritage solutions meet and exceed FADGI 4-Star and Metamorfoze-Strict standards.

BOOKEYE 5 V3 - Color BOOK SCANNER

The Bookeye 5 V3 - Color is a book scanner that has an 18.9” x 15.3 inch scan area (A3+) and has the ability to scan in tFlat or “V” Cradle modes – “V” Cradle mode holds books at 120° angle and the V” Cradle completely protects book spines and bindings. The scanner can capture at 400 dpi optical resolution.

Epson printer

EPSON EXPRESSION 10000XL WITH OPTIONAL DOCUMENT FEEDER

The Epson Expression 10000XL scans virtually anything, including reflective media, featuring a transparency unit for scanning transparencies up to 12.2 x 16.5 inches. The optional automatic document feeder allows multiple-page scanning.

ROWE 8501 LARGE FORMAT SCANNER

The Rowe large-size scanner can capture black/white and color with a scan width of: 44.5 inch (1,130 mm). Original width: 47.4 inch (1,204 mm). Original thickness: up to 2 mm (0.08 inches) for flexible materials.

HASSELBLAD FLEXTIGHT X5 SCANNER

HASSELBLAD FLEXTIGHT X5 SCANNER

The Hasselblad Flextight X5 scanner features a vertical optical system that allows the CCD to face downwards, creating a glass free optical path between the original and the lens. Maximum resolution is 8000 dpi, and is capable of batch scanning up to 6 images at a time. Optional feeders, such as the Batch Feeder for mixed originals and the Slide Feeder for scanning mounted slides, are available to maximize productivity.

Collaborate
UNLV Collaborations

UNLV Digital Collections staff typically work on a full slate of large, internally prioritized digitization projects. In most cases, we work to digitize collections owned by UNLV Special Collections with the goal of making them more accessible to users by putting them online and contributing content to regional and national digital library collaborations. Our digitization lab is not open to the public, but can be visited by calling and scheduling an appointment.

As a member of the Mountain West Digital Library, UNLV acts as a “hub” where other Southern Nevada cultural heritage institutions can seek partnerships with UNLV to make their content accessible through www.mwdl.org.

UNLV can offer digitization services, metadata services, or content hosting to enable contributing organizations to share their content through our hub, without having to pay for their own institutional membership in the MWDL collaborative. Hub services typically cost less than outside commercial vendors. Please contact us for a price list and for more information about proposing a project.

UNLV (via MWDL) contributes to the Digital Public Library of America.

Designing Collaborative Projects

We are always working on new partnerships and projects. In the past, we have had successful collaborations with regional cultural heritage partners, local government agencies, and UNLV faculty who have worked with the Libraries to design digitization projects. Often, these collaborations take the shape of a joint grant proposal to provide funding for the work. Please contact us if you would like more information or if you’d like to discuss a grant that may have a digital component.

Islandora logo
Mountain West Digital Library logo
DIY Resources

If you would like to get started with your own digitization project, there are several resources available to help you decide on equipment, technical standards, and storage options.

Vendors and Outsourcing

To increase efficiency and to encourage safe handling of materials, UNLV Digital Collections partners with several digitization vendors. We currently have active partnerships with vendors including:

GRANT FUNDED PROJECTS

Nevada National Digital Newspaper Project (2014-2016, 2016-2018, 2018-2020)

In 2014, the University of Nevada–Las Vegas (UNLV) University Libraries were selected to participate in the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP), a partnership between the National Endowment of the Humanities (NEH) and the Library of Congress (LC). The program is a long-term effort to provide permanent access to a national digital resource of historic newspapers published between 1836 and 1922, selected and digitized by NEH-funded institutions from all U.S. states and territories.

Digitized newspapers are made available on the Chronicling America website, hosted by the LC. Each state that is awarded the NEH grant selects, digitizes, and delivers 100,000 pages of historic newspapers to the Library of Congress. Currently, there are about 8.1 million pages of historic newspapers from 39 states and territories.

UNLV is working in conjunction with the Nevada State Library and Archives (NSLA), the University of Nevada–Reno (UNR) Knowledge Center, and a broad support of stakeholders across Nevada.

Funding: National Endowment of the Humanities (NEH) and the Library of Congress (LC)


Partners: Nevada State Library and Archives, University of Nevada, Reno Knowledge Center



Advisory Board
Project website

Early Las Vegas Newspapers Project (2017-2018)

The Early Las Vegas Newspaper Project grant goals were to create a complete, online, searchable version of the Las Vegas Age newspaper as well as the region’s first, but short-lived newspaper, the Las Vegas Times. The proposed project will result in digital access to the Las Vegas Age in its entirety from 1905-1947, and to the Las Vegas Times from 1905-1906.

Funding: Commission for the Las Vegas Centennial

Online Access for the City of Las Vegas Commission Minutes and Ordinances (2017-2018)

The Online Access for the City of Las Vegas Commission Minutes (1911-1960) and Ordinances (1911-1958) grant goals were to create full-text searchable transcripts from the digital files captured from the analog source material (minutes and ordinance books) and to provide online access to these materials for researchers.

Funding: Commission for the Las Vegas Centennial

Raising the Curtain: Large-Scale Digitization Models for Nevada Cultural Heritage (2017-2018)

The Raising the Curtain: Large-Scale Digitization Models for Nevada Cultural Heritage grant goals were to develop approaches and workflows for large-scale digitization projects, share information via a statewide workshop, and to promote collaborative digitization in Nevada.

Funding: Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA)

Building the Pipelines: Large-Scale Digitization Models for Nevada Cultural Heritage (2018-2019)

In the Building the Pipelines: Large-Scale Digitization Models for Nevada Cultural Heritage grant UNLV Libraries has partnered with the Las Vegas Water District to prioritize water-related manuscript collections as a new use case for large-scale digitization practice.

Targeting the Las Vegas Land and Water company records presents the opportunity to address several challenges to efficient workflows including capturing fragile materials, providing access without the benefit of existing standards-based metadata, and presenting collections online that are text-heavy rather than visual.

Grant goals include: ramping up digitization capacity across the state of Nevada and sharing of these models with other cultural heritage institutions in Nevada.

Funding: Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA)
Partners: Las Vegas Water District




Southern Nevada Jewish Heritage Project (2014 - 2017)

The Southern Nevada Jewish Heritage Project preserves the history of Jews in Southern Nevada through collection and digitization of oral histories, family and organization records, and photographic documentation.

Funding: Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) and private funding
Partners: The Jewish Federation of Las Vegas, Vegas PBS.


Project website

Documenting the African American Experience in Las Vegas (2011-2017)

The Community Partners of the African American Collaborative joined together because each believes in the importance of collecting, preserving and making accessible the history of African Americans in Las Vegas. Users who enter this website will discover a single portal that connects stories and historical evidence of the African American experience.

Our goal is to fully preserve the heritage of the Las Vegas black community—its businesses, schools, churches, social and political organizations, publications, and entertainment. We will continue to locate, link, and curate this vibrant African American history—and make it easily accessible to everyone.

Funding: Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA)
Partners: Henderson District Public LibrariesUNLV Weiner Rogers Law LibraryNevada State Museum Las VegasClark County Parks and RecreationLas Vegas Clark County Library DistrictLas Vegas Chapter of the Nevada Bar AssociationVegas PBS




Advisory Board
Project Website

Rebel Yell Digital Collection

This project captures over 30,000 pages of The Rebel Yell from its inaugural issue in 1956 through 2010, at which point it went online and is available on its own website with its own digital archive. The issues from 1955 through 1986 were digitized from microfilm and are in black and white, while issues from 1987 to 2010 were digitized from the original copies and include color.

Funding: With a grant from the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) and financial support from Consolidated Students of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (CSUN) and the UNLV Graduate & Professional Student Association (GPSA)

Partners: Nevada State Library and ArchivesConsolidated Students of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (CSUN) and the UNLV Graduate & Professional Student Association (GPSA)



Project Website

Dreaming the Skyline

This project draws exclusively from the architectural collections of UNLV Libraries Special Collections. These consist primarily of sets of architectural drawings and renderings from the offices of the two major hotel architects working in Las Vegas from 1954 to the 1980s: Martin Stern, Jr., and Homer Rissman. Stern’s drawings were acquired in 1996 when he closed his Los Angeles office. Soon after, Homer Rissman agreed to donate his drawings and records, although the collection was not transferred from his Las Vegas office until after his death in 2001. The photographic images for this project are drawn from the UNLV Special Collections photograph collections.

Funding: Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA)


Partners: UNLV Architecture School Faculty

Project Website

Historic Landscape of Nevada

The Historic Landscape of Nevada: Development, Water and the Natural Environment (HLN) is a collection of original materials in a variety of formats, from many different sources and perspectives. The materials, which were selected entirely from UNLV Libraries Special Collections, document the landscape of Southern Nevada and the history of man's interaction with it. The text of the website offers a contextual framework for the project and its collections. It is designed to provide a narrative structure, to identify and explain a number of issues and themes, and to provoke questions and subjects for further inquiry.

Funding: Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA)


Project Website

Menus: The Art of Dining

Menus provide a wealth of information beyond their purely aesthetic value and are a particularly rich resource for aspects of cultural and social history. They give us information on the most popular cuisine of a time period and region and are evidence of changing culinary tastes. They can indicate how particular food items have been used regionally, and in the case of notable restaurants can provide evidence of the work of well-known chefs. Design-wise they are examples of the graphic design elements illustrative of a particular historical time period. For students of menu design they can serve as examples of graphic design, placement and layout. Last but not least, they have a purely nostalgic value for those persons who have visited a particular restaurant or hotel and want to re-live that experience by reading through the menu.

Funding: Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA)

Project Website

Southern Nevada: The Boomtown Years, 1900-1925

Southern Nevada: The Boomtown Years brings together a wide range of original source materials found in widely diverse collections from UNLV Libraries Special Collections, the Nevada State Museum, and Historical Society in Las Vegas and the Clark County Heritage Museum. In addition to original source materials, the collection provides a wide variety of standards-based activities for elementary and high schoolers.

Funding: Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA)


Partners: Clark County MuseumNevada State Museum Las Vegas

Project Website

The Nevada Test Site Oral History Project (2003-2007)

The Nevada Test Site Oral History Project at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas is a comprehensive program dedicated to documenting, preserving and disseminating the remembered past of persons affiliated with and affected by the Nevada Test Site during the era of Cold War nuclear testing. From September 2003 through January 2008 a wide range of oral history narrators participated in the project including: national laboratory scientists & engineers; labor trades and support personnel; cabinet-level officials, military personnel & corporate executives; Native American tribal & spiritual leaders; peace activists and protesters; Nevada ranchers, families & communities downwind of the test site. Interviews with more than 150 people totaling 335 hours, related transcripts, documents and photographs are housed in UNLV Lied Library's Department of Special Collections. Searchable transcripts, selected audio and video clips, scanned photographs and images are available on this website.Funding: The Nevada Test Site Oral History Project research was conducted from September 2003 through July 2007 in UNLV’s College of Liberal Arts with funding from U.S. Depts. of Energy (award no. DEFG52-03NV99203) and Education (award no. P116Z040093).


Partners: UNLV’s College of Liberal Arts

Project Website