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Collection Description: The Center for the History of Psychology (CHP) at The University of Akron is home to a special collection of grey literature that documents the history of psychology and related human sciences. The collection is comprised of 4000 paper-and-pencil tests; 15,000 organizational newsletters, white papers, conference programs and proceedings, and membership directories; and 8,000 US military technical reports. These data, covering a broad variety of contemporary and historical topics, are an untapped but immensely useful resource for historical research, as well as contemporary meta-analytic studies and general literature reviews. Problem/Goal: The central goal of CHP was to find a way to make these unknown materials available to scholars from a variety of fields. Digitization and mass distribution was the clearest solution. However, CHP lacked financial resources necessary for such a large project. CHP therefore partnered with the American Psychological Association (APA) to uncover, process, digitize, and provide access to its largely unknown grey literature documents. Method/Procedure: A CHP librarian was hired to manage the project. Digitization was conducted onsite using rented equipment. Scanned images were uploaded to the APA server for processing and assignment of metadata in order to provide access to the digital documents via PsycEXTRA, a searchable, digital repository widely used in the psychology community. CHP processes included archival arrangement, organization, and processing. Costs: APA contracted with vendor Kirtas for onsite digitization. Costs were split between the grey literature project and a concurrent book scanning project. Two scanners were rented and two full-time technicians were hired to scan and then process files at a remote location. PDF files were then accessioned into PsycEXTRA and all files were investigated for copyright restrictions. First to be released in PsycEXTRA were files in the public domain and files for which agreements had been reached with copyright owners. APA indexed and released documents in PsycEXTRA and to CHP for onsite use. Documents remain held in dark archives until permission is acquired from copyright owners for release. Results/Case Study: The CHP/APA scanning project represents an attempt to build a partnership between subject-specific special collections and the disciplines with which they are most closely aligned. This partnership has proven to be a very successful one, resulting in the digitization and distribution of 20,000 documents from the CHP Grey Literature collection. The documents will be available onsite at the CHP, through the PsycEXTRA database, and on the CHP website. Includes: Conference preprint, Abstract and Biographical notes XA International |
