BobBurbank

Great discussion! Also, for a few months, several SAH members have been "meeting" on Zoom to keep auto history preservation active, primarily about coordinating digitization efforts. Not a good idea to spend much effort and digitize Road & Track more than once! We also have put together a guide to resources. It's crude in its Google Sheets format, so we hope to get some expert advice eventually to transition to a database, accessible to anyone. Also to have a "comments & corrections" function, for anyone to improve this resource. This is it in "read only" format: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1YqjEHHmVcUttsmNtPI_tUobXQMZhh1vbnljmVLtVuiw/edit?usp=sharing and the general topic is at: http://carlibrary.org/CarLibrary-AutoHistory.htm Your comments are welcome! There's a Zoom call today and we plan to meet every two weeks on Zoom.

Hi all - No new posts in a long time! Since last May, several SAH members have been "meeting" on Zoom to keep auto history preservation active, primarily about coordinating digitization efforts. Not a good idea to spend much effort and digitize Road & Track more than once! We also have put together a guide to resources. It's crude in its Google Sheets format, so we hope to get some expert advice eventually to transition to a database, accessible to anyone. Also to have a "comments & corrections" function, for anyone to improve this resource. This is it in "read only" format: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1YqjEHHmVcUttsmNtPI_tUobXQMZhh1vbnljmVLtVuiw/edit?usp=sharing and the general topic is at: http://carlibrary.org/CarLibrary-AutoHistory.htm Your comments are welcome!

Hi all - Nothing new for two weeks, but there has been 10 SAH and AACA members exchanging emails on this topic and there are tangible results. See: http://carlibrary.org/CarLibrary-AutoHistory.htm This is - and will be - a webpage that has links to a prototype "Auto History Resource Guide". The Guide now has summaries and reviews of nearly 30 history resources . The current Google Sheet format is not very "user-friendly", but our goal is to copy the data to a solid database. There also is demonstration of improving the identification of historic photos, using 1952 factory photos of Frazer Nash cars: http://carlibrary.org/CarLibrary-MetadataDemo.htm Yes, it's all about "embedded metadata". Worth reading! On the previous post by padgett, copyright does not prohibit "fair use" of such material. I suggest that the pdfs be donated to an archive, such as the AACA. Cheers! Bob S.

Greetings! - This repeats a topic/project which is on the main AACA forum, but perhaps there will be more interested viewers here. Since mid-June, there has been 10 SAH and AACA members exchanging emails on this topic and there are tangible results. See: http://carlibrary.org/CarLibrary-AutoHistory.htm This webpage has links to a prototype "Auto History Resource Guide". The Guide now has summaries and reviews of nearly 30 history resources . The current Google Sheet format is not very "user-friendly", but our goal is to copy the data to a solid database. There also is demonstration of improving the identification of historic photos, using 1952 factory photos of Frazer Nash cars: http://carlibrary.org/CarLibrary-MetadataDemo.htm Yes, it's all about "embedded metadata". Worth reading! Bob S.

One of the stated goals when we originally posted was Goal #4: 4. Encourage digitization of all automotive resources at all levels - individuals to institutions. There have been separate email messages exchanged between the original group of 3 SAH members, 4 other SAH members and two other auto historians - one in England. Although there seems to be agreement on the value of digitization, what is next, especially for individuals? I started the CarLibrary.org website 8 years ago to list steps to create an archive of digital objects - photos, documents, lists. Some of the procedures on that website explain Collections Management Systems - which the AACA is now building. REVS is a great example. Everyone understands it's better to have a system to "find things" but there's less understanding on the need to develop "metadata" for each object. These are the descriptors for each digital object. There's a survey from a few years ago that states 71% of graphic professionals use an Excel spreadsheet to classify their photos. A "best practices" method is to embed metadata in each digital object. This can be done on a limited scale with programs such as Photoshop. Or with Adobe for PDF files. I've been using the open-source ExifTool and the ExifTooGUI add-on. To show how this software can fully document digital photos, I used a webpage of 50 photos from 1952 at the Frazer Nash factory,. This is how it was done: http://carlibrary.org/CarLibrary-MetadataDemo.htm This demo has caused our small SAH group to raise new issues - what data goes into which category and are there standards for the metadata? Coming next!

All these comments are very encouraging to Jim & I, the SAH members who brainstormed this topic. Before we found this forum, another SAH member, Helen Hutchings, suggested we check HathiTrust at https://www.hathitrust.org/ . It was a revelation when I found much on Packard, although I only have a passing interest in that marque. But it is a good example of documents already digitized, but that will only be useful if future digitizers are diligent to check existing source before starting a particular project. Another example, I have seen a large collection of Automobile Topics, a journal/magazine dating to the early 20th century. Curious about what this was, a google search sent me to the Internet Archive where I found many volumes, already digitized. This may be the earliest: https://archive.org/details/automobiletopics4/page/n17/mode/2up This may be old news to fellow auto historians, but news to me. BTW, many Grateful Dead concerts also on the Internet Archive! Along the way in searching, I came across this ambitious website: http://earlyamericanautomobiles.com/ Again, probably old news to the old hands! Anyone curious to better identify your digital images & documents? This is my experience: http://carlibrary.org/CarLibrary-Metadata.htm Don't be afraid of the command line!

I concur that much appreciation is due to those who have gotten the AACA library this far and have a good vision for the future. Agree that digitization per se is not the entire solution to improved research. How much time is wasted search on google with a word or phrase? This is a problem that traditional libraries have faced and (partly) solved for generations. What good are book on shelves if there is no "catalog" or "index"? Many of us are old enough to remember card catalogs - now library searches are done on a computer, in the library or offsite. As an aside, I've heard of a major auto museum library that files their books by author names - nothing else! I am NOT a librarian, but have become familiar with standard classification tools - see https://www.loc.gov/marc/ The general term used for attributes describing an item (car, book etc) is metadata. Digital items also should have "embedded metadata" - assigning this is also a skill for a librarian. When I first had digital photos and scanned documents, I looked for methods to organize these files. Nearly all my trial & error experiences are in the CarLibrary.org Table of Contents (http://carlibrary.org/tableofcontents.htm). First steps are very rudimentary! More interesting are the links to Greenstone Digital Library software and Collections Management Systems (CMS). I don't know how any museum, library or collection is used embedded metadata in their digitization project, but I think automotive history may need to add terms to the standard "Nomenclature". A great resource for organizing a personal library is "LibraryThing" (https://www.librarything.com/). So - anyone with photos, documents, books who wants to be better organized - the tools are there! Bob S.

At the end of a normal workweek (not applicable to me, I'm retired) it is very encouraging to see thoughtful and informative posts on this topic. An early posting put 11 separate, mostly related issue up for discussion. Much to absorb! I'm interested in getting thoughts on #6 - avoiding duplication of digitization projects. I suspect there is no coordination between libraries, museums or collections to avoid digitizing Motor Trend, Hot Rod, Road & Track etc. more than once - assuming to accepted standards. Personally, I prefer to have access to the actual magazines, but I would love to "page through" the first issues if/when they are available. Background - my involvement in this aspect of auto history dates to 2006. A local auto auto enthusiast, now deceased, scanned many volumes of Competition Press, Motor Sports World, West Coast Sports Car Journal and MotoRacing, put them on two CDs and gave them away. The PDFs are "image only", not recognized text, but still a great asset! Bob Norton should be remembered for his work!

Steve & Bob - We are somewhat aware of the work of the AACA, REVS and others, but on the presumption it's better to duplicate topics and efforts rather than miss a few tasks, these are our thoughts to date: 1. Establish safe, online resources where information of all types is indexed and accessible for searching and access. 2. Review, endorse or draft archival standards to preserve paper-based materials and auto history artifacts on other media. 3. Identify or create an index of U.S. and worldwide digital archives, to include museums, public and private collections and libraries. 4. Encourage digitization of all automotive resources at all levels - individuals to institutions. Review, endorse or draft standards for digital item categorization to include Nomenclature 4.0 (https://www.nomenclature.info/ this is a standard/controlled vocabulary). There are many examples of individual collections which could be digitized. 5. Recognize personal histories, oral and video interviews as automotive history sources. 6. Encourage coordination of digitization efforts at all levels to avoid duplication. 7. Recognize sources of non-automotive archival expertise such as the Library of Congress, The Smithsonian Institution, the Getty Research and Conservation Institutes, HathiTrust and the British Museum. 8. Provide a method of timely communication between automotive historians. This could a forum, with postings organized by topic, membership should be private/controlled. 9. Identify existing digital automotive archives, such as the AACA (http://www.aacalibrary.org/online-catalog/ and the REVS Institute. 10. Encourage donations of automotive history materials to institutions which will manage and preserve books, photos, documents to archival standards. (see ClassicCars.com: https://journal.classiccars.com/2020/05/06/what-will-you-do-with-your-collection-when-your-time-has-come/ 11. Encourage SAH membership https://autohistory.org/ (Note: All SAH publications are available in digital format, online to members. SAH also has a very comprehensive "Links" webpage: https://autohistory.org/links-to-online-automotive-history-resources This project was inspired by the March 2019 issue of Hemmings Classic Car featured a profile of the Society of Automotive Historians (SAH) on its fiftieth anniversary. This article appeared in March 2020 on the digital version of Hemmings Classic Car: (https://www.hemmings.com/stories/article/the-society-of-automotive-historians Author and automotive historian Jim Volgarino commented on this article and other comments led to this posting. More later, if there is interest! Bob (in Burbank)

Several members of the Society of Automotive Historians stated a project to ensure all aspects of automotive history are being preserved, cataloged, archived, and made generally accessible to historians and anyone with an interest in vehicles!