Digitalizing Posters

 Log 16

Digitalizing Posters

Student: Austen Esch

Supervisor: Shelley Barba

 

April 16, 2025, 1:00 – 5:00 p.m.

I take a photo as I walk to see Nathan, who is in charge of digitalization at Texas Tech. I find the digitalization process fascinating, and it was an enjoyable experience for me.

During my final week, I had the chance to meet again with Nathan, who is in charge of digitization at the library. Shelley wanted to make sure I experienced the digitization process firsthand and even gave it a try myself. She took me over to Nathan’s area, where I watched him digitize a few posters that had been made by students many years ago. After walking me through the process a couple of times, it was my turn to try. I began by placing the poster on the digitization table and switching on the built-in vacuum that holds the paper in place using small holes across the tabletop. Then I used magnets on each corner of the poster to secure the edges that weren’t getting held down as firmly. Once it was flat and secure, I hit the space bar to start the scanner.

The scanner moved slowly across the table, and when it was finished, the scanned image popped up on the computer screen. I had to crop the image to make sure only the poster was visible, trimming out any of the background or table edges. For longer posters, I had to take two scans—one of the top and one of the bottom. Nathan explained that these would later be stitched together using Photoshop, so I had to be careful that both parts lined up correctly. It was a really satisfying process and gave me a deeper appreciation for all the behind-the-scenes work that goes into preserving materials. Digitization might look simple from the outside, but it requires precision and care, especially when working with historical documents. I was grateful to Shelley and Nathan for giving me the chance to try it out before my internship wrapped up.

 

April 18, 2025, 1:00 – 5:00 p.m.

This is a photo of me at my workstation for the last time this semester. I have really enjoyed my experience, and Shelley was the perfect supervisor.

I was supposed to meet with Nathan again to observe and try out the Photoshop side of the digitization process. In addition to stitching together the longer posters, he also lightly touches up all the scanned posters using Photoshop to ensure they look clean and presentable. Although the original scans are captured in extremely high detail, they are later compressed for the catalog to save memory and because that level of detail isn’t necessary for access purposes. Unfortunately, Nathan had to cancel our meeting because he had a dentist appointment—he’d hit his tooth after falling in the shower. Since I couldn’t work with him, Shelley and I instead spent time talking about my overall internship experience. She gave me a short exit interview she had created herself to reflect on everything I’d done. I told her how much I appreciated the opportunity and that it had given me meaningful, hands-on experience I wouldn’t have gotten anywhere else.

During our talk, Shelley told me that she had been very impressed with my performance throughout the internship. She said that she genuinely sees me going far in the field of librarianship, which meant a lot to hear. She even offered me the chance to publish something together about this internship experience, if I was interested. I immediately told her I was very interested and excited about the opportunity. She said it would likely happen next semester, and we could start planning then. I sent her the final version of my second batch of subject headings before we said goodbye. With that, my internship at the Texas Tech Library officially came to an end.