SUNNYVALE PUBLIC LIBRARY | CALIFORNIA

“We selected Digital ReeL because the staff time required was minimal and BMI helped point us in the right direction to resolve the issues that usually come up with a newspaper scanning project.”

– Christine Mendoza | Supervising Librarian

OVERVIEW

Each year, the Sunnyvale Public Library receives more than 750,000 visitors who check out over 2 million items. With such a busy environment staff is always looking for ways to improve productivity.

The historical Sunnyvale newspaper archive, dating back to 1906, was mostly on microfilm (some on old print). It required a significant amount of staff time to help patrons research the archive. In addition, the print paper was starting to deteriorate. Because of this, a desire grew to digitally convert the archive with the purpose of making the records easily searchable and preserving them long into the future.

Christine Mendoza, Supervising Librarian, states “We had very little experience with digitizing newspapers. Initially, we thought doing the scanning ourselves might be an option but it soon became apparent that it would require too much staff involvement. We found BMI’s Digital ReeL to be a cost effective solution; BMI helped us resolve the issues that normally come up with a newspaper scanning project.

CHALLENGES

  • Too much staff time helping patrons locate information in the historical newspaper microfilm archive
  • Inability to find information relevant to a particular search
  • Crumbling and deteriorating paper and microfilm threatened the longevity of the newspaper archive

BMI PRODUCTS & SERVICES

  • Microfilm conversion at BMI facility
  • Digital ReeL online search and retrieval application
  • Hosted application with integration on Sunnyvale Public Library website

BENEFITS

  • Fast search and retrieval cuts staff time required to help patrons retrieve information from historical newspaper archive
  • Online access to newspaper archive enables patrons to search and retrieve anywhere at anytime