CHILDEChildren's Historical Literature Disseminated throughout Europe :CHILDEChildren's Historical Literature Disseminated throughout Europe http://www.bookchilde.org/ Mary Kate Rosfelder


About CHILDE :About CHILDE European Government funded project developed in 2000 by Buckinghamshire County Council Library Service of the UK, dedicated to the preservation and promotion of early children’s book collections from across Europe. The budget for this project was €107,506. Partner Libraries Involved: - Dublin City Public Libraries, Dublin, Ireland - Institut fur Jugendbuchforshung, Frankfurt, Germany - International Youth Library, Munich, Germany - Koninklijke Bibliotheek, The Hague, The Netherlands - La Baracca: Testoni Ragazzi, Bologna, Italy - National Centre for Research in Children’s Literature, University of Surrey, Roehampton, England - Wandsworth Borough Council Library Service, London, England Over the course of the project three group meetings occurred in different locations around Europe to make key decisions for project development and to keep all parties involved.


Goals and Scope :Goals and Scope Make available 1,000 digitized European children’s book illustrations for public use. - Enabling world wide access - Avoiding the movement of delicate and valuable items Provide an education program that can be used in conjunction with the illustrations in the digital library. Provide a best practices report about the process of putting together the digital library to inform others taking on a similar task or benefit from the information. Possibly expand to full book digitization in the future, providing a composite site for European historical children’s literature.


Illustration Selection Criteria :Illustration Selection Criteria Illustrated European Children’s books published up to 1890 were considered. Illustrations had to be relevant to four educational themes: - History of Children’s Illustration - Children’s Literature; The European social and cultural context - Children’s European Folk tales - Historical Literature in Europe and dramatic arts Libraries were assigned an order of selection. The larger libraries went last and were given tighter selection criteria.


Image Digitization Process :Image Digitization Process Each partner library commissioned an expert photographer to photograph their chosen illustrations. Two sets of 35mm plastic mounted slides were produced and sent to the project coordinator in the UK. All slides delivered to the project’s digitization partner Higher Education Digitization Service(HEDS), at the University of Hertfordshire. The slides were scanned then cropped and straightened. A CD ROM of TIFF master images was produced along with JPEG thumbnails and screen size images.


File Formats/Media Types :File Formats/Media Types TIFF - Archival Purposes JPEG – Thumbnails and Screen Size Images – Used on the actual digital library website HTML – All text on webpage PDF – Best Practices Report This digital library is fully dedicated to illustrations. Images are the only form of media found on the site.


Metadata :Metadata Compiled in a Microsoft Access database and then interrogated via an Active Serve Page (ASP). Metadata categories determined by the project partners Book Data: - Author - Title - Title in English - Year of Publication - Publishing House - Book Type - Number of Pages - Genre - Collection


Metadata Cont. :Metadata Cont. Image Data: - Illustrator - Engraver - Title of Image - Caption - Description - Reproduction Method - Size - Page Location - Category - Comment


Interface Features :Interface Features Site was built using Microsoft FrontPage, making it very simple. The homepage offers the below buttons in a navigation bar at the far left side. - Home Page - Search - About - Education - Best Practice - Contact Us - Links - Copyright


Interface Features - Search :Interface Features - Search The search quires on the site are in HTML and allow users to search the below metadata categories as well as entering free text to return results. - Author - Title - Illustrator - Collection - Subject - Literary Genre - Book Type Education Program Categories is also an option for narrowing your search.


Interface Features – Search Cont. :Interface Features – Search Cont. Search results are returned specifying - the author of the book - the title of the book - description of the illustration The description can then be clicked taking users to a new page featuring the full item record containing all metadata associated with the illustration as well as a thumbnail JPEG. Users then have the option of clicking on the thumbnail to increase the illustration to a screen size image.


Copyright :Copyright European copyright law has a 70 year statute of limitation on visual images. All selected illustrations were published in or before 1890. Copyright page on the website expresses that to the best of the project participants knowledge the items included are no longer under copyright protection. CHILDE dismisses liability for any losses to third parties who utilize the site contents if items are found to be under copyright. Full and proper acknowledgment is offered if an item is found to be under copyright.


Evaluation :Evaluation Design - User interface leaves a lot to be desired Usability – Very high, Free Text Search and breaking illustrations into Education Program Categories is especially helpful Collection – limited, but intelligently targeted Digitization and site rollout were completed in 2001. Why have there not been any updates to expand the digital library contents since that time?


Sources :Sources CHILDE http://www.bookchilde.org/ Gregory, E. and Ryan, M. "Bringing CHILDE into the World", Cultivate Interactive, issue 6, 11 February 2002. URL:


The End :The End