Traveling Culture: digitising special collections materials at the University of Iowa Libraries

In 1998 The University of Iowa Libraries was the recipient of a grant from the Library of Congress/Ameritech National Digital Library Competition in support of a project to digitise a portion of its unique and extensive Redpath Chautauqua Collection. Although the staff of the Information Arcade at The University of Iowa Libraries has extensive experience in instructional technology, this was the first opportunity for them to engage in the digitisation of a large text collection of rare materials. This article will describe the processes undertaken in the project as well as the challenges when the theory of how to approach a digitisation project of significant scope clashed with the realities faced by the project team.