![[image of art]](catlin.jpg)
May 22, 1998
Contact: Gina Ruffin Moore (513) 556-1823 (O)
gina.moore@uc.edu
Cincinnati -- When it comes to rare books on North American Indians and 19th century exploration of the American West, the collection at the University of Cincinnati is one of the best.
The University's core collection of works by George Catlin, the artist and explorer who chronicled North American Indian life during the 1830s, is now available to universities, researchers and educators worldwide.
"George Catlin: The Printed Works," a two-volume computer CD-ROM, contains more than 1,800 photos, 1,200 pages of text, a bibliography with links to the World Wide Web and a searchable database. The images are linked to a map of Catlin's travels, and to his written works, which have been exhaustively indexed.
This project began more than three years ago when University Libraries spent $30,000 to restore three rare books. More restoration eventually would be required because many books in the Archives and Rare Books Collection at UC have been heavily used over a long period of time.
"This was not only proving to be very expensive, but even a good restoration leaves the artifact diminished," said David F. Kohl, dean of University Libraries at UC.
"So, we decided to use modern technology to develop a high resolution copy, which would divert most of the use away from the original. Since CD-ROMs are inexpensive to duplicate, it also occurred to us that if we would sell some copies we could recover costs and perhaps generate enough money to preserve other rare items. And thus, the creation of the University of Cincinnati Digital Press," said Kohl.
For the Catlin project, UC combined augmented its collection along with items from the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County and from Yale University.
"Our mission is two-fold. We want to preserve documentation and make it available to others. This project allows us to work from a core of Western Americana," said Alice Cornell, editor of the Catlin project and head of the Archives and Rare Books Library at UC.
The two-volume CD-ROM cost approximately $30,000 to produce and UC hopes to recoup that cost by selling copies of the set for $499 to libraries and universities.
"The CD-ROM set is also linked to websites that hold Catlin materials. We used available software tools and have written our own software tools as well," added Cornell.
According to Cornell, whether librarians are viewed as merely caretakers or active participants who make sure that resources are available on a broad basis, this project provides a benefit for UC as well as libraries throughout the world.
"I've not seen any other presentation of materials quite like this. Ours integrates a wider variety of materials and geographical access," Cornell said. "It is a presentation tool that replaces the handling of the original materials. The kind of access it gives across collections is also unique. This electronic medium allows us to examine both the texts and the images. This was not just a scrapbook process."
George Catlin was among the first to paint and sketch pictures of Indian tribes in the American West. His books are records of his trips and include his printed and painted observations. He exhibited his paintings of the upper Missouri region in 1833 in Cincinnati. In addition to Cornell, Linda Newman served as technical research and development manager for the Catlin project while Juli DeLong worked as the assistant editor/executive assistant.
The Web site for the UCDP is at http://www.ucdp.uc.edu.