FAQs

Question: What is the deadline for test site availability?
Answer: 15 April 2004. Several members of the review committee will be meeting that day to complete a first review. If you cannot make that date, the final deadline is 30 April. The whole review committee will meet then though reviews at this time will have less time to pay attention to all features of test sites compared to those completed by 15 April.

Question: What is the number of simultaneous users of the final product (not the test database):
Answer: 10 or less

Question: Should the test reel of film be processed as titles or segments?
Answer: Process the film by title, not by segment. We don't want the 6 segments differentiated; they just exhibit different problems or conditions. There are actually 3 titles on the test roll: Californian; Alta California; Daily Alta California, and of course it's important to index the individual titles. The titles are all related (in the same family tree).

Question: What about the split pages?
Answer: We were hoping that the split pages (half-sheets) could be digitally reassembled as whole pages and displayed as whole pages. We want to show the pages as they originally appeared, not as they were microfilmed.

Question: Do thesauri or uniform lists of California place names exist? What about custom name dictionaries for California?
Answer: Yes, several Do. For example:

• http://www.dot.ca.gov/hq/tsip/PlaceName.htm - a new 3 volume surname dictionary out from Oxford Univ. Press. The title is Dictionary of American Family Names and it costs around $300. The scope is not limited to California, however.
• Sites for CA place names: www.calif.com or www.cacities.org

Question: What indices are desirable?
Answer: Births, deaths, marriages, advertisements, weather.

Question: Should we use a specific graphic or logo on the demonstration site?
Answer: We have identified a 19th century ad for the Alta California.The file is available as a 24Mb Tiff image or as a smaller JPEG image. Barclay Ogden (bogden@library.berkeley.edu) can forward it to you in the event you want to use it, or parts of it, on your test site.

Question: What are the original newspaper sizes?
Answer: 60 cm. plus or minus 4 cm.On the sample reel, sections 3-5 were filmed at 21X reduction. Section six was filmed at 13.5X.

Question: What pricing information do you need?
Answer: The evaluation team needs an estimate from you for a project of one million images based on the test film. If your pricing structure has a base rate with additional charges for difficulties, please include both. Our goal is to get a ballpark estimate of costs for the type of product you demo at the test site. Any recommendations or caveats would be appreciated as well.

Question: Is the test roll typical of sizes, layout, problems, and title changes in the million images for the production project?
Answer: The test roll shows the range of problems, but most rolls have many fewer problems per roll. The production project titles have not been selected yet, but my guess is that any California title that stretches over the latter half of the 19th century will have various sizes and layouts, and even changes in title over 50 years.

Question: How accurate does the OCR have to be?
Answer: It is recommended that you showcase at the test site what you think is the best cost/benefit tradeoff. Different service providers are taking different approaches, some are rekeying part of text for example, from which the evaluation team will learn about options and decide what is best for this project. On the basis of the review of all the test sites, the Project team intends to create an RFP with specs; everyone will be invited to respond. So, you are advised to demonstrate the product you recommend, and if the evaluators decide differently, your test site recommendations will NOT disqualify you from submitting a response to the RFP.

Question: Will the the deadline for completing the test site be extended?
Answer: Sorry, the Project still is on its original schedule. Several members of the evaluation team are meeting April 15th to do the first review, so I strongly encourage you to have your test site up by then. However, if you miss the deadline but have your test site up by April 30th, the whole evaluation team will have a to review it, but with less attention to its features than to those that are up by April 15th.

Question: Who will be in the bid process?
Answer: Some of you did not respond to the March 9th request for confirmation of receipt of the test film and intention to put up a test site by April 15th, so we do not yet know who in fact will be demonstrating their recommendations for the California Historical Newspapers Online database. After the Project evaluation team completes its work, the recommended specs will find their way into an RFP. Barclay believes the process will be an open solicitation, so anyone who can demonstrate the required specifications will be eligible to respond with a proposal.

Question: Will a logo for the test database be available?
Answer: Yes. A 24 MB TIFF file was attached to messages sent on 31 March. A JPEG file of the same image, less than a megabyte in size, was distributed 1 April. You're welcome to use the Alta California masthead at your site if it fits with your recommended presentation.