CSS Alabama digital collection: A special collections digitization project

Abstract

In today's high-tech information environment, archivists and special collections librarians can use technology to enable the informational contents of rare and unique materials to transcend their physical boundaries. To explore this possibility, a team in the William Stanley Hoole Special Collections Library at the University of Alabama sought to create access via the Internet to a small set of the Hoole Library's materials relevant to the famous Confederate raider, the CSS Alabama. The creation of the CSS Alabama Digital Collection served as a learning experience for the staff in the digital imaging of a wide variety of special collections materials and resulted in an electronic learning resource for students of all ages. To date, the website has logged over three thousand hits and has evoked highly positive responses from users, proving that the World Wide Web is an effective access medium for special collections materials.