Felix to create first digital archive of its kind in the UK
Work is finally underway for a brand new digital archive of felix that will see every issue since 1949 being available to the entire world. The creation of the archive will come as a welcome relief to a lot of people at Imperial College (IC), none more so than the clubs and societies at Imperial College Union (ICU).
After many months of extensive research and numerous meetings, a company has finally been found that will digitise the past issues of felix and make the files fully searchable. The decision was taken last August when it was discovered that some of the bound editions were starting to deteriorate. The obvious solution to preserve these valuable archives was to digitise the editions in our possession and then hand over the bound editions to the Imperial College Archive Department.
The project was discussed with several companies, before the University of London Computer Centre (ULCC) was finally chosen to undertake the project. It quickly became apparent that if a high quality product was to be produced, significant financial contributions would be required to fund this mammoth project.
The expected cost of the project will be around £55,000 which includes £25,000 for the digitisation of the archives and £30,000 for the final website. Several sources of funding have been sought, in particular the Imperial College Trust as well as the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) (who are funded by the UK higher education and further education funding bodies to provide world-class leadership in the innovative use of ICT to support education and research). The final product will be a PDF for each issue, with a web-based interface that will allow users to search for individual words, issues and dates.
After speaking with representatives from ULCC and JISC, felix ascertained that this project would be the first of its kind, as no other university student newspaper in the UK has done this. There are, however, a few in the US that have undertaken similar projects and the feedback from them has been a positive one, something that will undoubtedly please both ICU and IC.
The first batch of issues has already been sent to ULCC for digitising and the project is expected to be finished by November 2009. Once finished, the new website will enable users to search for anything they like, which could range from looking up stories covering past Beit redevelopments to angry letters written by Rectors to editors of felix. This will be very useful to clubs and societies who wish to discover more about their history, as well as to alumni who will be able to relive their time as students at the College.
