QUESTION 1:  Are contributors of content (i.e. federal technical reports) signing an agreement or memorandum of understanding with the TRAIL Project? If so, can we see a copy of it?

RESPONSE:  At this point in time we are working on the gentleman's agreement. What you no longer want in your collection that fits what we need, we will be willing to take. We promise to put up appropriate acknowledgments on our Web site, the project Web site, and, send appropriate thank you letters for your files.  QUESTION 2:  What costs are involved to be a contributor? Shipping? Any estimates based on a certain amount? 

RESPONSE:  If you are contributing small amounts of materials, we ask that you cover the shipping costs. Otherwise, arrangements can be made through our FedEx account for pickups that will be charged back to the Taskforce.

QUESTION 3:  We are a very old regional depository, and some of our documents are regional copies (permanent retention) and some are selective. We can sort of figure out which category our copies fall into back to around the 1970's, but not for our very old sets. Do you have information about depository status for all the sets your plan to digitize? Would you share that information with us?

RESPONSE:  We are asking that all donating libraries be aware of the depository status of their collections and to notify their regional depositories as appropriate for permission. We have several expert documents librarians, including two that head up regional collections that would be more than willing to discuss this status issue and help you with the appropriate decisions. Contact

QUESTION 4:  Are there any requirements about the condition of the material we donate to the project? If things are brittle or torn will they be rejected?

RESPONSE:  So far we are very pleased with the scanning results. Even materials with bad bleed through and brittle paper are scanning well. As a donating library, you would not be responsible for reviewing the materials, other than it being an original document. The "node" (our assembly point for materials to be scanned) librarian will review materials looking for items that need special processing including fold out, unusually worn items, etc. 

Our biggest issue as of now is the binding of the material. We are only able to take individually bound materials or debound sets for immediate processing. We have identified a debinding operation, but are finding that the materials are so individual that an automated debinding process doesn't work. So, when we receive offers of donations, it is the unbound material we are most interested in.

QUESTION 5:  Are there any plans to try to scan documents in microfiche? 

RESPONSE:  In the future we hope to be able to scan non-paper formats, but for now we are not capable of scanning these formats.

QUESTION 6:  Each item that is digitized is being cataloged in OCLC. What do content contributors need to do in terms of cataloging, or anything, before they send materials? We need to know whether we need to do any preliminary cataloging before contributing items (most of our tech reports collections are uncataloged). 

RESPONSE:  Our central processing unit is taking care of all cataloging and metadata issues. There is no need for the contributing library to do any cataloging. However, if the library is creating any type of electronic list for deaccession or shipping (or is able to do so easily), we would be pleased to have a copy of that digital file so that we can use it to help us create our master shipping list.

QUESTION 7:  Does every item that is digitized for TRAIL also appear in Google Books? Do you know if they will be available through the HathiTrust? 

RESPONSE:  It is our understanding that these items will all appear in the various Google and also the University of Michigan and University of North Texas repositories. The University of Michigan is a HathiTrust partner, therefore, the TRAIL collection will be available.  For more information about the HathiTrust see their website http://www.hathitrust.org  

QUESTION 8:  Does the project have a blog?

RESPONSE:  The project blog is at http://trailproject.blogspot.com.

QUESTION 9:  How can my library become a node?

RESPONSE:  If your library is in a situation that allows for space and staff to "co-locate" a collection, you may want to consider asking about NODE status. The extra work done is not insignificant, but we do offer a small reimbursement for the student staff time needed to sort and prepare the collection for shipping. We have yet to ask anyone outside our taskforce for this process, but will be doing so soon. Certainly, if you have a large series that is complete or almost complete, that can be scanned (and not returned) then the NODE process might be appropriate for you.