Phylis's Scrapbook currently is contained in 16 paper scrapbooks. As of this time (late 1997), only five have been been digitized, the volumes covering the 1939 to 1971. Work is now ongoing on the volume containing clippings from the early 1970's. The conversion process is slow and is done only in bits as time allows.
In one sense, the scrapbook will always be under construction. New history about Washburn is being recorded every day. Remember, today's news will be history tomorrow.
The scrapbooks are first photocopied and then the individual clippings are scanned with a small hand scanner. Photos are scanned at 100 dpi and must be done separately from the text which is initially scanned at 300 dpi. The photos are saved in GIF format and are set aside. After the text is scanned, it is immediately converted to ASCII text using Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. In essence the computer "reads" the clipping and converts it to computer language. This process reduces the size of the files dramatically. The ASCII files must then be proofread; the OCR software isn't 100% accurate. The ASCII files are converted again to Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) for transmission over the internet while maintaining the proper format. The HTML text documents are edited to insert the references to photographs if any exist. Finally, the name of the HTML file is inserted in the web page so you can click on it and read the clipping directly on your screen. In other words, it takes a lot of meticulous work to make the files easy for you to access.