The items that comprise these collections were donated or collected
by veterans, their families, friends, historians, folklorists, all
volunteers. The types of materials are many and conditions in which
they were created vary. Much of the printed and photographic materials
are the originals and the library has taken steps to display them in
their truest state, with little or no digital processing. Some items
received by the project are photo-duplications or photocopies of originals;
others may be copies from copies. These images can vary greatly in
their degree of quality. Some digitized images have received post-processing
to be made more legible in the digital domain. The equipment in which
audio and video recordings have been created ranges from broadcast
quality to consumer grade, therefore the sound and image quality will
vary from file to file. Minimal pre-or post-processing has been performed
on these recordings. The Veterans History Project is displaying the
highest quality images that have been made available by the donors.
Sound recordings
The sound recordings in this presentation were transferred from the
original analog audiocassettes to digital audiotape (DAT) to produce
a master source for digitization. Wave (wav.) files were created from
the DAT tapes at a sampling rate of 44,100 Hz per second, 16-bit word
length, and a single (mono) channel. The RealAudio and the MPEG 2,
Layer 3 (.mp3) files were derived from the Wave files using the .mp3
and RealAudio plug-in of Sonic Foundry's SoundForge software. Some
surface noise may be apparent on the recordings, and files may start
or end abruptly, as on the original recordings. Minimal adjustments
to volume and equalization were made to certain files.
Moving Images
The moving images in this collection were transferred from their original
videotape formats to Digital Betacam to produce a master source for
digitization. MPEG-2 files were created by the contractor Vidipax in
New York, with the Optibase MPEG MovieMaker 200S hardware card, and
controlled by Optibase's MPEG Fusion user interface with the total
data rate at 3Mbps. The RealMedia-G2 files were derived from the MPEG-2
files through Helix Producer Plus and created for users who have at
least a 56K modem. The data rate is 450 kbps and the video size is
352x240. Some background noise may be apparent on the recordings and
files may start or end abruptly, video and audio levels may change
as on the original recordings. As often is the case with streaming
media, image quality will be affected by modem speed, network traffic,
processor speed, and other variables.
Photographic Material and Manuscripts
Photographic material and manuscripts were scanned on site at the
Library of Congress Information Technology Services (ITS) scan lab
using overhead digital cameras with Phase I software, and post-processed
using Adobe Photoshop software. Images were scanned in either grayscale
or color mode, depending upon the original, at 300 ppi and saved in
the uncompressed TIFF file format. An uncompressed master image file
was produced for each photograph. For display on the Web, we generate
derivative JPEG images of varying sizes for display on the story,
page turners, and photo album pages.
Text Transcriptions
Documents are transcribed with minimal changes to the original text
in an effort to preserve original appearance, content, and idiosyncrasies
of composition. Period language and terminology are also retained.
Transcription is literal with regard to the writer's capitalization,
punctuation, spelling, and visible corrections (i.e. crossed out words).
Spelling errors are indicated with [sic]; however, recurring errors
in spelling or grammar within a single document have been marked the
first time and and not subsequently. Crossed out words are presented
{in braces}. Any special emphasis (i.e. underlining) is presented *between
asterisks*. When the writer spells out the word "and" it
appears spelled out; when a symbol is used for "and" the
editor used the ampersand (&).
Alterations to the original text are consistent throughout and all
editorial comments appear in [square brackets]: a single space is placed
between sentences, nontextual symbols (circled page numbers, scribbles,
etc.) have been changed to plain typographical characters when possible
or omitted with a note, obvious slips of the pen have been silently
corrected, and malformed letters are presented as the intended letter,
based on spelling and context. All superscripts and underscored superscripts
have been lowered to the regular line of text and are not underscored.
Single word interlineations are indicated with a single caret (^) before
the word; multiple word interlineations are presented ^surrounded by
carets^.