Acknowledgements

Many people contributed to the success of the Traveling Culture: Circuit Chautauqua in the Twentieth Century digitization project. University of Iowa Libraries' Special Collections Librarian, Dick Kolbet, initially defined the project, articulated its value as an electronic scholarly resource, and determined its scale and scope. Paul Soderdahl, Coordinator, Information Systems & Technology, transformed the virtual idea into technological reality. Thanks to Carol Hughes, who served as initial principal investigator and project director, and after her departure, to co-principal investigators, Dick Kolbet and Paul Soderdahl, who brought the project to completion.

The following individuals are offered an expression of gratitude for their contributions. Annadora Khan, from the University of Iowa Libraries, headed the scanning production efforts. Charlotte Canning, Associate Professor of Theatre and Dance at the University of Texas, Austin, wrote the historical essay, "What Was Chautauqua" and supplied the extensive bibliography. Office of University of Iowa Vice President for Research, David Skorton, contributed the equipment for the scanning production. Caroline Arms and her staff at the Library of Congress incorporated Traveling Culture into the American Memory Project. Ed Hill, from the University of Iowa’s Information Technology Services, created the local programming for dynamically displaying the digital documents and providing local search and retrieval.

A project of this enormity and complexity required the dedication of a number of individuals, mostly students, who conscientiously completed a multitude of assignments. Particular appreciation is extended to that production staff:

Special acknowledgement is extended to the following members of the production staff: Rachel Ahrens, who, throughout the entirety of the project, solved the more troublesome problems and brought assignments to closure; Kathy Hodson, for establishing initial processing parameters, supervising and monitoring student production, and maintaining documentation for the process; Melissa Milenkovic, who, in addition to numerous other tasks, suggested the title for the project; Gwen Skarbek, who cataloged the majority of the collection, as well as encoded substantial numbers of materials in house; Katie Taylor, for her diligence in re-scanning and transcribing problematic materials; Nick Buse and Tressa Kleinendorst, who resolved image quality and batch processing issues; Phil Brodd, who created the image down sampling routine; Kristen Desmond, who designed the look-and-feel as well as the collage on the home page; and Lu Cong and Matt Meenan, who contributed especially to image scanning.

Thanks also to the members of the initial advisory committee who were involved in the developmental stages of the project: Carol Hughes, Dick Kolbet, Paul Soderdahl, Annadora Khan, Sid Huttner, Jim Loter, Timothy Shipe, and Ed Shreeves. Finally, appreciation is expressed to the University of Iowa Libraries' administration for its continued support throughout the duration of the project.

02/2001

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