TCDL 2026

Work in Progress: Alpine Restaurant Mapping Project
By: Betsy Evans Helesic

“What is there to eat around here?” is a common question heard in small-town Alpine, Texas, gateway community to the Big Bend of far west Texas and home of Sul Ross State University and the Archives of the Big Bend. This presentation introduces the Alpine Restaurant Mapping Project. The overarching objective for this project is to introduce a digital exhibit of Alpine’s past and present restaurants populated by archival research and crowdsourced data. Other than answering that perpetual question, this project holds interdisciplinary significance while providing an opportunity to further the ‘town and gown’ connection between Sul Ross State University and City of Alpine.

By bringing together historical data from Alpine’s restaurants into a user-friendly digital space, we tell the history and present – of our frontier region’s dynamism, our rural economy, and the people who come here from all over the world to make a home – and use that data when considering further questions, such as “What does it mean to run a successful and sustainable restaurant business in a remote and rural area?”, “What can future restauranteurs learn from the past?”, And even “How does the university community support the local restaurant community?”

The presentation covers work in progress including a literature review, the development of the first iteration map(s) using available historical data and open access tools, processes for crowdsourcing further data, and next steps. The project is in year one of three of web-hosting at alpinerestaurantmappingproject.org. This project is led by a beginner; Prerequisite knowledge not required.

Digitization Methods, Techniques, and Exploration for a Large and Historical Bible
By: Christina Kellum & Noah Garcia

The UNT Libraries Digital Projects Lab had the biggest task of digitizing a Low German Lutheran Bible from 1614 from the Patrick Heath Public Library in Boerne, Texas. This historic Bible provided the team the opportunity to push their equipment limitations, reimagine an older digitization technique, and collaborate with other departments and experts. The presentation will give an overview of the project's scope, breakdown the preliminary work done before the item arrived, share the ups and downs of working with historical materials, the full scanning and organization process, reevaluate what could have been done differently, and then finally the results of this project, including the timeline.

Captured Lakes and Landscapes: A Collaborative Effort to Digitize Two Film Collections
By: Bree'ya Brown, Marcia McIntosh & Christina Kellum

In July 2025, University of North Texas Special Collections was awarded a TexTreasures Grant to support the preservation, digitization, and access of two hidden, older acquisitions. Gathered from inside document cases, these materials included minimally processed coiled film strips coupled with negatives and Super 8 film stored inside shoe and cigar boxes from the Victor Oppenheim Papers. Additionally, the grant subsidized 4x5 film negatives housed in acid-free, clamshell boxes from the Bill Woodside Lake Whitney Views Collection. These film elements present unique still and moving images that captured Texas’s natural and architected landscapes, rivers, wildlife, and communities in the 20th century. The Digital Projects Unit lab took part in the digitization process, including the management systems and the digitization workflows done for both collections. They will explain inventory decisions, introduce the student team, and showcase the scanning equipment used in the lab. Additionally, a discussion of workflows and steps to transition materials back to Special Collection for metadata creation and publishing on The Portal to Texas History digital library. By intentional collaboration between two UNT Libraries divisions, staff from Special Collections and the Digital Projects Unit worked together to promote the preservation and accessibility of Texas cultural heritage materials. The TexTreasures Grant is provided by the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and the Texas State Library and Archives Commission (TSLAC).

Beginner Level