| This dissertation addresses limitations in the current digitization-access framework used to create, enhance, and disseminate digital archives of library collections; with special emphasis on non-print materials, such as those items housed in libraries' Special Collections.; The current digital collections digitization-access framework uses high-resolution two-dimensional images as its basis. Digital images of library collections are disseminated to scholarly user communities where they can be displayed and analyzed, presumably on desktop monitors. The digital images can be perceptually enhanced and restored producing representations often more legible than the physical materials themselves. Although this imaged-based paradigm has become the de facto standard, it is limited in its overall effectiveness.; We provide three technical contributions that improve the way digital collections are acquired, restored, and displayed: (1) an effective three-dimensional imaging approach, designed to leverage existing digitization hardware; (2) a new restoration technique that removes distortion in digital images of warped and crinkled manuscripts; and (3) a flexible and affordable design for building high-resolution, large format displays for visualizing the high-resolution media often present in digital collections.; The research presented contributes to digital collections efforts in two key ways: (1) it provides new techniques and algorithms for more effective acquisition, restoration, and display than the current paradigm, and (2) our solutions are designed to work within the constraints of a library environment, considering budget, physical space, and personnel expertise. |
