DDD Success Story: Harvard Crimson

The Harvard Crimson is one of the nation’s oldest university newspapers, continuously published since 1879. Digital Divide Data (DDD) has provided digitization services for the Crimson since 2001, when the paper’s original project fell behind schedule and faced performance problems.

As a student-run organization with a limited budget, the Crimson can’t afford cost-overruns. As a high-visibility organization inside and outside the education community, it faces close scrutiny of its products and practices. Ready to put the project back on track, the Crimson turned to Digital Divide Data.

DDD Partnership

“Our engagement with DDD has been a complete success,” says Imtiyaz Delawala, former managing director of the paper. “Harvard has a long history of activism, and it was important to us that DDD also has a social mission. It’s been a great partnership.”

The Crimson sent DDD 25 years worth of back issues that had been scanned onto CD-ROMs by the University. At the DDD facilities, the scanned documents were double keyed using DDD’s proprietary software. The double keyed images were cropped and straightened to ensure flawless quality.

“Our methodology, including double-key quality assurance, turned out a higher quality product than what the Crimson had previously received, on budget, and at a lower cost than they expected,” says DDD President Tim Keller. The original project left the Crimson with duplicate documents and articles split into two files – making it difficult to locate information in the internet. “We haven’t seen either of those problems with DDD,” according to Dalalat.

Creating a Legacy

For the Crimson, the work being done by DDD is more than just digitizing a stack of paper. “It’s sharing our hundred-plus year legacy with new generations of readers.” To see how the final product turned out please click here.

For more information, contact Jaeson Rosenfeld