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Project Gado is an initiative to build an open source robotic scanner that small archives can use to digitize their photographic collections for less than $500. Project Gado is currently partnered with the archives at the Afro American Newspapers in Baltimore. Project Gado is sponsored by the Abell Foundation, the Johns Hopkins University Sheridan Libraries, and the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance (NCIIA).

The backbone of the project is the Gado 2, an Arduino-based robot which is able to lift flat materials using suction, place them on a scanner and scan them into a database or computer file system, all autonomously.


Phase 2 of the project, which began in June 2011, is creating a more user-friendly version of the machine, the Gado 2. The Gado 2 is sold as a kit, which other archives can assemble and use. It remains open source, and continues to cost $500 or less to build.
The project is managed by Tom Smith through the JHU Center for Social Concern, in partnership with the Baltimore Afro American newspaper, the JHU Center for Africana Studies, and the JHU Sheridan Libraries. Phase 2 of Project Gado is made possible through a generous grant from the Abell Foundation.
Contact: info@projectgado.org for more information.  
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Uncovering Historical Golden Nuggets at the Afro American Newspaper’s Archive

By Julia Flood, Johns Hopkins University Sheridan Libraries Intern One of the main goals of Project Gado at this point is to digitize the archives of the Afro-American Newspaper, kept in their office building in Baltimore. The archives are stored in rooms full of shelves. They are organized into cardboard boxes that are practically overflowing …

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Explore East Baltimore with Project Gado’s East Baltimore Walking Tour

Baltimore is a beautiful city, especially in the summer.  On days when the weather is nice out, I’m always tempted to leave my desk (surely my computer will be waiting for me) and take a walk around.  I happen to live near Hampden, but I also enjoy walking around the Inner Harbor. One area I’ve …

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Project Gado Welcomes Intern Julia Flood

By Julia Flood, Project Gado Intern My name is Julia and I am the new intern at Project Gado. While I am a new member of Team Gado, I am not new to the world of newspapers. My grandfather, who got his start as a writer for the Baltimore Sun, founded a newspaper in our …

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Making Noise

Blog post by Alex Neville, Digitization & Operations Specialist Bear with me for a moment. A synthesizer is a musical instrument. Some of them have keyboards and speakers, so you can play and hear them directly, but many don’t. You have to plug in a keyboard to play them and an amp or some speakers …

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