Digitization from preparation to preservation LIB@WEB October 2014 trudi.noordermeer@uantwerpen.be

Programme Projectmanagement Preparing collections for digitization Digitization, storage and publication Digital humanities and digital longevity Examples of digitization projects

Thank you! Cecile van der Harten Sylvia Van Peteghem Marcia Lei Zeng Rijksmuseum Amsterdam Sylvia Van Peteghem Universiteit Gent Marcia Lei Zeng Stadsarchief Amsterdam

Digitization: a definition The proces to convert an analogue source text image audio video to a digital file It also concerns the processing and bibliographic description because of retrieval and presentation in a digital environment (e.g. a website on the Internet or an mobile application)

Digitisation Mulrenin and Geser, 2001 The conversion of several types of documents (with relevant cultural content) to bits and bytes opens a completely new dimension to reach the usual, but certainly als a new audience This happens by providing access to sources of cultural heritage in a way that was not possible ten years ago Mulrenin and Geser, 2001 Hughes, 2004

LIB@WEB Focus on documentary materials e.g. We do not include here Manuscripts Books Photographs Maps etcetera We do not include here Audiovisual materials Television, radio etc

Topics Digitisation Storage and presentation Analogue documents (paper, manuscripts, books, photo’s and moving image, sound…) are converted to digital formats Storage and presentation ICT infrastructure for storage and access Digital archiving/preservation and digital longevity How can digital documents kept accessible for a very long term? Prerequisite: integrity and authenticity

Some history Library of Congress American Memory: in the nineties Royal Library (KB) Den Haag Netherlands 1995 Hundred Highlights: KB Google Books Cooperation with libraries with important (heritgage)collections in a language area Europeana: Brings together digitised collections of European archives, libraries, museums

Some history Early books online: Netherlands 1780-1800 Commercially Model for period 1470-1900 Commercially Proquest: large number of products with historical contents Conclusion: large digitisationprojects worldwide for more than 15 years

Steps in a digitisation project/1 Projectmanagement Strategic policy management yes/no digitisation Selection of the materials Analysis of the materials Preparation of the materials Metadata/cataloguing

Steps in a digitisation project/2 8. Scanning/imaging: - making the digital images: in house or by an external company 9. Digital humanities and context information 10. Storage 11. Publication 12. Digital archiving, preservation and longevity

1. Projectmanagement Write a project plan Steps Management of the organisation: Planning, staff, costs Questions: Extra budget available? Digitisation in house?

Problem: budget Large national libraries had large budgets Tens of millions dollars/euro’s for American Memory, Memory of the Netherlands, Europeana etc Projectteams with experts Financial crisis Cancelling of digitasation projects Other model: private/public partnership e.g. Proquest and Google

Belgium/Flanders: FLANDRICA.BE Project FLANDRICA.BE: guidelines 6 Organisations must pay (almost) everything themselves Universities of Antwerp, Leuven and Gent Public Libraries of Brugge and Hasselt Heritage Library Hendrik Conscience Challenge: Within existing numbers of staff and budget

Example http://www.flandrica.be/

Staff for a digitisationproject Management/client Descision, budget Projectleader Curator/librarian/archivist Content specialist/researcher Metadataspecialist/cataloguer Photographer/scanner/external scancompany ICT specialist: storage + longevity Webmaster: publication Support: departments for Staff, financing and communication

Coordination digitisation Projectleader Sufficient knowledge of the aspects of technical processes planning budget and financing projectmanagement To be able to manage a digitisationproject

2. Strategic policy An organisation (archive, library, museum) must take a strategic decision: digitisation: yes or no Ideal situation : organisation makes strategic plan for digitisation – before the start of a project: What will we digitise? What is the objective? Do we have unique materials? Who? Board of directors/management

Why digitise?-1 Improve access Improve services, e.g. Applications for education 24 *7 access, outside office hours Life-long-learning Less fysical acces to vulnerable materials e.g. unique documents brittle books Nota bene: digitisation creates also availability of the original

Why digitise?-2 Profiling of the organisation Universiteit Gent: Google Books KU Leuven: Europeana Development of ‘virtual collections’ ‘collaborative resources’ Digitize source materials ‘sharing partnerships’ American Memory Flandrica.be (Flemish Heritage Library)

Why digitise?-3 Added value by a common approach, e.g. Coptic manuscripts from Ethiopia worldwide available Earn money (not often) Rijksmuseum Amsterdam Images that are often requested Available in very high resolution: printing

Digitisation: objectives The objective of the digitisationproject defines the proces and the costs Target: Printed authoritative catalogue Rubens Topquality is required Target: 24 * 7 access to tekst and images E.g. Scanning books collection Historical Collections UA: students have access after closure of the reading room Publication via website, quality can be less Topquality (=scans with very high resolution) is very expensive!

Ask yourself the following questions Think before you start! Ask yourself the following questions

Motivation for the project ? Necessary for users? Is there an opportunity? Necessary for preservation and maintenance? E.g. fragile objects that are often requested by the users? Source of income?

Do we have? Budget? Knowledge? Capacity: Staff? Space? (of collections, scanning, cataloguing and metadata, ICT infrastructure, presentation, website) Capacity: Staff? Space? Technical infrastructure?

First steps Benchmarking: Learn from others Manage Copyright issues! Many guidelines and best practices available in the public domain (Internet) Use it! Don’t re-invent the warm water Manage Copyright issues! Feasibility studye (go/no go decision) Maybe: technical pilot concerning infrastructure

Vision Organisation must have a vision concerning digitisation And when it is NOT necessary - DON’T do it!!! Costs Efforts Digital archiving/longevity is not secured yet

Questions?