Funded by: © AHDS Digitisation – Other Issues Houghton-le-Spring, November 2005 Alastair Dunning Arts and Humanities Data Service Executive King’s College London Think Digital: Best Practices for Digital Resources across the Cultural Heritage Sector

Funded by: © AHDS Contents of Presentations Project Management Access and Usage Metadata and Documentation Copyright Illustrated with examples –

Funded by: © AHDS Project Management Does not need to be over-formalised Planning essential Keep to vision statement Use pilot project / feasibility study / testing Develop timetable Calculate workflow and dependencies Beware scope creep

Funded by: © AHDS Corpus of Medieval Stained Glass Digitisation of existing record of stained glass in UK Digitising slides, photographs microfilm Primary sources in good and bad condition, some b+w, some colour Pilot project essential to anticipate problems, determine workflow

Funded by: © AHDS Metadata and Documentation Without explanation, data is meaningless Digital objects should have documentation and metadata –Provides project continuity –Explains context of resource –Resource discovery –Trust and reliability –Admin and preservation management Dublin Core metadata schema is a basic set of 15 fields; others are more complex Integrate metadata from start of project; again its depth depends on potential uses

Funded by: © AHDS Newham Archaeology Set of orphaned data arrived at AHDS Few technical problems with data Reports, excavations, notes, databases One database full of numbers only Missing codebooks, glossaries “Digital Archaeology” performed on collection

Funded by: © AHDS Copyright Digitised material needs to be cleared Usually 70 years after death of copyright owner Copyright and ownership of object not the same thing Copyright holders need to be traced, and appropriate licences signed Again, incorporate copyright strand at beginning of project

Funded by: © AHDS Coalfield Web Materials photographs, pamphlets, newspaper clippings, posters and audiovisual materia Copyright officer appointed Attempted contact via a variety of sources –Newspaper articles, librarians, adverts, local history groups, personal contacts Positive effects – engaging with community, gaining more info, finding new material

Funded by: © AHDS Usage Parameters for digitisation depend on present (and future) use What communities will be using your resource? Why will they use it. Testing important at at all stages Focus groups / surveys to find out what users want Helps determine ‘fit for purpose’ Also determines larger digitisation strategy

Funded by: © AHDS Conclusion Take time to plan, plan, plan Think holistically at start – all elements link together Why and for who are you digitising Document your processes and material Copyright is your responsibility