1. Publishing Cultural Heritage
Alastair Dunning
Digitisation Programme Manager
JISC (Joint Information Systems Committee)
UCL Presentation, 19th June

2. JISC Digitisation Programme
Manager for 8 projects, part of 16 project programme to digitise UK cultural heritage. For example
British Newspapers
Pre-Raphaelite Art
Images from Scott Polar Research Institute
Nineteenth-Century Pamphlets
20th-century Government Cabinet Papers
(Blog)

3. Metadata?

5. Data Modelling?

6. Accessible files?
Dissemination?

7. Growth of Digitisation
Possibilities of Internet inspired rapid data capture of precious objects all over the world
But maybe this started out as a reactive cottage industry?
Museums, Libraries and Archives rushing to digitise material and dump it on the web
How long does this material last on the Internet? Is it good quality? Can people locate it? Can they use it?
Quantity of material and issue of long-term digitisation effects published material. Added pressure supplied by Google digitisation programme
…. Digitisation is difficult

8. Need for an infrastructure
To address the issues raised in previous slide
How long does this material last on the Internet? Is it good quality? Can users locate it? Can they use it?
Illustrations from the British model; other country’s models may be different
Demonstration that mass digitisation is complex, involving multiple players and technologies
Good infrastructure allows publication of cultural heritage to happen quickly; to show value for money; to be usable; to be easily accessible by educational communities and general public

9. Data capture To convert the physical to digital
Flat scanners, robotic scanners, 3D scanners, direct capture via digital camera, remote controlled camera, conversion via medium (e.g. microfilm), reel-to-digital, millions of typists
To cope with all kinds of material (newspapers, stained glass, banners, posters, maps, census, reports, grey literature, artefacts, film, audio … )
Need to have keen idea of priorities for digitisation
Ensure competition but not redundancy (Keep machines working; keep staff in place)
Requires research on success of methodologies, dialogue with other subject areas (i.e. sciences)

10. University of Southampton Robotic Scanner – Details at
If you don’t have a range of options for data capture – cultural heritage won’t get digitised

11. Standards and Formats
What file formats to ensure high-quality, long-term use
Images - TIFF, but also JPEG2000, PNG
Text – XML (and flavours thereof), but also RTF, Word
Sound – WAV, AIFF, MP3, Ogg (formats and wrappers)
Film – MJPEG, MPEG4, AVI, Quicktime, Flash (ditto)
Normally developed internationally, but local variations occur
Co-ordination, certification, co-operation, involvement and decisiveness at national and international levels
As with all parts of infrastructure, research and innovation
If you don’t have this – see current mess over video!

12. Metadata
Requires sophisticated of experts who know the digital objects (e.g. newspapers, sound recordings, census reports)
As with before, international co-ordination, certification, co-operation to develop international schema and vocabularies
These are required at subject level, format level, technical levels, preservation levels. For example
Dublin Core, MODS – generic resource description
VRA4 – digital image description, including technical details
METS – wraps together different information on a digital object
PREMIS – preservation metadata over long term
If you don’t have this – trust and authenticity, interoperability, resource discovery are severely hindered

13. Data Delivery I.e. the people that build websites
Complex engagement between commercial (Google, ProQuest, Thomson Gale, JSTOR) and non-commercial suppliers (universities, museums etc.)
Huge range of potential business models
Institutional subscription, Personal subscription
Pay-per-view, Google Ads
Open Access
Mixed model
But no definitive answers about the more successful

14. Data Delivery – What is required
Ability to regularly serve up websites and data
Systems to deliver a range of digital content (e.g. newspapers, audio, posters, artifacts)
Low overheads and year on year costs
Good understanding of end-users
Working in partnership with other content providers
Commitment to innovation and good practice
If you don’t have this – wheel will be constantly reinvented, users will be driven away, material will be siloed

15. Preservation Facilities
Digital objects become obsolete with time. Experts are required to ensure this does not happen
Expertise in handling digital assets (content and all metadata) in long term, and preferably also the hardware and media that hold such content
Must be trusted and reliable
Good relationship with data delivery providers
Continual research – why, what and how to preserve?
Without this, digital data will be lost, endangering the entire investment made in digitisation

16. Preservation Facilities – Case Study
A good example from the late 1990s
Orphaned archaeological data rescued from obsolescence
CDs, floppy discs, PCs, databases, word files, CAD files all left
But lack of metadata meant not all data could be retrieved

17. Digitisation Infrastructure
Network capabilities
Authentication
Tools Development
Usability testing
Copyright clearing houses
Consultants
Trained expert staff
Suitable courses
Data capture
Standards, Formats
Metadata
Data Delivery
Preservation
And of course Money
Skill is in making sure these pieces fit together