just digitise it - daniel wilksch of the public records office victoria

25 October 2017

Just Digitise ItCommunity Heritage Grants Program digitisation workshop

Session outline

1.35 Arrival and welcome1.40 - 2.40 pm Planning a digitisation project

• Setting standards• Resources needed• Care of your originals• Care of your copies

2.40 - 3.00 pm Digitisation facility tour/ afternoon tea (first half)3.00 - 3.20 pm Digitisation facility tour/ afternoon tea (second half)3.30 - 4.00 pm Negotiating rights before you digitise

Michael Proud, NLA4.00 – 4.30 pm Providing access

• Getting images online• Metadata and sharing images

4.30 - 5.00 pm Q & A

Notes for the session

http://beta.prov.vic.gov.au/community/managing-your-collection/just-digitise-it

6 project stages described•Planning•Preparing•Creating•Describing•Editing•Publishing

Setting standards

Matching standards to the project

Setting standards

Two main impetus…es for digitisation• Preservation

– OHIO (only handle it once)– colour management, ‘master’ copies

• Access– search/ discoverability– crowdsourcing

Factors

Setting standards

• How much material to copy? • What condition? (preservation needs assesment)

• How much time/ money do you have?• Has somebody already digitised it? (books…)

• What is its significance? (significance statement, etc.)

How do we see?

Setting standards

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_vision

Describing light with numbers

Smooth gradient

Broken into 16 steps (4-bit)

No intensity(0 in 8-bit scale)

Step 10 of 16(160 in 8-bit scale)

Step 16(255 in 8-bit scale)

Hint: the smooth gradient is in 8-bit steps – each level of intensity is 2 px wide in the original drawing.

Bit-depth

Red 255 ff 1111 1111

Green 255 ff 1111 1111

Blue 255 ff 1111 1111

24 BInary digiTs

What is a digital image?

Setting standards

4d4d 002a 0000 ea68 ffff ff00 0000 00000000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000

.... Black pixels (0's) left out ....

0000 0000 00ff ffff 000e 0100 0003 0000 0001 0064 0000 0101 0003 0000 0001 00c8 0000 0102 0003 0000 0003 0000 eb16 0103 0003 0000 0001 0001 0000 0106 0003 0000 0001 0002 0000 0111 0004 0000 0001 0000 0008 0112 0003 0000 0001 0001 0000 0115 0003 0000 0001 0003 0000 0116 0003 0000 0001 00c8 0000 0117 0004 0000 0001 0000 ea60 0118 0003 0000 0003 0000 eb1c 0119 0003 0000 0003 0000 eb22 011c 0003 0000 0001 0001 0000 0153 0003 0000 0003 0000 eb28 0000 0000 0008 0008 0008 0000 0000 0000 00ff 00ff 00ff 0001 0001 0001

from http://local.wasp.uwa.edu.au/~pbourke/dataformats/tiff/

ffffff = 255,255,255 ( r g b )

in hexadecimal notation

Resolution

Setting standards

1 inch 1 inch

1 inch 1 inch

@300dpi

= 90,000 pixels

@72dpi

= 5,184 pixels

‘Screen’ resolution Standard ‘Print’ resolution

How many dpi is enough?

Original 75 x 53 mm (VPRS 8609/P30 unit 3, item 6/108)

600 dpi

4800 dpi. Could back off a little…

Colour management

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RGB_color_space

sRGB (monitor standard)CIE Chart with sRGB gamut by spigget - own work.

Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0

Adobe RGB (1998)

Compression

Setting standards

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JPEG

83,261 bytes 1,523 bytes

Image generations

Cute kitten (modified) courtesy: https://www.flickr.com/photos/foundanimalsfoundation/8469463762/

Original scene Photographic Negative Print

Digital ‘masters’

Modified copy

Histograms

Cropped image

‘Levels’ tool

‘Curves’ tool

Checking the levels

The most colours vs. the right colours

-- ‘positive’ images: scan for colour fidelity

-- negatives: scan for maximum tonal range(consider 16/48-bit)

It’s better to make a good scan than correct a ‘poor’ one. ‘Levels’ adjustment when scanning is different to adjusting an existing digital image.

Fidelity

PROV camera setup

Still image standards

Setting standards

National Library of Australia

http://www.nla.gov.au/standards/image-capture

Public Record Office Victoriahttp://prov.vic.gov.au/government/standards-and-policy/capture

Photographing objects

Setting standards

Museums Australia (Victoria)

http://www.mavic.asn.au/resources/practical-training

Sound and moving pictures (advice)

Setting standards

National Film and Sound Archiveshttp://www.nfsa.gov.au/preservation/care/caring-for-film/http://www.nfsa.gov.au/preservation/care/caring-for-audio/http://www.nfsa.gov.au/preservation/services/

Resources needed

Physical resources

Resources needed

• Space– managed, secure (fire, flood, pests, ancient wiring, not about to be reclaimed by Council for

boutique carparks, etc.)

– flat (shelving, tables)

• Supplies– rehousing materials for copied originals– acid free paper, plastic film, gloves, pencils, spirit level, measuring tape/ rulers, gaffer

tape, extension cables, USB sticks, random things that aren’t too grubby

Physical resources

Resources needed

• Toys!– Scanning equipment

– Colour calibration equipment

– Workstations

– Storage

Human resources

Resources needed

• Project manager

• Project committee (for when the manager heads off to Noosa)

• Tame experts

• Volunteers– what do you need from them?

– what do they get out of it?

Documentation

Resources needed

• Digitisation policy/ strategy/ plan

• Project statement/ plan

• Risk management framework

• Specific policies/ procedures

• Written agreements with donors and digitisers

• Passwords. Write them down.

Permission

Resources needed

• From your group

• From your stakeholders

• From your donors/ owners of the material

• From your funders

Care of your originals

Collection management

Care of your originals

• Are the items catalogued? (Does the catalogue make sense?)

• Are they securely stored?• Do you know who owns what?

… things go missing.

Preservation management

Care of your originals

• put it in a box (controls light, humidity, physical safety)

• wrapped in plastic (anything except PVC)

• write on the enclosure, not the object• only take it out when you have to

… things get old.

Relationship management

Care of your originals

• have some handling rules (gloves, induction)• digitisation providers should be able to describe their

security and preservation measures• don’t break the original to digitise it

… things get dropped.

Further further reading

Care of your originals

National Standards for Museums and Galleries• http://www.collectionsaustralia.net/sector_info_item/107

Keeping Archives

Care of your copies

Hardware failure

Care of your copies

• backups, offsite preferably• understand the limits of the storage technology • checksums – or just look at your images every so often

Hardware obsolescence

Care of your copies

• migration, vary your storage options• active management of collection

Software obsolescence

Care of your copies

• open formats(image formats have been stable for decades)

• open applications (separate the data from the program)

• plan for and budget migrations

Poor management and documentation

Care of your copies

• Bill is your IT guy. He has just fallen under a bus.

• Try not to implement systems you don’t understand.

Hardware failure

Digital Preservation

• backups, offsite preferably

• understand the limits of the storage technology

• checksums – or just look at your images every so often

Summary

Metadata

• All of your data needs to be easily extractable from the software it’s in.

• Create a simple file structure and make sure people stick to it.

• Manage your backups properly (no lending to people, manage your risks, NO shortcuts).

Getting images online

Originals and renditions

Getting images online

• xyz

Originals and renditions

Getting images online

Constraints on delivering raw images• Connection speed and bandwidth• Screen size and resolution• Control over rights to the image

Options for publishing

Getting images online

• Don’t publish at all…• Use existing commercial tools and services (Flickr, Facebook, eHive)• Use existing community services (Victorian Collections)• Your own site (Wordpress, Omeka)

What and why to put online

Getting images online

• Marketing your organisation (‘going viral’)• Online archive (TROVE)• Storytelling• Online communities

Metadata and sharing images

Examples

Flickr: https://flickr.com

Trove: http://trove.nla.gov.au

Museum Applied Arts and Sciences (Sydney): https://collection.maas.museum/object/96257

Definition

Metadata

• Data about data (and data systems)• Metadata shares and translates between – collections and users– collections and collections.

Possible stages in metadata usage• in-house catalogue of collection • standardisation of data captured

card catalogue --> small museums cataloguing standard• computerisation of data

card catalogue --> InMagic database• web publishing of data

InMagic database --> CIDOC RDF in JSON via RESTful interface (http://data.culturehack.org.uk/dataset/37251018-British-Museum-object-catalog)

Kinds of metadataDescriptive metadata•Dublin Core (http://dublincore.org/)•Victorian Collections (https://victoriancollections.net.au/api)

Structural metadata•METS (http://www.loc.gov/standards/mets/)

Preservation metadata•VERS (https://www.prov.vic.gov.au/recordkeeping-government/about-standards-framework-policies/vers-standard/vers-version-3)

Common metadata formats• CSV (comma separated values)• XML• JSON

RDF (resource description framework) is a set of standards and formats and vocabularies that aims to encompass everything talked about.

Metadata

• Think about how your existing data can be:

• Categorised into different functions (descriptive, discovery, preservation, etc.)• Standardised (eg. Dublin Core) enabling matches with other collections and websites.

Metadata

• Important things to record:– Identity (title, ‘control symbol’)– Classification (subject, function)– History (dates, purposes)– [Description]– Relationships

Identity

Metadata

• Some items may not have titles. What is the thing that distinguishes one item from the next in a collection?• Remember physical cues not same as digital. Perhaps the filename of your image is the title?• ‘Control Symbol’: Catalogue / collection / record-keeping number.

Classification

Metadata

• Information to manage items and help narrow down searches.• Library: ‘subject’ – what is it about?• Archive: ‘function’ – what does it do?• Internet: ‘tagging’ – where did I put it again?• Subject/ topic list for images: http://www.picturethesaurus.gov.au/

History

Metadata

• Archive/ Museum: ‘provenance’ – where is it from? (which collection, which donor)• Management history: what has happened to it? ie., what date was it scanned?• Scanning is another layer to existing management history that might be recorded in your collection database.

Description

Metadata

• Extended stories about item (mum on a bike)• Description of physical original – dimensions, special features• Description of digital copy – dpi, file format

Relationships• This object is part of this collection• This book was owned by this person between these dates

The Resource Description Framework expresses all metadata in terms of relationships

subject -> predicate -> object

Modern web applications• Every URL is a reference to a resource

(book, photo, object, etc.)• Information about that resource is attached to that URL in human-readable (web page) or

machine-readable (Dublin Core, Resource Description Framework, etc.) form

Description

Metadata

• Extended stories about item (mum on a bike)• Description of physical original – dimensions, special features• Description of digital copy – dpi, file format

Description

Metadata

• Extended stories about item (mum on a bike)

• Description of physical original – dimensions, special features

• Description of digital copy – dpi, file format

Description

Metadata

• Extended stories about item (mum on a bike)

• Description of physical original – dimensions, special features

• Description of digital copy – dpi, file format

Contributing to TroveAn example of how to share metadata.

•Harvesting tools built in to commonly used applications:http://help.nla.gov.au/trove/becoming-partner/for-smaller-collections

•Metadata embedded on pages (Sitemap method):http://help.nla.gov.au/trove/html-record

Q & A