doing projects: 10 laws of digitisation

Digitisation Open DayDoing Projects

30 January 2014

Matthew Brack

Digitisation Project Manager

10 ‘laws’ of digitisation

Wellcome Digital Library Programme

These are personal views based on experience of doing digitisation at Wellcome Library…

#1: Know your purpose

(“Thou shalt observe real users and keep them holy”)

Obvious but important: who are you doing digitisation for? Knowing the answer to that question will affect every subsequent decision you make in your project.

Digitisation Open Day

SELECTION DIGITISATION DELIVERY

You need to ensure that this common purpose is shared by all project stakeholders and is a thread running through the whole process from the very beginning to the end.

#2: Know Project Management

If you’ve never run a digitisation project before and only do one thing to prepare: study project management. Your project is more likely to succeed with an understanding of project management than a technical understanding of digitisation.

The nature of digitisation



METADATA

RETRIEVAL

CONSERVATION FINAL PREP

CAPTURE

SYSTEMS

#3: There is no ‘best practice’

We can tell you how we created our digital library, but it’s unlikely that anyone is going to be able to leave today and, even with a blank check, put that into practice to solve their particular problems – there are too many variables.

Digitisation Doctor in a slide

Got general questions about digitisation?


The answer will always be: “It depends”

#4: There are no simple projects

(especially at the beginning)


Project problems post-mortem:

Machinery issues

Retrieval across 30 collections, 4 floors, 2 buildings, 2 states

of access

Copyright clearance in parallel

12% of selection not found

Display issues

#5: Imaging is the quickest step

The imaging step is dwarfed by preceding preparation and subsequent digital asset management processes, yet it’s the most visible aspect of any digitisation project.

BOOKS IN STACKS

IN SCOPE

NOTE

STAY ON SHELF

ONLINE CAT?

PRINT CAT?

NOTE GENE-RATE

SHELF LIST

DUPLI-CATE

CHECK

SINGLE SHELF LISTS

SORT BY

SIZE

CHECK OUT

CHECK OUT

CON ASS-ESS

UPDATE SHELF LIST

RETURN TO SHELF

DIGI-TISE

CONDI-TION?

REPAIR

BOX

TO CATALO-

GUE?

CATA-LOGUE

1.22 STORE

215B STACKS 1.22 STORAGE CONSERVATION CATALOGUING

NO

NO

YES

YES

LARGER

NO WAY

NOT OK

OK

FAIR

POOR

YES

1.22 STORE

NO

1.22 STORE

START

1a

1b

1c

1d

2

3

4

5

6

11

7

8

9

10

BOOKS IN STACKS

IN SCOPE

NOTE

STAY ON SHELF

ONLINE CAT?

PRINT CAT?

NOTE GENE-RATE

SHELF LIST

DUPLI-CATE

CHECK

SINGLE SHELF LISTS

SORT BY

SIZE

CHECK OUT

CHECK OUT

CON ASS-ESS

UPDATE SHELF LIST

RETURN TO SHELF

DIGI-TISE

CONDI-TION?

REPAIR

BOX

TO CATALO-

GUE?

CATA-LOGUE

1.22 STORE

215B STACKS 1.22 STORAGE CONSERVATION CATALOGUING

NO

NO

YES

YES

LARGER

NO WAY

NOT OK

OK

FAIR

POOR

YES

1.22 STORE

NO

1.22 STORE

START

1a

1b

1c

1d

2

3

4

5

6

11

7

8

9

10

1.21 DIADEIS

Imaging step within a preparation workflow

#6: Metadata is really important

(see Dave Thompson’s presentation)

Lacking good metadata is an existential threat to your project – without it your digital content will simply disappear and never be seen by users.

Metadata

• Digital objects ‘don’t exist’ without metadata – no search, no discovery


• Metadata first, then digitisation – otherwise you don’t know what you have, where it is, or any way of controlling it…

• On average 50% of project time is spent on metadata and cataloguing

• Must be shaped by user need and what an organisation is capable of delivering

• Tension between low-volume digitisation with more metadata for a richer user experience or larger-scale digitisation with lighter metadata attached

• Standards-based framework helpful for consistency, accuracy and efficiency in metadata input (e.g. Dublin Core, MARC21)


Metadata examples

#7: It’s lots of small tasks

(repeated over and over…)

Tracking and retrieval

1. Generate unique ID

2. Create ‘scan list’

3. Create ‘review file’

4. Make unavailable to users

5. Create barcodes

6. Retrieve items

7. Insert barcodes

8. Deliver items for imaging

9. Update tracking list

[Re-work]


a. Returnb. Remove barcodesc. Update tracking listd. Make available to userse. Pray for no more re-workf. Repeat for next batch

http://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&docid=3BRxvsn-nHX5IM&tbnid=mE9qCw5N07EuuM:&ved=0CAUQjRw&url=http://lisakmcdonald.com/2012/11/30/its-all-in-the-approach/squiggly-line/&ei=FTHwUfbIOaKR0AXGmoDABg&bvm=bv.49641647,d.d2k&psig=AFQjCNH3qv4Y22Fj7rd3PLLafOw7fEGoRQ&ust=1374782088473596

#8: Digi can damage your stuff

(but not as much as you’d think)

Conservation

• Most damage to collections comes from handling


• Digitisation handles collections intensively in new ways

• Survey to develop image capture approach and identify out of scope material

• Survey detail depends on collection

• Training for photographers and digital preparators

• Actual preparation of materials (staples, openings)

• Digitisation is not preservation

#9: Digitisation is not preservation

This should not be a guiding principle of your project:

Generally your original physical material is going to last much longer than your digital manifestation – no competition.

You’ve just created a second collection of material that you need to ‘preserve’ and manage.

Preservation doesn’t mean much in a digital context – it’s actually a contradiction from traditional usage, which succeeds by restricting access – what we are interested in is sustainable access.

#10: Copyright + sensitivity = workflow

Copyright and sensitivity

• UK copyright law is lagging behind the needs of today’s economy


• UK copyright is held by the creator and not the owner of a work, making a rights risk assessment essential for most projects

• Rights clearance of works on an item-by-item basis is unworkable in the context of mass digitisation

• Small organisations without legal support are unlikely to take the risk of digitising orphan works, or anything else that carries potential copyright risk

ProQuest EEB Project Overview

Project Scope:

14,000 books

5.5 million images

Incunabula to 1700

Printed outside UK

Access in UK and HINARI – 15

years3600 books now online: http://eeb.chadwyck.com


Phase 2 projects


Reading Room / Project X

Western Manuscripts 1000-1650

Forensics and Sex temporary

exhibitions

Useful resourcesTHORNTON, E. (2013) Digitisation Doctor Workshop. 15th April 2013.

Available from: http://blog.wellcomelibrary.org/2013/05/resources-from-digitisation-doctor-workshop-now-available

HENSHAW, C. and KILEY, R. (2013) The Wellcome Library, Digital. Ariadne. July 2013. Available from: http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue71/henshaw-kiley

JISC, Project Management for Digitisation, JISC Digital Media. Available from: http://www.jiscdigitalmedia.ac.uk/guide/project-management-for-a-digitisation-project

BRACK, M. (2012) Bridging the Gap: Library digital collections, innovation and the user. Thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of King’s College London for the Degree of Masters in Digital Asset Management. Available from: http://nsla.org.au/publication/bridging-gap-library-digital-collections-innovation-and-user


http://blog.wellcomelibrary.org/2013/05/resources-from-digitisation-doctor-workshop-now-available

http://blog.wellcomelibrary.org/2013/05/resources-from-digitisation-doctor-workshop-now-available

http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue71/henshaw-kiley

http://www.jiscdigitalmedia.ac.uk/guide/project-management-for-a-digitisation-project



http://nsla.org.au/publication/bridging-gap-library-digital-collections-innovation-and-user





Thanks

[email protected]

@WellcomeDigital

@MatthewBrack

doing projects: 10 laws of digitisation

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