Digitizing for Access Promoting the Use of Our Collections

Transcription

1 Digitizing for Access Promoting the Use of Our Collections Amalia S. Levi, MA, MLS Barbados National Library Service October 30, 2018

2 Digitization Presentation overview What it is - What it is not Advantages and disadvantages Challenges Discussion

3 Digitization is secondary. We need more & better documentation (inventories, catalogues, finding aids)

4 Digitization cannot substitute good cataloguing and metadata practices.

5 Digitization is *not* about hardware software scanning

6 Digitization is not about scanning pages. We digitize a collection emphasizing context by maintaining relationships among its parts.

7 Librarians and archivists digitize for access.

8 Digitization is about people.

9 Digitization is like print or microfilm: Yet another way of reading.

10 Digitization does not change the core of what we do. Preservation Documentation Resources Access Outreach

11 Advantages of digitization Global access Increased discoverability Protection of rare material from handling Promotes research Enhances interaction with our collections Novel scholarship through digital tools Possibility to reunite dispersed collections

12 Disadvantages of digitization Resource-intensive at every step (creation-storage-preservation-access) Costs Time Staff Prioritizing What gets digitized, and why? Who decides? Who funds it?

13 Danger of re-inscribing and perpetuating silences in the record. Digitization choices affect future scholarship.

14 DIGITAL PRESERVATION CHALLENGES Storage requirements Hosting System failures Cyber security Persistent accessibility Climate control Hardware/software obsolescence Migration Integrity/reliability of digital files Expertise Networked access

15 Starting a digitization project: Considerations

16 Why? Rationale and goals What do you want to digitize and why? What are the goals of the project? Whom will you involve in the planning? Do you have the resources to achieve it? Staff Expertise - Funding Have you solved any copyright issues? Are the material in good condition or fragile?

17 Who are the users, and how will they use it? How complex should the final product be?

18 For whom do we digitize? Different kinds of users - different kinds of access. Scholars vs. students National vs. international users Professional historians vs. amateurs Traditional scholarship vs. computational research

19 Digitization is collaboration.

20 Funding through Grants: a balancing act Fastest, least expensive workflows [staff! technology! funds!] Vs. A collection s preservation and conservation needs Collaborating: Clearly and sincerely define expectations Know how to juggle different mentalities Abide by deadlines, grant conditions and requirements

21 Types of grants Foundations/planning grants Identify and prioritize materials for digitization Develop selection criteria Assess conservation needs Evaluate technical requirements Evaluate in-house expertise & explore third-party service options Implementation grants Execute project at once or in phases Deliverables

22 Scope Prioritizing what will be digitized: various approaches Heavily used collections By subject; geography; chronology; edition etc. Institutional mandate Match to existing digital collections Hidden collections Treasures /uniqueness Virtual collections Targeted audience Condition of originals

23 Before starting digitization Copyright Laws vary from country to country. Verify copyright status Do you need any permissions? Decide on terms of use Clearly state them to users *Put everything in writing* with owners of material (if not yours); collaborators; vendors

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25 Description Digitization is secondary: we need good catalogues and description to Promote findability of material Identify links with other collections Enhance scholarly value Avoid pitfalls of Western/colonial descriptive systems The issue of the Creator

26 THE NEED FOR DETAILED DESCRIPTION IN THE CASE OF MARGINALIZED POPULATIONS 1. Documents scanned as images 2. Not searchable 3. Metadata that favor the creator

27 Extracting the people from the documents Sharon Leon, Re-Presenting the Enslaved Community sold by the Maryland Province Jesuits in

28 Digitization workflow: Choices Equipment: suitable for the project and the material High resolution camera, flatbed scanner, or book scanner? Image quality: As required by grant specifications or nature of material Metadata: Descriptive-structural-technical-administrative

29 Digital Images Image size and volume affect storage requirements. Archival master copies (for preservation) Access copies (for access) Presentation copies (for display) Thumbnails Good practice: use persistent identifiers

30 Post-digitization Image quality control Metadata control Back-ups Checksums

31 Display and access Consider access options: Free online; paid online; or a mix In terminals in reading room On demand Provide good description and access points Expose images and metadata to be easily retrieved, imported and aggregated

32 User expectations for display Free User-friendly interface Easy navigation Alternative viewing options Possibility to manipulate Web-based annotations Download, print

33 Dissemination and outreach How will you provide access? Library s own system, accessed through main catalogue Contribute material to a national or international aggregator Examples: Europeana, dloc, DPLA, Trove, etc. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages. Community engagement through social media

34 Engagement with scholars Facilitate computational research of digitized material Example: Provide tools for Image analysis Annotation Resource aggregation Data visualization Mapping

35 Open Access

36 Open Access A universal value? Implications for material of Colonial Postcolonial Indigenous Native communities. AGENCY & SOVEREIGNTY

37 The advantages of open access Everything online is free Democratizes access and use of collections Facilitates scholarship on one s culture Increases linkability with other collections Promotes novel research beyond mainstream narratives Grant-funding agencies stipulate that all grant products be available free online.

38 The perils of open access Postcolonial societies have been taken advantage of by Looting colonialism Rapacious capitalism Unscrupulous and exploitative people

39 Ethics of access Who has access? Who has not? Restrictions Access/Use Privacy Paywalls Copyright Colonial collecting legacies

40 Cultural protocols Mukurtu [content management system]: to empower communities to manage, share, narrate, and exchange their digital heritage in culturally relevant and ethically-minded ways. Mukurtu.org

41 Decolonizing the record: Not a top-down, but a bottom-up practice Create digital resources that matter for the people Allow users (scholars & the public) to define what is important Do not try to describe alone. Ask for input and help Create community

42 Mercury Gazette, Digitization Workshop, December 11, 2017

43 Long-term digital preservation Need for strategic approach In-house expertise; outside vendors; consortia Minimum requirements for in-house digital preservation: 1. Regular back-ups 2. Multiple copies in different locations 3. Monitoring file integrity 4. Migrating at regular intervals

44 Some numbers* *based on the Mercury Gazette digitization project Digitization costs per 1 image Time: ~10-15 min./page (Capture+metadata+quality control+back-ups) Size: ~100 MB (master file) Other costs: - Equipment & Staff - Electricity for project - Hosting & storage - Energy consumption for HVAC, light, security, etc.

45 Data centers electricity consumption: terawatt hours in 2018 Will treble in the next decade Puts strain on energy supplies Intensifies climate change Natural disasters threaten our cultural heritage. They affect disproportionately poorer, developing countries.

46 Digitization is a big investment that should not subtract from our obligation to care for our library s original collections.

47 National Museum, Brazil September 2018 Folk Research Center, St. Lucia March 2018

48 Digitization resources Endangered Archives Programme Project Guidelines and Standards Remote Capture: Digitising Documentary Heritage in Challenging Locations. Jody Butterworth, Andrew Pearson, Patrick Sutherland and Adam Farquhar. April Digital Library of the Caribbean - Digitization Resources. Digital Library of the Caribbean Training Resources DLF - Digitizing Special Formats. List of resources. From Dust to Digital: Ten Years of the Endangered Archives Programme. Maja Kominko (ed.) FADGI Guidelines and Resources Building Digital Collections: A Technical Overview. Library of Congress. IFLA Rare Books and Special Collections Section. Guidelines for Planning the Digitization of Rare Book and Manuscript Collections. Rieger, Oya. The State of Digital Preservation in

49 THANK YOU! archiveland.com