Practical Steps Towards Your Local
and/or Regional Digitalisation Project
Laurie N. Taylor, [email protected]
University of Florida Libraries
Reasons
• For Digital Libraries: full, open access materials online within organised, described collections
• For Preservation: physical library services online, may include Digital Libraries as a service.
• For New Creative Projects: exhibits, websites…
• For Commercial Uses
• Defining Infrastructure: tools for digitalisation, digital library online space
• Defining Projects: selecting manageable & contextualized projects
• Digitizing Materials: Copyright, creating metadata, digitizing, loading online, and organizing
• Building Context: Exhibits, themes, and more
• Collaboration: Building additional context and scope for development & promotion
• Planning: For continued growth and more connections
• Promotion: Promoting each collection and each project and explaining how they develop the Library as each phase is finished
• Assessment/Feedback
General Steps Towards Building a Digital Library
• Display / Usability: for internal development and patrons
• Access: open or restricted
• Sustainability / Preservation – Reputation and capability of service providers, number and size
of install base (for sustainability and shared improvements)– Equipment and training– Ability to migrate, add collaborators, move content
Infrastructure Considerations
• Define long term project goals
• Define immediate project for development
• Define stakeholders
Defining Infrastructure, from Part to Whole
• Synergy: digital collections are the sum of their parts and their connections
• Discreteness: each item in a digital collection exists on its own
• Modularity: and each item exists in combination / reconfiguration with the others
Points to Remember
• Higher costs if independent
• Rights and ownership; any limitations?
• Attribution / Recognition of Contribution
• Benefits of Collaboration: preservation, sustainability, recognition, enhancement of materials through the collaborative
Collaboration Considerations
http://dloc.com/?c=dloc&m=hitmanual
Digitalisation
• Select tools/equipment • Select relevant standards and ways to
support• Select equipment for housing the Digital
Library• Hire or train personnel
Beginning Digitalisation
Project scale and initial material type will determine many choices.
• Equipment– Photos: flatbed scanners, relatively
smaller server space– Maps and newspapers: larger
scanners, need zoom technology and more server space
– Books: specialized scanners, specialized presentation technology
• Processing:– Copyright research, level of metadata
creation, file types, organizing, usability, findability
Digitalisation Processing
Infrastructure Considerations
Digital Library Equipment
Digital Library System Infrastructure
DigiTool by ExLibris
http://digitool3.lib.fsu.edu/
• Limited customization
• Difficult interface for users and developers
• Difficult URLs for search engines
ContentDM (offered by OCLC)
http://digital.tcl.sc.edu/cdm4/browse.php
http://www.kchistory.org/cdm4/browse.php?CISOROOT=/Henry
http://www.fedora-commons.org
http://dspace.mit.edu/
Greenstone
Modular development:• What three items would you
most like to have digital?• What three themes/concepts?
(authors, historical period, city, idea, event)
• How do those themes and materials connect with other libraries here?
• How do those connect with your audiences? (local, researchers, world)
Technology in Service of Collections & Connections
• Goals for digitalisation• Goals for individual collections• Defining and creating collections• Showcasing the collections• Making every step count more
than once
Opening the Digital Library
Questions
www.uflib.ufl.edu/ufdc www.dloc.com www.uflib.ufl.edu/digital [email protected]