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Day 5: Cooperative Projects, Website Design and Training

Others

Workshop 2

Digitising National Resources

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Part 1: Collaboration

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Collaborative Digitisation Projects

• Examples of projects from around the world• Getting started• Developing a plan• Seeking funding• Working together

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Colorado Digitization Project (CDP)

• Aims to increase access to the unique primary research materials held by the State’s cultural heritage institutions

• Involves archives, libraries, historical societies, museums

• Access is provided through a distributed virtual collection

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CDP principles for scanning• Scanning at highest resolution appropriate to

information content of originals• Scanning at appropriate level of quality to

avoid rescanning and re-handling in future• Creating and storing a masterfile• Creating back-up copies• Using non-proprietary system components• Anticipating and planning for new

developments

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PictureAustralia

• www.pictureaustralia.org• a web service based on a metadata index

held at the National Library of Australia• links to pictorial images held on the web sites

of participating cultural agencies around Australia

• a “hybrid” architecture with a centralised search index and distributed images

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Participants in PictureAustralia

• began in 1998 with five contributors:– Australian War Memorial, – National Library of Australia, – State Library of New South Wales, – State Library of Tasmania, and – State Library of Victoria.

• Recent participants:– National Archives of Australia and the University of

Queensland Library

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Australian Cooperative Digitisation Project (ACDP), 1840-45

• University of Sydney Library

• State Library of New South Wales

• National Library of Australia and

• Monash University Library

• With support from ten other institutional and industry groups.

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ACDP

• Aimed at preservation and improving access

• Digitised from microfilm

• Received grant from Australian Research Council

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Major stages in collaborative projects

• Undertaking inventory of digitisation projects

• Developing collaborative relationships

• Establishing scope and objectives

• Obtaining funding

• Establishing standards and guidelines to ensure interoperability

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Part 2: Designing Web Pages

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Web design

• Most digitisation projects are made available through Websites

• Effective Access depends on good web design

• Identify users and their information needs

• Design site around users information needs

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Layout

• Consistent page layout• Use templates• Break large pages into screen sized pages• Reading on screen:

– 20-30% slower on screen than in print– Users scan rather than read

• Use hypertext links to documents rather than duplicate information

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Navigation

• Navigation menu on every page

• Menus: no more than seven choices

• Get to any point within three links

• Site map

• Provide both browsing and searching

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Images

• Keep image files small• Images should be less than 100Kb unless intended

for high resolution, high bandwidth• Use “thumbnails” - small images that link to larger

images• Provide alternate text <alt=“image of title page”>• Images should enhance information rather than

distract from it– Avoid background images and colours that

obscure text– Avoid animation, blinking

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Links

• Give information about where the link is leading, e.g. short description, warning of large file.

• Use meaningful words for link e.g.– “Here is the link to the Digital Library”, not

“click here for Digital Library”

• Don’t underline text unless it is a link

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Metadata

• Use meaningful terms in:– <title>– <meta> tags

• Standard metadata schema: DC, TEI, EAD etc.

• Identify site maintainer

• Provide date of last update

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Standards

• Use standard HTML coding

• Test page using different hardware and software

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Part 3: Training others

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Training others

• Train yourself first!

• Start with a small project

• Document the project carefully

• Share your information

• Don’t duplicate each other’s mistakes

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Ranfurly Project in New Zealand

• http://www• Lord Ranfurly was Governor of New Zealand

from 1897 to 1904• Collection obtained from the United Kingdom

in 1998• Consists of the 3000 items

– Ranfurly family papers – Ranfurly family photographs

Ranfurly family paintings and drawings

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The project was planned as follows:

• Items underwent assessment & conservation treatment

• Digitisation done according to type of resource:– Black & white papers microfilmed first, then digitised

from microfilm– Coloured originals were scanned using flatbed scanner– For large objects. a digital camera with high resolution

• Uses the Encoded Archival Description as metadata – – the first time the standard has been applied in New

Zealand

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The Ranfurly Project

• A relatively small project as a starting point• Original material from one source• Employed a hybrid approach for preservation

and access• Will do some things differently in future• The National Library of New Zealand will use

the experience to develop a workshop to train other NZ institutions

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Conclusions about digitisation

• Digitisation offers tremendous potential for improving access to resources

• It is a useful tool for assisting in preservation• Appropriate standards need to be employed• There is no single right way to do things, but,

there are many wrong ways!• Start small• Collaborate & share your experiences