Value, Impact & the Benefits of Digitising University Collections by Simon Tanner

Value, Impact & the Benefi ts of

Digitisation for University

Collections

Simon TannerKing’s College London

Blog: simon-tanner.blogspot.co.uk

Twitter: @SimonTanner

www.kcl.ac.uk/ddh/

Is the value in the wine, the glass or the

drinking?

The Attention Economy

We will compete: for attention, for eyeballs on our collections and resources, for time and energy from our communities.

The purpose of digitisation:to educate, enlighten & entertain

Memory organisations are where a

community nourishes its memory, imagination &

creativity.

Where it connects with the past

& invents its future.

Curation Challenges & Unfunded Mandates

Digitisation

Web Archiving

Collection Development

Material heritage

Intellectual heritage

Digital Preservation

Virtualheritage

Web 2.0 / Interactive heritage

Born digital

Preservation &

Conservation

www.kdcs.kcl.ac.uk/innovation/inspiring.html

“Old Bailey Online reaches out to communities, such as family historians, who are keen to find a personal history, reflected in a national story... Digital resources both create a new audience,

and reconfigure our analysis to favour the

individual.”Professor Tim Hitchcock, University of

Hertfordshire

“Digitised resources allow me to discover the hidden lives of

disabled people, who have not traditionally left records of their

lives. I have found disability was discussed by many writers in the Eighteenth Century and that

disabled men and women played an important role in the social life of the time.”

Dr David Turner, Swansea University


New areas of research enabled

Effective, efficient and world leading


Bringing collections

out of the dark

f. 23 detail

Digitising the Dead Sea Scrolls

Spectral Classification

Use of complete spectrum separates ink, parchment, backing and background

Bestowing economic & community benefits


Glasgow Museum's Collection is the city’s biggest single fiscal asset valued at £1.4 billion. It contains around 1.2 million objects. On average only 2% of the collection is exhibited to the public at any one time. Digital access is opening up further access to these collections.

A major impact sought is to increase self-confidence in the populace – to feel less marginalised, less insignificant, less unheard. Increased feelings of self-worth through interaction with the Museums will spill over into every aspect of their lives.

Digitised content & JISC Collections negotiations

save the sector ~£43 million per year

“The Freeze Frame archive is invaluable in charting changes in the polar regions. Making the material available to all will help with further research into scientific studies around global warming and climate change”Pen Hadow, Polar Explorer

Interdisciplinary & collaborative


On the other hand...

“You want a massive digital collection: SCAN THE STACKS!... You agonize over digital metadata and the

purity thereof...

And you offer crap access.

If I ask you to talk about your collections, I know that you will glow as you describe the amazing

treasures you have. When you go for money for digitization projects, you talk up the incredible cultural value...

But then if I look at the results of those digitization projects,

I find the shittiest websites on the planet. It’s like a gallery spent all its money buying art and then just stuck the paintings in supermarket bags and leaned

them against the wall.”

Nat Torkington (@gnat) http://bit.ly/rNHMVr“Libraries: Where It All Went Wrong” The text of a Speech delivered to

provoke the National and State Librarians of Australasia, November 2011

So many glasses... where is your wine?

The advantages of setting your data free

http://www.oldweather.org/

http://blog.oldweather.org/2012/09/05/

“the measurable outcomes arising from the existence of a digital resource that demonstrate a change in the life or life opportunities of the community”

www.kdcs.kcl.ac.uk/innovation/impact.html



So what do you think? Is the value in the

wine, the glass or the drinking?

Simon Tanner

King’s College London

Twitter: @SimonTannerWith thanks to Alice Maggs for the Impact related

illustrations [email protected]

Education

Value, Impact & the Benefits of Digitising University Collections by Simon Tanner