Day 5: Cooperative Projects, Website Design and Training Others

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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 States 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 ltaltimage of title
  pagegt
• 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
• Dont underline text unless it is a link

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Metadata

• Use meaningful terms in
• lttitlegt
• ltmetagt 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
• Dont duplicate each others 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