introduction to digitisation for museums

Digitisation & online collections

These slides online at www.collectionstrust.org.uk/goingdigital

July 2014

Going Digital

• 3-year programme on computers in museums

• Launch event at Tyne & Wear in November

– Auditing IT in your museum– Photography & scanning– Digital copyright– Digital Asset Management– Putting collections online– Developing mobile applications– Funding digital work

Digitisation: A Simple Guide

• New free guide by Natasha Hutcheson for Collections Trust

• Available from beginning of August

– Deciding to digitise– Deciding what to digitise– Choosing a camera– Choosing a scanner– A basic digitisation setup– Taking good photographs– Budgeting for digitisation– Glossary of terms

Deciding why to digitise

• There are many reasons why museums decide to digitise their collections:

– To make the collection more accessible– In response to a proven audience need– To support the production of a new book or app– To reduce handling of fragile originals– As part of conservation work– To provide content for an exhibition, school activity or outreach– To support internal needs (such as inventory)

What is ‘Digitisation’?

• ‘Digitisation’ is a catch-all term that describes a range of connected activities:

– Selecting material– Choosing formats & resolutions– Creating digital images/models– Adding descriptive information (metadata)– Storing digital images and information– Supporting discovery and use– Planning for long-term preservation

Project or process

• Digitisation can be done through one or more projects, or as part of the ongoing process of Collections Management

• Most museums set out a Digitisation Plan or Digital Strategy which sets a longer-term objective and then take an opportunistic approach to how they get there

• It is vital to be clear how digitisation supports your museum’s aims, from audience development to conservation.

User-centred planning

• Digitising things without knowing what (and who) they are for results in content that is unsustainable and unloved.

• Always design your digitisation around the user:

– Who is the content for? (schools, specialists, researchers etc)– What do they want to do and why? (user needs)– How will they find and use the content?– What do you want to enable them to do (or prevent them from doing)?– What do you want them to get out of engaging with your content?

Choosing formats/resolutions

www.emms.org.uk

What’s your ‘use case’?

Content

Metadata

A bit A lot

What’s your ‘use case’?

Content

Metadata

A bit A lot

FUN!

What’s your ‘use case’?

Content

Metadata

A bit A lot

FUN!

RESEARCH

What’s your ‘use case’?

Content

Metadata

A bit A lot

FUN!

RESEARCH

Digitise relatively few things, but focus on quality, richness, depth and interpretation – iconic or star

items, context, stories and supporting information for educational use. Choose a license that doesn’t undermine your association or ability

to control re-use or derivatives

What’s your ‘use case’?

Content

Metadata

A bit A lot

FUN!

RESEARCH

Aim for coverage – digitise as much as possible, to a reasonable quality, and provide keywords to

support discovery and use. License openly for distribution and re-use.

No magic solutions

• When it comes to digitisation, every museum really is different – there is no one-size-fits-all solution.

• How you make use of digitisation depends on:

– Your Forward Plan– Your capacity & enthusiasm– Your collections & stories– Your audience– The particular kinds of use you want to encourage/support

A Digitisation Plan

• A Digitisation Plan should include:

– Strategy and aims (why are you digitising, who for?)– Scope and content (what are you going to digitise?)– Running your digitisation project or process:

• Technology• Formats• Workflow• Storage• Copyright• Metadata

– Access & use– Preservation

Making money from digitisation

• ‘Digitisation’ isn’t a revenue-stream

• There are three main models:

– Find a way of getting people to pay for your digital content

– Give your digital content to someone else to sell (eg. picture libraries)

– Make use of your digital content to funnel more people at your existing business model (merchandising, retail, event hire, donations etc)

• Generally, it costs more to create your own picture library than it does to push people at your existing revenue model.

Some other options

• Let the Wikipedians in!

• ‘Do a Rijksmuseum’

• Find a commercial partner to digitise & monetise for you

• Crowdsource it – let people photograph and share

Contact

@NickPoole1@CollectionTrust

WC209 Natural History MuseumCromwell RoadLondon SW7 5BD

www.collectionstrust.org.uk/goingdigital