Practical Steps Towards Your Local

and/or Regional Digitalisation Project 

Laurie N. Taylor, PhDLaurien@ufl.edu

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

http://kong.lib.usf.edu:8881/

DigiTool by ExLibris

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://www.dspace.org/

DSpace

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 Laurien@ufl.edu