hidden costs and hidden hours in digitisation
DESCRIPTION
A perspective from the UK funding body JISC on digitization, looking both at common pitfalls in writing applications and also some of the hidden issues, both in terms of cost and time, in digitisation projects for cultural heritage.TRANSCRIPT
Hidden Costs and Hidden Hours:A Funder’s Perspective on Digitisation
Cilip Executive Briefing26th March 2009
Alastair Dunning, JISC Programme Managera.dunning @AT@ jisc.ac.uk
0203 006 6065http://digitisation.jiscinvolve.org/
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What funding bodies look for Breaking down some project costs Examples drawn from JISC Digitisation
Programme Three strands, totalling >50 projects and
£22m worth of funding, from 2004 to present
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Speaking in capacity as working for JISC, HE focussed, but hopefully generic
Equally, this is not just relevant for digitisation
Peer-reviewers do the marking; often interpret criteria differently
You can be unlucky with a good bid; expect to fail before succeeding.
Winning teams show evidence of broader strategic thinking
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Evidence of Impact and Use Testimonies from potential users Embedding in national curriculum and
elsewhere Break down your audiences and target them Good dissemination and marketing Do not rely on historical significance – what
makes your project special? JISC Discmap and Impact Analysis Projects
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Linking up with Others Ensuring good resource discovery (e.g.
RLUK 19th-century pamphlets project ) Improve Your Online Presence workshop Economies of scale in terms of equipment,
software tools, delivery mechanisms Avoid creating isolated resources
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Organisation Strong leadership where necessary Advisory and Steering Boards obligatory
for larger projects Considered approach towards IPR
Recognition of risks and work to be done
Understanding of licensing beyond copyright clearance
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Workflows and Standards Not the same emphasis as 5 years ago, but
still important Use of existing standards, but also need for
metadata manipulation Integrating Web 2.0
Innovative interfaces becoming a must User-generated data to contextualise
your content?
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Practical Matters Do what you are asked for not what you
blindly want – use your strategy in imaginative ways.
Preparation before bids – partners, strategies, pilot studies – proactive not reactive
JISC has paid for servers and capture equipment, but do not exaggerate
Other sources of funding – show value for money
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JISC e-Content Call – Closes 1st June 2009 Strand A – Developing Institutional Skills
Economies of Scale for Digitisation and Delivery; new strategies for institutional digitisation
Strand B – Enhancing Digital Content Improving metadata, resource discovery, usability
etc. Only open to English and Welsh HEIs but
partnerships are possible Future for digitisation is a little unclear Often some overlap in other JISC calls
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Freeze Frame Polar Images
British Cartoon Archive
John Johnson Collection of Printed Ephemera
East London Theatre Archive
Mixture of photos, negatives, glass plates
Prints & sketches of newspaper cartoons in various media
Huge range or textual and printed material, playbills to cigarette cards
Mainly theatre posters
£523,490 – project cost
£946,770 £1.764m £628,987
c.20,000 images
c.15,000 images
c.65,000 images
c.15,000 images
Largely done in-house
Cost included significant metadata & hardware costs
Mixed public private investment
Many posters in fragile state
Approximate figures – end of projects reports will finalise numbers
11But each project had different scope so differences are to be expected!
Problems in digitisation often incur not extra costs, but take up more time, and involve more people within an institution
Unclear lines of communication or weak management slow down projects with partners
In the JISC Digitisation Programme, Transport, Licensing, Copyright Clearance, Metadata Creation, Metadata Manipulation, Quality Control all caused more problems than antcipated 12
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This is a subjective approximation of project costs and time spent on the East London Theatre Archive Project
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This is a subjective approximation of project costs and time spent on phase 2 of the Archival Sound Recordings Project
If you have serious ambitions for digitisation, a broader strategy is required
Think about audiences and impact
Build your metadata and reuse it
Data capture will be the least of your problems, unless doing it for first time.
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