AHDS Digitisation Workshop

University of Edinburgh3rd April 2003

The broader canvas

• Projects start with noble aims

• But easy to get lost in management, jargon and economics

• Yet us (the AHDS) and you (the digitiser) are dealing with common issues

• Four issues relevant to our community

Altering research - Simon Schama

“The eventual, in some cases, imminent arrival of digital archives and the accessibility of these primary source materials not just to the academy, but to any informed lay user, may well be the biggest democratiser of historical knowledge since the invention of printed texts.”

Sounding the Century Lecture, 1999

• Hybrid of electronic and printed for both primary and secondary, quantitive and qualitative sources

• Significant change in access and analysis

• Will this be be 100% positive?

Altering learning - Charles Clarke

“When I was appointed Secretary of State, I took personal responsibility for ICT because I do think it is a very important dynamic tool throughout the whole of the education system…It needs whatever

push can be given to it” JISC Annual Conference, 2003

• Developing digital content into teaching material

• Education already changing, ICT can be a major part of this process

• Will the university come to the student?

• Increased funding in this area

Tidying things up

“What the Internet needs is an old-fashioned librarian. Inventing a way to catalog all 2.7 billion web pages -- a virtual Dewey Decimal system, if you will.”

Hewlard Packard Advert, 2001

• The Internet is a mess

• Shared responsibility for helping solve (?!) this problem

• Documenting and understanding digital objects

                                                                   

             

Looking after things long term

“Current technology mindsets ignore the problem of creating systems for long-term preservation and long-term access to electronic records … long-term preservation and access problems will assume center stage in the information age ” Censa Report, 1999

• Titanic 2020 – catastrophic loss of data?

• Responsibility for documenting and preparing data to last in the long, long term

• Ignoring this issue = burning libraries?

How is the AHDS Organised?

• Established in 1996• Administrative Executive (King’s College, London)

• Oxford Text Archive (Uni. Of Oxford)

• History Data Service (Uni. Of Essex)

• Archaeology Data Service (Uni. Of York)

• Performing Arts Data Service (Uni. of Glasgow)

• Visual Arts Data Service (Surrey Inst. of Art and Design)

• Funded by the JISC and the AHRB

How is the AHDS Organised?

• Evolving in 2003

• Literature, Language and Linguistics• History• Archaeology• Performing Arts• Visual Arts Data Service

• More subjects to be added ?

What does the AHDS do? (1)

• Collects, preserves and distributes high-quality digital resources for research and teaching

• These resources are free for educational and private use

• Generally available online

AHDS Collections

What does the AHDS do? (2)

• Advises on the creation of digital data

• AHDS Digitisation Workshops

• (and guides to good practice, information papers, workshops on particular issues, case studies, advice service over phone / email …)

Digitisation Workshop

• Key features of a digitisation project

– Project Management– Digitisation (or data capture &

modeling)– Metadata and Documentation– Deposit and Delivery– Copyright