Why bother with digitisation? Users and using digital resources

Content written on: 8th June 2004 by William Kilbride.

Content updated: 8th June 2004 by William Kilbride.

Why bother with digitisation? Users and using digital resources....................................1Proving the argument: digital archives and empirical evidence......................................1Checking the facts: Digital reference resources..............................................................2Any time any place any where: the digital surrogate......................................................4From learning to research: digital objects in the classroom............................................5Discussion: interfaces for different types of use..............................................................5Conclusion........................................................................................................................6Links and Bibliography.....................................................................................................6

Digitisation is not an end in itself. Successful digital projects begin with a defined set of uses, and an implied set of users. The use to which the digital resource is put relates to real world tasks and behaviours, so it stands to reason that digitisation efforts ought to be cognisant of the real world tasks that users will be expected to fulfil. Consequently, expanding the number of users is not simply a question of marketing: it involves expanding the number of tasks that a resource will support. As will be seen, the fit between a digital resource and its application in these tasks may be influenced by artefacts of the digitisation process and its supporting activities. Furthermore, over-extending a resource risks undermining the core tasks that it was created to fulfil in the first place. Detrimental aspects can be mitigated and positive aspects encouraged if suitable forward planning has taken place. By looking at stereotypes of use associated with different resources this paper informs the planning and development of new resources.

Perhaps the most immediately visible opportunity associated with digital resources is the ability to transmit high volumes of information among many people over great distances with relative ease. Networking allows scholars to eschew many of the problems associated with the inflexibility of paper, reaching much wider audiences with novel, interactive forms of publication (e.g. Cunliffe 1996). As user experience and expectation of such resources both grows and hardens, and as the sheer volume of resources grows, so the need to identify and plan for user needs at the outset becomes more evident. But planning for use is not simply a question of maximising the number of 'hits' per month once a project is complete. Ensuring that user needs and expectations are met is a key component of the digitisation process itself.

This paper presents four stereotypes of use based on real examples. It looks at digital resources as empirical data to support an argument; as reference resources to support the research process; as surrogates for real world phenomena; and as aids to teaching and learning in classroom and curricular settings. These stereotypes are neither self-contained nor exhaustive but by concentrating on how digital resources are used we explore problems and opportunities associated with their creation.

Proving the argument: digital archives and empirical evidence 'Proving an argument' is seldom a matter of presenting uncontroversial facts. There is a

complicated relationship in the humanities between empirical data and its interpretation. Currency, consistency, comprehensiveness, replicability, ethics and simplicity are important for high quality humanities research, while methods and the constitution of data are subjects for debate. Digital resources present unique opportunities for humanities disciplines to repeat experiments or to identify previously hidden patterns in data, as well as to question the constitution of the data itself. Distributing and describing empirical data electronically means that fellow researcher can examine, extend or refute conclusions based on data sets that may previously have been difficult to access or assess. Perhaps

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more importantly, they can also examine how the data has been constituted and methods associated with it. This changes significantly the relationship between research publications and research archives.

The Ave Valley Survey project is a good example of how this opportunity has been exploited. This extensive field survey of a river valley in northern Portugal led to various conclusions about the relationship between Iron Age, Roman and early medieval settlement of the area, and thus gave insights to major themes such as Romanisation in Western Europe. The research team presented its conclusions in a substantial e-monograph (Millett et al 2000), but is able to support this monograph by allowing readers to reach into digital archives of the project (Millett 2000). Presenting these unpublished files in digital form allows reviewers to see parts of the project that might otherwise be hidden, and to reassess conclusions based on them.

For example, 'cost surfaces' are used to analyse aspects of settlement in the area. In the publication these are presented as a series of maps, but in the archive it is possible to test the digital elevation model upon which these cost surfaces are derived. The elevation model is a triangulated irregular network based on the detailed digitisation of contour lines. Contour lines are an interpolation of height, and thus the cost surfaces derive from an interpolation of an interpolation of real world heights. If the digital elevation model had instead been derived from observed spot heights, then it would be one step closer to the real world, and thus conclusions based on it would be more compelling. If the contours had been used to create some other form of digital elevation model such as a raster grid, or if the algorithm used to specify costs had been different, then the maps of expected cost may too have changed. By presenting the underlying data, an alterative line of research is possible. This example is not intended as a critique of Millett: by making underlying data available in this way they open up debate and discussion that would otherwise be impossible. It shows that by presenting the underlying data, the process of research and re-analysis is strengthened.

Sharing data in the arts and humanities is not simply a question of swapping processing and integrating uncontroversial facts about the world. The interpretative process depends on being able to contest data and the methods by which it is processed. Retaining and presenting the digital by-products of research for scrutiny by others is more than just a way to open debate: it is an essential part of the review process.

The digital resources presented in the Ave Valley archive were created for the purposes of the research project itself, so the primary user community is the project team. In such circumstances, attention focuses on the research design and there is little to be gained from an intensive evaluation of user needs or expectations: a focus group of the public is unlikely to contribute to the success of the digital resource. But given that it is expected that these resources can and should be used by fellow researchers, it is important to document the processes that led to salient conclusions being drawn. This includes not just a description of the data set, but also the data gathering methods - in Ave Valley there is a detailed description of fieldwork methods - assessments of data quality and a description of the processes applied to derive relevant conclusions. This supporting metadata can be as important to future scholars as the data itself, and there is little to be gained from simply presenting the data without an explanation of what it is and how it was derived. It may even be appropriate to prompt such users by identifying unexplored research topics that might be supported with the digital resource.

Checking the facts: Digital reference resources Comprehensiveness is a characteristic of first-rate scholarship in all disciplines. Anyone who

has completed a research project is familiar with the 'literature search' where every single article, book and thesis on a given topic is listed, acquired and digested. The Internet has transformed 'resource discovery'. Whereas previous generations faced a challenge simply compiling a suitable bibliography, the Internet allows scholars to share bibliographic and other information with relative ease (Clarke, Hardman and Kilbride 2003). Whereas previous generations of scholars constructed and consulted multi-volumed definitive editions that described every known example of a specific phenomenon, it makes a lot more sense now to create databases of such resources and then create online interfaces to them. The online corpus is faster to search, often cheaper to produce, easier to update and accessible to a much wider audience.

An example of an online digital corpus is English Heritage's Excavation Index for England. This index describes and summarises all archaeological research undertaken in England in any given year. Reaching back to the early years of antiquarian interest, it is an essential tool for anyone interested in local history or archaeology. Because it grows year on year, it attracts frequent repeat visits. The Excavation Index is an exemplary reference resource, but various aspects of it demonstrate some of the problems associated with digitising all reference works.

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Firstly, and perhaps most importantly, the Excavation Index is precisely what it claims to be - an index. The virtue of comprehensiveness is offset by its relatively shallow coverage of each individual record. This has two implications for users and developers. On one hand, users can very quickly get access to the sorts of data that might otherwise have slipped their notice - especially in terms of 'grey literature', the small or unpublished reports that are not readily accessible. Perversely, an attempt to create access underlines exclusion, especially if there is no mechanism by which users can follow up requests. Resources that point to offline or rare resources should include some explicit method by which more detailed questions can be pursued, such as bibliographic references or contact details. On the other hand, curatorial staff in libraries archives or museums may become inundated with requests for information that they may either not have, or not be able to supply. It is therefore sensible to plan not just digitisation but to have in mind the implications for increased demand on conventional resources that may result, such as interlibrary-loan requests or research trips. Experience shows that users often expect much more than can reasonably be supported, so if necessary expectations should be managed: it is wiser to promise little and over-deliver than to promise much and disappoint.

A record set as large as the Excavation Index is created by staff in many different agencies. In these circumstances it is important to develop terminology controls to prevent confusion. Applied thoughtfully, however, such terminology controls can have three uses beyond speeding up the compilation of the underlying data set. Firstly, they are a measure of data quality - both in terms of operator error (accuracy) and as an implicit declaration of precision. Secondly, terminology controls are powerful tools for retrieving data: so if users can be taught the terminology, or better still the terminology draw from familiar subject classifications, then users will be equipped with some of the basic tools to understand the data. Finally, terminology controls and thesauri can be difficult to construct, so it may often be possible to adopt or adapt an existing vocabulary. At very least, by making your vocabulary available one can expedite the work of others. Promoting your own thesauri, or adopting someone else's enhances enormously the ability to cross-search more than one data set, and this can increase exponentially the user-base.

Cross-searching is also enhanced by familiarity with relevant 'resource discovery' standards (Miller and Greenstein 1997). The Excavation Index fits into a qualified implementation of the Dublin Core metadata element set. Consequently, the Excavation Index for England can be cross-searched with cognate data sets like the National Monuments Record of Scotland and the National Trust Sites and Monuments Record. Cross-searching makes the Excavation Index much more powerful as a reference tool.

Geography is often overlooked as a classification scheme (Kilbride 2004). Archaeological research is pre-discursively geographic, so it is little surprise that the Excavation Index contains National Grid References. However, the grid references are more than a mere convention. They also present an instant classification of the records, and create a map-based search interface. This is possible when two or more resource share a standard geographic base like the National Grid. This makes it possible to build a powerful cross-search facility that requires little prior knowledge from users. Indeed, mobile phones and global position satellites are able to relay locational information directly to personal computers and thus, in an experimental interface, connect directly to local records in the Excavation Index. This is possible because the standard geographic base is widely shared and readily understood.

Some reference resources are definitive and need only occasional updating, though even where the number of specific cases of a phenomenon is largely fixed, the bibliographies associated with them will grow (e.g Sawyer 1968). Frequent updating may have implications for quality assurance and thus for long-term maintenance. The Excavation Index now has an online update tool, but data submitted in this way is only included in the Index after it goes through three different quality checks which investigate its technical competence, its veracity and its adherence to standards (Hardman and Richards 2003). This process implies a long-term commitment. Frequent updates to large reference works are an obvious benefit of digitisation, but the implication in terms of long-term maintenance should not be overlooked.

Digitising reference resources can have a profound impact on scholarship, but their digitisation can cause unforeseen frustrations if not handled well. It may point users to resources that they cannot in fact obtain, or it may place a strain on curators and librarians to supply records that are difficult of access. Vocabulary standards are important from a data quality perspective, but they can also greatly enhance the use and flexibility of a resource. Attention to appropriate metadata standards, especially when vocabulary standards are consistent or a common geographic base is used, makes cross-searching possible, and thus increases the impact that a resource may have. Finally, update tools are attractive, but quality assurance means that they imply a long-term commitment.

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Any time any place any where: the digital surrogate 'Digital surrogate' is the name given to a digital version of an expensive, fragile or

inaccessible real world object. The digital surrogate is attractive to archivists and librarians because it reduces wear and tear, but it also allows researchers to work on real world models from the comfort of their desks, bringing together or sharing material that may be large, heavy, unwieldy or friable. This means that researchers can reduce the number and duration of expensive research trips, can work in conditions of their own choosing, and can return over and again to the same question without inconveniencing colleagues. Supplementing real access, the digital surrogate ensures that when researchers require access to the original, they are better able to carry out their work.

An example of a digital surrogate is the British Library's Electronic Beowulf (Kiernan et al 1999). This ambitious project has brought together the oldest surviving manuscript of Beowulf and presented it alongside three of its earliest transliterations. This enables readers to trace the origin of all modern editions, observing where words or letters have been lost since the start of the nineteenth century. Moreover, sophisticated scanning has been used to highlight aspects of the manuscript, such as scribal corrections. The digitisation is of a very high resolution so that it is possible to examine the text in detail. Individual files are assembled in the order that they appear in the manuscript, giving the appearance of page turning, and the whole thing is accompanied by a modern edition that can be read in parallel.

There are four points worth noting about this digital surrogate that may impact on other similar projects. Firstly, the high resolution is essential for a project like this to work. Electronic Beowulf allowed analysis of the manuscript at much greater detail than the naked eye would allow, and by using the invisible ends of the spectrum, drew attention to details that could not otherwise be seen. If the manuscript had not been presented to such a high resolution, then researchers would have reverted to accessing the original. This high resolution has the consequence of large files, which in turn has implications for data delivery. Not surprisingly, Electronic Beowulf is presented on a set of CDs as the file sizes precluded online delivery. Compression algorithms can now be used to render details without creating huge files to download, but this technology was not available at the time. High resolution scanning and imagery may also become a threat to the original document or object to be digitised. For example, the high-powered lamps required to photograph in detail may in fact be more of a threat to the original object than conventional access. Alternatively, if heavy lifting gear is to be used for large objects, then there should be appropriate health and safety planning. A detailed risk assessment should precede any digitisation of a valuable or unusual original, with the possibility that the resource not be digitised at all. Presuming that digitisation does proceed the resulting digital object should have a preservation plan of its own. Digitisation may be unrepeatable, expensive or undesirable. It is ironic that a plan to safeguard a real world object creates a need to safeguard a digital one too.

Perhaps one of the most instructive aspects of Electronic Beowulf is the relationship between the modern edition and the images of the twelfth century manuscript. The modern edition is the product of an intensive research project, and is to some extent a product of an analysis of the digitised manuscript. But there is more to it than this - the modern edition also performs a supporting role to help understand the images. The script of the medieval document is difficult for human readers, and makes computer reading - optical character recognition - impractical. This makes it impossible to search through the images for occasions of specific words or phrases. However, by presenting a parallel modern edition, and by linking this with the images of the manuscript, the developers make it possible to search the images of the manuscript vicariously. In essence, the modern edition serves as an index to the images, and thus is a surrogate of the surrogate.

Digital objects render the real world systematically, and in so doing they frequently either fail to render the irregularities of the real world, or simplify them. This can be a critical problem for digital surrogates that seek to represent objects whose irregularities contain significant properties. The choice of data model influences significantly the sorts of use that a resource is fit for. The palaeography and archaeology of the Beowulf manuscript is a case in point. The penmanship and form of the document is not simply a source of frustrating irregularities that can be systematised: they are crucial to establishing or contesting the age of the document. A simple computerised transcription would restrict significantly the ability of readers to understand these aspects of the document, and the decisions made by the editor where established editions are disputed. Though it may create considerably more work for the digitisation project, the fit between the data model, the real world object and the real world tasks the surrogate is intended to support is essential.

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From learning to research: digital objects in the classroom. Digital resources can be effective tools to assist and even supplant classroom teaching. But

as Laurillard (1995) notes, we should not confuse access to digital resources with teaching or learning. In simple terms learners are not yet ready to be researchers: we cannot simply digitise a resource and expect student's learning to flourish. Pathways into or through the digital resource, and tasks that help students explore aspects of the resource are essential. Problem-based-learning with digital resources can be among the most effective forms of active student learning, and in the end can equip students with the skills to undertake their own open ended engagements with the underlying digital resource (Kilbride and Reynier 2002). However, the effort involved in creating such resources can be significant, and is considerably greater than the effort of digitising. Consequently, when a teaching and learning strategy is quoted in support of digitisation, curriculum design should be as much if not more of a concern than digitisation.

The PATOIS project provides a good example of where digital resources have been used in teaching and learning (for a discussion of this see Kilbride et al 2002). Five aspects of this project are worth considering. Firstly, the four tutorial packs developed in the project focus on information skills for students, so the Internet is an appropriate vehicle to present these tutorials. Secondly, the tutorials select from a much larger set of resources. Students are presented with only a small selection of the resources on the understanding that, having completed the tutorials they will be equipped with the skills they need to explore the much larger whole. Thirdly, students, lecturers and subject specialists were involved in their creation. This means that the resources fit with a demonstrable need, and that they are written with specific skill-levels in mind. Fourthly, the appreciation of prior skills, learning outcomes, aims and objectives means that the tutorials are congruent with widely expressed subject needs and disciplinary norms (such as QAA 2000). This process also involved an understanding of the hardware and software platforms available to the end users, and thus a decision about the levels of software required to render or process data for users. Open standards were used, maximising the range of platforms that can support the tutorials. Finally, the tutorials are written in as consistent a manner as possible, maximising student familiarity and reducing the possibility of the technology getting in the way of the learning that it is intended to support.

The implication of PATOIS and other projects like this is that teaching and learning cannot be supported by digitisation alone. The development of electronic teaching and learning materials requires more than technical skills, and indeed that the technical skills may be relatively trivial as against the intellectual challenge that teaching and learning poses.

Discussion: interfaces for different types of use These examples are instructive because they reveal different types of use that a digital

resource may have. These uses are not and should not be exclusive, and each of the examples quoted above can be deployed in more than one of the stereotyped modes above. For example, the Ave Valley archive is used in teaching and may even be considered a digital surrogate for the archaeology of Northern Portugal. The digitised manuscript of Beowulf is to some extent one large archive supporting the new edition of the text. The Excavation Index is available as a set of downloads to be analysed and processed offline, much in the same way as a research resource can be.

Nonetheless, alternative uses are constrained by the nature of the resource. For example, the lack of a translation with Electronic Beowulf undermines claims that it is readily used in teaching and learning: it is an academic text for an expert audience (Kilbride 2000). The Excavation Index may be excellent for reference, but it does not yet provide the deep access that, in another context, Beowulf does. The Ave Valley survey data does not pretend to be a comprehensive account of the archaeology of Northern Portugal, so it can only act as a reference source in very specific circumstances. PATOIS might be excellent for teaching and learning but it is really only an extended interface to data already digitised.

The degree to which a resource can be redeployed in other ways is in part a function of how it is presented, so projects that want to maximise the flexibility of a resource should consider carefully the online presentation. The uses of the data sets described above feed into the way that they are presented.

As well as being authoritative and comprehensive, reference data needs to be easily and quickly queried. It would make little sense to present the data as a single large file with supporting documentation: better by far to let users build complicated queries quickly, get results rapidly, ignore irrelevant records and repeat the process with ease. The interface to the Excavation Index facilitates these sorts of reference searches by allowing complex searches to be repeated, and in addition allows it to be cross-searched.

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The approach to research archives may be radically different: to evaluate the resource, a researcher will need to see the whole data set, will want to understand how parts relate to the whole, and to try out the data with their own tools. For research uses it makes sense to let fellow researchers transfer data directly to their own computers. The implication is that the interface can be relatively simple, and that data files need to be presented in widely supported formats. This may be considerably less work than is required for other forms of digital resource. However, the academic process implies a degree of stability, and that alterations and additions clearly marked. Academic research is based on the credibility of the data presented, so it would bring a researcher into disrepute if published data was changed without the original being retained. This does not mean that changes cannot be made: rather that they should be clearly signalled and incremental. The archive and publication of the Ave Valley data are fixed in so far as the data and discussion published are not altered. Subsequent additions and extensions are possible, but only as a supplement not a replacement.

Academic referencing is also important for data that is intended to prove an argument. Conventions of bibliographic referencing like the Harvard convention include guidance on how to reference Internet and other digital resources. For these to work, not only should the data set be stable in its content but in access arrangements and location. The chain of references upon which academic citation is intended to allow subsequent researchers to follow an argument. It stands to reason therefore that URLs need to be stable, and that they point to the same resources. Without this sense of authority, research into the archives will be inhibited and the digitisation effort undermined.

Teaching and learning is perhaps the most demanding in terms of interface, and certainly has the largest amount of research associated with it (inter alia Littlejohn and Higgison 2003, Armitage and O'Leary 2003 Core, Rothery and Walton 2003, Kilbride and Reynier 2002). Such advanced understandings of user needs demand the attention of those engaged in teaching and learning projects, not least because of the discourses of professionalism that are now attached to them (Newland and Ringan 2003, Jenkins and Hanson 2003).

Conclusion Digitising has many benefits, not least the large number of users that can access and

contribute to a digital resource. But digitisation is not an end in itself, nor should users be taken for granted. Evaluating the uses that a resource can support, and understanding how those uses can be expanded is critical to the success of any digitisation project. Decisions made early in the digitisation process can both reduce and expand the ability of a resource to meet these expected uses, so it makes sense to consider these uses at an early stage.

Links and Bibliography Ave Valley

http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/projArch/ave_millett/http://intarch.ac.uk/journal/issue9/millett_index.html

Excavation Indexhttp://ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/collections/blurbs/304.cfm

Electronic Beowulfhttp://www.bl.uk/collections/treasures/beowulf.html

PATOIShttp://ads.ahds.ac.uk/project/patois/module1/index.htmlhttp://ads.ahds.ac.uk/project/patois/module2/index.htmlhttp://ads.ahds.ac.uk/project/patois/module3/index.htmlhttp://ads.ahds.ac.uk/project/patois/module4/index.html

Armitage, S and O'Leary R 2003 A Guide for Learning Technologists, LTSN Generic Centre E-learning Series No 4, York

Clarke, JP, Hardman, CS and Kilbride WG 2003 'Comprehensiveness for All: The OASIS Project and Research Values in the Digital Age' in CSA Newsletter XV, online at: http://www.csanet.org/newsletter/winter03/nlw0305.html, last visited 12/03/04

Core, J, Rothery A, and Walton G 2003 A Guide for Support Staff, LTSN Generic Centre E-learning Series No 5, York

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Cunliffe, B 1996 'Foreward' in Internet Archaeology 1, online at http://intarch.ac.uk/journal/issue1/foreword.html last visited 06/03/04

Hardman, CS and Richards, JD 2003 'OASIS: Dealing with the Digital Revolution' in M Doerr and A Sarris (eds) The Digital Heritage of Archaeology: Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology, Archive of Monuments and Publications, Hellenic Ministry of Culture 325-9

Jenkins M and Hanson J 2003 A Guide for Senior Managers LTSN Generic Centre E-learning Series No 1, York

Kiernan K, Presscott A, Solopova E, French D, Cantara L, Ellis M and Yuan CJ 1999 Electronic Beowulf, British Library and the University of Michigan Press, London

Kilbride, WG, Fernie KM, McKinney P, Richards, JD 2002 'Contexts of Learning: The PATOIS project and Internet-based teaching and learning in Higher Education' in Internet Archaeology 12, online at http://intarch.ac.uk/journal/issue12/patois_toc.html last visited 12/03/04

Kilbride, WG and Reynier MJ 2002 'Editorial - Keeping the Learning in Computer-Based Learning' in Internet Archaeology 12 online at http://intarch.ac.uk/journal/issue12/editorial.html last visited 12/03/04

Kilbride WG 2004 'From One Context to Another: Building a Common Information Environment for Archaeology' in CSA Newsletter XVI online at http://www.csanet.org/newsletter/winter04/nlw0402.html last visited 12/03/04

Kilbride, WG 2000 'Whose Beowulf is it any way' in Internet Archaeology 9, online at: http://intarch.ac.uk/journal/issue9/reviews/beowulf.html last visited 12/03/04

Laurillard, D 1995 'Multimedia and the changing experience of the learner', British Journal of Educational Technology 26, 179-89

Littlejohn A and Higgison C 2003 A Guide for Teachers LTSN Generic Centre E-learning Series No 3, York

Miller, P and Greenstein, D 1997 Discovering Online Resources in the Arts and Humanities: a practical implementation of the Dublin Core, AHDS and UKOLN, London. Also online at: http://ahds.ac.uk/public/metadata/discovery.html last visited 12/03/04

Newland B and Ringan N 2003 A Guide for Heads of Department LTSNGeneric Centre E-learning Series No 2, York

Millett, M 2000 Ave Valley Survey Project, Porto, Portugal, online at: http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/projArch/ave_millett/ last visited 12/03/04

Millett, M Queiroga, F Strutt, K and Willis, S 2000 The Ave Valley, northern Portugal: an archaeological survey of Iron Age and Roman settlement in Internet Archaeology 9, online at http://intarch.ac.uk/journal/issue9/millett_toc.html last visited 12/03/04

Quality Assurance Agency, 2000 Archaeology: Subject Benchmarking Statement, Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education, Gloucester

Sawyer, PH 1968 Anglo-Saxon charters an annotated list and bibliography, Royal Historical Society, London

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