Learning the lessons …David Dawson

MLA• Museums, libraries and archives building a

successful and creative nation by connecting people to knowledge and inspiration– increase and sustain participation – put museums, libraries and archives at the

heart of national, regional and local life – establish a world class and sustainable sector

– lead sector strategy and policy development

Department for Culture, Media & Sport

MLAEnglishHeritage

NationalMuseums

British Library

NationalLottery

BBC, Sport

England etc

ArtsCouncil

How is digitisation funded?• MLA

– Renaissance in the Regions – c £5m pa

• National Lottery– NOF-digitise programme £50m– Heritage Lottery Fund – continuing

• JISC funding– digitisation programme

• Government Departments– policy-led initiatives

• commercial / private

Digitisation Programme 1• Online Historical Population Reports• The project will digitise UK census reports (1801-

1937) into a new e-resource of all pre-1939 UK population statistics.

• Free access in the public domain.

• British Library 19th Century British Newspapers:• Will digitise 2 million pages of selected UK national,

regional & local newspapers from 1800-1900.• Free access in the public domain.

• British Library Archival Sound Recordings• Will encode 3,900 hours of oral history, field

recordings of traditional and improvised music, rare or deleted classical and popular music recordings, .

• Access to UK institutions only, except out-of-copyright recordings.

How are choices made?• ‘reactive’ models

– bids-based– NOF-digitise = open bidding, evidence

required of user need

• demand-led– British Academy study– JISC digitisation programme

1 open call2 community feedback3 informed decision-making

– MLA / Becta consultation with teachers

Digitisation Programme 2• 18th Century Parliamentary Papers• Will digitise 945,000 pages of all surviving 18th

century House of Commons and house of Lords Papers, Bills, Journals and Reports.

• NewsFilm Online• Will encode 3,000 hours from Independent

Television News and Reuters Television. • Access to encodings for UK institutions only.

• Medical Journals Backfiles• Will digitise 1.7 million pages of high impact UK and

US medical journals e.g. the British Medical Journal, Annals of Surgery etc using an open access model.

• Free access in the public domain.

How is digitisation ‘done’?• much in-house

– particularly where metadata creation / conservation major issues

– capacity-building

• some bureau capability– commercial vendors– in-house bureau on a cost recovery basis– specialised equipment

• moving images• high volume book scanning

• off-shore– re-keying / high volume – low conservation risk

www.culturenetcymru.com

Constraints on access• public funding = public access

– but for defined communities• particularly HE / FE• Creative Archive

– mixed model• open access for low quality versions• charged services for high quality / print

– British Pathe / Census Records

– models changing to reflect different educational environment

• cross-phase, National Education Network

– publishers interested in new digital model for public library lending

www.bfi.org.uk

Sustainability• charged services

• new project funding

• organisational change

• new audiences

• meeting policy objectives

• performance indicators

www.britishpathe.com

Digitisation and preservation• education, education, education

– access can only be built on sound collections management processes

– taken into account by some funders• MLA Renaissance Programme

• built into funding– may be assessed, but if no services …

• Digital Preservation Coalition– but few real-life preservation services– www.dpconline.org

www.finds.org.uk

Co-ordination• JISC/CURL report – Nov 2005

– £130m of public investment• programmes sometimes unstructured, piecemeal

and fragmented

– recommended setting up a UK task force• clear guidelines on standards• single point of access to services and information

services• greater attention to user needs

Co-ordination - EU• National Representatives Group

– established under eEurope Action Plan to co-ordinate national digitisation policies

• Action Plan launched under UK Presidency of the EU

• Technical Standards• project to create an

inventory of digital content

Co-ordination - EU• European Digital Library• initiative led by France• based on Member State Programmes• added value at a European level

– multi-linguality, IPR etc– competence centres

• Culture Ministers debated digitisation for 2 hours …

www.michael-culture.org

Co-ordination - UK• meeting challenge of JISC/CURL report

– taken forward by Common Information Environment Group

– eContent Framework• initial workplan agreed

– partners• JISC, MLA, Becta, DfES, BBC, British Library,

eScience and the Research Councils, National Electronic Library for Health

– The National Archives, Research Information Network, English Heritage, DCMS, Scottish Library and Information Council …