Collection Description considerations in

the nof-digitise programme

Sarah MitchellProgramme Manager

New Opportunities Fund

Overview of nof-digi Programme• The objectives• The timescale• The content and criteria• The delivery mechanism• The outcomes

• The CD challenge …..Susi Woodhouse• Nof-digi in context ….David Dawson

The Objectives• £50m fund for publication of on-line

material to support and encourage lifelong learning for all

• increase access to resources of museums, charities, libraries, community groups, galleries, archives, centres of education and learning

• support government strategy for social inclusion and help those not part of formal education benefit from information age

• build cross-sector partnerships• complement Fund’s other ICT initiatives

The Timetable• all awards approved end June:

154 projects throughout the UK representing wide range of expertise and participation from voluntary, public and private sectors

• all sites must open to public by end Dec 02• public launch early 2003• Final completion by Oct 04:

over 1m images/sound & video clips/text pages/400 learning packages

The content and criteria • Three main theme strands:

- cultural enrichment - citizenship for all - re-skilling the nation

• access via community languages• finding tools• meeting technical standards• proven user need / links to related

material • subject and regional partnerships• user evaluation and response capability• sustainability - 3 year monitoring period

The Delivery Mechanism• 154 project websites - linked to 500

contributing organisations plus…..• 29 consortia gateways• UK Online learning centres• Peoples network in public libraries• National Grid for Learning - NGfL • nof-digitise portal

The Outcomes• Body of material to support learning in its

broadest sense• Body of expertise to continue

development• New models of service delivery across

“traditional” boundaries• Good practice in digital content creation• Repository for future exploration• New communities of interest

The CD challenge for NOF

How to ensure optimum access to project resources through the nof-digitise portal by December 2002

over to Susi…...

Context of the CD challenge• A unique experiment of unprecedented

scale and scope. • Brings together many sectors:

– cultural; voluntary; community; public information; health; education; government...

• 154 projects with many unexpected inter-relationships of topic, of place, of format, of target audience

• Need to be able to exploit these

Driving factors• Users expect to find “stuff” across all media

irrespective of source. Aim to:• provide collection-level resource discovery

mechanism for the programme of relevance– across digi consortia and projects– across digi projects and other bodies of digital

materials (e.g. DNER, COL, Canadian DCCI)– across digi projects and collection descriptions

of physical items (e.g. A2A, Cecilia)• Technical standards framework

Questions for the challenge!• How best to deliver a sustainable,

interoperable end product?• What is NOF’s definition of “collection”?• How will CLDs be created and managed?• What schema? What terminology? • How will Digi CLDs be made available through

the portal and other points of interest?• No answers yet….

Next Steps

• Consultation and intelligence gathering with key players

• Identify options and make decisions on implementation strategy

• Share thinking at an early stage • Inform and be informed by wider

context…over to David...

NOF-digitise in context

• Domain-specific– physical collections– museums– libraries– archives– historic environment– natural sciences– voluntary sector– which context????

ARCHON

• Archives• HMC

http://www.hmc.gov.uk/archon/archon.htm

Cornucopia

• Pilot• 2 regions

– SW– WM

http://www.cornucopia.org.uk

Simple for our users?

Academics

Schools and Life-long Learners

Specialists

Simple for collections holders?

BiologyArt

General collectionsArchaeology

Social history

Archives

Wider picture

• e-Europe• Co-ordination of National Digitisation Policies• Inventory of policies, programmes and

projects across Europe– virtual collections description– international agreement on standards– metadata harvesting ???http://www.peoplesnetwork.gov.uk/forum/index.html

Collection Description considerations in

the nof-digitise programme

New Opportunities Fund