Digitised Content: universities, publishers,

sharing,openness

Alastair DunningJISC Digitisation Programme Manager

11th Fiesole Collection Retreat23rd July 2009

http://www.slideshare.net/xcia0069

overviewoverview

Overview

• Issues on the digitisation of cultural and educational content, largely focusing on UK

• What publishers are good at• What universities are good at• Where we need to go next• Focus is from a public sector body

that funds creation of digital content

What JISC does in general

• Provides rapid email and Internet access

• Gives answers to ICT questions and needs either via computers or humans

• Allows you to explore new ideas

1. Provides Technical Infrastructure

2. Runs services providing data, offering advice

3. Funds innovative projects

Supported via Higher Education funding councils with top-sliced funding.

jisc supports ICT in UK Higher and Further Educationjisc supports ICT in UK Higher and Further Education

JISC Digitisation Programme

• JISC Digitisation programme• 22 projects – c.£22m of funding• Phase 1 – 2004 – 07• Phase 2 - 2007 - 09• Some notable successes – British

Library Newspapers, Freeze Frame, First World War Poetry Archive, Nineteenth-Century Pamphlets

the jisc digitisation programme has funded overthe jisc digitisation programme has funded over50 projects since 2004, at c. £24m50 projects since 2004, at c. £24m

Digitisation Problems

• Public sector funding – c. £160m• Despite some sparkling successes, e.g

Darwin Online or Old Bailey Online• Many sites without users• Many sites not sustained• Value for money for public-sector purse• Digitisation falling off radar off some funding

bodies• http://web.me.com/xcia0069/uk-digitisation.

html

in the ukin the uknumerous funders have creatednumerous funders have createdtoo many digital resources, too many digital resources, but not got enough usersbut not got enough users

sustainingsustainingdigital digital resources isresources isa problema problem

JISC Digitisation Programme

• Particular strategic elements put in place to respond to these issues

• Sustainability – five years at least– Different business models to support this

• Marketing and Comms Plans – from project proposal to after project launch

• Building community of expertise – sharing of best practice, tools, documentation, mutual reinforcement.

jisc tries to inject a sense of community in its projectsjisc tries to inject a sense of community in its projects

Publishers Skills

• Do publishers worry about these things? Natural part and parcel of commercial publishing – who would publish without users and a long-term plan

• E.g. State Papers Online 1509-1714• House of Commons Parliamentary

Papers• Can university libraries learn from this?

publishers are less surprised by problems publishers are less surprised by problems with sustainability and usage numberswith sustainability and usage numbers

publishers are better atpublishers are better atfocussing on publication focussing on publication than universitiesthan universities

Sharing the Skills

• JISC asked projects to look at harnessing commerical skills

• 4 examples of digi projects engaging with publishers, e.g JSTOR British Pamphlets

• Testing different models for sustainability• Gives a test bed for further work in the

future• Case studies by Ithaka also part of this

work

sharing is goodsharing is good

Next steps for digitisation

• But there are still problems• Under-use• Digital Library infrastructure• Archipelago of content• Creating critical mass• Openness of data

there is still the issue of digital resources being underusedthere is still the issue of digital resources being underused

the archipelago of digital content

The Murder of Jean Alexander

News sheet, from Edinburgh Nov 14, 1807 – from John

Johnson Ephemera Collection

Morning Chronicle, London, 19 Nov 1807 – from BL

Newspapers

there are countlessresources on, forexample, 19th-century Britain

Study of 19th-Century Britain

• British Library Newspapers• Research Libraries UK project – 1m pamphlets• Electoral Data in Vision of Britain• John Johnson Collection of Ephemera• Old Bailey Proceedings• 19th-Century Serial Editions• Nineteenth-Century House of Commons

Parliamentary Papers • Nineteenth-Century UK Periodicals Online • Microsoft Digitisation• Google Books!

How can bring this content together?

• Plenty of portals have already tried this with only partial success

• We need to open up content to multiple standards for humans and machines

• ‘You might not have the best idea for your data’

• Using RSS, JSON, RDF• APIs – Flickr, Brooklyn Museum

New users

• Great War Archive part of First World War Poetry Archive

• Encouraged general public to digitise their own collections

• Built up a Flickr group, and a community of interest

• Project hosts at Oxford University reached out to a whole new set of users

the great war archive broughtthe university ofoxford in contact with a wholenew set of users

Some URLs

• Ongoing registry of UK public sector digitisation projects -http://web.me.com/xcia0069/uk-digitisation.html

• JISC Digitisation Programme - http://www.jisc.ac.uk/digitisation• British Library Newspapers - http://newspapers.bl.uk/ (version for general public)• Freeze Frame – http://www.freezeframe.ac.uk• Nineteenth-Century Pamphlets - http://www.britishpamphlets.org.uk/ • First World War Poetry Archive - http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit/ • Mike Ellis presentation on opening up data - http://www.slideshare.net/dmje/dont-

think-websites-think-data • Sustainibility Case Studies - http://www.ithaka.org/ithaka-s-r/strategy/ithaka-case-

studies-in-sustainability • Toolkit for the Impact of Digitised Scholarly Resources -

http://microsites.oii.ox.ac.uk/tidsr/   • DISCMap survey of priorities for digitisation - http://discmap.cdlr.strath.ac.uk/ • Flickr services - http://www.flickr.com/do/more/• Brooklyn Museum API - http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/api/ • BBC Backstage - http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/

Thanks!http://www.flickr.com/photos/funksoup/403990660/http://www.freezeframe.ac.uk/collection/british-graham-land-expedition-collection/p51-8-b114?gallery=icehttp://visionofbritain.org.uk/iipmooviewer/iipmooviewer.html?fileName

=smith_1806/smith4_1806%3DThe+British+Library&x=37&y=34 http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit/gwa/document/8756/2528#doc-desc http://www.flickr.com/photos/quinnanya/3589789158/sizes/l/ http://johnjohnson.chadwyck.co.uk/search/displayItemImage.do?FormatType=fulltextimgsrc&PageNumber

=1&ItemNumber=3&ItemID=&shelfNumber=1&ResultsID=1220822AAD9A453F1 http://www.flickr.com/photos/piterpan/3305777287/sizes/o/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/pfctdayelise/3646227591/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/rickyflores/2574089113/sizes/o/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/paperpariah/2417219494/sizes/o/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/jasonstaten/3037250330/http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeffk/12826545/sizes/l/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/andrein/2636092980/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/irenicrhonda/3260268696/sizes/l/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/humanoide/138781957

And thanks to Melissa Saunders for sorting out the images