29 October 2014

Just Digitise ItCommunity Heritage Grants Program digitisation workshop

Session outline

1.35 Arrival and welcome1.40 - 2.40 pm Planning a digitisation project

• Setting standards• Resources needed• Care of your originals• Care of your copies

2.40 - 3.00 pm Digitisation facility tour/ afternoon tea (first half)3.00 - 3.20 pm Digitisation facility tour/ afternoon tea (second half)3.30 - 4.00 pm Negotiating rights before you digitise

Nicki Mackay-Sim, Curator of Pictures, NLA4.00 – 4.30 pm Providing access

• Getting images online• Metadata and sharing images

4.30 - 5.00 pm Q & A

Notes for the session

http://prov.vic.gov.au/community-programs/training/just-digitise-it

6 project stages described•Planning

•Preparing

•Creating

•Describing

•Editing

•Publishing

Setting standards

Matching standards to the project

Setting standards

Two main impetus…es for digitisation

• Preservation

– OHIO (only handle it once)

– colour management, ‘master’ copies

• Access

– search/ discoverability

– crowdsourcing

Factors

Setting standards

• How much material to copy?

• What condition? (preservation needs assesment)

• How much time/ money do you have?

• Has somebody already digitised it? (books…)

• What is its significance? (significance statement, etc.)

How do we see?

Setting standards

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_vision

What is a digital image?

Setting standards

4d4d 002a 0000 ea68 ffff ff00 0000 00000000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000

.... Black pixels (0's) left out ....

0000 0000 00ff ffff 000e 0100 0003 0000 0001 0064 0000 0101 0003 0000 0001 00c8 0000 0102 0003 0000 0003 0000 eb16 01030003 0000 0001 0001 0000 0106 0003 0000 0001 0002 0000 0111 0004 0000 0001 0000 0008 0112 0003 0000 0001 0001 0000 01150003 0000 0001 0003 0000 0116 0003 0000 0001 00c8 0000 0117 0004 0000 0001 0000 ea60 0118 0003 0000 0003 0000 eb1c 01190003 0000 0003 0000 eb22 011c 0003 0000 0001 0001 0000 0153 0003 0000 0003 0000 eb28 0000 0000 0008 0008 0008 0000 0000 0000 00ff 00ff 00ff 0001 0001 0001

from http://local.wasp.uwa.edu.au/~pbourke/dataformats/tiff/

ffffff = 255,255,255

( r g b )

in hexadecimal notation

Resolution

Setting standards

1 inch 1 inch

1 inch 1 inch

@300dpi

= 90,000 pixels

@72dpi

= 5,184 pixels

‘Screen’ resolution Standard ‘Print’ resolution

Compression

Setting standards

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JPEG

83,261 bytes 1,523 bytes

The short version

Setting standards

National Library of Australia

http://www.nla.gov.au/standards/image-capture

Public Record Office Victoriahttp://prov.vic.gov.au/government/standards-and-policy/capture

Resources needed

Physical resources

Resources needed

• Space

– managed, secure (fire, flood, pests, ancient wiring, not about

to be reclaimed by Council for boutique carparks, etc.)

– flat (shelving, tables)

• Supplies

– rehousing materials for copied originals

– acid free paper, plastic film, gloves, pencils, spirit level, measuring tape/ rulers, gaffer tape, extension cables, USB sticks, random things that aren’t too grubby

Physical resources

Resources needed

• Toys!

– Scanning equipment

– Colour calibration equipment

– Workstations

– Storage

Human resources

Resources needed

• Project manager

• Project committee (for when the manager heads off to Noosa)

• Tame experts

• Volunteers

– what do you need from them?

– what do they get out of it?

Documentation

Resources needed

• Digitisation policy/ strategy/ plan

• Project statement/ plan

• Risk management framework

• Specific policies/ procedures

• Written agreements with donors and digitisers

• Passwords. Write them down.

Permission

Resources needed

• From your group

• From your stakeholders

• From your donors/ owners of the material

• From your funders

(ok, you need money as well – not this talk)

Care of your originals

Collection management

Care of your originals

• Are the items catalogued? (Does the catalogue make sense?)

• Are they securely stored?

• Do you know who owns what?

… things go missing.

Preservation management

Care of your originals

• put it in a box (controls light, humidity, physical safety)

• wrapped in plastic (anything except PVC)

• write on the enclosure, not the object

• only take it out when you have to

… things get old.

Relationship management

Care of your originals

• have some handling rules (gloves, induction)

• digitisation providers should be able to describe their security and preservation measures

• don’t break the original to digitise it

… things get dropped.

Further further reading

Care of your originals

National Standards for Museums and Galleries• http://www.collectionsaustralia.net/sector_info_item/107

Keeping Archives

Care of your copies

Hardware failure

Care of your copies

• backups, offsite preferably

• understand the limits of the storage technology

• checksums – or just look at your images every so often

Hardware obsolescence

Care of your copies

• migration, vary your storage options

• active management of collection

Software obsolescence

Care of your copies

• open formats(image formats have been stable for decades)

• open applications (separate the data from the program)

• plan for and budget migrations

Poor management and documentation

Care of your copies

• Bill is your IT guy. He has just fallen under a bus.

• Try not to implement systems you don’t understand.

Hardware failure

Digital Preservation

• backups, offsite preferably

• understand the limits of the storage technology

• checksums – or just look at your images every so often

Summary

Metadata

• All of your data needs to be easily extractable from the software it’s in.

• Create a simple file structure and make sure people stick to it.

• Manage your backups properly (no lending to people, manage your risks, NO shortcuts).

Getting images online

Originals and renditions

Getting images online

• xyz

Originals and renditions

Getting images online

Constraints on delivering raw images

• Connection speed and bandwidth

• Screen size and resolution

• Control over rights to the image

Options for publishing

Getting images online

• Don’t…

• Use existing commercial tools and services (Flickr, Facebook, eHive)

• Use existing community services (Victorian Collections)

• Your own site (Wordpress, Omeka)

What and why to put online

Getting images online

• Marketing your organisation (‘going viral’)

• Online archive (TROVE)

• Storytelling

• Online communities

Metadata and sharing images

Definition

Metadata

• Data about data (and data systems)

• Look at the data surrounding an imagein Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/

• Explore the Powerhouse Museum:

• http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/

• Metadata reading:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metadata

Metadata

• Think about how your existing data can be:

• Categorised into different functions (descriptive, discovery, preservation, etc.)

• Standardised (eg. Dublin Core) enabling matches with other collections and websites.

Metadata

• Important things to record:

– Identity (title, ‘control symbol’)

– Classification (subject, function)

– History (dates, purposes)

– [Description]

Identity

Metadata

• Some items may not have titles. What is the thing that distinguishes one item from the next in a collection?

• Remember physical cues not same as digital. Perhaps the filename of your image is the title?

• ‘Control Symbol’: Catalogue / collection / record-keeping number.

Classification

Metadata

• Information to manage items and help narrow down searches.

• Library: ‘subject’ – what is it about?

• Archive: ‘function’ – what does it do?

• Internet: ‘tagging’ – where did I put it again?

• Subject/ topic list for images: http://www.picturethesaurus.gov.au/

History

Metadata

• Archive/ Museum: ‘provenance’ – where is it from? (which collection, which donor)

• Management history: what has happened to it? ie., what date was it scanned?

• Scanning is another layer to existing management history that might be recorded in your collection database.

Description

Metadata

• Extended stories about item (mum on a bike)

• Description of physical original – dimensions, special features

• Description of digital copy – dpi, file format

Description

Metadata

• Extended stories about item (mum on a bike)

• Description of physical original – dimensions, special features

• Description of digital copy – dpi, file format

Description

Metadata

• Extended stories about item (mum on a bike)

• Description of physical original – dimensions, special features

• Description of digital copy – dpi, file format

Description

Metadata

• Extended stories about item (mum on a bike)

• Description of physical original – dimensions, special features

• Description of digital copy – dpi, file format

Q & A