UKOLN - Interoperability Focus

Think Digital: Best Practices for Digital Resources across the Cultural Heritage Sector Workshop

This was a one-day workshop held in Houghton Library, Houghton-le-Spring, Co Durham on Thursday 10th November 2005. It was jointly facilitated by UKOLN, North East Museums Libraries and Archives (NEMLAC) and the Arts and Humanities Data Service (AHDS), and targeted at museum, library and archive staff. The audience included:

digital project planners / developers,
digital project officers
people engaged in cataloging and documentation
Web masters / managers
people responsible for image libraries
people responsible for the promotion of digital resources
people developing eLearning resources
representatives from organisations who use scanners or digital cameras

Number of delegates: 20 - 40

Date

The event was run on Thursday 10th November 2005 between 10am and 4pm. Lunch was be provided.

Location

The event is to be held at Houghton Library, Houghton-le-Spring, Co Durham. Houghton-le-Spring is on the road between Durham and Sunderland. There is no rail link, but there are regular buses from both Durham and Sunderland railway stations. The journey takes 30 minutes and a timetable (excel) is available.

Location details for the library can be found on the Houghton Library and Learning Centre Web site.

Booking

The event is free* to NEMLAC members. Subject to availability, non-members can request a place at the event at a cost of £50 (they will be informed of their place 2 weeks prior to the event).

* NEMLAC members who secure a place, but fail to attend the event with informing NEMLAC before 28th October 2005, will be invoiced £50 to cover the costs incurred by NEMLAC.

If you are interested in attending this event please contact Linda Wright [linda.n.wright@nemlac.co.uk]. For any other queries regarding the event please contact Neil Bowerbank [neil.bowerbank@nemlac.co.uk].

Abstract

The UK public sector funds the creation of a significant amount of digital content; much of which is produced by the cultural heritage sector. This workshop will consider some of the best practices needed to develop usable, functional and interoperable resources that will support the community. It will do so through presentations, demonstrations of good practice in action and exploration of some of the chief resources available, such as the Good Practice Guide for Developers of Cultural Heritage Web Services (GPG).

Areas covered include:

the importance of standards and examples of implementation of standards
the implications of 'not doing things properly'
case studies of successful (and unsuccessful) digitisation projects
why digitise? - considering the rationale behind a proposed project
how to plan a digital project, devise a digitisation strategy and incorporate the appropriate standards
the key aspects of a digitisation project
engaging with commercial suppliers
how to add value to material
promotion of good practice resources including the Good Practice Guide for Developers of Cultural Heritage Web Services (GPG).and QA Focus documents
consideration of ways to improve best practice

The format of the day will consist of presentations, break-out sessions, group work and discussions.

Facilitators

Alastair Dunning, AHDS
Marieke Guy, UKOLN
Emma Tonkin, UKOLN

Programme

10:00 - 10:30	Registration and Coffee
10:30 - 10:40	Introduction to the day	MG
Session 1: Generic Overview
10:40 - 11:00	Presentation: Best Practices for Digital Resources across the Cultural Heritage Sector	MG
11:00 - 11:30	Presentation: Real World Examples of Good Practice	ET
Session 2: Workshop Groups
11:30 - 12:20	Breakout groups: Round Table Real life Issues	All
12:20 - 12:30	Feedback from groups	All
12:30 - 1:30	Lunch
Session 3: Focus on digitisation
1:30 - 2:15	Presentation: What happens when you digitise? An introduction to some key themes	AD
2:30 - 3:00	Presentation: A Whirlwind Tour of Good Practice Resources	MG
3:00 - 3:15	Coffee
3:15 - 3:30	Presentation: Digitisation - Other Issues	AD
3:30 - 3:45	Feedback and final thoughts	All
3:45 - 4:00	Surgery session	All

Materials

Slides

Introduction to the Day: [MS PowerPoint 97/2000 format] - [HTML format]
Best Practices for Digital Resources across the Cultural Heritage Sector: [MS PowerPoint 97/2000 format] - [HTML format]
Digitisation Case Studies: [MS PowerPoint 97/2000 format] - [HTML format]
What happens when you digitise? An introduction to some key themes: [MS PowerPoint 97/2000 format] - [HTML format] - not available - too many images
A Whirlwind Tour of Good Practice Resources: [MS PowerPoint 97/2000 format] - [HTML format]
Digitisation - Other Issues: [MS PowerPoint 97/2000 format] - [HTML format]

Exercises

Exercise 1: Real life Issues: [MS Word]
Feedback Form: [MS Word]

Handouts

Particpants will receive a number of handouts including the following.

The Digitisation Process: an introduction to some key themes: AHDS Information Paper
The Digitisation Process: Good Practice Guide for Developers of Cultural Heritage Web Services
Documenting Digitisation Workflow: QA Focus briefing document no. 20
Choosing A Suitable Digital Rights Solution: QA Focus briefing document no. 22
Choosing An Appropriate Raster Image Format: QA Focus briefing document no. 28
Improving The Quality Of Digitised Images: QA Focus briefing document no. 66
Choosing A Suitable Digital Watermark: QA Focus briefing document no. 76

Annotations For Workshop

Wikalong: You can use the Wikalong page to provide your comments on this workshop.
Wikalong Extension For Firefox: If you are using the Firefox browser you can install the Wikalong sidebar.

URLs Mentioned During Workshop

The following URLs will be mentioned during the workshop.

Key Digitisation Resources

The Technical Advisory Service for Images: http://www.tasi.ac.uk/
Arts and Humanities Data Service (AHDS): http://ahds.ac.uk/
GPG - Good Practice Guide for Developers of Cultural Heritage Web Services Higher Education Digitisation Service: http://heds.herts.ac.uk/
QA Focus: http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/qa-focus/

Digitisation Organisations

Visual Resources Association (VRA): http://vraweb.org/
The International Imaging Industry Association: http://www.i3a.org/
BAPLA- British Association of Picture Libraries and Agencies: http://www.bapla.org/
Ministerial Network for Valorising Activities in Digitisation (MINERVA): http://www.minervaeurope.org
NINCH: http://www.nyu.edu/its/humanities/ninchguide/

JISC Services

The British Universities Film and Video Council (BUFVC): http://www.bufvc.ac.uk/
Centre For Educational Technology Interoperability Standards (CETIS): http://www.cetis.ac.uk/
The UK Data Archive (UKDA): http://www.data-archive.ac.uk/
EDINA: http://www.edina.ac.uk/
JISCinfoNet: http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/
JISCmail: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/
JISC Legal Information Service: http://www.jisclegal.ac.uk/
The Managing Agent and Advisory Service for Moving Pictures and Sound (MAAS): http://www.bufvc.ac.uk/maas/
Manchester Information and Associated Services (MIMAS): http://www.mimas.ac.uk/
Netskills: http://www.netskills.ac.uk/
open source software advisory service (OSS Watch): http://www.oss-watch.ac.uk/
Plagiarism Advisory Service: http://www.jiscpas.ac.uk/
The Resource Discovery Network (RDN): http://www.rdn.ac.uk/
TechDis: http://www.techdis.ac.uk/
Techlearn: http://www.jisc.ac.uk/techlearn_home.html
TechWatch: http://www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name=techwatch_home
UKOLN: http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/
Video Technology Advisory Service (VTAS): http://www.video.ja.net/

Web Standards

World Wide Web Consortium (W3C): http://www.w3.org/
Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF): http://www.ietf.org/
ECMA International: http://www.ecma-international.org/
W3C CSS Validator: http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/

Web site Checking

NetMechanic: http://www.netmechanic.com/
Doctor HTML: http://www.doctor-html.com/
Bobby: http://bobby.watchfire.com/bobby/html/en
WAVE: http://wave.webaim.org/
W3C HTML Validation Service: http://validator.w3.org/
Link Popularity: http://www.linkpopularity.com/
Browser Emulator: http://www.dejavu.org/

Metadata

Dublin Core Metadata Initiative: http://dublincore.org/
Art and Architecture Thesaurus: http://www.getty.edu/
MARC Standards: http://www.loc.gov/marc/
W3C Resource Description Framework (RDF): http://www.w3.org/RDF/
Open Archives Initiative (OAI): http://www.openarchives.org/
UKOLN Metadata pages: http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/metadata/
Metadata Encoding and Transmission standard (METS): http://www.loc.gov/standards/mets/

Intellectual Property Rights

The Copyright Licensing Agency: http://www.cla.co.uk
Design and Artists Copyright Society (DACS): http://www.dacs.co.uk/
PADI - Intellectual property rights management: http://www.nla.gov.au/padi/topics/28.html
Creative Commons,: http://creativecommons.org/
Copyleft?: http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/copyleft.html
Athens Access Management Systems: http://www.athens.ac.uk/
Information Commissioner's Office: http://www.dataprotection.gov.uk/

Preservation

Digital Curation Centre: http://www.dcc.ac.uk/
Cedars (CURL Exemplars in Digital Archives): http://www.leeds.ac.uk/cedars
Digital Information Office: http://dio.cdlr.strath.ac.uk/
Digital Preservation Project: http://www.lib.ed.ac.uk/digpres/
National Preservation Office (NPO): http://www.bl.uk/services/npo/npo.html
OCLC/RLG Preservation Metadata Working Group: http://www.oclc.org/research/projects/pmwg/

Public Sector Organisations

The Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA): http://www.mla.gov.uk/
Art Libraries Society: http://www.arlis.org.uk/
British Library: http://www.bl.uk/
The Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP): http://www.cilip.org.uk/
Museum Documentation Association (MDA): http://www.mda.org.uk/
Research Libraries Group (RLG): http://www.rlg.org/

Standards Organisations

Commission Internationale de l'Eclairage (CIE): http://www.cie.co.at/
International Standards Organisation (ISO): http://www.iso.org/iso/en/ISOOnline.frontpage
National Information Standards Organisation (NISO): http://www.niso.org/

Toolkits

TASI Toolbox: http://www.tasi.ac.uk/resources/toolbox.html
QA Focus: http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/qa-focus/toolkit/
Dublin Core: http://au.dublincore.org/tools/
RLG Tools for Digital Imaging: http://www.rlg.org/en/page.php?Page_ID=408
DCC Tools: http://www.dcc.ac.uk/tools/digital-curation-tools/
NEMLAC: http://www.nemlac.co.uk/nemlac/page.php3?375

Interoperability Focus: Events