Presentation by Digitisation Project Manager Matthew Brack on things to think about when doing digitisation projects, for our fourth Digitisation Open Day.

1. Digitisation Open Day
Doing Projects
30 January 2014
Matthew Brack
Digitisation Project Manager

2. Wellcome Digital Library Programme
10 ‘laws’ of digitisation
These are personal views based on experience of doing digitisation at Wellcome Library…

3. #1: Know your purpose
(“Thou shalt observe real users
and keep them holy”)
Obvious but important: who are you doing digitisation for? Knowing the answer
to that question will affect every subsequent decision you make in your project.

4. Digitisation Open Day
SELECTION
DIGITISATION
DELIVERY
You need to ensure that this common purpose is shared by all project stakeholders and
is a thread running through the whole process from the very beginning to the end.

5. #2: Know Project Management
If you’ve never run a digitisation project before and only do one thing to prepare:
study project management. Your project is more likely to succeed with an
understanding of project management than a technical understanding of digitisation.

6. Digitisation Open Day
The nature of digitisation

7. Digitisation Open Day
METADATA
SYSTEMS
RETRIEVAL
CAPTURE
CONSERVATION
FINAL PREP

8. #3: There is no ‘best practice’
We can tell you how we created our digital library, but it’s unlikely that anyone is
going to be able to leave today and, even with a blank check, put that into practice
to solve their particular problems – there are too many variables.

9. Digitisation Open Day
Digitisation Doctor in a slide
Got general questions about digitisation?
The answer will always be: “It depends”

10. #4: There are no simple projects
(especially at the beginning)

11. Digitisation Open Day
Project problems
post-mortem:
Machinery issues
Retrieval across 30
collections, 4 floors,
2 buildings, 2 states
of access
Copyright clearance
in parallel
12% of selection not
found
Display issues

12. #5: Imaging is the quickest step
The imaging step is dwarfed by preceding preparation and subsequent digital asset
management processes, yet it’s the most visible aspect of any digitisation project.

13. 215B STACKS
1.22 STORAGE
CONSERVATION
1.21 DIADEIS
BOOKS IN
STACKS
START
CONDITION?
NO
NOTE
CATALOGUING
IN
SCOPE
1a
YES
FAIR
STAY ON
SHELF
REPAIR
7
1c
NO
PRINT
CAT?
BOX
ONLINE
CAT?
1b
POOR
8
YES
GENERATE
SHELF
LIST
NOTE
NO
1d
1.22
STORE
TO
CATALOGUE?
SINGLE
SHELF
LISTS
DUPLICATE
CHECK
YES
9
2
CATALOGUE
3
SORT
BY
SIZE
4
10
1.22
STORE
CHECK
OUT
CHECK
OUT
5
DIGITISE
NOT OK
6
LARGER
UPDATE
SHELF
LIST
11
RETURN TO
SHELF
OK
CON
ASSESS
1.22
STORE
NO WAY
Imaging step
within a
preparation
workflow

14. #6: Metadata is really important
(see Dave Thompson’s presentation)
Lacking good metadata is an existential threat to your project – without it your
digital content will simply disappear and never be seen by users.

15. Digitisation Open Day
Metadata
• Digital objects „don‟t exist‟ without metadata – no search, no
discovery
• Metadata first, then digitisation – otherwise you don‟t know what
you have, where it is, or any way of controlling it…
• On average 50% of project time is spent on metadata and
cataloguing
• Must be shaped by user need and what an organisation is
capable of delivering
• Tension between low-volume digitisation with more metadata
for a richer user experience or larger-scale digitisation with
lighter metadata attached
• Standards-based framework helpful for consistency, accuracy
and efficiency in metadata input (e.g. Dublin Core, MARC21)

16. Digitisation Open Day
Metadata examples

17. #7: It’s lots of small tasks
(repeated over and over…)

18. Digitisation Open Day
Tracking and retrieval
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Generate unique ID
Create ‘scan list’
Create „review file‟
Make unavailable to users
Create barcodes
Retrieve items
Insert barcodes
Deliver items for imaging
Update tracking list
[Re-work]
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
Return
Remove barcodes
Update tracking list
Make available to users
Pray for no more re-work
Repeat for next batch

19. #8: Digi can damage your stuff
(but not as much as you’d think)

20. Digitisation Open Day
Conservation
• Most damage to collections comes from handling
• Digitisation handles collections intensively in
new ways
• Survey to develop image capture approach and identify
out of scope material
• Survey detail depends on collection
• Training for photographers and digital preparators
• Actual preparation of materials (staples, openings)
• Digitisation is not preservation

21. #9: Digitisation is not preservation
This should not be a guiding principle of your project:
Generally your original physical material is going to last much longer than your
digital manifestation – no competition.
You’ve just created a second collection of material that you need to ‘preserve’
and manage.
Preservation doesn’t mean much in a digital context – it’s actually a
contradiction from traditional usage, which succeeds by restricting access –
what we are interested in is sustainable access.

22. #10: Copyright + sensitivity =
workflow

23. Digitisation Open Day
Copyright and sensitivity
• UK copyright law is lagging behind the needs of
today‟s economy
• UK copyright is held by the creator and not the owner of
a work, making a rights risk assessment essential for
most projects
• Rights clearance of works on an item-by-item
basis is unworkable in the context of mass
digitisation
• Small organisations without legal support are
unlikely to take the risk of digitising orphan works, or
anything else that carries potential copyright risk

24. Digitisation Open Day
ProQuest EEB Project Overview
Project Scope:
14,000 books
5.5 million images
Incunabula to 1700
Printed outside UK
Access in UK and
HINARI – 15 years
3600 books now online: http://eeb.chadwyck.com

25. Digitisation Open Day
Phase 2 projects
Reading Room / Project X
Forensics and
Sex temporary
exhibitions
Western Manuscripts 1000-1650

26. Digitisation Open Day
Useful resources
THORNTON, E. (2013) Digitisation Doctor Workshop. 15th April 2013.
Available from: http://blog.wellcomelibrary.org/2013/05/resources-fromdigitisation-doctor-workshop-now-available
HENSHAW, C. and KILEY, R. (2013) The Wellcome Library, Digital.
Ariadne. July 2013. Available from:
http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue71/henshaw-kiley
JISC, Project Management for Digitisation, JISC Digital Media. Available
from: http://www.jiscdigitalmedia.ac.uk/guide/project-management-fora-digitisation-project
BRACK, M. (2012) Bridging the Gap: Library digital collections, innovation
and the user. Thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements
of King‟s College London for the Degree of Masters in Digital Asset
Management. Available from: http://nsla.org.au/publication/bridginggap-library-digital-collections-innovation-and-user

27. Digitisation Open Day
Thanks
m.brack@wellcome.ac.uk
@WellcomeDigital
@MatthewBrack