Digitisation is a process in which we seek to find a digital future from the material cultures and intellectual objects of the past. We seek to reflect upon these to gain new insights and possibly even fresh enlightenment. But as Paul the apostle stated in 1 Corinthians 13:12: “we see through a glass, darkly” and have an obscure or imperfect vision. Simon Tanner hopes in this keynote he will add light by sharing his reflections upon the benefits and value of digitization to research and scholarship. Further he will seek to provoke debate and discussion – can we see more clearly by using digitization as a means to investigate the past? Keynote given at: https://clarkestudios.wordpress.com/symposium-programme/abstracts/ Podcast of presentation here: https://soundcloud.com/tlrhub/session-2part-3-digital-collections-keynote

1. @SimonTanner
Through a glass, darkly –
Reflections upon digitisation
Simon Tanner
Department of
Digital Humanities,
King’s College London
Image: cvma.ac.uk
06/02/2015 12:18 ENC Public Talk 19 February 2013 1

2. Digital Humanities:
the application of digital technology to humanities disciplines
reflection upon the impact of digital media upon humanity
> 50 academics & researchers
~ £2.5 million research income per annum
>5 million digital objects, 130+projects
200+million hits over 5 years: 2009-2013
www.kcl.ac.uk/ddh/

3. Why not go where they are?

8. cvma.ac.uk

9. cvma.ac.uk
Beverley Minster in Yorkshire

10. cvma.ac.uk
Blisland: Sts Protus and Hyacinth, Cornwall

11. cvma.ac.uk
Beverley Minster in Yorkshire

12. The purpose of digitisation:
to educate, enlighten & entertain
Memory organisations are where a
community nourishes its
memory, imagination & creativity.
Where it connects with the past
& invents its future.

13. Curation Challenges & Unfunded Mandates
Digitisation
Web Archiving
Collection Development
Material heritage
Intellectual
heritage
Digital Preservation
Virtual
heritage
Web 2.0 /
Interactive heritage
Born digital
Preservation
&
Conservation

14. www.kdcs.kcl.ac.uk/innovation/inspiring.html

15. “Old Bailey Online reaches out to communities, such as family
historians, who are keen to find a personal history, reflected in a
national story... Digital resources both create a new audience, and
reconfigure our analysis to favour the individual.”
Professor Tim Hitchcock, University of Hertfordshire
“Digitised resources allow me to discover the hidden lives of
disabled people, who have not traditionally left records of their
lives. I have found disability was discussed by many writers in the
Eighteenth Century and that disabled men and women played
an important role in the social life of the time.”
Dr David Turner, Swansea University
www.kdcs.kcl.ac.uk/innovation/inspiring.html
New areas of research enabled

16. Effective, efficient and world leading
www.kdcs.kcl.ac.uk/innovation/inspiring.html

17. Bringing
collections out
of the dark

18. f. 23 detail

19. Digitising the
Dead Sea Scrolls

20. http://simon-tanner.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/when-crowdsourcing-was-called.html
Telecrofting - a tale of Puffins
Shetland Isles Museum and Archives
http://photos.shetland-museum.org.uk/

22. A Digital Death Spiral?

23. “digitisation = funding”
“Digital is everything today”
“who knows how much
it’ll cost, but digital’s
bound to be wonderful”
“Planning is so 20th Century, let’s be Agile”
“cos our competition / Google / my mate is doing it”
“cos if we build it, they will come!”
Signs you are in the Digital Death Spiral

25. @SimonTanner
Through a glass, darkly –
Reflections upon digitisation
Simon Tanner
Department of
Digital Humanities,
King’s College London
Image: cvma.ac.uk
06/02/2015 12:18 ENC Public Talk 19 February 2013 25

26. @SimonTanner@SimonTanner
www.kdcs.kcl.ac.uk/innovation/us-art.html
Charging Models & Rights Strategy for Images in Museums

27. @SimonTanner@SimonTanner
www.kdcs.kcl.ac.uk/innovation/inspiring.html
Inspiring Research, Inspiring Scholarship

28. @SimonTanner@SimonTanner
www.kdcs.kcl.ac.uk/innovation/impact.html
The Balanced Value Impact Model