Learning the lessons David Dawson MLA Museums libraries

Learning the lessons … David Dawson

MLA • Museums, libraries and archives building a successful and creative nation by connecting people to knowledge and inspiration – increase and sustain participation – put museums, libraries and archives at the heart of national, regional and local life – establish a world class and sustainable sector – lead sector strategy and policy development

Department for Culture, Media & Sport MLA English Heritage National Museums British Library Arts Council National Lottery BBC, Sport England etc

How is digitisation funded? • MLA – Renaissance in the Regions – c £ 5 m pa • National Lottery – NOF-digitise programme £ 50 m – Heritage Lottery Fund – continuing • JISC funding – digitisation programme • Government Departments – policy-led initiatives • commercial / private

Digitisation Programme 1 • Online Historical Population Reports • The project will digitise UK census reports (18011937) into a new e-resource of all pre-1939 UK population statistics. • Free access in the public domain. • British Library 19 th Century British Newspapers: • Will digitise 2 million pages of selected UK national, regional & local newspapers from 1800 -1900. • Free access in the public domain. • British Library Archival Sound Recordings • Will encode 3, 900 hours of oral history, field recordings of traditional and improvised music, rare or deleted classical and popular music recordings, . • Access to UK institutions only, except out-ofcopyright recordings.

How are choices made? • ‘reactive’ models – bids-based – NOF-digitise = open bidding, evidence required of user need • demand-led – British Academy study – JISC digitisation programme 1 open call 2 community feedback 3 informed decision-making – MLA / Becta consultation with teachers

Digitisation Programme 2 • 18 th Century Parliamentary Papers • Will digitise 945, 000 pages of all surviving 18 th century House of Commons and house of Lords Papers, Bills, Journals and Reports. • News. Film Online • Will encode 3, 000 hours from Independent Television News and Reuters Television. • Access to encodings for UK institutions only. • Medical Journals Backfiles • Will digitise 1. 7 million pages of high impact UK and US medical journals e. g. the British Medical Journal, Annals of Surgery etc using an open access model. • Free access in the public domain.

How is digitisation ‘done’? • much in-house – particularly where metadata creation / conservation major issues – capacity-building • some bureau capability – commercial vendors – in-house bureau on a cost recovery basis – specialised equipment • moving images • high volume book scanning • off-shore – re-keying / high volume – low conservation risk

www. culturenetcymru. com

Constraints on access • public funding = public access – but for defined communities • particularly HE / FE • Creative Archive – mixed model • open access for low quality versions • charged services for high quality / print – British Pathe / Census Records – models changing to reflect different educational environment • cross-phase, National Education Network – publishers interested in new digital model for public library lending

www. bfi. org. uk

Sustainability • • • charged services new project funding organisational change new audiences meeting policy objectives performance indicators

www. britishpathe. com

Digitisation and preservation • education, education – access can only be built on sound collections management processes – taken into account by some funders • MLA Renaissance Programme • built into funding – may be assessed, but if no services … • Digital Preservation Coalition – but few real-life preservation services – www. dpconline. org

www. finds. org. uk

Co-ordination • JISC/CURL report – Nov 2005 – £ 130 m of public investment • programmes sometimes unstructured, piecemeal and fragmented – recommended setting up a UK task force • clear guidelines on standards • single point of access to services and information services • greater attention to user needs

Co-ordination - EU • National Representatives Group – established under e. Europe Action Plan to co-ordinate national digitisation policies • Action Plan launched under UK Presidency of the EU • Technical Standards • project to create an inventory of digital content

Co-ordination - EU • • European Digital Library initiative led by France based on Member State Programmes added value at a European level – multi-linguality, IPR etc – competence centres • Culture Ministers debated digitisation for 2 hours …

www. michael-culture. org

Co-ordination - UK • meeting challenge of JISC/CURL report – taken forward by Common Information Environment Group – e. Content Framework • initial workplan agreed – partners • JISC, MLA, Becta, Df. ES, BBC, British Library, e. Science and the Research Councils, National Electronic Library for Health – The National Archives, Research Information Network, English Heritage, DCMS, Scottish Library and Information Council …