Subject: BEST PRACTICES: Selection & Preservation
David Green (david@ninch.org)
Date: Tue, 8 Sep 1998 14:50:21 -0500
Message-Id: <v04011708b218746f8e16@[207.223.177.184]> Date: Tue, 8 Sep 1998 14:50:21 -0500 To: ninch-announce@cni.org From: David Green <david@ninch.org> Subject: BEST PRACTICES: Selection & Preservation
NINCH ANNOUNCEMENT
SEPTEMBER 6, 1998
SELECTING RESEARCH COLLECTIONS FOR DIGITIZATION
Council on Library and Information Resources, $15
Abstract & ordering information:
http://www.clir.org/pubs/abstract/pub74.html
A STRATEGIC POLICY FRAMEWORK FOR CREATING AND PRESERVING DIGITAL COLLECTIONS
<http://ahds.ac.uk/manage/framework.htm>
CREATING A VIABLE SCHOLARLY DATA RESOURCE
<http://ahds.ac.uk/deposit/viable.html>
Below I'm introducing three important publications for those engaged with
networking cultural resources.
The first, "Selecting Research Collections for Digitization," published by
CLIR, is a compact 18-page essay focusing on the practical questions faced
by the keepers of resources about what to digitize.
The others are two British publications of the Arts and Humanities Data
Service focusing on digital preservation issues. One is an extended outline
of the policy questions to be considered by those digitizing material that
emphasizes the different questions faced often by different people at
different stages of the life-cycle of digitized material. The other,
"Creating a Viable Scholarly Data Resource," is a shorter "information
leaflet" designed to give practical advice and generic good practices for
those digitizing material to ensure long-term access.
On an interim version of the longer AHDS publication, "A Strategic Policy
Framework," The Scout Report issued the following brief review:
"The study presents thirteen recommendations in the areas of long-term
digital preservation, standards, the policy framework, and future research.
Six case studies highlight some of the real-life considerations concerning
digital preservation. At a time when content providers and libraries are
racing headlong toward digitization of information resources, this study
provides critical guidance."
Internet Scout Review, Volume 5, Number 2, 8 May 1998
David Green
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SELECTING RESEARCH COLLECTIONS FOR DIGITIZATION
One of a series of papers designed to address selection policy questions in
networking resources, "Selecting Research Collections for Digitization," is
a notably useful and practical publication, organized around a series of
questions the authors suggest should be asked by any institution planning
to digitize material.
Questions are organized under broad headings:
Copyright
The Intellectual Nature of the Source Materials
Current and potential users
Actual and Anticiapted Nature of Use
The Format and nature of the Digital product
Describing, Delivering and Retaining the Digital product
Relationships to Other Digital Efforts
Costs and Benefits.
The booklet includes a "Decision-Making Matrix" or flow chart that takes
the decision-maker from early questions such as: "Does the material have
sufficient intrinsic value to ensure interest in a digital product?; Will
digitization significantly enhance access;" and What goals might be met by
digitizing?" to later considerations of the costs of scanning, the
availability of an infrastructure to create manage and deliver digital
products; the types of scanning; the kind of cataloging and metadata
creation required; and the range of archiving and preservation of data.
As the conclusion of this paper puts it:
"The process of deciding what to digitize anticipates all the major stages
of project implementation. Digital resources depend on the nature and
importance of the original source materials, but also on the nature and
quality of the digitizing process itself--on how well relvant information
is captured from the original, and then on how the digital data are
organized, indexed, delivered to users, and maintained over time.
Disciplined efforts to address the themes and questions outlined in this
essay will help ensure that new digitizing projects fulfil the expectations
of libraries, students and scholars."
David Green
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A STRATEGIC POLICY FRAMEWORK FOR CREATING AND PRESERVING DIGITAL COLLECTIONS
<http://ahds.ac.uk/manage/framework.htm>
>From: Neil Beagrie <neil.beagrie@ahds.ac.uk>
>To: david@ninch.org
>Subject: AHDS Digital Preservation Study - final report and publication
"A Strategic Policy Framework for Creating and Preserving
Digital Collections"
The final version of this study by the Arts and Humanities Data Service
for the UK Digital Archiving Working Group is now available on the web at
<http://ahds.ac.uk/manage/framework.htm>
The report addresses the critical issue of developing a strategic policy
framework for the creation and long-term preservation of those digital
resources which will form our future cultural and intellectual heritage.
Case studies demonstrate how issues identified in the framework have been
addressed by organisations in different business environments. A summary of
best practice and standards in implementing the framework is also included.
The Report will be printed by the JISC as eLib Supporting Study No P3 (ISBN
1 900508 47 8) and is expected to be available at the end of September
1998. Cost will be £20 GBP plus postage and packing. Further information
and an order form will be available from
<http://www.sbu.ac.uk/litc/supstud.html> on publication. Details of the
other preservation studies in the series will also be available as they are
published at this web address.
The report has also been published as an on demand report by the British
Library Research and Innovation Centre. Further details below and on the
Centre's web pages at <http://www.bl.uk/services/ric/publications/>
A strategic policy framework for creating and preserving digital
collections: a report to the Digital Archiving Working Group by Neil
Beagrie and Daniel Greenstein
[61]p
BLR&I report 107
ISBN 0712397140
report category: on demand. Copies can be obtained from:
British Thesis Service,The British Library Document Supply Centre, Boston
Spa,Wetherby, West Yorkshire LS23 7BQ
tel: +44 1937 546229; fax: +44 1937 546286; email:
dsc-british-thesis-service@bl.uk
The charges for on demand copies are:
microfiche £5.00 UK; £6.00 overseas
photocopy £12.00 UK: £17.00 overseas
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CREATING A VIABLE SCHOLARLY DATA RESOURCE
<http://ahds.ac.uk/deposit/viable.html>
Subject: "Creating a Viable Scholarly Data Resource"
From: Neil Beagrie <neil.beagrie@ahds.ac.uk>
A new Information Leaflet from AHDS "Creating a Viable Scholarly Data
Resource" is now available on the AHDS website at:
http://ahds.ac.uk/deposit/viable.html
This Information Leaflet is intended to inform humanities researchers and
teachers about steps they can take to ensure that data resources they
create today are accessible to them,and possibly to others in future
despite numerous and unpredictable changes in computer technologies.
The good practices recommended in these pages are generic and as
such intended for application to digital resources of any type
(text, database, image, sound, multimedia,etc.) and from any discipline
(linguistics, visual arts, music, history,philosophy,
archaeology). Signposting to more detailed advice from AHDS
Service Providers about applications as appropriate to particular
data types and subjects, and to particular computer applications, is
provided in the appendix.
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Neil Beagrie Tel: +44 (0)171 873 5076
Collections and Standards Officer Fax: +44 (0)171 873 5080
The Executive
Arts and Humanities Data Service Email: neil.beagrie@ahds.ac.uk
King's College London
Strand, London WC2R 2LS, UK
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===============================================================
David L. Green
Executive Director
NATIONAL INITIATIVE FOR A NETWORKED CULTURAL HERITAGE
21 Dupont Circle, NW
Washington DC 20036
www-ninch.cni.org
david@cni.org
202/296-5346 202/872-0884 fax
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