Hidden Costs and Hidden Hours in Digitisation
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1. Funding bodies look for evidence of impact, use, and dissemination when evaluating digitization projects, as well as strong leadership, consideration of risks, and standards-compliant workflows. 2. Hidden costs in digitization projects often come from issues like licensing, copyright clearance, metadata creation and manipulation, and quality control, which can take up more time and resources than anticipated. 3. Developing partnerships, economies of scale, good resource discovery, and avoiding isolated resources can help digitization projects maximize value and impact.
Hidden Costs and Hidden Hours in Digitisation
- 1. Hidden Costs and Hidden Hours: A Funder’s Perspective on Digitisation Cilip Executive Briefing 26th March 2009 Alastair Dunning, JISC Programme Manager a.dunning @AT@ jisc.ac.uk 0203 006 6065 http://digitisation.jiscinvolve.org/
- 2. What funding bodies look for Breaking down some project costs Examples drawn from JISC Digitisation Programme Three strands, totalling >50 projects and £22m worth of funding, from 2004 to present
- 3. Speaking in capacity as working for JISC, HE focussed, but hopefully generic Equally, this is not just relevant for digitisation Peer-reviewers do the marking; often interpret criteria differently You can be unlucky with a good bid; expect to fail before succeeding . Winning teams show evidence of broader strategic thinking
- 4. Evidence of Impact and Use Testimonies from potential users Embedding in national curriculum and elsewhere Break down your audiences and target them Good dissemination and marketing Do not rely on historical significance – what makes your project special ? JISC Discmap and Impact Analysis Projects
- 5. Linking up with Others Ensuring good resource discovery (e.g. RLUK 19 th -century pamphlets project ) Improve Your Online Presence workshop Economies of scale in terms of equipment, software tools, delivery mechanisms Avoid creating isolated resources
- 6. Organisation Strong leadership where necessary Advisory and Steering Boards obligatory for larger projects Considered approach towards IPR Recognition of risks and work to be done Understanding of licensing beyond copyright clearance
- 7. Workflows and Standards Not the same emphasis as 5 years ago, but still important Use of existing standards, but also need for metadata manipulation Integrating Web 2.0 Innovative interfaces becoming a must User-generated data to contextualise your content?
- 8. Practical Matters Do what you are asked for not what you blindly want – use your strategy in imaginative ways. Preparation before bids – partners, strategies, pilot studies – proactive not reactive JISC has paid for servers and capture equipment, but do not exaggerate Other sources of funding – show value for money
- 9. JISC e-Content Call – Closes 1 st June 2009 Strand A – Developing Institutional Skills Economies of Scale for Digitisation and Delivery; new strategies for institutional digitisation Strand B – Enhancing Digital Content Improving metadata, resource discovery, usability etc. Only open to English and Welsh HEIs but partnerships are possible Future for digitisation is a little unclear Often some overlap in other JISC calls
- 10. Approximate figures – end of projects reports will finalise numbers Freeze Frame Polar Images British Cartoon Archive John Johnson Collection of Printed Ephemera East London Theatre Archive Mixture of photos, negatives, glass plates Prints & sketches of newspaper cartoons in various media Huge range or textual and printed material, playbills to cigarette cards Mainly theatre posters £523,490 – project cost £946,770 £1.764m £628,987 c.20,000 images c.15,000 images c.65,000 images c.15,000 images Largely done in-house Cost included significant metadata & hardware costs Mixed public private investment Many posters in fragile state
- 11. But each project had different scope so differences are to be expected!
- 12. Problems in digitisation often incur not extra costs, but take up more time, and involve more people within an institution Unclear lines of communication or weak management slow down projects with partners In the JISC Digitisation Programme , Transport, Licensing, Copyright Clearance, Metadata Creation, Metadata Manipulation, Quality Control all caused more problems than antcipated
- 13. This is a subjective approximation of project costs and time spent on the East London Theatre Archive Project
- 14. This is a subjective approximation of project costs and time spent on phase 2 of the Archival Sound Recordings Project
- 15. If you have serious ambitions for digitisation, a broader strategy is required Think about audiences and impact Build your metadata and reuse it Data capture will be the least of your problems, unless doing it for first time.