NDF 2016 Digitisation 101 Workshop

Editor's Notes

• #17: May be a bit of cross over between my comments and Davids slides, but I am giving NLNZ perspective. My experience – 10 years – copying as a service, now increasing demand for collection items to be digitised – NLNZ strategy document mentions this frequently. We are boutique and not mass, yet demand is moving in this direction. Programme work, projects that arise, specific collections being identified, opportuntites related to historical celebrations…. Key thing is to have a plan, and follow it as best you can. Think careful around reasons for doing this work, easy to be blinded by high expectations – what is achievable with resources available How do you locate funding? What are risks, challenges – in-house v external provider- More control in house, compromises on both sides. Consider collections, have one already to go, with good records, conservation completed, less resources needed. If collections are restricted to on-site viewing why digitise ? All persons at library can view. They can request original anyway! Commitment of staff time needs to be identified across teams. Existing staff what do they need to do, Conservation, A&D, IT. Define timeframe, budget restricts. Over runs, extension without resources will result in BAU resolving, can be a headache. “Capture once, use many times” Standards can be copied, or you define your own by adjusting to your needs – eg – PM / MM 6 bit v 8 bit – Tiff v jpeg 2000 – colour managing - Equipment options a plenty – just scope what your budget allows. Lots of advice you can get. IT, server needs. Get in early with requirements to allow for having in place. Good idea to test workflows, have a flexible approach in first stage/ quarter. Correct and improve if possible. Quality assurance, Control essential , will save in long term. Key to have trainer who can easily share workflows, and engage with project worker so they become champions of collections
• #18: Existing H-series war negatives collection completed a number of years ago – Now free to download WWI Music scores, existing Programme work and public order demands Manuscripts curator – David Colquhoun / Sean McMahon– digitise to make accessible off site. Timeline – David Adams, Imaging Services Co-ordinator Recruitment – Ish Dooney – Graduate of Massey Photography degree program Limited amount of conservation work – Most diaries already boxed thanks to previous work. Legacy equipment form pictures online project used. Acquired new lights. Claire involved in training Ish over number of weeks. Use of presets, actions to speed things up. Imaging Services will likely lead such projects in future. Again good recruitment, meant Ish was very invested in work she was doing. Wrote some articles And a blog. 28,000 pages from soldiers’ diaries and private letters, digtised – 70 items – At end of project managed to extend Ish contractto complete some Donor copying
• #19: Use of dual screens, essential supports used
• #20: Assortment of items digitised as part of WWI Diaries project
• #21: Ish Doney – at setup used- Fingers instead of glass
• #22: Image showing collection of front covers, letters digitised as part of War diaries project. This image was used in WWI exhibtion, book cover, as part of WW100 remembrance at memorial park
• #23: Pre-existing donor agreements required this work to be completed. Work had started in 2014 on Stout papers – but not completed. Not BAU – support from Crown ….. asset Project space in place – copy stand+ equipment available. Recruitment – good to have casuals – if possible – time limits trianing, so need self starter who picks things up quickly. Identify what is desirable in candidate – Photography background, attention to detail, reptitive nature of work etc New workflow- agreed standard with Curator – Used Lightroom, direct import with Dslr remote pro in live view to ease alignment and enable instant QA as work done. Presets to process – Good working excel sheet for Project Photographer to tick off steps as completed. By second week Camus working independently – close contact with trainer + MS curator + curator Nature of folders, meant underestimation of numbers blow out from 4600 to over 6000 Collection of photographs which needed processing under our standards with PM and MM – Project extended by 5 weeks – we still ran out of time – so tidy up to be completed by Imaging as part of BAU. Outcomes – papers and photographs entirely copied – PDFs supplied to donors – Camus was so invested in project that he completed blog in relation to WW100 and Rudolph Gray. We adjusted some of our standards to fit project needs and speed. Fixed height of camera. Use of Canon 5DS for Photographs.
• #24: Camus Wyatt – Project Photographer – Donor copying project Background as documentary photographer, some experience in dealing with archives
• #25: Portrait of Anna Paterson Logan (later Stout), 9 July 1874 Ref: PAColl-10309-02-01 MS-Papers-11518-103_002 - Letter from Sir Robert Stout to his wife
• #26: MSX-9368 – Letter Book 2 Randolph Norman Gray - Letter book by Gray describing the time spent stationed at the military camp at Heliopolis near the pyramids in Egypt, including marches, visits to local markets, guided camel tours and other excursions during periods of leave. MS-Papers-11756-5-086-Correspondence, chiefly in German, relating to efforts made by Helmut to emigrate from Germany to a country that was willing to accept him. During this time Helmut made efforts to migrate to Sweden, United States, United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand.
• #27: Ref: PAColl-10493-3-16 Carte de visite portrait of Thomas Duncan Macgregor Stout as a child, between 1889 and 1890. Photograph taken by David Alexander De Maus (Port Chalmers) during New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition at Dunedin. Ref: PAColl-10309-12-17 Studio portrait of Thomas Duncan Macgregor Stout in military uniform during World War Two, circa 1940-1945. Photographer unidentified.
• #37: Established in 1990s – not much to compare with – standards defined primarily by equipment abilities. Legacy files vary greatly – Scanning from analog to digitise – so inconsistent colours due to film & nature of how they were digitised at time. Ok to update change. “Capture once, use many times” - were mistakes made in this period – were collections digitised with short use in mind – web only Establishment of standards by larger institutions, Library of Congress,NARA British Library, Getty etc. Equipment changes, Betterlight scanning back, High quality monitors- Gretagmacbeth, Xrite monitor profiling - 2005 NLNZ Imaging Standards – followed existing guidelines – 2013 – review of output standards only – some changes – programme digitisation – eg Manuscripts – MM only kept. We don’t outline based on Dpi/ PPI as confusion caused as this will vary depending on format of item and scale. Link to Imaging Standards – What fits your resources – what is maximum possible – Steer clear of propriety file formats – even though we shoot in raw format – use tiff as our digital preservation master format Derivatives created by Rosetta, automated task, system creates. This can be actioned as part of your processing of files – Pictures online Used this approach. Standards should also address how files should be edited, processed. Use of targets, how objects are photographed, named, sharpened.
• #38: Slide showing our standards document – 2006 document – which has since been updated in 2013 to account for Larger formats and Manuscript digitisation – principles the same – some changes with regard to manuscripts and larger format items.
• #39: FADGI – Eg Reproduction of Artwork – Star from 1 to 4 – Metamorfoze takes similar approach
• #40: Equipment Top Left: Canon DSLR 5D Mk III cameras, small studio capture and corporate/event photography (approx. 22 megapixel camera) Top Right: Zeutschel overhead scanner – used for our research copying by our Library Assistants – able to capture 2 pages at once, Works well for bound items Btm Left: Nikon Supercoolscan 5000 ed (35mm negative scanner) – move towards lightbox setup for larger items Btm Centre: Phase One - IQ180 (back - sensor) with 645 DF+ plus (camera body). It has a sensor which captures 80 megapixel files. Btm Right: Epson v700 flatbed scanner. We can capture 16 bit RGB colour files, file size up to about 700 mgb (variable ppi depending on size of original). For a 12 MP camera, you can have 9 x 14” (23 x 35 cm) @ 300ppi (bit larger than A4) , or 14 x 21” 35 x 53 cm (almost A2 size) @200ppi print. Software –
• #42: Pinboard: I update this regular and you can search Digital NZ – undergoing review Archives NZ are also reviewing there standards which are aimed at Government FADGI – Federal agencies digitization guidelines initiative- Project planning from 2009 but still very relevant Metamorfoze – National Library of the Netherlands FADGI – Project planning quite comprehensive in approach Usefulll guide to negative materials from National Archives of Netherlands One form Luminous landscape – downloadable PDF which I found useful Of course Youtube is great especially for seeing conference talks American Institute of Conservation produced this very useful book Forums – as questions find out stuff
• #52: Export and Publishing – Mark Workflow leads to PM/MM export – then deposit using Indigo – Colour management – new approach to be implemented shortly – Will allow profiling of all our setups and regular checks to be done on results achieved. More numbers based. Prior to establishment of NDHA and attendant support – We had an object management system – Uncontrolled access – no control over changing of data present. Digital Preservation of paramount importance, not just for in house digitisation but for published, unpublished digitally born What options for smaller institutions – Vernon NDHA – Rosetta – Ex-Libris – Long term care of digitised collections. Metadata relates to camera, format, reason for digtisation. Limited use presently. All exif data maintained in files. A&D – records need to be matched through indigo . Digtial NZ Api – Public order – easy availability of collections digitised – Desire to provide collections for free where no know copyright – Otherwise order directly – system generated jpegs supplied, released by Librarians once no copyright issues. Managed by copying coordinator & Library Assistant Items requiring digitisation handled within 10 -14 working days. -