"The 34 papers presented in this book represent our best effort to present a diverse and comprehensive overview of key issues in the management and realization of digitization projects. ... This is, above all, a book written by practitioners for practitioners who together recognize the critical needs and goals in digitization in our industry"--P. x-xi.
"The 34 papers presented in this book represent our best effort to present a diverse and comprehensive overview of key issues in the management and realization of digitization projects. ... This is, above all, a book written by practitioners for practitioners who together recognize the critical needs and goals in digitization in our industry"--P. x-xi.
"A huge investment has been made in digitizing scholarly and cultural heritage materials through initiatives based in museums, libraries and archives, as well as higher education institutions. The 'Digital Economy' is an important component of institutional planning, and much attention is given to the investment in digital projects and programmes. However, few initiatives have examined the actual use, value and impact of digital collections, and the role of digital collections in the changing information environment. As the creative, cultural and educational sector faces a period of restricted funding, it is timely to re-examine the use of the digital collections that have been created in the past twenty years, and to consider their value to the institutions that host them and to the communities of users they serve. This book brings together a group of international experts to consider the following key issues: What is the role of digital resources in the research life cycle? Do the arts and humanities face a 'data deluge'? How are digital collections to be sustained over the long term? How is use and impact to be assessed? What is the role of digital collections in the 'digital economy'? How is public engagement with digital cultural heritage materials to be assessed and supported? This book will be of interest to academics, librarians, archivists and the staff of cultural heritage organizations, as well as funders and other key stakeholders with an interest in the development and long term sustainability of digital collections."--Publisher's website.
The International Survey of Library & Museum Digitization Projects presents detailed data about the management and development of a broad range of library special collection and museum digitization projects. Data is broken out by type of digitization project (ie text, photograph, film, audio, etc) size and type of institution, annual spending on digitization and other variables. The report presents data and narrative on staffing, training, funding, technology selection, outsourcing, permissions and copyright clearance, cataloging, digital asset management, software and applications selection, marketing and many other issues of interest to libraries and museums that are digitizing aspects of their collections.
The study presents data about collection digitization efforts from an international sample of academic, public and special libraries and museums. The study reports on digitization of text, photographs, music/audio, film and microfilm/fiche, covering critical areas such as equipment selection, employee training, outsourcing, budgets, funding, metadata and cataloging development, marketing, use of crowdsourcing, app development, licensing and rentals and much much more. Data is broken out by type of material digitized, by institutional type, size of institution, and other variables to make benchmarking easier. Through numerous open ended questions survey participants provide advice on use of crowdsourcing, purchasing equipment, copyright clearance, use of social media, cataloging and metadata and more.
European digital libraries have existed in diverse forms and with quite different functions, priorities, and aims. However, there are some common features of European-based initiatives that are relevant to non-European communities. There are now many more challenges and changes than ever before, and the development rate of new digital libraries is ever accelerating. Delivering educational, cultural, and research resources-especially from major scientific and cultural organizations-has become a core mission of these organizations. Using these resources they will be able to investigate, educate, and elucidate, in order to promote and disseminate and to preserve civilization. Extremely important in conceptualizing the digital environment priorities in Europe was its cultural heritage and the feeling that these rich resources should be open to Europe and the global community. In this book we focus on European digitized heritage and digital culture, and its potential in the digital age. We specifically look at the EU and its approaches to digitization and digital culture, problems detected, and achievements reached, all with an emphasis on digital cultural heritage. We seek to report on important documents that were prepared on digitization; copyright and related documents; research and education in the digital libraries field under the auspices of the EU; some other European and national initiatives; and funded projects. The aim of this book is to discuss the development of digital libraries in the European context by presenting, primarily to non-European communities interested in digital libraries, the phenomena, initiatives, and developments that dominated in Europe. We describe the main projects and their outcomes, and shine a light on the number of challenges that have been inspiring new approaches, cooperative efforts, and the use of research methodology at different stages of the digital libraries development. The specific goals are reflected in the structure of the book, which can be conceived as a guide to several main topics and sub-topics. However, the author’s scope is far from being comprehensive, since the field of digital libraries is very complex and digital libraries for cultural heritage is even moreso.
Initiatives at a cross-cultural level, where libraries, museums and archives work together in creating digital libraries, and making their cultural heritage collections available online, are emerging. Leading academic researchers from the cultural heritage and the publishers sectors approach this issue: Digital library user experience: a focus on current user research; Digital library content: what users want and how they use it; Strategies for institutions: how cultural institutions and publishers respond to the digital challenge.
The Future of Digital Data, Heritage and Curation critiques digital cultural heritage concepts and their application to data, developing new theories, curatorial practices and a more-than-human museology for a contemporary and future world. Presenting a diverse range of case examples from around the globe, Cameron offers a critical and philosophical reflection on the ways in which digital cultural heritage is currently framed as societal data worth passing on to future generations in two distinct forms: digitally born and digitizations. Demonstrating that most perceptions of digital cultural heritage are distinctly western in nature, the book also examines the complicity of such heritage in climate change, and environmental destruction and injustice. Going further still, the book theorizes the future of digital data, heritage, curation and the notion of the human in the context of the profusion of new types of societal data and production processes driven by the intensification of data economies and through the emergence of new technologies. In so doing, the book makes a case for the development of new types of heritage that comprise AI, automated systems, biological entities, infrastructures, minerals and chemicals – all of which have their own forms of agency, intelligence and cognition. The Future of Digital Data, Heritage and Curation is essential reading for academics and students engaged in the study of museums, archives, libraries, galleries, archaeology, cultural heritage management, information management, curatorial studies and digital humanities.
In today’s digital era, the emergence of digital libraries, collections, and repositories stands as a significant advancement. Across various organizations, there’s a notable shift toward digitization driven by both technological advancements and the proliferation of vast amounts of data, texts, artworks, and other collections. With information volumes reaching unprecedented levels, the imperative to organize it in digital formats becomes apparent. This digital transformation has given rise to a pervasive digital culture, particularly evident in academic libraries, museums, and nonprofit organizations. This culture profoundly influences how information is accessed, utilized, and organized. The book addresses key aspects of this digital paradigm, including digitization processes, open access principles, and the protocols and standards governing the utilization of digital information. It examines the broader landscape of digital libraries, repositories, and collections found in galleries and museums. Moreover, the book explores the evolving skill sets required by users in adapting to these digital advancements, as well as the standards necessary for implementing digital organizational structures. By taking a comprehensive view, it highlights both the advantages and challenges posed by these digital developments, offering insights into their multifaceted impacts on contemporary society.
Archives and special collections departments have a long history of preserving and providing long-term access to organizational records, rare books, and other unique primary sources including manuscripts, photographs, recordings, and artifacts in various formats. The careful curatorial attention to such records has also ensured that such records remain available to researchers and the public as sources of knowledge, memory, and identity. Digital curation presents an important framework for the continued preservation of digitized and born-digital collections, given the ephemeral and device-dependent nature of digital content. With the emergence of analog and digital media formats in close succession (compared to earlier paper- and film-based formats) came new standards, technologies, methods, documentation, and workflows to ensure safe storage and access to content and associated metadata. Researchers in the digital humanities have extensively applied computing to research; for them, continued access to primary data and cultural heritage means both the continuation of humanities scholarship and new methodologies not possible without digital technology. Digital Curation in the Digital Humanities, therefore, comprises a joint framework for preserving, promoting, and accessing digital collections. This book explores at great length the conceptualization of digital curation projects with interdisciplinary approaches that combine the digital humanities and history, information architecture, social networking, and other themes for such a framework. The individual chapters focus on the specifics of each area, but the relationships holding the knowledge architecture and the digital curation lifecycle model together remain an overarching theme throughout the book; thus, each chapter connects to others on a conceptual, theoretical, or practical level. Theoretical and practical perspectives on digital curation in the digital humanities and history In-depth study of the role of social media and a social curation ecosystem The role of hypertextuality and information architecture in digital curation Study of collaboration and organizational dimensions in digital curation Reviews of important web tools in digital humanities
