Why Digitise? Paul Goodman Head of Collections & Knowledge National Media Museum 12 November 2009

Why Digitise? The principal driver for digitisation is to provide, via digitised assets, surrogate access to collections and knowledge to support the cultural and commercial outputs of an organisation

Key Considerations Ensuring the long-term digital preservation of any item created complies with best practice standards Reproduction and intellectual property rights in material to be digitised Conservation and preservation of the objects considered for digitisation It may be necessary for an insitution to make a considered decision on its overall stance about whether to adopt a cautious or a bold attitude to rights

Guiding Strategic Principles (1) Clear and demonstrable needs and benefits for your customers must be considered first – who are you digitising for? Digitised products must be developed to meet as wide a range of needs as possible. Digitisation should be undertaken on a 'do it once - do it right' approach. Adopt a standards-based approach to digitisation with appropriate technical and metadata standards being adhered to at all times.

Guiding Strategic Principles (2) Unless you are collaborating with an external partner, digitised collections should be stored and made available though your existing systems or these should be adapted to fit according to need The Creative Commons licence should be considered for digitised collections when appropriate to ensure that they are made freely available to all - this may vary from project to project. The decision to in-source or out-source the work that will needed to complete a digitisation project should be based on considerations of efficacy, efficiency and economy.

What to Digitise? You should seek to digitise material: which has been identified for use in specific cultural output, or for conservation and preservation considerations, or because it has a particular provenance or storytelling capability which makes it intriguing, thought-provoking, challenging or, simply, illustrative.

Selection Criteria The digitisation of mixed collections require clear selection criteria: Brand and Commercial Considerations Collections Care and Management Authority Feasibility & Sustainability Partnerships Critical Mass Copyright and IPR Format

Brand Considerations Make your collections and organisation known and accessible Maximize the storytelling potential / capability of your holdings (to allow you to engage with, inform, educate and inspire its audiences) Broaden public access to the widest customer base in line with its professional obligations and constitution Elicit debate and sustain dialogue with generalist and specialist audiences.

Commercial Considerations Support your chosen and obligatory business commitments, and to facilitate their delivery (e.g. commercial exploitation, enhanced institutional and / or individual reputation via merchandising, licensing, etc.) Increase value by selecting groups of materials that make up important and useful web based, kiosk, CD or DVD outputs, based on their strategic importance to your business plan.

Collections Care & Management Protect those works which offer social, cultural, aesthetic or technical value for the benefit of future generations Limit risk through regular handling or adverse environmental or operating condition Generate structured data, which will allow its dissemination to a range of customers and application to a range of outputs Digitise assets that have the greatest and widest scope to be re-purposed for cultural and/or commercial use.

Authority to Digitise Ensure that the information supplied with its digitised assets is well-documented, reliable and accurate Check provenance

Feasibility & Sustainability Satisfy yourself that the project is feasible and is appropriately and adequately funded Assess risk to resources, reputation and objects

Partnerships Actively seek partners (and funders) for digitisation projects whose ambitions mirror yours (e.g. museums, academic organisations) Where appropriate, prioritise those projects where partners can support your objectives.

Critical Mass Undertake projects that will either create a critical mass of digitised resources or that have the potential for integration with and augmentation of resources on other sites. Where appropriate, choose groups of objects which may be digitised in their entirety

Copyright & IPR Normally, only digitise items that are out of copyright and/or in the public domain (care!) or where the IPR is owned by your organisation, although licence agreements may be reached with external IPR owners, where appropriate. Develop a clear policy on copyright and IPR which sets out and clarifies the overall stance of your organisation in terms of how existing digital assets are used to maximise value for the organisation as a whole All decisions pertaining to IPR and digitisation should be taken in congruence with this policy

Format Consider which formats are suitable and develop your protocols and standards accordingly 2d and 3d materials and associated materials from your permanent collection Objects prepared for reference and display purposes.

Prioritisation for Digitisation Agree the priority in which its assets are digitised. Alignment with your organisation’s business plan will normally determine the priority for digitisation. However, other reasons for prioritising items for digitisation may include uniqueness, customer demand, commercial opportunity, or long-term preservation of an item that is at risk of significant physical deterioration. Don’t forget - in such cases copyright permission will need to be sought where required.

Deployment of Digitised Assets Digitised assets may be deployed: Providing they are widely available for re-use (commercial and non- commercial). In association with a discrete internal cultural projects (e.g. exhibition, publication, web, etc.). As part of an internal functional activity (e.g. acquisition, conservation, management of commercial assets). Through external partnerships and collaborations (new partnerships and collaborations should be sought if none already exist). In response to funding opportunities To sustain operational activity - conservation (this needs commitment of commensurate internal resources).

Technical Issues Work to one set of technical standards for all digitisation projects Review these annually and amend them where necessary to reflect changes in best practice

Management Issues Centrally maintain an asset / project register for all digitisation projects This should record core project information Identify a `gatekeeper’ for the register

Ownership of the Strategy Identify which body or individual owns, reviews and updates your strategy to ensure consistency

Thank you!