Users and Digital Collections Building resources for customers, clients, patrons, and users

Outline What is a digital collection? Types of digital collections Considerations for building digital collections Purpose and Mission Scope Content types Metadata needs Timeline Workflow Impact and Measurement Assessment Budget Sustainability Conclusions Final Assignment Questions

What is a Digital Collection? Any items brought together on the web in order to facilitate a certain objective Items Links Articles Books Archival Items Images Data Databases Algorithms and formulas Combinations of these things Objectives Teaching and Learning Archiving and Preservation Scholarship and Research Public Advocacy Law Business and Knowledge Management Knowledge Transfer, Intellectual Property Management

Types of Digital Collections Digital Humanities - http://tawylie.omeka.net/ Library Catalog - https://iucat.iu.edu/ Scholarly Communication - https://scholarworks.iu.edu/ Abandonia - http://www.abandonia.com/ Non-Profit Facilities - https://mcpl.info/npc/nonprofit-central Knowledgebase – https://kb.iu.edu/ Amazon – http://www.amazon.com/ Twitter - https://twitter.com/

Considerations – Purpose and Mission Why are we building this collection? Part of a larger mission Fulfill particular function within the institution What is its purpose? Help researchers study history Help homeless to find jobs How does this collection fit in with the mission of the institution? Teaching or research Profit Community development

Considerations – Purpose and Mission Who is the audience? Scholars and researchers Students Community members Salespeople Administrators Lawyers or Paralegals Combinations Who is using this digital collection? How do they expect to interact with this collection?

Considerations – Purpose and Mission Mission Statement Amazon “Our vision is to be earth's most customer-centric company; to build a place where people can come to find and discover anything they might want to buy online.” Internet Archive “Our mission is to provide Universal Access to All Knowledge”

Considerations – Scope What do we include? Types of materials Content of materials Origin of materials - Provenance What do we exclude? How do we decide when there is a conflict? Edge cases Decided by committee Decided by individual Case by case Policy governing decisions

Considerations – Scope Scope statement History of Indiana University Libraries - https://wiki.dlib.indiana.edu/display/SC/History+of+the+IU+Libraries+Proje ct+Scope+Statement Michigan State University – Museology - http://libguides.lib.msu.edu/colldev-libscience-museology Delta Township Public Library - Local History – https://www.dtdl.org/about-us/borrowing-materials/collections/local- history/collection-scope/

Considerations – Content Types Different content types have different needs Books Black and White Images OCR full-text searchability Linking between chapters or footnotes Manuscript Color images Transcriptions Preservation issues Video Larger storage Different kinds of discoverability Copyright concerns Computer Games Emulation of original play Migration to new content platforms Unclear copyright rules

Considerations – Metadata Needs How will users find content? Catalog Searchable database Social tagging What standards will you use? Dublin Core MARC TEI What tools will you use to create metadata? Omeka Tools designed internally Commercial software

Considerations – Timeline How long will it take to build this collection? How much time will staff have to work on building it? What can reasonably be accomplished? Perfect collection with ideal metadata, imaging, preservation standards, etc. in 25 years? Imperfect collection with good enough metadata, imaging, preservation standards, etc. in 1 year? What are expectations of managers/funders? Expect to see results after 3 months, a year? How much flexibility do you have?

Considerations – Workflow Who will be doing the work? Full-time staff Temporary staff Are these staff going to be working on other projects? What is existing structure of reporting? Will this project fit into existing structures or create new ones? How will staff communicate and know where project is, what their roles are, and what is needed? Software – https://www.atlassian.com/software/confluence Existing social methods

Considerations – Impact and Measurement How will success be measured? Hits to website Citations or links Individual user engagement Return on Investment What metrics will be used? Web counter Statistical formula How will those metrics be reported? On website In reports

Considerations – Assessment What did we do right? What did we do wrong? How will we use metrics to determine those decisions? Will we change practices based on metric evidence? How will we make those decisions? Will there be further surveys or ways of assessing success? What methods will be used to create those surveys? How will these be integrated into other methods of assessment?

Considerations – Budget How much is this digital collection going to cost? Staff Software Equipment Advertising/Outreach How will metrics and assessment be integrated into budget? How much do you really need? How much do you ask for?

Considerations – Sustainability What happens when project is finished? Preservation Maintenance Ongoing costs How will this be budgeted for? How will the collection continue to be assessed? How will collection be integrated into existing missions and workflows?

Conclusions Building a digital collection sounds easy Many factors to consider Above considerations, ideally should be utilized in building any digital collection Some will be more relevant than others depending on collection Also dependent on culture of institution

Final Assignment Imagine Ron Day and I are important people (library directors, wealthy donors, CEOs) and your fellow students are employees You want to build a digital collection for us Present for 10-15 minutes on your digital collection Present Ron Day and Shawn Martin a brief 1-3 page summary of your presentation Must utilize concepts mentioned in class You may not be able to discuss every issue in presentation/summary, but is important to have thought through them, may be asked about them in questions

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