NSLA Digital Collecting Project - Scope Heritage material – for permanent retention Does not include ebooks, databases, digital newspapers, except where they are acquired under legal deposit

Survey – General Observations Numbers and types of items vary wildly. Figures in one collecting area range from 80 to 420,000. National libraries are way ahead of the states and territories. Inconsistent data measures Capacity affects ability to collect born digital. Lack of policies and procedures for born digital collecting For a lot of digital collections, many libraries are unable to give precise figures, because of cataloguing limitations, and an inability to distinguish between born digital and turned digital. They can generate reports on digital items, but can’t differentiate between born and turned digital. Lack of policies and procedures for born digital collecting – most libraries rely on existing policies and procedures for traditional paper-based collections (most commonly their CDP) for guidance. Many of these CDPs have not been updated for years.

Survey - Strengths Collection strengths: Photos (9 out of 10 libraries collecting) Digital documents (10 out of 10 libraries collecting) Web harvesting (9 out of 10 libraries collecting) Oral histories (6 out of 10 libraries collecting)

Survey - Weaknesses Collection weaknesses: Manuscripts and records Unable to estimate the extent of unprocessed digital collection material Static Data Dynamic data Digital art Audiovisual collections Reactive rather than proactive collecting Lack of policies and procedures Manuscripts and records (State libraries collecting little, NLA has made some progress in this area, and NLNZ is collecting strongly) Static Data (only 2 out of 10 libraries collecting) Dynamic data (zero libraries collecting) Digital art (3 libraries collecting in a very minimal way) Audiovisual collections (film, music, digital stories – 3 out of 10 library collecting minimally) – exception is NLNZ which has 3300 online music files, and NLA which has 1000 online film files Reactive rather than proactive collecting Lack of policies and procedures

Definitions An agreed set of 22 terms, in simple language that anyone can understand Complements the glossary created by the NSLA Digital Preservation group

Principles of Digital Collecting A set of seven publicly available principles, and five principles that govern our internal work practices The first seven principles will be available on our respective websites. While not made explicitly available to the public, the five internal principles will remain in the Digital Collecting Framework, which will be publicly accessible

Digital Collecting Framework Links together the definitions, principles, donor pages and PDAT, to give guidance to NSLA libraries, and potentially others, on how best to collect born digital material

Benefits and Outcomes Greater cohesion amongst our libraries A selection of publicly accessible tools for digital collecting Greater engagement of staff Building skills and capacity Closing in on the digital black hole

Sister NSLA Projects Digital Preservation Legal Deposit Digital Skills (spin-off from Digital Collecting) I think one thing worth highlighting, having attend two face-to-face NSLA group meetings in Melbourne (for Large Pictorial and Archival Collections) is how everybody is leaning on this work. In the Pictures and Archival groups, we flagged born-digital collecting as a large issue. So if a second phase was implemented, it would have very positive outcomes for several other projects

NSLA Digital Skills Project Three streams: Digital Literacy Digital Engagement Digital Specialisation

But… Still a lot to be done It is HARD – there is no one-size-fits-all solution Until digital collecting is core business, we cannot rest

More info: NSLA Digital Collecting Framework: http://nsla.org.au/publication/digital-collecting-framework NSLA Digital Skills Project: http://nsla.org.au/projects/digital-skills