1 Large-scale collaborative digitisation 19 th Century Pamphlets Online Mar-2007 – Feb-2009 Grant Young Project Manager, 19 th Century Pamphlets Online, University of Southampton & RLUK Digitisation & Digital Preservation Specialist, Cambridge University Library

2 Overview  Pamphlets – what’s interesting about pamphlets?  Project – what’s interesting about the project?  Resource – what’s on offer for users?  Lessons – what lessons are there for digitisers?

3 1. What’s interesting about pamphlets?

4  Key means of getting message out  Informative and opinionated  Debates over time  Collected and kept  Complement other forms of publication  Underutilised scholarly resource

5 More than just printed text! 1. What’s interesting about pamphlets?

6 2. What’s interesting about the project?  Large partnership involved  Substantial & significant content  Builds on previous work  Business model for sustainability & preservation  Resource discovery model

7 Large partnership (12)  JISC – major funder  RLUK – sponsor & funder  University of Southampton / BOPCRIS unit – lead, digitisation  JSTOR – resource discovery, delivery and preservation  Mimas – resource discovery  RLUK Libraries – pamphlet contributors Bristol Durham Liverpool LSE Manchester Newcastle UCL

8 Significant content LibrariesCollections DurhamEarls Grey – Family collection LiverpoolEarls of Derby – Family collection UCLJoseph Hume ( ) – Personal collection NewcastleJoseph Cowen ( ) – Personal collection ManchesterForeign Office & Colonial Office collections – Government collections of overseas pamphlets Selections from 19 th Century collection – Strong on slavery and local issues BristolSelections from 19 th Century collection – Strong on political parties LSESelections from 19 th Century collection – Strong on pressure groups

9 Substantial content  23,000+ pamphlets  1 million+ pages  3 million+ files £1.1 million budget (780K from JISC)

10 Substantial content  Per page: Image OCR text (plain & co-ordinated)

11 Substantial content  Per pamphlet: XML metadata: MODS, MIX and PREMIS in a METS wrapper Folder of image and OCR files

12 Builds on previous work  Metadata – RSLP/CURL 19 th Century Pamphlets Cataloguing Project ( , £800K)  Digitisation infrastructure – BOPCRIS digitisation unit  Delivery & preservation infrastructure – JSTOR  Relationships – RLUK membership

13 Interesting business model  Partners license all content to RLUK  RLUK-JSTOR agreement for 25 years JSTOR provides free archiving & delivery for UK in exchange for commercialisation elsewhere  Only exclusive for 5 years. After this… Libraries could deliver digital copies of their own pamphlets via open access RLUK could enter into further agreements over use of the content

14 Interesting resource discovery model Pamphlet Collection Google Scholar Search Copac Academic & National Library Catalogue Catalogues of libraries holding pamphlets JSTOR’s search interface 19 th Century Pamphlets Web Guide Pamphlet level (bibliographic) Full text search JSTOR Mimas Links from other JSTOR content Regular Google Search Many other services, resources & collections CrossRef, OAI…

15 3. What’s on offer for users?  From early February: c. 7,000 pamphlets in initial release from JSTOR  From early March: - online guide to pamphlets for researchers and educators  20 March - Formal launch at conference in Liverpool (free academic event)

16 3. What’s on offer for users?

17 4. What lessons are there for digitisers? The headlines:  Projects don’t go to plan – things go wrong and opportunities arise  Projects depend on people as well as technology – good communication and trust are vital

18 4. What lessons are there for digitisers? …about digitising pamphlets:  Scholars view pamphlets differently (intellectual content vs archival objects; individual items vs collections)  Libraries treat pamphlets differently (definition, location, binding, handling)

19 4. What lessons are there for digitisers? … about the workflow:  Sampling & piloting are helpful but not foolproof  Time & motion is important – every second counts when undertaking large-scale digitisation

20 4. What lessons are there for digitisers? … about IPR:  Important to accept some element of risk with copyright ( 25%)  Licensing arrangements can be extremely complex and protracted (9 separate agreements required)

21 4. What lessons are there for digitisers? … about the use of standards:  Not always clear (e.g. different ways to mark-up with METS)  Not always stable (MIX and PREMIS were updated during course of project)

22 4. What lessons are there for digitisers? … about working collaboratively:  Can pose challenges & require work (differing priorities, cultures, timezones)  Can provide opportunities & flexibility (pool of skills/experience to draw on, ‘extra-curricular’ activities)

23 Any questions or comments?   Visit: