The Great War Archive A Community Collection Alun Edwards University of Oxford

This item is from The Great War Archive, University of Oxford ( © MAUREEN ROGERS

1996 JISC funded the Virtual Seminars Project –Drew together primary materials on Wilfred Owen scattered across a range of archives and an array of contextual resources (WOMDA) –Web based tutorials to advance the possibilities of traditional teaching –One of the first multimedia collections designed specifically as a teaching resource -more than 1 million hits JISC Digitisation Programme –The First World War Poetry Digital Archive Manuscripts of major war poets The Great War Archive project – public collection initiative Enriching the First World War Poetry Digital Archive project – Enhance collections using Web 2.0 technologies – Digitise manuscripts by more poets e.g. Siegfried Sassoon JISC e-Content Programme – RunCoCo project starts January 2010 funded under the Institutional Skills and Strategy (Strand A) Programme

The Great War Archive Initiative Ran from March to June 2008 A ‘Community Collection’ –to harvest digital versions of items originating from the First World War held by members of the general public Innovative approach –collection strategies –digitisation –cataloguing Public involvement in major research projects Exploiting the rise of digital photography and home Internet access, the project attracted thousands of volunteers

The Great War Archive Initiative: Submission Website

The Great War Archive: Submission Days

Technicalities Poetry Digital Archive Primary source material dispersed amongst libraries and archives in the UK, USA and Canada Digitisation performed by holding institutions according to project benchmarks Images digitised as High Quality TIFFs and delivered as ‘good enough quality’ JPGs, Audio as MP3, Video as MPEG 4 Catalogued by trained cataloguers Quality Assured twice, including by a key expert in the field – Dates, location, provenance, physicality etc. Images digitally watermarked using DigiMark The Great War Archive Primary source material held by individuals in the UK and abroad Digitisation performed by the public using scanner/digital camera or by the project team at submission days Digitisation guidelines provided – Not mandatory All files types accepted Initially catalogued by the public Quality Assured and metadata expanded upon by the project team – Dates, location, provenance, physicality etc.

This item is from The Great War Archive, University of Oxford ( © Janet Mercer

Histories which may have been lost… 42 unique unpublished diaries by soldiers from a range of battlefields 63 memoirs 255 unpublished letters Over 700 photographs, pamphlets, local recruiting posters, images of rare objects (such as the original designs for the tomb of the unknown soldier) Even material saved from the skip!

This item is from The Great War Archive, University of Oxford ( © S.Blore

The Great War Archive Initiative: The Aftermath Over 6,500 items collected –A Flickr group continues to collect items (over 2,050 to date) –Used in research –Used extensively by the public –Used in teaching Highly commended for Times Higher Ed. award and UCISA Award for Excellence CoCoCo submission software released as open source RunCoCo project starts

There are many pitfalls and bullet holes associated with community collections such as The Great War Archive –Quality of material –Quality and validity of metadata –Less resource intensive to digitise BUT more resource intensive in terms of marketing and engagement –Building a community requires long-term support This is not necessarily supported by current funding models The Great War Archive: Lessons Learned

The Great War Archive: Outcomes But there are also many advantages: –Engaging the general public in University projects –Releasing unseen material, providing new avenues for research and teaching –Preserving histories that may have been lost –Economies of Scale: £3.50 v £40.00 per image –Communities can become self-serving

The Great War Archive shows how community collections can work and bring great benefits, most notably reduced costs And that this is possibly a model we should be pursuing in the future alongside traditional high-quality digitisation – Moreover, that academia should try to engage the public in its research and recognise that the public not only may hold material, but also is willing to engage in these activities... leading to the RunCoCo project

Future… In 2010 RunCoCo will: Disseminate key software tools, methodologies, and work-flows developed under The Great War Archive Online documentation e.g. a communication strategy Training work-shops Online help-desk and FAQs An open source system (called CoCoCo) to collect digital objects Run an exemplar community collection i n a teaching and learning context To mobilize the public and academics to contribute material they hold relating to the Anglo-Saxon period of British history (450AD-1066AD)