Supply and Demand: Special Collections and Digitisation

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Supply and Demand Special Collections and
Digitisation

• Ricky Erway, RLG Program Officer
• OCLC Programs and Research
• JISC CNI Meeting
• Transforming the User Experience
• Belfast, Northern Ireland
• July 10, 2008

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My Checkered Past
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It is not the strongest of the species that
survives, nor the most intelligent that
survives. It is the one that is the most
adaptable to change.
Charles Darwin
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(No Transcript)
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Yale University
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still from the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark
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Marshs Library, Dublin
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Princeton University Archives
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Digitization Matters
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Digitize for access
Yale University Archives vault
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Selection has already been done
Woodcut from Sebastian Brant, Stultifera The
ship of fooles 1570 --University of Edinburgh
Library
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Dont get further behind
Trinity College Dublin
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Stop thinking about item-level description
University of Aberdeen
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Early card catalog at University of Aberdeen
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Quantity over quality
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Build permanent infrastructure
Image from Library of Congress
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Ongoing programs, not projects
At this stage, no new effort should be
undertaken without a sense of how it will be
merged with other existing collections and where
the resources for long-term maintenance will come
from. --Cornell University digital projects
librarian
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Funding for sustainable workflow at scale
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Encourage development of format-specific gear
Scribe book scanner
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Learn from your users
University of Glasgow
Linen Hall Library, Belfast
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Be where the users are
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Supply on demand
Harry Ransom Center, UT Austin
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Let go of item-level description
Harvest Time / Lois Ireland oil on canvas / 1944
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Combine approaches
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Process not projects
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Invest in operations
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Do it all
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Share your findings
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High-speed scanners for non-book formats
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The Stokes Imaging System
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Reassess your quality requirements
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Funding for streamlined processes
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A funding body that gets it

• Emphasis on access
• Access in larger context
• No more pilot projects
• Operationalize
• Scale!
• Open access

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Preserve Right to Reuse/Remix
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Work with partners to get what you want
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Get going!
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Say it out loud

• During the next five
• years, the Library will
• strengthen further its
• distinctive work in two
• areas digital
• information technology
• and special collections.
• At the same time, we will work collaboratively
  with both internal and external partners to
  increase access to these exceptional tools,
  systems, and resources support new modes of
  teaching, learning, research, and scholarly
  communication and preserve, store, and manage
  traditional and digital materials for future
  generations.

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Let your goal be discoverability
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Discovery happens elsewhere be there
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Think big thoughts
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Resources

• Shifting Gears http//www.oclc.org/programs/ourwor
  k/collectivecoll/harmonization/specialcollections.
  htm
• Blog http//hangingtogether.org/
• Web www.oclc.org/programs
• Ricky Erway erwayr_at_oclc.org
• Thanks to Jennifer Schaffner, Merrilee Proffitt,
  Karen Calhoun, and other OCLC colleagues from
  whom Ive pilfered.

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Were On Notice!