Calimera Guidelines

The European Union has declared that “Digitisation is an essential first step to generating digital content that will underpin a fully digital Europe. It is a vital activity in preserving Europe’s collective cultural heritage, providing access for the citizen to that heritage, to enhancing education and tourism, and to the development of eContent industries.” It is committed to co-ordinating national digitisation programmes, and published the Lund Principles [1] which led to the Lund Action Plan [2] .

The Minerva Project [3] was set up in 2002 to promote a shared methodology for the digitisation of cultural material and to facilitate the adoption of the Lund Action Plan.

The benefits of digitisation include wider and easier access, the conservation of originals, the possibilities of adding value to images and collections, and opportunities for income generation (see the guideline on Business models). Digitisation can also publicise materials and attract greater numbers of visitors and users.

Digitisation is the process of creating digital files by converting analogue materials. The resulting digital copy, or digital surrogate, is then classed as digital material and is subject to the same broad challenges involved in preserving access to it, as "born digital" material (material created in digital format which has no analogue equivalent). The quality of the file, the format used to store it, its description, its intended use, its long-term preservation, the method of delivery to end users, and protection from infringement of intellectual property rights, are just some of the things which must be considered. Furthermore for each type of material that is digitised specific factors must be taken into consideration to make sure that the digital output can be used to its full potential now and in the future.

Staffing implications need to be considered. The importance of professional curatorial skills in ensuring original materials are not damaged during a digitisation project cannot be overemphasised. A digitisation project might provide a good opportunity to carry out any necessary conservation work. Protection such as gloves and masks might be needed. Staff will need training in the technical aspects of digitisation; even if the actual work is outsourced they will need to understand the procedures. Staff will also need training in the use of the end product, and in helping users. They will need new skills to work in the digital environment, as enquiries will increasingly be received electronically and new groups of users who have historically not used traditional services may now require a service. The skills needed will include technical, design, marketing, and instructional skills.

Digitisation projects create opportunities for partnership working with other cultural heritage institutions and with commercial organisations (see the guideline on Co-operation and partnership). These can include bringing together resources to create new virtual collections, sharing expertise and/or equipment, and working with software developers and suppliers. Collaboration with educational organisations and/or community groups can also result in the creation of “born digital” resources.

GOOD PRACTICE GUIDELINES Back to Scope

The Minerva Project has produced a Good Practice Handbook [4] and technical guidelines [5] which set out practical guidelines for a digitisation project.

Digitisation is the process of creating digital files by converting analogue materials. The resulting digital copy, or digital surrogate, can then be classed as digital material and is subject to the same broad challenges involved in preserving access to it, as "born digital" materials.

Planning and workflow Back to Scope

It is important to plan the project carefully and thoroughly (see the guidelines on Strategic planning and Business models). The plan should include:

· the reason(s) for digitisation, e.g. to provide access to underused holdings, to protect fragile items from the wear and tear of handling, to create a virtual collection, to target a specific group of users, to contribute to a regional, national or international network;

· what is to be digitised. This will be largely determined by the reason(s) for digitisation and whether permission to digitise can be obtained from the rights holders (see selection below);

· who will carry out the work. This could be in-house staff, specialist staff on a temporary contract, staff from a partner organisation, or a commercial contractor. Staff involved may need protection such as gloves, masks, etc. Curator staff familiar with the materials should always be used for any moving and handling especially of fragile items. (This might also be an opportunity to carry out any conservation work.);

· where the work will be done. In most cases it will be preferable to do the work on site to avoid risks such as loss or damage to originals, transport costs etc. Ideally a dedicated space should be made available taking into account lighting conditions, temperature, humidity, etc., especially when fragile originals are being digitised ;

· when it will be done. Consideration should be given to known busy times, staff holidays, special exhibitions or other events or projects. A timetable should be drawn up with milestones indicated;

· how it will be done. This part of the plan should include workflow details as it is essential to keep track of the material being digitised, and of progress. A system of listing, signing and dating all movements would be useful. Files should be named during the digitisation process;

· a preservation strategy. This needs to be in place from the planning stage to ensure sustainability and long-term usability of the collection. Preservation will depend upon documenting all of the technological procedures that led to the creation of the digital object, and much critical information can be captured only at the point of creation (see the guideline on Digital preservation);

· other considerations needed at the planning stage include legal issues such as IPR (Intellectual Property Rights), choice of digital formats, hardware, software, delivery methods or output formats and of course costs.

Financial considerations Back to Scope

Digitisation can be costly and local institutions may need to seek ways to augment their core funding by for example:

· lobbying and advocacy at national and local levels;

· influencing public opinion and forming groups of friends;

· applying for grant funding for a specific digitisation project. The last few years have seen the rise of a bidding culture in museums, libraries and archives in many countries. Governments, the EU, charitable trusts and other bodies or foundations have chosen to channel funds through competitive tender or submission of a bid. National professional associations should be able to advise on sources of funding. The Europa website contains a guide to EU funding opportunities [6];

· partnership with other institutions to outsource the work involved (see the guideline on Co-operation and partnership);

· some form of income generation. Some countries will be restricted by statute as to whether or not they are allowed to raise income or make any charges for services, including added value services. (See also the guideline on Business models.)

The amount and type of material to be digitised may be dependent on the funds available and decisions may have to be taken on what should have priority. This could be based on the aims of the project (preservation or increased access) rarity or value of the originals, the condition of the originals, the potential usage etc.

Comparatively low cost options may be adequate for some purposes. For example digital cameras, scanners etc. intended for the domestic market may produce results of sufficient quality for small community projects.

Selection Back to Scope

Selection criteria will, as stated above, be largely determined by the aims of the project, but may also include for example:

· legal issues such as whether it is possible to obtain permission to copy if needed (see the section on IPR below and also the guideline on Legal and rights issues);

· the target audience;

· the importance of the items in the cultural heritage of the community, region, country, Europe or the world;

· the rarity of the items;

· the condition of the items and the need for preservation of the originals by making digital versions available as an alternative;

· links to other projects;

· financial issues such as the need to raise income by charging for use or the sale of CD-ROMS, value for money, and costs.

Hardware and software Back to Scope

These should be chosen at the planning stage, taking into account reliability, costs, ease of use, staff training needs, maintenance costs, space available, possibilities of renting, etc. Equipment should enable recording and storing to be carried out at the highest possible resolution because a lower resolution image, or smaller file, can be extracted from a higher quality, higher resolution image, but never the other way round. The storage implications should also be taken into consideration, as higher resolution images create larger files and require more storage space.

The equipment must be suitable for the material to be digitised. The following points need to be taken into consideration:

Scanners

· flatbed scanners should only be used for unbound printed material or documents;

· bound items will require a book cradle or digital camera;

· the scanners should ideally be at least as large as the largest item to be scanned to avoid folding and “mosaicing”.

3D scanning devices

· these may be used for museum objects or historic buildings.

Digital cameras

· cameras may be used for museum objects or for bound books etc.;

· cameras may be used to record events, buildings, sites and landscapes;

· to get good picture quality the number of pixels, the bit-depth, and the optical lens quality are important;

· a stand for holding the material to be photographed will be useful;

· a tripod will be needed for the camera;

· supplementary lighting will in most cases be needed;

· filters will be required to reduce colour distortion.

Video cameras

· equipment will be needed for capturing digital output from conventional film and video;

· video recording equipment is used for capturing moving images and as such will be required for content creation projects resulting in “born digital” material;

· it is also a powerful tool for presenting a continuous view of all sides of an object, or for showing a three-dimensional space;

· the availability of comparatively cheap digital video camera equipment makes this sort of presentation possible for smaller institutions, mainly museums or galleries, which cannot afford the equipment to create full virtual reality content.

Audio recording equipment

· equipment will be needed which can produce digital output from analogue media;

· it is also used for capturing sound (speech, music etc.) and as such will be required for content creation projects resulting in “born digital” material;

Software Back to Scope

Software may be required to process the digital output e.g. correcting the colour of digital images, cropping the edges or compressing the file for web delivery. Such software should be capable of;

· opening very large files;

· modifying resolution and colour depth;

· saving different versions in different file sizes;

· copying part of an image and saving it as another file;

· exporting images in different file formats.

Selection of suitable software must take into account the material being digitised, for example if documents contain handwritten material then an OCR (optical character recognition) package will be required.

The TASI (Technical Advisory Service for Images) website contains advice on all aspects of digitisation, including hardware and software. [7]

File formats Back to Scope

The image or output produced by the digitisation process will be held in a particular file format. It is advisable to keep master copies and delivery copies in different formats.

It is preferable to use open standard formats when creating digitised resources to ensure that resources are reusable and can be created, modified and delivered by a variety of software applications. This will increase interoperability and therefore access, will reduce dependency on one supplier, and will help to guard against obsolescence. Master copies should be in a format which supports large, high quality images (e.g. TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) for photographic images).

For delivering resources it is preferable to use more than one format in different sizes and resolutions, bearing in mind that users will have different types of hardware and software and different levels of bandwidth. Delivery copies will usually be in smaller files suitable for transmitting over the Internet (e.g. JPEG, PNG (Portable Network Graphics) or GIF (Graphical Interchange Format) for still images). For more details see Standards below.

Standards Back to Scope

Standards are very important as failure to use standard file formats and storage media can:

· be a major obstacle to international exchange of image files and the creation of networked resources;

· lead to obsolescence (compliance with standards is a reasonable indicator of future support of a format or medium).

Different standards exist for different types of digital formats, and for capture and storage and delivery.

· Text capture and storage - There are standards for:

° character encoding (see Jukka Korpela: A tutorial on character code issues [8]);

° document formats (see AHDS Guide to good practice: creating and documenting electronic texts [9]).

· Text delivery - Again, for guidance on character encoding see Jukka Korpela’s article [8]. For document formats the latest versions of XHTML or HTML are advisable, though proprietary formats such as PDF (Portable Document Format), RTF (Rich Text Format) or Microsoft Word may be appropriate as alternatives. See:

° HTML 4.01 HyperText Markup Language [10];

° XHTML 1.0 Extensible HyperText Markup Language [11];

° Portable Document Format (PDF) [12].

· Still image capture and storage – Still images are raster (for photographs), vector (for geometric objects or shapes) or graphic non-vector (for line drawings). For advice see TASI: Advice: Creating digital images [13].

° When creating raster images the spatial resolution (pixels per inch) and colour resolution (bit depth) must be considered, and the highest affordable is preferable. TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) [14] is the most common.

° For vector images an open format such as SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics [15] should be used. The proprietary format Macromedia Flash [16] may be appropriate in some cases.

° PNG (Portable Network Graphics) [17] is the most common format for graphic non-vector images.

· Still image delivery

° Photographic images delivered via the internet must be in JPEG (Joint Photographic Expert Group) format [18] or JPEG/SPIFF (JPEG Still Picture Interchange File Format) [19]. More information is available about JPEG [20] and about JPEG 2000 [21] and there is an ISO standard [22].

° Vector images should be delivered using:

– GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) [23];

– PNG (Portable Network Graphics) format [24];

– or, SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) format [25].

· Video image capture and storage – Video should be stored using the uncompressed raw AVI (Audio Video Interleave) format [26], but an MPEG (Moving Pictures Expert Group) format [27] can be used, or even Microsoft WMF (Windows Media Format), Microsoft ASF (Advanced Systems Format) or Apple Quicktime (details available on proprietary web pages [28]). Standards are available on the MPEG website [29].

· Video delivery – It must be remembered that access to video is affected by bandwidth so it is advisable to provide more than one file format or streaming quality.

° Video intended for downloading should be in MPEG-1 format [30] , or Microsoft WMF (Windows Media Video), AVI (Audio Video Interleave) or Apple Quicktime (details available on proprietary web pages [28]).

° Video for streaming should be in Microsoft ASF (Advanced Streaming Format), WMF or Apple Quicktime (details available on proprietary web pages [28]).

· Audio capture and storage – Audio can be stored either in:

° uncompressed formats such as Microsoft WAV (wave) or Apple AIFF (Audio Image File Format) (details on proprietary web pages [28]);

° or in compressed formats such as MP3 [31], Microsoft WMA (Windows Media Audio) format [28], Real Audio [32] or Sun AU [33].

The Audio Engineering Society (AES) [34] and the International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives (IASA) [35] make recommendations which should be considered.

· Audio delivery – As with video, access is affected by bandwidth so a range of files or streams of different quality should ideally be provided. The recommendations of the AES [34] and IASA [35] should be followed.

· 3D capture and storage – Digitisation of three-dimensional material is particularly important for museums. Digital video is a low-cost alternative to the creation of true 3D models, but is of course more limited in the range of interactive possibilities. For a discussion of 3D technologies see the websites of the Web 3D Consortium [36] or 3dsite, inc. [37].

· 3D delivery – VRML (Virtual Reality Markup Language) and X3D [38] are the main standards used for virtual tours and 3D models. An alternative is shockwave 3D [39]. This allows content to be viewable by anybody with the latest version of the free shockwave viewer plug-in, but as yet it does not have the capabilities of VRML.

IPR (Intellectual Property Rights) (see also the guideline on Legal and rights issues). The importance of this issue cannot be over-emphasised, since if the right to copy cannot be obtained, digitisation of the item cannot go ahead. Back to Scope

There are two aspects to this:

· Establishing copyright. Does the institution hold the rights to make digital copies? It will be necessary to secure the rights to the material, especially if it is intended to publish on the web, and this can potentially be a long drawn out and costly process. It is a factor in the selection process, and must be considered from the planning stage onwards.

· Security copyright. What rights to the digitised images does the institution intend to impose? Will all images be made freely available, or will thumbnails be displayed on the web and a charge made for higher definition copies? This must be considered in the planning stage. Income generation can be a factor with policy makers and funding bodies. The copyright of material placed on the internet can be protected by technical means such as:

· visible watermarks;

· invisible digital watermarks [40];

· encryption of images;

· restriction of publication to low-resolution images;

· restriction of publication to small parts of an image only;

· restriction of display to registered authorised users.

All these methods have pros and cons and must be considered in relation to the aims and objectives of the project and the institution.

The website of the University of New York, Buffalo, contains links to many useful pages [41] and for advice see the TASI (Technical Advisory Service for Images) copyright page. [42].

In addition, organisations may wish to encourage the re-use of their content, particularly in the context of promoting teaching and learning. This can be achieved by the use of a Creative Commons licence [43] (see the guideline on Legal and rights issues). Creative Commons licence explicitly state the ways in which digital items may be re-used, and the chart in the Appendix demonstrates how this could be applied in conjunction with the publication on the internet of low-resolution images.

Design and presentation (see also the guidelines on Interactivity and Multimedia services). Back to Scope

Many digitisation projects in the cultural area will lead to the creation of web sites [44] although some will be for in-house use only.

Examples of in-house use include:-

· interactive displays in museums;

· digital display of fragile documents or books in archives and libraries;

· digital display of objects in museums either to protect fragile items from exposure to light or to display an object form multiple angles;

· catalogues, indexes and guides for use by visitors to the institution, including audio guides;

· digitisation in order to improve accessibility for disabled people (see the guideline on Accessibility for disabled people).

For publication on the web the following points should be borne in mind:

· ease of navigation e.g. links to the front page, site map or table of contents available on every page;

· accessibility by disabled people (see the guideline on Accessibility for disabled people);

· very careful use of animations, pop-ups, Flash etc, with possibilities for bypassing these;

· multilingual access (see the guideline on Multilingualism).

Preparation for publication on the internet involves processing the master files to fit the operational requirements of the internet, which usually means reducing the file size and quality to enable short download times. Where larger images are published, this should be via a link from the web page, with a warning that download time may be slow.

Image processing and audio and video editing software is readily available on hire or supplied with hardware. Viewers for 3D and virtual reality materials are not so widely available, although PCs with a focus on games will often have hardware accelerators and increased graphics memory which can improve the situation.

Other delivery systems include CD and DVD.

Storage (see also the guideline on Digital preservation) Back to Scope

CDs and DVDs can also be used to store digital collections. Digital material will be held on server machines, and these must be backed up, ideally onto at least two types of media separately stored. CD-Rs were until recently a common back-up media, but have now been replaced by DVDs which can store larger files. Digital Linear Tape is however still in use, so the two types could be DLT and DVD. However, there is an increasing trend to store data on mobile hard drive units, and to transfer it to new servers over time, so reducing the risks of media obsolescence.

FUTURE AGENDA Back to Scope

Digitisation enables museums, libraries and archives to reach out to new users, and to serve traditional users in new ways. Digitisation can transform the way in which collections are used and also the way institutions themselves are organised. Digital technology offers new ways of fulfilling core missions such as education, research, and cultural enrichment. Museums, libraries and archives should consider creating new business models to ensure sustainability without conflicting with core missions and objectives (see the guideline on Business models).

In the future there should be widespread adoption of technical standards leading to interoperability between collections.

Policy makers need to work towards the reconciliation of rights issues in order to enable straightforward access to digital resources.

At present media is likely to become obsolescent within about 5 years, so institutions need to have rigorous back-up and migration policies in place.

The increasing trend to store data “on the internet” on large server machines and as data on mobile hard drive units facilitates the migration of data from medium to medium. Once servers are backed up and migrated to new servers over time, the dependence on removable media as back up storage will decrease. In the longer term it is hoped that media will be developed which is suitable for more permanent preservation of digital collections.

Collaboration among institutions could lead to the development of community repositories, and, linked to that, collaboration in the preservation of digital objects. [45]

Increasingly material will be created in digital form. Institutions will need to have policies in place to ensure that “born digital” material is preserved and made accessible (see the guidelines on Resource Description and Digital preservation).

In future new search methods should enable users to search for any digital object or image, view it and download it, without needing to know where the original is held or having to make adjustments on their PCs. (See the guideline on Discovery and retrieval.)

For a vision of the future see The Digicult Report: Technical Landscapes for tomorrow’s cultural economy: unlocking the value of cultural heritage European Commission, 2002. ISBN 9282862658. [46]

REFERENCES Back to Scope

[1] Lund Principles http://www.cordis.lu/ist/directorate_e/digicult/lund_principles.htm

[2] Lund Action Plan http://www.cordis.lu/ist/directorate_e/digicult/lund_ap_browse.htm

[3] Minerva Project http://www.minervaeurope.org/

[4] Good Practices Handbook, edited by the Minerva Working Group 6. Version 1.3. 3 March 2004. http://www.minervaeurope.org/structure/workinggroups/goodpract/document/goodpractices1_3.htm

[5] Minerva Technical Guidelines for Digital Cultural Content Creation Programmes. Version 1.0. 8 April 2004. http://www.minervaeurope.org/publications/technicalguidelines.htm

[6] Europa: Grants and loans http://europa.eu.int/grants/

[7] TASI (Technical Advisory Service for Images): Image Capture: Hardware and Software http://www.tasi.ac.uk/advice/creating/hwandsw.html

[8] Jukka Korpela: A tutorial on character code issues. http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/chars.html

[9] AHDS Guide to good practice: creating and documenting electronic texts. http://ota.ahds.ac.uk/documents/creating/

[10] HTML 4.01 HyperText Markup Language http://www.w3.org/TR/html401

[11] XHTML 1.0 Extensible HyperText Markup Language http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/

[12] Portable Document Format (PDF) http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/adobepdf.html

[13] TASI: Advice: Creating digital images http://www.tasi.ac.uk/advice/creating/creating.html

[14] TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) http://www.itu.int/itudoc/itu-t/com16/tiff-fx/docs/tiff6.pdf

[15] SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics http://www.w3.org/TR/SVG

[16] Macromedia Flash http://www.macromedia.com

[17] PNG (Portable Network Graphics) http://www.w3.org/TR/PNG/

[18] JPEG (Joint Photographic Expert Group) format http://www.w3.org/Graphics/JPEG

[19] JPEG/SPIFF (JPEG Still Picture Interchange File Format) http://www.jpeg.org/public/spiff.pdf

[20] More information on JPEG is available at http://www.jpeg.org or http://www.faqs.org/faqs/jpeg-faq/

[21] The JPEG 2000 standard can be found at http://www.jpeg.org/jpeg2000/index.html

[22] ISO/IEC 15444

[23] GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/~pbourke/dataformats/gif/

[24] PNG (Portable Network Graphics) format http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-png-multi.html

[25] SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) format (as of May 2004 specification still in draft format at http://www.w3.org/TR/SVG12/ )

[26] AVI (Audio Video Interleave) format http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?id=kb;en-us;Q316992

[27] MPEG (Moving Pictures Expert Group) format http://www.chiariglione.org/mpeg/

[28] Microsoft http://www.microsoft.com/ ; Apple http://www.apple.com/

[29] MPEG standards http://www.chiariglione.org/mpeg/standards.htm

[30] MPEG-1 format http://www.chiariglione.org/mpeg/standards/mpeg-1/mpeg-1.htm

[31] MP3 format http://www.mp3-tech.org

[32] Real Audio http://www.real.com

[33] Sun AU http://www.sun.com/

[34] Audio Engineering Society (AES) http://www.aes.org/

[35] International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives (IASA) http://www.iasa-web.org/

[36] Web 3D Consortium http://www.web3d.org

[37] 3dsite, inc http://www.3dsite.com

[38] VRML (Virtual Reality Markup Language) and X3D http://www.web3d.org

[39] shockwave 3D http://www.macromedia.com

[40] For an overview of watermarking see http://www.webreference.com/content/watermarks/

[41] The website of the University of New York, Buffalo, http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/units/cts/preservation/digires.html

[42] TASI (Technical Advisory Service for Images) copyright page

http://www.tasi.ac.uk/advice/managing/copyright.html

[43] Creative Commons http://www.creativecommons.org

[44] There are literally thousands of websites dealing with the design and creation of web sites including:

http://www.essdack.org/webdesign/

http://www.htmlgoodies.com

http://www.iasl-slo.org/creatingweb.html

[45] See the Digital Preservation Coalition website at http://www.dpconline.org/text/index.html.

[46] The Digicult Report: Technical Landscapes for tomorrow’s cultural economy: unlocking the value of cultural heritage. European Commission, 2002. Full report ISBN 92-828-5189-3. Executive summary ISBN 92-828-6265-8. http://www.digicult.info/pages/report.php

LINKS Back to Scope

International

Google digitisation project

The collections of five of the world's important academic institutions are to be digitised by Google. Scanned pages from books in the public domain will then be made available for search and reading online. The libraries that have teamed up with Google are Oxford University Library, the libraries at Michigan, Harvard, and Stanford universities in the U.S.A., and the New York Public Library.

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,9075-1403143,00.html

Armenia

Digital Library of Classical Armenian Literature from the Vth to the XVIIIth Centuries

This project digitises various types of Armenian literature: legal, economic, geographical, historical, philosophical, theological, medical etc., and is working on a database of museum objects to create a virtual version of the museum with its three-dimensional classification. http://www.digilib.am

Bulgaria

Old Varna Project

Aims to preserve Varna history in photos and text for future generations, and popularise it among Varna citizens. Exhibition pieces and photos are collected, restored by special technology, and saved on “talking” CDs and on the web. CDs are available in English. Website is in Bulgarian only. http://www.libvar.bg/old-varna/

Euxinograd Palace Project

Photos of the palace, the park and archived documents are being collected, digitised and systematically arranged in six main topics. 3-D simulations of the Palace halls or a simulated trip in the park are planned at the next stage of the project. Available only in Bulgarian on CD-ROM. Web version planned.

Croatia

Digital collection “Silvije Strahimir Kranjcevic”

Collection of digitised materials (full text poetry collection, manuscripts, family history, family archive, correspondence, photographs) referring to this famous Croatian 19th century poet. Includes a detailed inventory and database of all items to facilitate further research. Available online and on CD-ROM.

http://www.sskranjcevic.hr

Czech Republic

Archbishop chateau and gardens in Kroměříž

Example of book digitisation in a local institution http://digi.azz.cz

Also digitised coin collection http://coins.azz.cz

Database of seals in Czech archives

Project of the Archives Direction Division of the Ministry of Interior of the Czech Republic and AiP Beroun s.r.o. http://database.aipberoun.cz/pecete

Digitisation of regional documents (DRD)

The aim is to digitise regional sources from archives such as newspapers and periodicals, club and parish chronicles, family and personal chronicles, plus significant documents form the District Archive and other collections.

http://www.soka-cr.cz; http://www.knihovna-cr.cz

Memoria Project

Provides access to the full set of digitised documents and the detailed descriptions of historical documents, and also to bibliographical data from a range of sources in the Memoria database. The project accepts data of all kinds. http://www.memoria.cz

France

Valenciennes library

Provides access to digitised microfilm of old manuscripts.

http://www.ville-valenciennes.fr/bib/fondsvirtuels/microfilms/accueil.asp

Iceland

Maps of Iceland on the Internet

All antique maps of Iceland (older than 1900) that are in the collection of the National and University Library of Iceland and the Central Bank of Iceland have been converted to a digital format and are accessible on the Internet. http://www.bok.hi.is/kort

Ireland

Ask About Ireland

This is the pilot portal site for access to local cultural content in libraries, museums and archives in Ireland. Several pilot digitisation projects are available from here, including the Waterford Museum of Treasures (3D objects), the Cork Archives Institute, the Waterford City Library (Optical Character Recognition) and Mayo County Library (audio and video material).

http://www.askaboutireland.com/bestpractice.html

Luxembourg

Bibliothèque nationale de Luxembourg

The national library is carrying out a major digitsation project. http://www.bnl.lu/

Poland

Cieszyńska Biblioteka Wirtualna (CBW) / Cieszyn Virtual Library (CVL)

Internet access to digitised library materials connected to Śląsk Cieszyński (multicultural region on the border between Poland and the Czech Republic).

http://www.ata.com.pl/kcc/biblioteka/

Treasures of Polish Archives

Digital pictures supplemented with archival description, note on context and bibliographical notes. Documents are scanned or a photo made by digital camera (resolution up to 600 dpi), saved in “tiff” format and presented on the Internet in “jpg” format. http://www.poland.pl/articles/?c=421

Romania

Digitization of Dobrudjean old press (DPDV) - Project of “Ioan N. Roman” Constanta County Library

Digitisation of Dobrudjean old press (1889-1940) which was on microfilm and in printed format. http://www.biblioteca.ct.ro

Monuments From the Open-Air Museums In Romania

Electronic forms of monuments of folk architecture preserved in Romanian museums or “in situ”. http://www.cimec.ro/aer/aeretn.htm

Russia

Pushkin Museum collections

Various collections at the Pushkin Museum and other places digitised using the highly precise EPOS system and “flying lens" scanning technology which does not damage originals. http://www.eposgroup.ru

Memory of Karelia

The National Library of the Republic of Karelia has developed and implemented this project as part of the Federal program “Memory of Russia”. The goal is to conserve rare and unique book stocks covering local studies while at the same time providing wide access to them through the Internet. Digitisation will also enable additional possibilities of work with rare publications (context search, document spelling-based description search, import of texts in different formats, etc.).

http://library.karelia.ru/rus/prog/pamyat2002.shtml

Serbia and Montenegro

Digitization of handwritten and early printed fragments from the Library of the Franciscan monastery of Santa Clara at Kotor;

CD-ROM “Archives, libraries and monuments of Kotor”

These projects of the Centre for the Preservation and Presentation of Kotor's Documentary Heritage “Notar” are related to the preservation, appraisal, description and presentation of historic collections.

http://www.cdknotar.cg.yu; http://www.matf.bg.ac.yu/iak

National Center for Digitization (NCD)

This is a consortium consisting of leading cultural and research institutions involved in digitisation, including the Mathematical Institute SANU and the Mathematical Faculty Belgrade (which provide technical support), the National Library of Serbia, the National Museum Belgrade, the Archaeological Institute Belgrade, the Archive of Republic Serbia, the Serbian Institute for Monument Protection, and the Yugoslav Film Archive. Collaboration with other cultural and research institutions from Serbia and Montenegro, as well as with the similar projects from abroad, is being set up. Several projects are in progress. http://www.ncd.matf.bg.ac.yu

CEMUZ - Central Register of Museum Objects in Slovakia

In 2002 the Slovak National Museum set up the CEMUZ Project to digitise museum objects (estimated total 8 million), and build a database to be used as a part of the Register of Culture and to form part of joint portal and of the state information system. http://www.cemuz.sk

Slovakia

CEMUZ - Central Register of Museum Objects in Slovakia

Spain

Archivo De La Ciudad

Online access to digital images of the Arganda Archives collection, mainly for educational purposes. The website of this local archive is one of the best examples of the use of the new technologies in Spain. http://www.ayto-arganda.es/archivo

Digitisation of Historic Newspapers in Spanish Public Libraries

The digitisation is being done using up-to-the-minute technology. The resulting database will include bibliographical descriptions of the original items (according to Dublin Core Metadata Initiative) and metadata of file structures (according to Metadata Encoding & Transmission Standard). http://www.digibis.com/prensahis

Documentos Virtuales del Archivo Histórico de Sueca.

All documents from 1264 to 1954 are being digitised and will be accessible on the Web. http://sapiens.ya.com/webarchivo/

Patrimonio.es (2004-2008)

Digitisation Programme of the Spanish Cultural, Scientific and Natural Heritage whose aim is preservation, cataloguing and dissemination. It includes a list of several initiatives for digitisation in the cultural heritage sector. http://patrimonio.red.es/

Virtual Library of Andalusia

Digitised documents can be accessed via the virtual library catalogue which allows searching by authors, titles or subjects, or by subdivisions, such as Map Library, Graphic Library, Andalusian Reference Library, Newspaper Library, Film Library, etc. Includes additional cultural and learning resources aimed at school children such as: “Today in the history of Andalusia” and “Study and learn with the Virtual Library of Andalusía”. http://www.juntadeandalucia.es/cultura/bibliotecavirtualandalucia/

Virtual Library of the Spanish Bibliographical Heritage

Prototype for the Virtual Library of the Spanish Bibliographical Heritage, developed by the Sub directorate General for Library Co-ordination.

http://www.digibis.com/digibib

Sweden

Digitaliseringsprojekt inom arkiv, bibliotek och museer

Joint digitisation project.

http://www.kultur.nu/rapporter/digitaliseringsprojekt.html

Turkey

Akdas – Atatürk Kitaplığı Dijital Arşiv Sistemi (Atatürk Library Digitized Archive System, Istanbul Greater City Municipality)

Works from the Ottoman Empire period such as journals and newspapers, manuscripts, books, postcards, maps etc. have been digitised and the project is in progress of adopting new technologies to speed up digitisation. Works digitised are put into service immediately for in-house use.

http://www.ibb.gov.tr/minisite/kutuphaneler/

APPENDIX Back to Scope

Creative Commons [43] licence explicitly state the ways in which digital items may be re-used, and this chart (produced by Minerva [3]) demonstrates how this could be applied in conjunction with the publication on the internet of low-resolution images.

Image Type

Technical information

Typical uses

Licence conditions

Thumbnail

· JPG

· 72 dpi

· bit depth of 24-bit colour or 8-bit greyscale

· 120 pixels for the longest dimension

educational:

inclusion in a montage

commercial:

none

· Attribution

· Non-commercial,

· No derivative works [optional]

Low resolution

· JPG

· 150 dpi

· bit depth of 24-bit colour or 8-bit greyscale

· maximum of 600 pixels for the longest dimension

educational:

use in a presentation or essay

commercial:

image selection and initial layout, potential for licensing for use on websites and in presentations

· Attribution

· Non-commercial

· No derivate works [optional]

High resolution

· TIFF

· 600 dpi

· bit depth of 24-bit colour or 8-bit greyscale

educational:

viewing details, archival copy

commercial:

multimedia production, print reproduction, broadcasting