Digitisation DoctorWellcome Trust, 13 April 2013

Ed Fay, Digital Library Managere.fay@lse.ac.uk | @digitalfay

Digitisation: Costs and Sustainability

Costs of Digitisation

what will it cost you?nature of the originalstypes of contentpurpose and user needs

…it depends!

Costs of Digitisation

Managementplanning, fundraising, procurement, user studies, copyright

Content creationhandling, preparation, scanning, metadata, workflows

Access provisionuser studies, system maintenance

Preservationstorage replacement, format management

Costs of Digitisation

Main questions:

Who funds what.Short-term vs long-term.In-house vs out-source.

Who funds what?

Be explicit.“Many projects draw some form of host support, but it is not budgeted or guaranteed.”

(Ithaka, 2013)

Who funds what?GrantsContributions from partner organisationsCore budget from your institutionIn-kind supportEarned income (revenue from sponsorship, advertising, subscriptions)Donations or individual philanthropy

(Ithaka, 2013)

Short-term vs long-term

What happens after the project?Budget spent.Skilled staff leave.No money, thousands of images.

Sustainability

(Ithaka, 2013)

SustainabilityProject managementMarketing and outreachContent selectionLegal servicesContent production (eg scanning, metadata creation)Financial and accounting servicesInformation technology and support services (eg server space, tech support, upgrades, etc)Indirect costs (eg office space, supplies)Digital preservationOther (please describe)

Sustainability

= impactUnderstand your users.Demonstrate value.

Sustainability

is about how far you are willing to integrate

digital attitudes into your organisation

In-house vs out-source

Reasons for in-house:Skills retention.Few format types.Long timescales.Very small or high volume.Research and development.Can fund staff and/or equipment.

In-house vs out-source

Things to think about:Equipment purchase and maintenance.Skills development (training).Diversity of content.Capacity and throughput.Future demand (or lack of it).

In-house vs out-source

Reasons for out-source:Skills recruitment.Variety of format types.Short or long timescales.Low or high volume.Known specification.Can fund capital spend.

In-house vs out-source

Things to think about:In-house support.Spec writing.Tendering or procurement.Quality criteria.Recurrence.Diversity of format types.

In-house vs out-source

Last few years at LSE:19thC and 20thC bound volumes. 19thC manuscripts (loose leaf and bound). 20thC newspapers. Glass plate negatives. Nitrate/acetate/35mm negatives. Photographic prints and albums. Large format maps. Posters. Pamphlets. Badges and postcards. 3D objects (plates, purses, boxes).

Worked with around a dozen different suppliers, each bringing the right equipment and experience.

Quick pause.

(LSE)Funding Function Skills

Project Content creation Out-source

Library

Systems/UX

In-house

CurationServers/Storage

InstitutionNetwork

Estates/Electricity

(Wellcome)Funding Function Skills

Library

Content creationOut-source

Systems/UXCuration

In-houseInstitution

Servers/Storage

NetworkEstates/Electricity

Short-term Long-term

User studies Requirements gathering On-going engagement

Copyright None NoneRights clearance

Metadata Description Technical/Preservation

Image capture Scanning (+ conservation?) None (rescan)

Workflow Automated (e.g. batch OCR) None (reprocess)Manual (e.g. transcription)

Storage Initial capacity (incl backups)Maintenance/cloud access

Capacity increaseReplacement cycle

Online access Commercial or open-source UX updatesSystem replacement

Digital preservation Planning (e.g. standards) Actions (interventions) ???

Costs of digitisation

Low Medium High

Cost models17 different cost models for digital preservation

http://wiki.opf-labs.org/display/CDP/Home

“We worked hard to tackle this particular challenge in LIFE3, and based on the evaluation project that followed, we almost completely failed.”

(Wheatley, 2012)

Costs of Digitisation

The golden rule for cost reduction is to look at every stage that requires human intervention and either remove it, reduce it or make it as efficient as possible.

(Minerva, 2006)

Costs of DigitisationMethods to reduce cost:1) Reduce the cost of labour;2) Automate to reduce levels of human intervention in digital conversion and metadata creation;3) Select and prepare originals to enable higher volumes and reduce variation in the workflow;4) Increase overall performance and throughput to make the most efficient use of capital expenditure; and5) Continuous improvement and optimisation through rigorous quality assurance.

(Minerva, 2006)

“Stewardship is easy and inexpensive to claim; it is expensive and difficult to honor, and perhaps it will prove to be all too easy to later abdicate.”

(Lynch, 2003)

Cost everything.Even if you don’t have to cash fund it now, you may have to make the case in the future.

Plan for the long-term.Think about what happens after the project. At the extreme, this is about repositioning the organisation to make digital part of your business-as-usual.

Final thoughts

ReferencesSustaining our Digital Future: Institutional Strategies for Digital Content

(Ithaka, 2013)

Handbook on Cost Reduction in Digitisation(Minerva, 2006)

Rapid Capture: Faster Throughput in Digitization of Special Collections(OCLC, 2011)

Toolkit for the Impact of Digitised Scholarly Resources (TIDSR)(Oxford Internet Institute, 2011)

Balanced Value Impact Model(Tanner, Kings College Digital, 2013)

Ed Fay, Digital Library Managere.fay@lse.ac.uk | @digitalfay

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