Digitizing Cultural Heritage Collections

Course Description

This two-day workshop will explore the intricate world of digitizing cultural heritage collections, offering insights from real-world scenarios at the University of Southern California Libraries. From crafting effective collection development policies to implementing robust IT infrastructures, participants will delve into the entire digitization process. Engage with topics such as user-friendly interfaces, collaboration strategies, and impactful support mechanisms. Gain insights into assessment practices and navigate the landscape of opportunities and challenges, including sustainable funding and ethical considerations. This workshop equips library professionals with the knowledge and skills to enhance discoverability, performance, and usability in their digitization endeavors. Embraces a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, while mitigating biases, for a holistic approach to cultural heritage management in the digital age.

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this workshop, participants will be able to:

1. Understand the importance of digitization in preserving and promoting cultural heritage collections.

2. Develop effective collection development policies and selection strategies for cultural heritage digitization projects.

3. Navigate the processing workflow, including digitization techniques, metadata creation, and efficient management of a digital library system.

4. Evaluate and implement appropriate IT infrastructure, encompassing digital asset management, preservation strategies, and system maintenance, for a digital library.

5. Define roles and responsibilities for staffing, and identify opportunities for skill development and training.

6. Enhance the discovery experience for digital library users through well-designed interfaces, improved search capabilities, and optimized content discovery.

7. Explore collaboration and sharing mechanisms, including exposure to Google and web platforms, social media, digital repositories, as well as considerations for open access initiatives.

8. Leverage various forms of support, such as successful grant proposal writing, comprehensive instruction programs, effective promotion strategies, integration with curriculum, student learning, and faculty research, and engagement in digital humanities and scholarship.

9. Conduct assessment activities to evaluate the impact and effectiveness of digitization efforts and collection usage.

10. Identify and address opportunities and challenges in the digitization process, including sustainable funding approaches, privacy considerations, security measures, and strategies for balancing discoverability with the cost of metadata creation.

11. Improve discoverability, performance, and usability of digitized collections.

12. Prioritize diversity, equity, and inclusion in digitization projects, adhering to ethical principles and legal considerations, including copyrights and open access.

Course outline

I.               Introduction

1. Welcome and overview

2. Importance of digitization in libraries

II.             Collection Development and Selection

1. Establishing criteria for collection digitization

2. Selection strategies and criteria

III.           Processing and Workflows

1. Digitization

• Best practices and techniques

• Hardware and software consideration

2. Description and metadata creation

• Metadata standards

• Ensuring data consistency

3. Management

• Workflow optimization

• Quality control

IV.           IT Infrastructure

1. Digital asset management

• System requirements

• Metadata integration

2. Preservation

• Strategies for long-term preservation

• Disaster recovery plans

3. Maintenance

• Regular updates and upgrades

• System monitoring

V.             Resources

1. Funding

• Grant proposals

• Donor relationship

• Partnership

2. Staffing

• Roles and responsibilities

• Skill development and training opportunities

• Retention

VI.           Discovery

1. User interface

• Designing intuitive interface

• Accessibility considerations

2. Searches

• Enhancing search capabilities

• Faceted search options

3. Display

• • • Optimizing content presentation

    • Incorporating multimedia elements

    • Outputs (download, email, print, citation management)

VII.         Collaboration and Sharing

1. Exposure to Google and web

• Maximizing visibility

• SEO strategies for content

• OAH-PMH

• API

2. Social media

3. Open access

• Advantages and considerations

• Implementing open access policies

VIII.   Supports

1. Grant proposals - Crafting successful grant proposals

2. Training

• Staff training programs

• Community outreach and education

3. Promotion

• Marketing and publicizing digitized collections

• Integration with courses and student learning

• Student awards on course work using primary sources

4. Digital humanities – integrating digital humanities approaches

5. Digital scholarship – supporting scholarly endeavors

6. Scholarly communication – engaging with academic communities

7. Copyrights and open access – navigating legal and ethical considerations

IX.           Assessment – evaluating impact and effectiveness

X.            Challenges and Opportunities

1. Sustainable funding – diversifying funding sources

2. Privacy – protecting user data

3. Security -safeguarding digital collections

4. Balancing discoverability and cost of metadata creation – cost-effective metadata strategies

5. Discoverability, performance, and usability – enhancing user experience

6. DEI and ethical principles – prioritizing diversity, equity, and inclusion and mitigating biases