Minutes – January 21, 2011

Posted on February 8, 2011 by mmlam

BC Digitization Coalition
January 21, 2011
3:00 pm – 4:30 pm
BCLA Boardroom

In Attendance: Brian Owen, Lynn Copeland, Janine Johnston, Gordon Coleman, Alissa Cherry, Simon Neame, Mimi Lam

Teleconference: Ken Cooley, John Durno, Moira Ekdahl, Brenda Smith

Guests: Kelly Stewart, Rosaleen Hill, Ann Stevenson, Gerry Lawson

Regrets: Anita Cocchia, Chris Mathieson, Kate Russell, Allan Bell

Agenda Item Summary Action
1. Welcome and introductions
2. Digital Collection Builder Once the Digital Collection Builder workshops are developed, the Coalition needs to consider a sustainable model for the delivery of the workshops.  There has been interest from various communities around the province in DCB training and Mimi Lam is developing a workshop that can be taken out into the community.  The group discussed various types of funding models that could be used.  The option of developing an online workshop was also suggested.Canadiana.org is also interested in developing similar workshops and the group will explore a potential collaboration around this idea. Mimi and Simon will draft a proposal outlining various fiscal models for the group to consider.

Gordon will get in touch with a Canadiana contact to gauge interest in multiple format DCB workshops.
3. Canadiana update(Lynn Copeland) There have been a lot of positive developments recently, including numerous media coverage of Canadiana.org in the last week.  A recent article highlighted the need for more funding and called for a national digital initiative.  Currently, up to 60 million metadata records are included in Canadiana; many of those are from U of Toronto because of their Internet Archive project.  A lot of work (usability testing) has gone into the Canadiana search portal and a new version is coming out soon.  The number of hits to the new site has skyrocketed.  Canadiana’s financial model is a mixed model and they are trying to revise the model to be simpler and to make content more accessible.  They are currently in negotiations with Consortia Canada to have a province-by-province licence.  In the meantime, Canadiana is happy to take more metadata records.
4. Software working group report The Software Working Group was formed in April 2010.  The WG submitted an update to the Coalition in October 2010 in which they identified three key service areas: search engine, hosting solution and metadata ‘wrangling’.  The WG is preparing to issue its report at the next Coalition meeting where they will make recommendations and offer estimates for each service area. WG Report will be done by the mid-February and presented at next meeting.
5. MOA digitization(Gerry Lawson, Ann Stevenson – MOA) Gerry gave an overview of a new oral history and digitization lab at the Museum of Anthropology (MOA).  The lab was originally envisioned as a recording studio of oral histories about the museums objects, but has since expanded to digitization of materials relevant to research.  They are in the process of developing a cost recovery system.  MOA has an outreach mandate to do work with First Nations communities.  Currently, Gerry is involved in the Indigitization Project as well as creations of a NADP grant application to digitize open reel.  The proposed project is intended to add open reel audio digitization to the skill set of people doing digitization in communities.  MOA has a few years before having to become self-sustaining.  Ann is interested in learning more about types of repositories in use, how to manage digitized items and the metadata created, and access and rights management. These issues form a lot of the questions from communities.  Currently, 70,000 images from MOA collections are available online.  The Reciprocal Research Network (RRN) – http://www.moa.ubc.ca/RRN/about_overview.html – offers access to 250,000 items for registered users (Public access: 100,000 items). Coalition members are really enthusiastic about MOA’s digitization initiative.  It would be nice to reflect this type of activity on the Coalition website.  There is the potential for referral for digitization services too. Mimi will obtain a digital copy of the MOA handout to distribute to Coalition list serv.

Mimi will forward to Coalition members an inventory of resources available regarding digitization once it is available.
6. Proposal for a Digitization Institute This proposal grew out of a discussion to coordinate resources and services between the AABC and the Coalition, in particular around training and workshops.  Currently, AABC offers a two-day workshop called “Managing a Digitization Program”.  Due to interest and positive feedback from participants of this workshop, AABC became interested in expanding the two-day workshop into a five-day Digitization Institute (DI)..  The institute would involve a range of topics and would include hands-on digitization practice.  Kelly and Rosaleen have taught the two-day workshop five times now and the participants have come from all different sectors. A longer ‘institute style’ approach with give the ability to explore more topics including project management, promotion, sustainability, funding and preservation best practices.  The group noted that UVic’s Digital Humanities Summer Institute (DHSI) is fundamentally different from the DI in that it is access driven whereas the proposed Institute include strategies for digital preservation.

Feedback

  • The goals of the proposed Institute and DHSI are similar and it is worth talking to Ray Siemens regarding collaboration.
  • It is great that the DI teaches the creation of a digitization strategy but smaller organizations will have hard time implementing these plans because it is often one person running the entire program.
  • What is the benefit of limited hands-on experience as it applies to a small organization?  Very often the equipment and workflow will be completely different depending on the institution.  Also, the knowledge base and skill set have steep learning curves beyond what an afternoon of experience can offer.
  • Would it be possible to allow more experienced participants to join in during the more advanced portion?
  • It might be useful to organize the curriculum based on specific media types (image, text, audio, video, etc.).
  • DI could offer concurrent sessions that concentrate on specific formats in order to meet the needs of participants with specific interests
  • It might be useful to structure the material/curriculum into blocks/modules based on subject area.  The DI could be a service offered by the Coalition and delivered by more than one institution.
  • Structure the DI to make the distinction between digitization for access and digitization for preservation.
  • Workflow development and construction of a digitization system are important aspects to cover in curriculum
  • Digital preservation is too complex for a five day DI since there is a lot of debate over preservation standards and Trusted Digital Repositories (TDRs).  TDRs are out of reach even for large institutions at the moment.  Canadiana and other institutions are engaged in investigating TDRs, but this is a very complex issue that needs to be worked out.
  • Each offering of the DI could have a different focus in order to stay relevant and broaden appeal
 Ken will get in contact with Ray and report back to the group.

Kelly, Rosaleen, Janine, Simon and Mimi will revise the DI proposal and report back to the group
7. Coalition Evaluation It has been almost two years since the Coalition was established and the timing is good for a review of its activities, and to evaluate whether the current model and membership is most effective for moving projects and services forward.  At the moment, the Coalition is not set up for delivering services on an ongoing basis.  The WG’s report can help drive the discussion regarding an overall evaluation of the Coalition’s makeup and purpose.  The group agreed to make the focus of the next meeting a review of the Working Group’s software report as well as a review of the Coalition’s activities to date. Coalition members will consider the structure and model of the Coalition for discussion at the next meeting.
Next Meeting: Late February/Early March

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