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Digitising Public Records: Maximising Access and Preservation

Learn about the National Archives' initiative to digitise public records, including high-quality digitised surrogates, online document delivery, and value-added services like indexing and contextualisation. Explore the key drivers, resource constraints, and models of digitisation. Discover the advantages and disadvantages of strategic partnerships in digitisation efforts.

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Digitising Public Records: Maximising Access and Preservation

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  1. Dan Jones – Head of Business Development 8 April 2008 Mass Digitisation of Public Records

  2. National Archives: Kew • Executive Agency of Secretary of State for Justice, and a Government Department • 175km shelves crammed with government records • Home of the Domesday Book • Family History research

  3. National Archives: A Digital Archive • For each document delivered on site, over 100 are delivered online. • Over 60million documents are available to download digitally, instantly. • Digitally archiving emails, websites and other electronic information. • at the heart of information policy for Government.

  4. Why Digitise? • Create high quality digital surrogates to ensure preservation of original documents. • Deliver digital documents over the Internet to maximise access. • Use digital technology to add value through indexing, contextualisation, search algorithms etc. • Optimise your online and onsite services along stakeholder segmentation. • Only wholesale digitisation of complete collections deliver this package of benefits.

  5. National Archives: Key Drivers Technology • Services via Broadband • Intuitive powerful search: ‘Google effect’ • Web 2.0: Wikis/blogs • Emergence of specialist providers Rising Expectations • Expectation that all information will be online. • Instant access at home or work. • Global audience • Expert help and advice • Free our data

  6. National Archives: Resource constraints Scale of the Collections • Over 175kms shelving • Over 10million Catalogue entries • Huge swathes of the archives are still largely un-researched. Financial Constraints • Cost to digitise the archive circa £5bn + • Tight financial environment • Importance of strategic partnership

  7. Models of Digitisation • The National Archives exploits a ‘mixed economy’ to develop these access services: • Internally funded – primarily smaller projects (< 1 million images), niche interest, miscellaneous releases (e.g. FOI releases). • Commercially funded – Major projects requiring major investment and infrastructure e.g. genealogical databases – censuses, military records, major academic projects. • Grant funded – chiefly UK academic/ HE interest, e.g. Social/Political History. • Services can be free at the point of use or paid for, along the lines of agreed stakeholder segmentation.

  8. Internal Delivery Digital Express Paid Research Strategic partnerships Our own e commerce service ‘Documents Online’ continues to make available a range of material either internally funded or grant funded. e.g. Domesday Book, CAB 129 Material not available for instant download can be requested within an 8 hour turnaround, scanned ‘on demand’ and emailed directly to you. In instances where a specific item cant be identified, remote research services can be commissioned. Licensed publication of largest most popular collections by private sector partners. Censuses, military collections, migration records. More Digitisation – a ‘family’ of digital services Decreasing usage recurrence of records

  9. Strategic Partners: Awarding Contracts • Avoid costly time consuming services contracts and tenders. • Requirements are ‘output driven’ rather than ‘activity driven’ – i.e. the ‘what’ rather than the ‘how’. • Non exclusive. • Encourage competition – fuels innovation, quality of output, and services to non-core stakeholders. • Package collections, commercially attractive with less attractive, accessible with difficult.

  10. Strategic Partners: 1911 Census • Partnership with Scotland Online • Over 18million individual document images scanned in full colour. • Approx 40,000 images per day throughput using 5 Microform S655 scanners. • Details of over 35million individuals transcribed and fully searchable • over 0.5 petabyte of Data! • Additional Services: Academics, Schools, Statistical Analysis will roll our subsequently. • Launches 2009

  11. Strategic Partnership Advantages Disadvantages • Potential loss of Control • Potential divergence of interests of respective parties • Have to agree the agenda rather than set it unilaterally • Fragmented user journey • Have to trust third parties with uniquely valuable material. • Sometimes tricky balancing interests of all stakeholders. • All financial risk with commercial partner. • Encourages re-use within the ‘knowledge economy’ • Allows simultaneous development of several products at once. • ‘Future-proof’ cutting-edge technological infrastructure. • Promotes Maximum access

  12. Strategic Partnership: Organisational Impact • Sea-change in organisational direction – to enable rather than to provide where others are better placed. • Existing resources across the Archive committed to facilitating 3rd parties rather than actively preserving, delivering, storing etc… • Drain on existing resources for training, supervision, developing guidelines etc. • New resources required: Business Development, Contract Management, Finance, Strategy.

  13. Internally Delivered: Cabinet Papers 1916-1975 • Funded by the JISC • Delivered by Documents Online • Over half a million minutes and memoranda. • Fully Searchable OCR’d metadata. • Launches 2009

  14. Providing Context: Enhanced Search • One single search capability across all our databases and websites, 30million records over 1000 years. • Presenting the results in an intuitive and logical manner.

  15. Providing Context: Embracing Social Media • ‘Your Archives’ • ‘wiki’-based resource which allows individuals experts to contribute their ideas and information. • Recognition some of our users are far more expert in particular areas of these holdings than we are ourselves.

  16. National Archives: Future Challenges • Continue to work to digitise the collections, new markets, new stakeholders, new partners. • Provide our expertise online. • Continue to develop and apply customer insight tools. • Financial sustainability of projects and programmes.

  17. National Archives: A Digital Archive • Over 80million National Archives documents delivered digitally 2007 (37 million in 2005). • Over 100million documents will be available to download by 2012. • Equivalent investment in digital services of circa £45m since 2004. • Accomplished without recourse to additional public funds.

  18. National Archives: A Digital Archive • 81.5% of users are satisfied or very satisfied with our online services (2007). • 95% of users are satisfied with our onsite service (2007). • Global Reach. • Maximise access to and understanding of the material we hold.

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