Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 17, No. 132.
Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London
www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/humanist/
Submit to: humanist@princeton.edu
[1] From: ubiquity <ubiquity@HQ.ACM.ORG> (13)
Subject: Ubiquity 4.18
[2] From: Michael Fraser <mike.fraser@computing- (22)
services.oxford.ac.uk>
Subject: New Humbul Topic: English Local History
[3] From: "Sarah J. Segura" <sarah@ninch.org> (101)
Subject: Report on "The Price of Digitization"
[4] From: Carolyn Kotlas <kotlas@email.unc.edu> (17)
Subject: CIT INFOBITS -- June 2003
--[1]------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 04 Jul 2003 06:11:54 +0100
From: ubiquity <ubiquity@HQ.ACM.ORG>
Subject: Ubiquity 4.18
Ubiquity: A Web-based publication of the ACM
Volume 4, Number 18, Week of June 23, 2003
In this issue:
Views --
From PostGrad to Professional
Useful tips for choosing and executing a doctoral thesis.
By Sam Lubbe
http://www.acm.org/ubiquity/views/s_lubbe_1.html
Fractal Generation From the "Luque Method" for Simplification
of Logic Fractions
A new way to simplify of logic functions.
By David Luque Sacaluga
http://www.acm.org/ubiquity/views/d_luque_1.pdf
--[2]------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 04 Jul 2003 06:13:17 +0100
From: Michael Fraser <mike.fraser@computing-services.oxford.ac.uk>
Subject: New Humbul Topic: English Local History
New Humbul Topic: English Local History
Interest in English local history has never been greater. Now staff at the
Centre for Metropolitan History based at the Institute of Historical
Research, University of London, have brought together some useful internet
resources tackling different aspects of English local history into a
Humbul Topic: English Local History
http://www.humbul.ac.uk/topics/localhistory.html
Humbul Topics gather together Internet resources that share a particular
relevance found in the Humbul internet resource catalogue. Explore them
all http://www.humbul.ac.uk/topics/
The Humbul Humanities Hub is a service of the Resource Discovery Network
funded by the Joint Information Systems Committee and the Arts and
Humanities Research Board, and is hosted by the University of Oxford.
--- Dr Michael Fraser Head of Humbul Humanities Hub Oxford University Computing Services 13 Banbury Road Oxford OX2 6NN Tel: 01865 283 343 Fax: 01865 273 275 http://www.humbul.ac.uk/--[3]------------------------------------------------------------------ Date: Fri, 04 Jul 2003 06:15:46 +0100 From: "Sarah J. Segura" <sarah@ninch.org> Subject: Report on "The Price of Digitization"
NINCH ANNOUNCEMENT News on Networking Cultural Heritage Resources from across the Community June 24, 2003
Report on "The Price of Digitization" http://www.ninch.org/forum/price.report.html
A report is now available on the April 8 NINCH/Innodata Symposium, "The Price of Digitization: New Cost Models for Cultural and Educational Institutions," hosted by the New York Public Library and co-sponsored by the NYPL and New York University. A full report by Lorna Hughes, a summary report by Michael Lesk and copies of speakers presentation slides are available at the NINCH website <http://www.ninch.org/forum.price.report.html> and the website of Innodata. It will also be available shortly on the web site of the Canadian Heritage Information Network <http://www.chin.gc.ca/English/index.html>.
The success of the meeting has prompted Innodata to plan a series of follow-up meetings around the country. An announcement will be made shortly (see <http://www.innodata.com>).
The meeting underscored the importance of the subject and (in the face of quoted prices for digitizing a book ranging from $4 to $1,000) the urgent need for useable cost models for established good practice in calculating costs and determining prices for digitizing cultural resources. It also underscored the importance of cross-sectoral guides to good practice, as exemplified by THE NINCH GUIDE <http://www.ninch.org/guide>.
In his keynote, the Mellon Foundation's Don Waters emphasized the difference between cost, price and value, putting the current short, pioneering phase of digitizing cultural materials in the context of the long history of printing. He identified three key cost barriers to digitization: workflow and technology; intellectual property and institutional costs and variables. And he left us with the important message of not forgetting a focus on mission and institutional values in our engagement with the economics of digitization.
A panel presented a mix of nonprofit and commercial vendors explaining how they determined costs for particular projects and presented reasons for working in-house or for working with a vendor. All speakers emphasized the importance of careful planning from start to finish of any project.
In a session devoted to the critical place of digital preservation in any digitization program or project, Harvard University's Stephen Chapman spoke on his research into the comparative costs of analog versus digital preservation. According to his research (just published at <http://jodi.ecs.soton.ac.uk/Articles/v04/i02/Chapman/>, there is an enormous gap between these two modes of preservation and much more work is needed.
A particularly interesting and important panel examined the evolving approach that institutions are taking to digitization: accepting it as a core budget item rather than taking a project-by-project approach. Three very different presentations showed the approaches of the New York Public Library (that has made the switch), the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian (that is re-thinking the entire approach to collection building and the role of digitization as it prepares to inhabit its new building in DC) and the American Museum of Natural History (where Tom Moritz emphasized the importance of providing integrated access to publications, archival records, field notes, specimens and more; the wide range of potential income for such digital material; and the broader constraints on the public access to such rich, integrated information).
Standing apart in this session was the National Archives' Steve Puglia, who presented his own broad survey of digitization costs at many institutions (building on his seminal 1999 RLG DigiNews article, "The Cost of Digital Imaging," <http://www.rlg.org/preserv/diginews/diginews3-5.html#feature>). He noted that projects broke down typically with 1/3 of the cost on digitization, 1/3 on cataloging, description, and indexing, and 1/3 on administrative costs, quality control, and overhead. He made the point that to reduce digitization costs, you need both to work on scanning and on the other elements of the overall workflow.
Revenue generation was the topic of the last panel, with Christie Stephenson demonstrating how the University of Michigan Library's Digital Conversion Services works not only for the library but also other University units and non-profits. The unit charges a range of fees currently, while it explores new funding models. Dependence on revenue brings uncertainty and insecurity and Stephenson concluded by citing the UK's Higher Education Digitization Service (HEDS), which has shown that the presence of a community mandate, the provision of adequate business support and the removal of some economic uncertainty might result in both a more viable model and a "learning" model, where customer and service provider might together explore new methods to achieve better results.
Kate Wittenberg, who has directed a pioneering electronic publishing initiative at Columbia University, then gave a thumbnail guide to the issues involved in trying to create sustainable digital resources, critiquing four potential revenue sources and a rich set of questions that need to be answered before engaging on a product launch.
Two conclusions were offered by Innodata President, Jack Abuhoff, and by Michael Lesk. Abuhoff, underlining key points made by the speakers - critical document analysis and workflow design, clearly defined project goals, thinking through future needs - emphasized that digitization is a highly complex activity and should not be approached lightly. Lesk asked the audience to think through the value of what was being digitized and to judge whether costs were justified by the value of the material. While a few high-profile projects demanded the very best treatment, many materials could be digitized using automation and cheap foreign labor.
--
NINCH-Announce is an announcement listserv, produced by the National Initiative for a Networked Cultural Heritage (NINCH). The subjects of announcements are not the projects of NINCH, unless otherwise noted; neither does NINCH necessarily endorse the subjects of announcements. We attempt to credit all re-distributed news and announcements and appreciate reciprocal credit. For questions, comments or requests to un-subscribe, contact the editor: <mailto:sarah@ninch.org> ----------------------------------------------------------------------- See and search back issues of NINCH-ANNOUNCE at <https://mail2.cni.org/Lists/NINCH-ANNOUNCE/>.
--[4]------------------------------------------------------------------ Date: Fri, 04 Jul 2003 06:27:36 +0100 From: Carolyn Kotlas <kotlas@email.unc.edu> Subject: CIT INFOBITS -- June 2003
CIT INFOBITS June 2003 No. 60 ISSN 1521-9275
About INFOBITS
INFOBITS is an electronic service of The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Center for Instructional Technology. Each month the CIT's Information Resources Consultant monitors and selects from a number of information and instructional technology sources that come to her attention and provides brief notes for electronic dissemination to educators.
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Instructional Technology and Faculty Perceptions Emotions in the Online Classroom Is the Scholarly Book Dead? More on Scholarly Publishing A Forensic Method for Evaluating Journal Quality Search Smarter, Not Harder
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