Digitisation in the UK: The Case for UK Framework
A report based on the Loughborough University study on Digitised Content in the UK Research Libraries and Archives Sector commissioned by JISC and the Consortium of Research Libraries (CURL).
Executive summary
The Loughborough study makes three clear recommendations:
- Establish a UK framework for digitisation
- Coordinate existing services
- Investigate users’ needs
In just a handful of years, an enormous amount of richly detailed and flexible digital material has been amassed in the UK as technology has expanded to make it possible: a conservative estimate suggests £130 million of public money has been spent on the creation of digital content since the mid-1990s. Nevertheless, this growth has been as unstructured as it has been phenomenal, and the material has accumulated in the absence of a UK framework for digitisation to advise on content, standards and sustainability, rather than in response to one. Digital programmes have sprung up in piecemeal fashion, dictated by individual circumstances, and executed locally. And the picture has been confused by the proliferation of standards and formats for digital surrogates, the varying approaches to accessibility, and the considerable number of advisory bodies which encourage take up of one scheme over another, despite minimum standards being outlined in JISC’s Information Environment Architecture Standards and MINERVA’s Technical Guidelines for Digital Cultural Content Creation Programmes . Moreover, digital projects have tended to be driven by supply rather than demand, spurred by opportunity instead of actual need.
A wealth of material in museums, libraries, archives and journals remains undigitised, despite the pressing need to sustain the momentum, to continue to create resources of increasing value and comprehensiveness for the end user. The very existence of powerful search facilities is changing users’ behaviour and expectations. Future digitisation programmes must respond to this and need to be more clearly informed by researchers’ needs, to respond to actual rather than theoretical demand.
There are already plenty of bodies which take a view on digitisation of research library material in the UK, including the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC), the British Library, The National Archives, the Research Information Network (RIN), the Research Councils UK (RCUK) and the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA), yet each has different constituents, with none fully able to take a UK-wide overview. Outside the UK there has also been activity in the digitisation field, particularly the EU funded programmes, such as Minerva which, among other aims, is attempting to coordinate digitisation activities, and more recently the European 7th framework and i2010 which includes the EU digital library proposal. The involvement of commercial publishers and funding bodies adds to the complexity of the situation. Perhaps most significantly, the announcement of the Google Print Library Project initiative to digitise huge quantities of books from some of the world’s leading libraries means the time could not be more opportune for a considered and dynamic public sector response. While only in its earliest stages, Google Print and the Open Content Alliance are changing the world of information provision and portend a revolution in which the sector needs to participate fully.
In 2005, JISC and the Consortium of University Research Libraries (CURL) commissioned Loughborough University to undertake an in-depth investigation into the current state of digitisation in the UK, and this document draws on its findings. It charts how far we have come to date and makes the case for strengthened coordination and the establishment of a UK framework to ensure future projects are better executed, more sustainable, and respond directly to the needs of the research community. The results would benefit all participants and stakeholders: the higher the quality and comprehensiveness of digitised resources, the better the value for everyone, both in financial and academic terms.
Loughborough’s research uncovered deep fragmentation in all components of the digitisation infrastructure: the records of available material, the provision of e-resources for different disciplines, the metadata and standards used, the advisory and support services, the availability of funding, the differing priorities of funders, and variable hosting, delivery and authentication methods. Yet the very interconnectedness of the elements of the digitisation process, where each impacts on the other, makes it both easier and more essential to place them within a framework which can make formal links that resonate across all operations. All shortcomings identified in Loughborough’s study can therefore begin to be addressed, from inadequate metadata to lack of collaboration, by uniting the various sectors through a UK framework for digitisation. A UK-wide strategy would assist in filling gaps in provision, cut across the efforts of individual funders and digitising organisations, reduce overlaps between support services and assist in the provision, take up and use of resources. Fears that any such ‘nationalisation’ might stifle local innovation can be allayed by emphasising the flexible nature of the framework we envisage; one which would issue clear guidelines rather than prescriptive demands, which would draw up ‘gold standards’ to be regularly reviewed. Such a framework, then, should be coordinated and distributed, rather than centralised, and ensure effective networking of expertise across different sectors.
This report considers in turn the current availability of digitised resources, the support and advisory systems in place, and the operations and priorities of funding bodies. It promotes a vision to safeguard the future of digital resources by placing the process and the results within clear parameters, regardless of the unpredictable metamorphoses of the technology and business models to come.
Find out more about digitisation