About
These workshops will equip you with the knowledge and skills to:
- Increase visibility of your digital collections for use in learning, teaching and research
- Encourage collaboration between curators and users of digital collections
- Strategically promote your digital collections in appropriate contexts, for a range of audiences
- Optimise your collection for discovery via Google and other search tools
- Use web analytics to track and monitor access and usage of your digital collections
- Evaluate impact and realise the benefits of investment in your digital collections
If your organisation has digital collections, or plans to develop them, our programme will help you maximise the reach of those collections on the web, demonstrate the impact of their usage and help you build for future sustainability.
Why is this important?
The way in which digital collections and individual items are created and maintained on the web will significantly affect the discoverability and use of your resources for teaching, learning and research.
Our spotlight on the digital project identified an ongoing issue of visibility of digital collections online – of the sample collections that we investigated, 20 percent were 'lost' to the web.
Typically this was due to removal of access to the content, poor exposure to search engines or relocation of content within other collections or aggregation services. The resultant poor (or non-existent) search results directly affected the ability of potential users to access and exploit the collection.
By developing workflows aimed at the promotion and discoverability of assets, collection owners can improve the visibility and persistence of their content, as well as increasing the return on investment from their creation.
Format
Our programme is made up of two, one-day workshops, led by subject experts and offering a mixture of discussion and practical activities, alongside opportunities to reflect on your current practices.
The programme is supported by the online guide making your digital collections easier to discover and will include access to pre and post-course resources.
Although designed as a complete programme, it is possible for you to attend the workshops individually. You will be able to select which workshop(s) you wish to attend when you book.
Who should attend
Anyone working in education and research, who manages, supports and/or promotes digital collections for teaching, learning and research. Those working in similar roles in libraries, archives and museums would also benefit.
The programme is focussed on local digital collections that belong directly to the institution including digital archives and institutional repositories, rather than bought in resources such as commercial e-journal or e-book collections.
For workshop one, participants should:
- Have experience of working with digital collections published on the web
- Be aware of relevant interests of teachers and researchers within their own university
- Be confident users of web interfaces
- Ideally have some authority to apply lessons learned to one or more digital collections
For workshop two, participants should:
- Have experience of working with digital collections published on the web
- Be confident users of web interfaces
- Ideally have some authority to apply lessons learned to one or more digital collections
What we cover
Workshop one: Enabling the use of digital collections in learning, teaching and research
Themes
Delegates will learn more about:
- How digital collections and their contents are discovered by students, teachers and researchers
- Factors which cause the reuse of digital content by teachers and researchers
- How Google (and search engines more generally) can index and present digital collections effectively
- Strategies for promoting digital collections and their content
Outcomes
Organisations will be able to increase visibility and discoverability of their digital collections and improve collaboration between curators and academics by applying practical tips and strategic advice in promoting collections.
Workshop two: Measuring usage and impact with digital collections
Themes
Delegates will learn more about:
- How to plan for the use of web analytics in general
- How to use Google Analytics to support digital collections
- What ‘impact’ is in relation to digital collections
- How to use the Balanced Value Impact Model (BVIM) to design an approach to measuring the impact for digital collections
Outcomes
Organisations will be able to use web analytics to monitor, analyse and understand how users navigate their digital collections. They will be able to design an approach to measuring the impact of their digital collections using the Balanced Value Impact Model (BVIM).
Pricing and eligibility
The price given is per delegate and includes lunch and refreshments.
Bookings can be made by credit card or purchase order invoice.
| Option | Cost |
|---|---|
| Individual workshop | £250 plus VAT |
| Full programme1 | £450 plus VAT |
Footnotes
- 1 Applies where the same individual is attending both workshops