Best Practices in Digitization and

Digital Curation at McGill Libraries:the Osler Library Prints Collection

KarinaKawaguchi AlesiaRudnitskaya

XeniaKurguzova VickyVassiliou

Osler Library of the History of MedicineMcGill University Library

The Osler Library of the History of Medicine

Sources: McGill Campus Scenes. http://www.mcgill.ca/photos/2003/january/Osler Library. The William Osler Photo Collection. http://digital.library.mcgill.ca/osler/large/CUS_033-001_P.jpg

Osler Library Prints Collection

• Value: historic and artistic

• Themes

• Physical properties

Let’s digitize!

Budget – special donation

Technology: scanners in place

Staffing:

team of librarians

specialized experts and support staff brought in

McGill’s Best Practices

Repository Functions

The OAIS Functional Model

Source: Reference Model for an Open Archival Information System (OAIS). http://public.ccsds.org/publications/archive/650x0m2.pdf

Best Practices

Digital images: standards and quality

TIFF

•Storage

JPEG

• Access and delivery

Thumbnails/full record/full screen/zoom

Scalable view (up to 6,450px × 4,500px)

High quality resolution (up to 15 KB)

Best Practices

Exhaustive annotations

• each digital object described by art historian/curator

Dublin Core metadata scheme

• easy to use• interoperable• OAI-PMH –

compliant

Controlled vocabulary

• LC subject headings

• authority files

Best Practices

Comprehensive finding aids and rich metadata

Best PracticesComprehensive finding aids and rich metadata

Best PracticesComprehensive finding aids and rich metadata

user-centered interface

ease of navigation

visual aids

multiple access points

Best Practices

Display and access

High quality digital images

Comprehensive and precise finding aids and rich metadata

Usability of the Website

Accessibility

Information discovery

Preservation

Contribution to

knowledge

Best Practices

<m

etadat

a>

Challenges

• Documentation of policies

• Preservation strategies and contingency planning

• Copyright

• Visibility on the web

Challenges

• Besser, H., Hubbard, S., & Lenert, D. (2003). Introduction to imaging. Los Angeles: Getty Research Institute.

• International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA). (2002). Guidelines for digitization projects for collections and holdings in the public domain, particularly those held by libraries and archives. Retrieved from http://www.ifla.org/publications/guidelines-for-digitization-projects-for-collections-and-holdings-in-the-public-domain

• Federal Digitization Initiative Still Image Working Group. (2009). Technical guidelines for digitizing cultural heritage materials: Creation of raster image master files. Retrieved from http://www.digitizationguidelines.gov/guidelines/FADGI_Still_Image-Tech_Guidelines_2010-08-24.pdf

• Humanities Advanced Technology and Information Institute, University of Glasgow (HATII) and The National Initiative for a Networked Cultural Heritage (NINCH). (2003). The NINCH guide to good practice in the digital representation and management of cultural heritage materials. Retrieved from http://www.nyu.edu/its/pubs/pdfs/NINCH_Guide_to_Good_Practice.pdf

• National Information Standards Organization (NISO). (2007). A framework of guidance for building good digital collections. Retrieved from http://www.niso.org/publications/rp/framework3.pdf

• RLG-NARA Task Force on Digital Repository Certification. (2005). An audit checklist for the certification of trusted digital repositories. Retrieved from http://www.crl.edu/sites/default/files/attachments/pages/trac_0.pdf

• RLG/OCLC Working Group on Digital Archive Attributes, Research Libraries Group, & OCLC. (2002). Trusted digital repositories: Attributes and responsibilities : an RLG-OCLC report. Mountain View, CA: RLG.

References

• Christopher Lyons, Head of the Osler Library

• Megan Chellew, Metadata Librarian

Acknowledgements

alesia.rudnitskaya@mail.mcgill.ca

karina.kawaguchi@mail.mcgill.ca

vicky.vassiliou@mail.mcgill.ca

ksenia.kurguzova@mail.mcgill.ca

Questions?

Thank you!