An Overview of Projects and Processes

Higher Education Digitisation Service

Joanne Lomax Smith

http://heds.herts.ac.uk

What is HEDS?

 Established 1996  Centralised service  Funded centrally by HE and FE  Clients are not just education sector

The Service

 Free First Response   Email or telephone No cost or commitment

Production Services

         High resolution, high quality scanning Optical Character Recognition Archive quality digital images Image enhancement and adjustment Metadata creation Rekeying of text Mark up into XML, TEI or EAD formats Bound volume scanning Microfilm scanning in bitonal or greyscale          Photographic prints and postcards Transparencies - 35mm, 60mm, large format Lithographic prints Glass plate negatives Negatives - strips and single frame Microfilm - 16mm and 35mm, bitonal and greyscale Bound volumes Paper - exam papers, grey literature Disbound books and journals

Consultancy Services

 Whole digitisation project life-cycle  Business processes  Project planning  Technical standards and workflow  Developing Funding Applications  Ongoing project support

The HEDS Team

 Service Director UH’s Director of Library & Information Services    Service Manager Two Consultants Business Administrator

Recent Projects



Consultancy:

   The British Library Refugee Studies Centre New Opportunities Fund applicants 

Image:

 Transparencies - artwork, manuscripts, stained glass, suffragette banners  Prints and postcards local history collections 

Microfilm:

  Manuscripts Political pamphlets 

Paper

:   Newsreel scripts 17 th century Trade Directories   Examination Papers Monographs

Projects in Detail

 Shetland Museum   Remote location Fragile collection  HEDS Feasibility Study

Using HEDS - University of Oxford

 Consultancy  ODLS  Business planning  Refugee Studies Centre grey literature collection  Feasibility and pilot  Production  advice on portal development

Using HEDS - University of Oxford

 Production  Academic manuscript  Examination Papers  Support  Funding applications - NOF, RSLP, AHRB, Andrew W Mellon Foundation

Where next?

 New Opportunities Fund  £50 million government funds for digitisation  HEDS - advising applicants & providing specialist information for central advisory service  Grants announced summer 2001 - then production, contract management and further consultancy

Where next? - Europe

 METAe - http://meta-e.uibk.ac.at/  Developing a software package to automate and improve the generation of metadata  New technologies for character, layout and document recognition  HEDS: manage the advisory group and edit the newsletter

Where next? - Europe

 European Task Force on Journal Digitisation  Prioritising journals titles for digitisation. Being developed under Liber http://www.sub.uni-goettingen.de/liber-wg/  Developed out of a conference in Copenhagen  Recommendations on establishment and implementation of a pan-European approach

Concluding remarks

 HEDS provide a service that is not found elsewhere in the UK  Impartial advice and consultancy  Production services with expert bureau  Knowledge of the state of the art within the UK to share with clients

An Overview of Projects and Processes

Higher Education Digitisation Service

Joanne Lomax Smith

http://heds.herts.ac.uk