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Ministerial NEtwoRk for Valorising Activising in digitisation
The MINERVA framework
Good Practices in Digitisation
Cultural websites quality principles
Antonella Fresa
Warsaw, 1 February 2005
The MINERVA framework
The MINERVA project is the operative
section of a wider framework made up
with the Lund Principles, the LUND
Action Plan and the National
Representatives Group (NRG)
Lund Meeting – 4th April 2001
Representatives and experts from the
Member States gathered
to identify a coordination mechanism for
digitisation programmes
across the Member States
to stimulate European cultural content
on the global networks.
National Representatives Group
The NRG is made up of officially nominated experts
from each Member State:
• to coordinate digitisation policies and programmes;
• to facilitate the adoption and implementation of the
Lund Action Plan;
• to monitor progress regarding the objectives
encapsulated in the Lund Principles.
National Representatives Group
The NRG meets every 6
months to share national
experiences under the
aegis of the presidency in
turn.
The “rolling agenda”
In order to guarantee the
continuity of the initiatives
undertaken, the past, present and
future presidencies of the EU
commonly define the so-called
“rolling agenda”.
The MINERVA project
MINERVA is the operative arm of the
National Representatives Group.
It is a network of
Member States’ ministries / agencies,.
financed by the European Commission,
in the frame of the IST Programme.
Original Partners
• Italy, coordinator (Ministero per i Beni e le Attività
Culturali)
• Belgium (Ministère de la Communauté française)
• Finland (University of Helsinky)
• France (Ministère de la Culture et de la
Communication)
• Spain (Ministerio de Educaciòn, Cultura y Deporte)
• Sweden (Riksarkivet)
• United Kingdom (The Council for Museums,
Archives and Libraries)
New Members of Minerva Plus
Greece
Austria
Germany
Ireland
Portugal
Russia
and
Czech Republic
Hungary
Malta
Slovenia
Estonia
Poland
Israel
MINERVA mission
The network has been created to:
 to discuss, correlate and harmonise activities carried
out in digitisation of cultural and scientific content;
 to create an agreed European platform of
recommendations and guidelines about:
– digitisation,
– metadata,
– long-term accessibility,
– preservation.
Scopes of the MINERVA network
• to contribute to the creation of a broad consensus
on the European framework derived from the
eEurope initiative;
• to contribute to start up new national programmes
of digitisation of cultural heritage;
• to contribute to a process of institutional
collaboration among the Presidencies of the
European Union;
• to create new opportunities of cooperation among
the members of the network.
The Charter of Parma
Art. 1 Intelligent use of new technologies
Art. 2 Accessibility
Art. 3 Quality
Art. 4 IPR and privacy
Art. 5 Interoperability and standards
Art. 6 Inventories and multiligualism
Art. 7 Benchmarking
Art. 8 Cooperation at national, European and international levels
Art. 9 Enlargement
Art. 10 Building the future together: at the forefront of the
knowledge society
How MINERVA works
• Networking activities (workshops, on-line
training, WEB site, newsletter,
benchmarking, cooperation with other
projects, enlargement of the network)
• 4 Working groups at European level
• Publications (guidelines, reports,
handbooks, brochures)
Network enlargement
The instruments:
• Membership agreement
To formalise the participation of Ministries from
other countries in the MINERVA network
• Co-operation agreement
To formalise the participation of interested
organisations (Universities, private companies,
cultural institutions, etc., in the MINERVA Users
Group
The Working Groups
• Inventories, discovery of digitised content, multilingual issues
– Multilingualism and thesaurus
• Interoperability and Service Provision
– Business Models
• Identification of user needs, content and quality framework for
common access points
– Small cultural institutions
• Identification of good practices and competence centres
– Cost reduction
Publications
Minerva publishes
brochures about its
activities, handbooks
and guidelines on
digitisation edited by
its working groups,
and an annual progress
report of the NRG:
Publications
• The Minerva brochure
• 1st and 2nd Progress Reports of the National
Representatives Group (2002 and 2003)
• Technical Guidelines
• Good practice handbook
• Quality criteria for cultural web applications
The good practice handbook
Provides useful information to the establishment,
execution and management of digitisation
projects.
It is a reasoned organisation of lessons learnt by the
analysis of the data collected across Europe until
May 2002.
The Handbook is enriched with on-line
complementary information, and in particular a
selection of existing guidelines on digitisation.
The structure of the Handbook
Introduction and background (Lund Principles
and the Minerva project)
10 Practical lessons learnt and information
collected by the Minerva project best practice
team. A collections of practical ‘rules of thumb’,
to be considered by organisations who are
establishing, executing or managing digitisation
projects in the cultural sphere.
Practical Guidelines
The material is broken down in accordance with
the stages in the digitisation life-cycle.
Each guideline description is structured as:
- Title,
- Issue definition, which sets the scene and
introduces the problem(s) addressed,
- Pragmatic suggestions,
- Notes or commentary.
The set of Practical Guidelines
Digitisation project planning
Selecting source material for digitisation
Preparation for digitisation
Handling of originals
The digitisation process
Preservation of the digital master material
Meta-data
Publication
IPR and copyrigth
Managing Digital Projects
One example:
Digitisation project planning
This is the first step in any digitisation project.
Time spent on planning will pay dividends in the easier
management and execution of the project.
Lessons learnt:
- the reasons for the project
- human resources
- research
- risks
the first lesson learnt in Digitisation Project Planning
The Reasons for the Project
Pragmatic suggestions:
- concrete, explicit and documented aims
- realistic when compared with available
resources
- Steps of the project validated against its aims
- Clear justification for the project from an
institutional point of view
the second lesson learnt in Digitisation Project Planning
Human Resources
Pragmatic suggestions:
- Ensure sufficent staff to carry out the project
- Assign staff to each task
- Identify training requirements
- Carry out training by using software and
hardware which will be used during the project
- Aim at small core of skilled dedicated staff
(rather than large group of ‘occasional’ staff)
the third lesson learnt in Digitisation Project Planning
Research
Pragmatic suggestions:
- Research into other projects which are addressing
similar issues
- it helps in avoiding mistakes and puts project team in
contact with others who have completed similar
projects giving the opportunity to learn from their
experience
- It adds credibility and enhances the results of the
project
the fourth lesson learnt in Digitisation Project Planning
Risks
Pragmatic suggestions:
- Intellectual Property Rights management
- Guaranteeing that source material is not corrupt
and has been produced by authorised
institutions
- Authenticity
- Financing of the project
- Level of skill in the project
MINERVA 10 Quality Principles
for cultural websites
Commentary and explanations
Hanbook
The 10 Pinciples
transparent
effective
maintained
accessible
user-centred
responsive
multi-lingual
interoperable
managed
preserved
Structure of the Handbook
Supporting information associated to each
principle:
•A commentary, providing interpretation, background information
and motivation for the principle
•A set of criteria to be used to assess whether or not a website is
compliant with the principle
•A checklist, based on the criteria, to be used in assessing the website
•A set of practical and pragmatic tests and questions for the
website owner to gain further insight into the compliance of his site
How to use the guide
The importance of each principle varies with the
life-cycle stage of the project
Principles Priority Matrix
stages of the life-cycle are the same as for the
Minerva Good Practice Handbook and the
Minerva Technical Guidelines
considering that this document is concerned
with websites, rather than digitisation projects
Stages of the website life cycle
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Website Planning
Website Design
Content Selection
Digitisation Process
Storage and Preservation of the Digital Master
Material
Metadata Capture
Website Implementation
Online Publication
Ongoing Maintenance
The “scoring”
For each principle-stage pair, a value
between 1 and 3 is provided:
• 1 – Low priority
• 2 – Mid priority
• 3 – High priority
The matrix
Plan
Design
Content
Select
Digitise
Store &
Preserve
Masters
MetaData
Capture
Implement
Online
Publish
Ongoing
Maintain
Transparent
2
3
1
1
1
1
3
3
2
Effective
2
3
3
1
1
2
3
3
2
Maintained
2
1
2
2
1
1
1
3
3
Accessible
3
3
1
2
1
1
3
1
1
User-centred
2
3
1
1
1
1
3
1
2
Responsive
2
2
3
1
1
1
2
3
3
Multi-lingual
3
3
2
2
1
1
3
2
1
Interoperable
3
3
1
3
2
3
3
2
2
Managed
1
1
3
1
2
1
1
1
1
Preserved
1
1
2
3
3
3
1
1
2
Most critical stages
•
•
•
•
Website planning
Website design
Website implementation
Online publication
Maintenance of the site should guarantee the quality of
the website in the future
Multi-linguality and Interoperability are very
important: they must be planned early into the website
and cannot be ‘bolted on’ later
One example
Multi-linguality
Multi-linguality – introduction and
VII Quality Principle:
commentary
” A quality website must be aware of the importance of multi-linguality by
providing a minimum level of access in more than one language”
Websites are a means for the public to access online cultural heritage.
Language can be an important barrier to access.
The website owner should focus on providing as much as possible of the
website in as many (and as popular) languages as possible.
At a basic level: outline of the content and purpose of the website in at least
one other official language of the EU.
Multi-linguality should be planned at the earliest stage of website design.
Multi-linguality - criteria
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Some site content should be available in more than one language
Sign language may be supported
Non-EU languages spoken by immigrant communities may be
supported
Site identity and profile information should be available in as many
languages as possible
The core functionality of the site (searching, navigation) should be
available in multiple languages
Ideally, static content (images and descriptions, monographs, other
cultural content) should also be available in multiple languages
Switching between languages should be easy
The site structure and layout should not vary with language – site
design and user interface language should be logically separate.
Multi-linguality should be driven by a formal multi-linguality policy
Site elements should be reviewed in terms of the multi-linguality
policy.
Steps should be taken if site elements are not as multi-lingual as they
should be.
Multi-linguality:
first criteria / check list / practical test
The CRITERIA:
“Some site content should be available in more than one language”
Within the CHECK-LIST:
Some site content available in more than one language
Yes/ No/ n.a.
□
□
□
The PRACTICLE TEST:
“Does the site have any multilingualmulti-lingual content ?”
Key messages
Quality must be planned into a website
from the start
The user is critical – involve him at
every stage
Relationships with other online
resources (interoperability) and with
future resources (long term
preservation) must be given due
thought
For further information: www.minervaeurope.org
Thank you
Antonella Fresa, MINERVA Technical Coordinator
[email protected]