Collection digitisation policy
4th edition (2008)
1. Introduction
The National Library of Australia Act 1960 provides the Library with a mandate to build a national collection of library material, including a comprehensive collection of material relating to Australia and the Australian people. The collections include books, journals, maps, printed music, pictures, manuscripts and oral history recordings. The Act also requires the Library to make its collections available for use.
Digital technology has enabled the Library to employ innovative ways of providing access to its collections and to meet specific access objectives. The Library’s Directions for 2006-2008 statement identifies key strategic outcomes for the Library with digitisation highlighted as one of the activities contributing to Desired Outcome 2:
- "To meet the needs of our users for rapid and easy access to our collection."
This policy outlines the Library’s approach to digitisation of its collections and to providing access to and managing its digital collections.
2. The Librarys digitisation goals
By digitising its collections, the Library aims to:
- Build a critical mass of digital content relating to Australia’s documentary and cultural heritage to support research;
- Enable people, regardless of location, to directly access and use a range of collection materials without having to visit the Library;
- Engage with new audiences by making our collections available in the online environment by use by different communities employing innovative technologies;
- Support the Library’s education, publishing and exhibition programs; and
- Preserve rare and fragile collections and those at risk of obsolescence, while also increasing access to them.
3. Principles
The following principles guide the current Library’s digitisation activities:
- The prime purpose of digitisation is to facilitate access. The Library wishes to expose its collections more widely and make them easier to use. The secondary purpose is to preserve rare and fragile collection items, by providing digital surrogates of the items for use.
- The highest priority for digitisation is material relating to Australia and Australians. Selected material from important overseas collections will also be digitised under certain circumstances.
- Collection material is digitised once only and to the standards digital capture standards endorsed by the Library which ensure the digital copies can be reused for many purposes. These include online exhibitions, publications and educational resources produced to selectively highlight the Library’s collections. Where digital images exist that were created according to early digitisation practices and capture standards that produced lower quality images than current requirements, the original items are re-digitised to the current standard when requested by an internal or external customer.
- While there is a particular focus on unique material that is held only by the Library, the objective is to digitise a range of collection formats and subjects to provide a critical mass of content to support research in a variety of fields.
- The Library provides access to digital copies of collection items but does not generally interpret them. Instead, the digital copies are made available for others to package and use as required, subject to copyright and other access restrictions.
- The use and reproduction of items in the digital collections is in accordance with Library policies on access and user charging, and incorporates attribution of the work, acknowledgement of the Library as the source, and compliance with any copyright or other access restrictions (see Using the Collection).
- Generally, collection material that is digitised to support the Library's own activities—including the planned digitisation program, publications and exhibitions—is digitised in its entirety, for example an entire book, volume, photograph album or photograph collection. This enables access to the whole item as well as the parts contained within it. Manuscript collections are an exception as, due to their complex nature and size, they are rarely digitised in their entirety; instead individual items or series are digitised.
- Digital versions of collection material represent the original item as closely as possible. Images are not digitally manipulated or enhanced, except to compensate for defects in equipment.
- The Library’s digitisation activities take account of user evaluation and feedback. Users are encouraged to provide feedback and make suggestions through the Digital Collections user feedback form or other ways.
- The digitisation of items in the collection does not diminish the Library’s commitment to the preservation and care of these items. Digital surrogates reduce the need for future handling of the original items which are maintained in appropriate preservation conditions.
- The Library aims to minimise duplication of its digitisation activity and to increase the quantity and diversity of digital content available to users at the national level, by working collaboratively with other Australian institutions.
- The Library employs widely accepted national and international standards and practices for digital capture, storage, preservation and access.
- Digitisation takes account of the copying provisions within the Copyright Act 1968.
4. Selection of material for digitisation
A range of materials—including pictures, maps, manuscripts, sheet music, books, ephemera, newspapers, journals and audio recordings—is digitised to support the collection related services and activities outlined below.
(i) Planned digitisation
Digitisation is a routine activity at the Library. The digitisation program comprises most new acquisitions of pictures and selected materials already in the collections. Existing collection material selected for digitisation generally falls into one or more of the following categories:
- Items of particular historical and/or cultural significance;
- Unique collection material;
- Collections in high demand;
- Items selected for publication or exhibition by the Library;
- Material for which copyright restrictions have expired or permission to digitise has been obtained;
- Material that may otherwise be restricted due to its condition, value, vulnerability or location; and
- Collection material that is relatively unknown, for which digital access could increase interest in and use of the items.
An annual plan outlines the material that will be digitised as part of the planned digitisation program. While formats might change in the future, the emphasis is currently on pictures, rare maps and printed music (see Current priorities for more details).
Collection material is digitised once to the digitisation standard endorsed by the Library but the digital image can be used for a range of purposes. The master copy is stored in a central location in a Digital Object Storage System (DOSS), with different versions made available to the public via a range of access paths (See section on Access).
(ii) User requests for collection items through the Copies Direct Service
The Library supports national and international access to the library collections either through libraries in the form of interlibrary loan and document delivery or direct to users through the Library’s Copies Direct service. These services allow users to purchase digital or print copies of items in the Library’s collections subject to copyright and other access restrictions. Only material out of copyright is copied in its entirety and the digital master is retained permanently and can be used for other purposes. These digital copies are made accessible via the delivery system but are delivered to a different set of standards than other collection digitisation.
(iii) Large scale/high volume digitisation
In collaboration with the Australian State and Territory libraries, the Library is digitising Australian historical newspapers through the Australian Newspapers Digitisation Program. One major daily newspaper from each Australian state and territory as well as the Sydney Morning Herald will be digitised from microfilm and made available online by the end of 2010, totalling approximately 3.6 million pages. As the newspapers are digitised they will be made available via a free online service that enables full-text searching of newspaper articles at http://ndpbeta.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/home.
Through this large scale digitisation program the Library is applying content analysis and Optical Character Recognition (OCR) processing to enable keyword searching of text based collection material. The program will be expanded in the future to include other text based collection material such as journals and books.
(iv) Preservation
In line with the Library’s Policy on Preservation Copying of Collection Materials material may be selected for digitisation for preservation purposes in order to reduce the risks associated with physical handling of fragile and/or valuable material, and/or where there is a high risk that the original will not survive and must be supported or replaced by a preservation copy. In addition, the Library copies material unable to be kept in its original format and/or at high risk of not being able to be accessed into the future, as well as replacing originals for which access is reliant on technologies which are becoming obsolete.
The Library has adopted both microfilming and digitisation as preservation reformatting methods depending on the nature of the material concerned. The Library is committed to maintaining preservation copies for the very long term.
In order to ensure sustainable access to the content of its recorded sound collections, the Library is also undertaking digitisation of this format of material for preservation purposes. A program to migrate archival sound recordings to an internationally recognised archival digital audio file format for long-term preservation and storage, with access to derivative copies, is ongoing.
(v) Public outreach programs
Collection materials are digitised to support the Library’s public programs and outreach activities such as exhibitions, publications, cultural events and education activities. Digitisation for this purpose enables the Library to engage new user communities and target audiences using innovative and exciting approaches and creates flexible new products for re-use.
(vi) Content for federated resource discovery services
The Library hosts a number of national resource discovery services that are thematic or subject based and which enable users to search for resources and to link to digital copies of the resources. The Library’s digitisation program supports and provides content for these services which include Music Australia, Picture Australia and Australia Dancing.
(vii) Overseas material
While the Library’s priority for digitisation is the Australian collections, digitisation of selected overseas collection material may also be undertaken. Considerations that will be taken into account include preservation requirements for high use research material and support for the Library’s publications and exhibitions program.
(viii) Collaboration
Digitisation activities may be undertaken in collaboration with other collecting and research organisations that have mutual goals and similar digitisation objectives. This can include cases where material that enhances the Library’s collections is lent by another organisation or individual to the Library for digitisation and/or where digitisation of Library material is funded or undertaken by another institution or individual through donation or sponsorship. The Library also undertakes digitisation to support specific collaborative projects, such as those funded by the Australian Research Council as well as supporting others to interpret and package our digitised content for different uses.
The Library will endeavour to provide links in its catalogue to significant Australian items that are in the collections of another institution and have been digitised by them.
5. Management of digitisation activities
Management of the Library’s still image digitisation activities is centralised in one organisational unit, the Digitisation and Photography Branch. This area has responsibility for Library wide policy, planning and procedures relating to digitisation. Procedures and guidelines have been developed to assist other areas across the Library that work with, or seek services from, the Digitisation and Photography Branch, to comply with the policy. Management of the Library’s audio digitisation activities is with the Oral History Branch.
The Digitisation Issues Working Group has been set up to examine and progress issues relating to digitisation of the Library’s collections, with emphasis on enhancements to workflows, procedures and the Library's digital infrastructure systems, as driven by user requirements. The group reports to the Collection Development & Management Committee.
Digitisation of unique material is undertaken in-house by Library staff or contractors. Depending upon the nature of the project, digital capture in some cases may be outsourced.
Expertise to support digitisation activities is drawn from a range of areas across the Library as required. In particular, support is drawn from the Library's Information Technology Division for development and maintenance of the digital storage, management and delivery systems; from collection areas for selection and description of items to be digitised and determining priorities; and from Preservation Services for advice on preservation; and from Digital Preservation Branch on digital preservation matters.
The Library’s digitised collections are managed through the Digital Collections Manager (DCM) system. This system supports the entire activity cycle for digital collections including capture, storage, management, and long term preservation.
The Library employs digital preservation principles to ensure the safe storage and management of digital objects. Appropriate architecture and processes are in place for long-term storage within the Library's Digital Object Storage System (DOSS). In line with the Digital Preservation Policy, the Library is also investigating the development of additional preservation strategies and processes aimed to ensure that digital collections remain usable over time, even when the current technologies to access them change.
6. Access to digitised collections
(i) Discovery services and delivery systems
The Library’s digitised collections can be searched and accessed through a range of discovery services. Primarily, integrated access to print and digitised collections is provided through the Library’s online catalogue and the Australian National Bibliographic Database (ANBD) in Libraries Australia. Collection material is bibliographically controlled prior to digitisation so that all digital surrogates are accessible through a link in the catalogue record for the original item. Manuscript collections are described in catalogue records or a combination of a summary catalogue record and a detailed finding aids so that all digital. Digital surrogates are accessible through a link in the finding aid, which is itself catalogue records and/or though finding aids linked to the catalogue record for the collection records.
Discovery and access is also facilitated through the use of open standards which allow the harvesting and indexing of the Library’s metadata by public search engines such as Google™ and federated resource discovery services such as Picture Australia.
Access to the digitised collections is also available directly through the Library’s website. Using the Digital Collections webpages users can discover what Library collections have been digitised, as well as browse and search across the digitised collections.
(ii) Persistent identifiers
To enable users to view digitised items, the Library has developed format specific delivery systems that provide contextual bibliographic information, navigation pathways, and display and delivery options. Users are able to navigate across multiple pages, zoom in to view fine detail and see the metadata for each digitised item.
To ensure ongoing access, the Library assigns a unique and persistent identifier to every digitised collection item and to each deliverable part of every digitised collection. The use of persistent identifiers ensures that every item in the Library's digitised collections is citable in a persistent manner. The identifier can be used in a variety of contexts including the Library's catalogue, federated resource discovery services, bookmarks, and hyperlinks from other web pages, with confidence that this citation will always resolve to the location of the object on the Web.
More information on the Library’s Persistent Identifier Scheme is available at http://www.nla.gov.au/initiatives/nlapi.html.
7. Standards
The Library is committed to maintaining and promoting appropriate standards for creating, managing and providing access to its digital collections. It adheres to established international standards and adopts best practices as they emerge. The Library also contributes to digitisation standards development activities both nationally and internationally (see http://www.nla.gov.au/services/standards.html).
Resource descriptions and metadata are created using established international bibliographic standards and standard protocols (see http://www.nla.gov.au/policy/cataloguing/) for enabling search engines to harvest and index this metadata so that it can be exposed more widely on the Internet, are employed.
Collection materials are digitised according to the Library’s Digitisation Capture Standards. Material is digitised to a resolution appropriate to the item and the type of use it is likely to attract. Quality control assessment is undertaken as a routine task to ensure adherence to the Library’s standards.
Revision of the Library’s Digitisation Capture Standards digitisation capture standards is undertaken regularly. Currently work is being undertaken on establishing a set of minimal standards for access level digitisation.
8. Care and handling of original materials
Digitisation activities undertaken by the Library are consistent with the preservation requirements of the original items, and digitisation. Digitisation procedures follow the principles outlined in the Library’s Preservation Policy to ensure that material is not damaged during the digital capture process. Library staff and contractors are trained in the care and handling of collection material as part of the digitisation process. Digital capture is undertaken using equipment appropriate to the format of material being digitised, for example flat bed scanner, film/slide scanner or digital camera.
The Library aims to digitise collection material in its best possible physical condition. Therefore, preservation assessment and any treatment of original materials are undertaken prior to digitisation whenever possible.
9. Promotion
The Library’s digitisation activities are promoted to ensure that the greatest possible range of users is aware of the collections. As appropriate, promotional activities will be undertaken for specific user communities and also to engage new audiences.
A range of strategies will be employed including using the Library’s website to highlight newly digitised collection material, presentations to users, staff and colleagues from other institutions, tours of the Library’s digitisation work areas and preparation of articles for professional publications.
10. Coordination and reporting
The Library’s Corporate Management Group provides an overall advisory role in relation to the Library’s digitisation activities. The Digitisation and Photography Branch within the Collections Management Division provides policy direction and advice and manages the day to day operational digitisation activities.
The outcome of the Library’s digitisation activities is reported to Government through the Annual Report and the Outputs and Outcomes framework. Internally, digitisation activities are reported and monitored through the Library’s performance management framework
11. Future intentions
In order to achieve the Library’s strategic objective of increasing the range and quantity of digital content available to users, large scale, format based digitisation projects will be undertaken, depending on availability of resources. In particular, in collaboration with Australian State and Territory libraries, the Library plans to digitise Australian metropolitan and regional newspapers in the near future. This will include using optical character recognition (OCR) to enable full text searching and retrieval of text based collection material. At a later stage, Australian journals will be considered In particular, the Library will seek to expand the Australian Newspapers Digitisation Program to include digital newspaper files contributed by other Australian libraries and institutions.
12. Policy review
A review of this policy will be undertaken annually.
