Lessons Learned

1. Lessons Learned Simon Tanner Higher Education Digitisation Service http://heds.herts.ac.uk

2. Introduction: • HEDS business model - why do we do it this way? • Project planning and management. • The real costs of digitisation. • What challenges remain? Higher Education Digitisation Service: Lessons Learned

3. HEDS Business Model: Client Side • A single point of contact for our clients whatever the original materials or the project goals. • Services highly tailored to meet each clients exact needs, plus some supporting standard products. • Client side contracts based upon a full Service Level Agreement that specifies the job and costs in detail. • All contracts supported by benchmark samples and Quality Assurance plans and guarantees. Higher Education Digitisation Service: Lessons Learned

4. HEDS Business Model: Supply Side • A range of commercial vendors bound to HEDS through Framework Agreement documents. • HEDS does a biennial survey of potential suppliers. A small number of suppliers are selected for their proven expertise in one or two areas. • Each task is assigned based upon the best value for money at the time. • High volume tasks are distributed to spread risk. • HEDS work closely with the production floor staff. Higher Education Digitisation Service: Lessons Learned

5. HEDS: Making Money • Low overheads - no expensive scanning equipment, conversion staff or space needed. • Do have software, high spec. PC’s, large/fast data storage needs and fire safes. • HEDS either adds a small margin to the unit production value or charges a direct cost to the client. • Sometimes act as managing agents for our clients on a consultancy basis. Higher Education Digitisation Service: Lessons Learned

6. Project Planning is about 3 things: • Vision - can you see the whole picture? • Risk management - ensuring the vision is achievable. • Resource management - putting vision into practice. Higher Education Digitisation Service: Lessons Learned

7. Project Planning - Vision • Describe the project from cradle to grave. • Understand how the elements fit together. • Do not need to understand the detail of every element but must understand it’s project implication. • Be able to define solid objectives, goals and deliverables. • The Hollywood pitch! Higher Education Digitisation Service: Lessons Learned

8. Risk Management • Employ a good project manager. • Define clear objectives and plan. • Define the acceptance criteria and assign ranking. • Ensure early scheduling of equipment delivery. • Training - invest. • Be honest about the potential problems and the risk of failure. Higher Education Digitisation Service: Lessons Learned

9. Costing: HEDS lessons learned: • Costs depend upon: • The information content of the originals. • The balance of costs, technology and project goals. • It depends on the physical nature of the original materials. • "I'd really like you to forget those figures for how much it costs JSTOR to do digitization. They might be helpful, but in reality what matters is not how much it costs JSTOR, HEDS, GDF or any other organisation. What matters is how much it is going to cost you." • Kevin Guthrie, President of JSTOR during the closing panel session. • Digitising Journals: Conference on Future Strategies for European Libraries, March 2000, Copenhagen. Higher Education Digitisation Service: Lessons Learned

10. Costs are usually people driven: • More human intervention means higher costs. • Staff costs and overheads are often hidden when working in-house and can be excessive. • Metadata creation can eat into your budget unless good estimating has been done. • System development and delivery mechanisms can easily overrun and eat the rest of the budget. • Preparation - the great hidden cost that can be at least 30% of the total. Higher Education Digitisation Service: Lessons Learned

11. What Challenges Remain? • Metadata - descriptive and preservation levels. - addressed partially through METAe Metadata Engine project http://meta-e.uibk.ac.at/ • Preserving the physical reliability and usability of the data. • Technology advance and redundancy. • Raising revenue by providing valued services. Higher Education Digitisation Service: Lessons Learned

12. One final thought... • The “Law of Disruption” by Downes and Mui * “social, political and economic systems change incrementally, but technology changes exponentially.” • What I hope we will soon see is not society or cultural institutions “catching up” with technology, but to see technology being adjusted and “tamed” for our needs. * Downes, Larry and Chunka Mui. 1998. Unleashing the Killer App: Digital Strategies for Market Dominance. Boston: Harvard Business School Press. Higher Education Digitisation Service: Lessons Learned

13. Lessons Learned Simon Tanner Higher Education Digitisation Service http://heds.herts.ac.uk Email: heds@herts.ac.uk