MINERVA Framework: Good Practices in Digitisation for Cultural Websites

1. Ministerial NEtwoRk for Valorising Activising in digitisation The MINERVA framework Good Practices in Digitisation Cultural websites quality principles Antonella Fresa Warsaw, 1 February 2005

2. 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)

3. 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. Lund Meeting – 4th April 2001

4. 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

5. National Representatives Group The NRG meets every 6 months to share national experiences under the aegis of the presidency in turn.

6. 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 “rolling agenda”

7. 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. The MINERVA project

8. 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) Original Partners

9. Greece Czech Republic Austria Hungary Germany Malta Ireland Slovenia Portugal Estonia Poland Russia and Israel New Members of Minerva Plus

10. 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.

11. to contribute to the creation of a broad consensus on the European framework derived from the e-Europe 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. Scopes of the MINERVA network

12. 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

13. 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) How MINERVA works

14. 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 Network enlargement

15. 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 The Working Groups

16. 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:

17. 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 Publications

18. 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 good practice handbook

19. 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. The structure of the Handbook

20. 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. Practical Guidelines

21. 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 The set of Practical Guidelines

22. 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 One example: Digitisation project planning

23. 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 first lesson learnt in Digitisation Project Planning The Reasons for the Project

24. 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 second lesson learnt in Digitisation Project Planning Human Resources

25. 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 third lesson learnt in Digitisation Project Planning Research

26. 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 the fourth lesson learnt in Digitisation Project Planning Risks

27. MINERVA 10 Quality Principles for cultural websites Commentary and explanations Hanbook

28. transparent effective maintained accessible user-centred responsive multi-lingual interoperable managed preserved The 10 Pinciples

29. 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

30. 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 How to use the guide

31. Website Planning Website Design Content Selection Digitisation Process Storage and Preservation of the Digital Master Material Metadata Capture Website Implementation Online Publication Ongoing Maintenance Stages of the website life cycle

32. For each principle-stage pair, a value between 1 and 3 is provided: 1 – Low priority 2 – Mid priority 3 – High priority The “scoring”

33. The matrix

34. 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 Most critical stages

35. One example • Multi-linguality

36. VII Quality Principle: ”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 – introduction and commentary

37. 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 - criteria

38. The CRITERIA: “Some site content should be available in more than one language” Within the CHECK-LIST: Yes/ No/ n.a. Some site content available in more than one language □ □ □ The PRACTICLE TEST: “Does the site have any multilingualmulti-lingual content ?” Multi-linguality: first criteria / check list / practical test

39. 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 Key messages

40. For further information: www.minervaeurope.org Thank you Antonella Fresa, MINERVA Technical Coordinator fresa@promoter.it