AccessIT+Overview and workplan

Mary RowlattPMB meeting, Tuzla, June 2012

AccessIT+ - What is it?

• a continuation of the successful AccessIT project – developed two online training courses aimed at

the staff of cultural heritage institutions (libraries, museums galleries)

– in Greece, Serbia and Turkey. – AccessITplus extends the project to include

Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Republika Srpska Bosnia and Croatia.

Aims of the Culture Programme include:

• “support for the trans-national circulation of cultural and artistic works and products”– AccessIT and AccessIT+ help create the conditions to do this

using digital means– By creating 2 online training courses to give people working

in libraries, museums and galleries the necessary skills

• Funded by the EC Education, Audiovisual and Cultural Executive Agency– http://

eacea.ec.europa.eu/culture/programme/about_culture_en.php

What do the courses cover?

• Digital Repositories for Small Memory Institutions covers: – how to digitise cultural heritage objects, how to

prepare them for on-line presentation and how to describe them with metadata

– theoretical background plus practical instructions which will enable small institutions to create high quality digital content and make it available to services like Europeana

What do the courses cover? (2)

• Cooperation with Europeana– is aimed at those who want to provide their

content to Europeana– covers: the vision behind the Europeana service

and explains its technical infrastructure– also provides a detailed explanation of the

procedures which need to be followed in order to make digital cultural heritage resources available through Europeana

What will the project do?

• Runs from October 2011 – September 2013• Project partners will update the existing courses and

translate them into Albanian, Bosnian and Croatian. • The existing Greek, Serbian and Turkish courses will

also be updated and retranslated. • There will be a publicity campaign in each country • After which the courses will be made available to

online learners. Those successfully completing the courses will get certificates

What else?

• In addition pilot digital libraries will be established in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Republika Srpska Bosnia and Croatia

• and their content will be made available through Europeana

• The nucleus of a centre of competence will be established in each country

Who are the partners?

• MDR Partners, UK (co-ordinators) www.mdrpartners.com• Poznan Supercomputing and Networking Centre, Poland

(technical partners) http://www.man.poznan.pl/online/en/• Veria Central Public Library, Greece http://www.libver.gr/en/• Belgrade City Library, Serbia

http://www.bgb.rs/english/home.html• Public Library Marin Barleti, Shkodra, Albania• Javna i Univerzitetska Biblioteka, Derviš Sušić, Tuzla, Bosnia and

Herzogovena• Narodna i univerzitetska biblioteka Republic of Srpske, Bosnia• Rijeka Public Library, Croatia http://

www.gkri.hr/en/Home.aspx?PageID=1&gohome=true

Activities in more detail

1. Kick off meeting2. Focus groups3. Analysis of feedback4. Detailed planning5. Train core group of staff6. Enhance existing resources and platform7. User testing and modifications

Activities in more detail (2)

8. Translations9. Publish and launch courses10. Training undertaken11. Plan and build pilot digital libraries12. Evaluation and dissemination13. Project management

Activity 1 Kick off meeting

• Took place in Richmond, London• Purpose to ensure that: – a common vision– a clear overall view of objectives– an understanding of general and individual needs

and constraints was established• and that partners discussed and understood

the implementation plan, budget and Agency regulations

2. Focus Groups

• Partners held one or more focus groups in each country designed to: – establish the extent of any existing digitisation initiatives

and identify any existing digital content– assess the existing levels of digital skills amongst cultural

heritage institution staff– Identify any special factors/challenges pertaining to this area

in each of the three countries. • This established a baseline for the project and help

the partners have a clearer picture of the situation and needs within each country

3. Analysis of feedback

• Partners then carried out an analysis of the feedback received from students who have used the courses in Serbia, Greece and Turkey

• This fed into the detailed planning and timetabling for the project

4. Detailed planning

• Took place at the PMB meeting in Veria in March

• Partners revised the workplan

5. Train core staff

• 16 people trained in Veria, Greece in March 2012

• Slides from the training: http://lib.psnc.pl/dlibra/publication?id=409&from=&dirids=1&tab=1&lp=1&QI=

• Feedback: http://lib.psnc.pl/dlibra/docmetadata?id=344&from=publication

• Summary report: http://lib.psnc.pl/dlibra/docmetadata?id=354&from=publication

6. Enhance existing resources and platform

• PSNC, working with the other partners, will then enhance the existing resources according to the detailed plans and develop the new functionalities as previously listed in the proposal, including the versioning control.

• March – June 2012 (to be reported on)

7. User Testing and modifications

• These will then be tested in a user testing phase (Jul – Aug 2012)

• will also include corrections to the grammar and language used in the modules (to be planned)

• New material and modules will be prepared in English before being reviewed by one or more professional translators or native English speakers to improve the language before the courses are made available to implementation partners for translation into their own language(s).

8. Translations (to be planned)

• Partners in the implementation countries will be responsible for getting the courses translated (by end Dec 2012) through a combination of their own efforts, community-based translation and sub-contracting of experts

• Our Turkish partner also wants to implement the changes and make new translations

• Partners will also be responsible for ensuring the quality of the translations are good and that they are delivered on a timely basis

• The project will make available a special translation platform (based on wiki) for this purpose (is this required?)

9. Publish and launch courses (to be planned)

• Translated resources will be made available via the AccessITplus website but they will be hosted locally in the 3 implementation countries (Jan – March 2013)

• The courses will be formally launched and publicised by high level launch events in each country in Jan – Mar 2013• national and regional policy makers, managers of cultural institutions and

senior technical practitioners from the cultural sector will be invited• staff from cultural heritage institutions will be encouraged to register and

complete the courses• The experts trained at the training workshop will act as an ongoing

resource, online reference point (centre of competence) and support for students of the courses as well as colleagues in the cultural sector generally

10. Training undertaken

• April – June 2013 trainees will be work their way through the online training courses (to be planned)• Will take approximately 40 learning hours to complete over a

period of up to 6 months. • On completion participants should be able to identify and

create digitised content and its associated metadata sufficient to comply with the standards required to contribute content to Europeana and other such services

• Certificate(s) will be awarded to successful trainees (which organisations?)

• Turkey will be running courses again – will Greece and Serbia?

11. Pilot digital libraries – plan and build

• April – June 2013 partners in Croatia, BiH and Albania, will create pilot digital libraries of local cultural content. (Check timing). Anything required for content from Greece, Serbia and Turkey??

• This may involve:– some digitisation; the identification and installation of suitable OAI-PMH

repository system(s)– the creation and uploading of the metadata for the digital content held or

created by participants to that system– preparation of that metadata for aggregation and ingestion into other

systems• The partner in each country will ensure that the aggregation of

content metadata remains sustainable post-project, perhaps by seeking collaboration with any other major national initiatives in the field

Digital libraries (2)

• The content will also be made available for testing and inclusion in the main Europeana service

• A separate local user interface to the content will be created where necessary, for example: where there is suitable cultural portal to which it could be contributed in the country

• All of this work will be done with the support of the Polish co-organiser which is a leader in Europe in this field, supported by the Greek and Serbian partners

12 Evaluation and dissemination

• Evaluation (to be planned)• Dissemination is a separate item on the

agenda (also to be discussed and planned)

13. Project management

• Effective co-ordination and administration, including the design and delivery of evaluation and dissemination work will be the responsibility of the UK co-organiser

Output targets

• 4 -8 competence centre staff trained in each country ( Croatia, BiH and Albania) and competency centres established in each

• Upwards of 100 staff in cultural heritage institutions in each country completing the online training courses.

• 75,000 objects digitised and available in pilot digital libraries in each country as well as in Europeana.