Conservation for Digitisation

Conservation for Digitisation

Gillian Boal

Head of Conservation

and Collections Care

Matthew Brack

Digitisation Project Manager

Digitisation Doctor workshop, 15 April 2013

The nature of digitisation


Where physical and digital collections meet


When you do digi you tend to come across a couple types of people:

1. Those with an understanding of digital collections and their corresponding management systems.

2. Those who understand physical objects and collections management.

It’s very important that you strive for an appreciation of both digital and physical collections and understand how they interact in order to execute a good digi project.

The nature of digitisation


Digitisation = variables


• With conservation, like every other part of the digi workflow, there is no one way of doing things.

• Every project will be different and small projects don’t equate to simple projects.

• There are no simple projects and project size is simply an indication of project duration and never ease of execution.

‘Bench’ vs. ‘Digi’ conservation

Conservation is one part of a project workflow….


BOOKS IN STACKS

IN SCOPE

NOTE

STAY ON SHELF

ONLINE CAT?

PRINT CAT?

NOTE GENE-RATE SHELF LIST

DUPLI-CATE

CHECK

SINGLE SHELF LISTS

SORT BY

SIZE

CHECK OUT

CHECK OUT

CON ASS-ESS

UPDATE SHELF

LIST

RETURN TO SHELF

DIGI-TISE

CONDI-TION?

REPAIR

BOX

TO CATALO-

GUE?

CATA-LOGUE

1.22 STORE

215B STACKS 1.22 STORAGE CONSERVATION CATALOGUING

NO

NO

YES

YES

LARGER

NO WAY

NOT OK

OK

FAIR

POOR

YES

1.22 STORE

NO

1.22 STORE

START

1a

1b

1c

1d

2

3

4

5

6

11

7

8

9

10

BOOKS IN STACKS

IN SCOPE

NOTE

STAY ON SHELF

ONLINE CAT?

PRINT CAT?

NOTE GENE-RATE SHELF LIST

DUPLI-CATE

CHECK

SINGLE SHELF LISTS

SORT BY

SIZE

CHECK OUT

CHECK OUT

CON ASS-ESS

UPDATE SHELF

LIST

RETURN TO SHELF

DIGI-TISE

CONDI-TION?

REPAIR

BOX

TO CATALO-

GUE?

CATA-LOGUE

1.22 STORE

215B STACKS 1.22 STORAGE CONSERVATION CATALOGUING

NO

NO

YES

YES

LARGER

NO WAY

NOT OK

OK

FAIR

POOR

YES

1.22 STORE

NO

1.22 STORE

START

1a

1b

1c

1d

2

3

4

5

6

11

7

8

9

10

‘Bench’ vs. ‘Digi’ conservation


Traditionally, conservation has had different disciplines: paper, paintings, objects and so on. Digi conservation may be a new one, with its many differing approaches.

As part of a project workflow, even a basic understanding of project management will be your best friend. Additionally:

1. Volume of materials goes up.

2. Amount of time to spend on them goes down.

3. Number of stakeholders increases, many of whom won’t know about conservation.


CATALOGUE

RETRIEVAL

CONSERVATION FINAL PREP

CAPTURE

SYSTEMS

Wider responsibility for collections care

• Responsibility will need to be extended to those without conservation training

• Digital Preparators and Imaging Technicians will spend more time with objects than anyone else

• You don’t need a skilled conservation resource

• Establish sensible guidelines

• Your main concern is handling

Wellcome Digital Library Programme

Risk assessment


• Some of the traditional conservation approaches to assessing risk for objects can be counterproductive for digitisation – following them strictly will stall your project.

• A good starting point is a universal risk assessment framework, simple questions that quickly give you a grasp of risk to your objects within a digi project.

• Our bottom line: no loss of information from the object.

Example questions (from Digital Preservation Coalition):

Identify a risk ... What is it’s likelihood?What is it’s impact? Risk Score: L x IHow frequently does the risk occur? How often do we need to check?Who owns the risk? How will we respond to the risk?How does our response change likelihood and impact?

Conservation Digital Preparation


Digi preparation at Wellcome Library


• Conservation staff have been contributing to digital projects since 2009.

• Digital preparation is mostly stabilisation and includes: the removal of staples, sleeving of material that is vulnerable and brittle, humidification, flattening, repair and sometimes disbinding.

• We have worked with both our Digital Preparators and our photographic staff to help facilitate careful handling of items during the digitisation process.

• Loss from manipulation is sometimes unavoidable. All components are retained so as to have no loss of information. This can be done by placing these pieces in mylar ‘L’ sleeves or envelopes and documenting their original location. Digital Preparators keep all loose parts together so that they can be reattached after digitisation and flagged so that conservation can repair after digitisation.


Example of an archive letter that needs stabilisation, carried out by Digital Preparators or Imaging Technicians

Question: What is going to happen to the original physical item?


• A Collections Care approach needs to know what will happen to the original after digitisation.

• Here at the Wellcome we digitise and return items to the stores on-site or to off-site storage – we are keeping physical items as the technology is still not proven long term.

• Occasionally we won’t retain the original: we have numerous copies of our collection catalogues and after digitising we will only retain one hard copy.

• Sometimes we might undo original library bindings that are falling apart. Smaller groups of material can be easier to retrieve, use and digitise when separated.

• The fact that a bookbinding might have fallen apart can be a good thing and make it easier to image. The broken binding can allow the imaging process easier access to the gutter

Wellcome Digital Library Programme

Condition Surveys• Are materials catalogued or uncatalogued? You can’t do a general

condition survey without a descriptive framework. Materials must be catalogued before digitisation.

• In archives there are several groups of material housed together – brittle paper, photographs, books, documents and letters. An initial random visual inspection survey can highlight issues for Image Technicians or Digital Preparators.

• When working in partnership with other institutions there is a dual responsibility of care. When loaning items there has to be some acceptance of wear and tear from handling during image capture of an item.

• The loan of materials has to be fully documented, usually as a tick box survey that describes the condition of the item, as it takes too much time to fill out a more standard detailed report.


Case Study

Eugenics Scrapbooks – overlaid newspaper cuttings


The adhered newspaper cuttings overlap each other and so need to be folded back to be fully digitised. They are held using a flexible Plastazote stick.

Conservation for DigitisationUsing this technique there is no creasing of the newspaper.

Case Study

Large format works



In this example 30 cm folded becomes 130 cm laid out.

Technicians need to have safe ways to support these extended items, opening out and folding back again into their original folds.

Case Study

Modern journals


Modern cloth case bindings ought to be straightforward to digitise. But on inspection the binding style is oversewn, a common practice for journal bindings that restricts the opening and image access to the print in the gutter.

These might be an example of the need for disbinding preparation and boxing after digitising.


Ironically older material is often easier to digitise because the chemistry of the materials is sound – 19th and 20th century material can be brittle which makes it more difficult to handle without damage.

Case Study

3D objects


All practitioners need to work together to establish guidelines of all aspects of the digital practice.

Arrange handling training for all of those involved and understand how to ensure the best care for physical collections during the process.

Education

Conservation for Digitisation