Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
to the development of infrastructure, rather than the digitization of
content. For instance, the Impact project is creating a European
network of expertise so as to provide a platform for navigating the
issues relating to the digitization of text.
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Within the UK also moves are similarly afoot. On behalf of the MLA,
the Collections Trust is developing CultureGrid as a way of
harmonizing existing services and content within the library, museum
and archive community.
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More broadly, the Strategic Content Alliance
(SCA), a network of UK public-sector bodies (including primary
stakeholders the British Library, the NHS, the BBC, Becta, JISC and
the MLA, and a larger number of secondary stakeholders) that share
concerns about the long-term issues of access to digital content, is
tackling the key issues and encouraging the implementation of the
necessary policies.
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Perhaps most valuably, a report and series of case studies
commissioned by the SCA have begun to shed some light on the
bedevilling issue of sustainability. As mentioned above, cultural
heritage institutions have struggled with how the staff and the financial
support can be found to maintain online resources once the initial
project funding has ended. The case studies are particularly
enlightening, giving examples of projects, institutions and consortia
that have developed the necessary skills and resources to survive in the
digital world. These include the Centre for Computing Humanities at
King's College London, where a shared technical and human
infrastructure has allowed for the deployment of over 80 separate
websites of cultural and scholarly content.
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There are further case
studies on, for example, The National Archives' engagement with
commercial partners, the harmonization of free and commercial access
strategies at the French Institut national de l'audiovisuel, and Cornell
University's eBird website, which has harnessed the enthusiasm of
amateur ornithologists to create a sustainable resource that meets the
needs of both scientists and enthusiasts.
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In all, the suite of 12 case
studies present examples of the more sophisticated approach that will
be required to support and sustain digitized content in the future.
Order, but not too much order
The work of the Strategic Content Alliance and others has been a
