Stuart Lee

http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit

The Great War Archive: Oxford University’s Community Collection

Dr Stuart D LeeReader in E-learning and Digital Libraries

Director, Computing ServicesSenior Lecturer, English Faculty

Merton CollegeUniversity of Oxford

Stuart.lee@oucs.ox.ac.uk

To start

• Cuts

• Impact

http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit

http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit

The First World War Poetry Digital Archive1996-1998 £50k

2006-2008 £450k

http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit

http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit

Web 2.0 = new audiences and means of Web 2.0 = new audiences and means of disseminationdissemination

Web 2.0 = new audiences and means of Web 2.0 = new audiences and means of disseminationdissemination

RSS

http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit

Virtual Worlds (e.g. SecondLife)Virtual Worlds (e.g. SecondLife)Virtual Worlds (e.g. SecondLife)Virtual Worlds (e.g. SecondLife)

A ‘typical’ digitization project• 6,000+ digital images of rare/unique

items related to the poets of WW1• Several hundred historical photographs,

audio/video clips• Selected by experts, curators, etc;

digitised and catalogued professionally• Catalogued and presented for searching

and browsing

Digital Imaging: A Practical Handbook (2000)Project Lifecycle

• Instigation of Project• Assess and Select

Material for Digitization• Prepare Material• Digitize• Edit• Deliver• Support

http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit

Increase AccessMeet Strategic GoalsPreservation

Increase AccessMeet Strategic GoalsPreservation

http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit

ContentDM

Changes

http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit

Some figures

• 15m people in London each day

• c. 85% own a digital camera or smartphone = 12.75m

• If only 1% used their camera, and took 1 picture = 127,500 images TODAY

• 20 minutes to catalogue an image using traditional levels of metadata

• 42,500 hours

• 21 years for one person

http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit

http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit

‘The Factory made possible mass production, mass consumption … The web could make innovation and creativity a mass activity that engages millions … [future generations] will expect and welcome opportunities to participate, collaborate, share and work with their peers.’

C. Leadbeater We-Think (www.wethinkthebook.net)

‘Community Collections’

• Online collections created by public communities for public communities

• The public:

- contributes material AND digitizes- agrees copyright- catalogues material

http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit

http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit

Ran from March to June 2008

http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit

Contribution: process

http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit

The Great War Archive:

Submission Website

Welcome Welcome and and instructionsinstructions

Simple online Simple online submissions submissions processprocess

No need for No need for registrationregistration

Contributors Contributors asked to agree asked to agree to basic terms to basic terms & conditions& conditions

Enter contact Enter contact detailsdetailsNot required to register.

Can request to be kept anonymous.

Submission Submission choicechoiceAttach files / enter a story.

E.g. E.g. Attach fileAttach file

Enter basic Enter basic metadatametadata

Review Review submissionsubmission

Submission Submission completecomplete‘Thank you’ message

Includes notice of when the collection goes Live, link to submit some more & a feedback form

Cataloguer & Cataloguer & Administrator:Administrator:To check items for their validity.

To correct or add to the metadata

To flag items of particular interest/value

Great War Archive: Submission Days

http://runcoco.oucs.ox.ac.uk/

• 5 members of staff - 2 to digitize material (i.e. photograph and scan) - 2 to help catalogue and upload material - 1 to deal with the public as they come in

• 2-3 computers, 1 flatbed scanner, 2 cameras (2 megapixels), tripods, flat surface, audio recorder

http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit

Public contributors upload 5,900 digital objects to the website

Project uploads 600 digital objects from submissions days

3,000 images in the Flickr Group since July 2008

600600

Great War Archive: What We Received

Gunner James Ryan

Total War

Disappearing History

http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit

Traditional Community Collection

£40 per image$60

£3.50 per image$5.25

Digital Imaging: A Practical Handbook (2000)

Project Lifecycle

http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit

Free software - CoCoCo: “collect and catalogue content contributed by

website users”

• Run collection

• Export collection to web delivery system• Freely available, Open source

http://runcoco.oucs.ox.ac.uk/resources/cococo.html

runcoco@oucs.ox.ac.ukhttp://runcoco.oucs.ox.ac.uk/

ProjectWoruldhord

• projects.oucs.ox.ac.uk/woruldhord

• A community collection based on the Anglo-Saxons

1st July - 14th October

No submission days just online

Not much publicly owned material from the period

Concentrate more on ‘teaching resources’

Willing to accept - photographs, audio, video, presentations, handouts, reading lists, pre-prints, book chapters, works inspired by the period etc

Croydon SittingbourneThese items are from Project Woruldhord (projects.oucs.ox.ac.uk/woruldhord) © Croydon Museum © Anglo-Saxon CSI: Sittingbourne

This item is from Project Woruldhord (projects.oucs.ox.ac.uk/woruldhord) © Trustees of the British Museum

This item is from Project Woruldhord (projects.oucs.ox.ac.uk/woruldhord) © K. Kilpatrck

This item is from Project Woruldhord (projects.oucs.ox.ac.uk/woruldhord) © Matt Love (Engliscan Gesithas)

Results400 individual contributions so far

could be one image, one handout, or 1-200 images

estimate around 3,500 ‘objects’ (c. £2 per object)

Next Steps

• Launch Woruldhord in December/January

• Further modification to CoCoCo software• Running a small Great War Archive in

Germany (Spring, 2011) then possibly France

• Large global initiative prior to 2014

http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit

Observations• Communities and existing

networks are the key

• Keep it focused, concentrate attention on one ‘big’ thing

• Do not ‘overthink’ the problem

• The public know more than we think

• A cost effective way to create a mass of digital objects and engage the public

• Reassess what is important?

http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit

To conclude

• Cuts

• Impact

http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit

This item is from The Great War Archive, University of Oxford (www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit/gwa); © MAUREEN ROGERS

This item is from The Great War Archive, University of Oxford (www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit/gwa); © MAUREEN ROGERS

http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lithttp://runcoco.oucs.ox.ac.uk/

The Great War Archive: Oxford University’s Community Collection

Dr Stuart D LeeReader in E-learning and Digital Libraries

Director, Computing ServicesSenior Lecturer, English Faculty

Merton CollegeUniversity of Oxford

Stuart.lee@oucs.ox.ac.uk