Practice, organisation and quality control of digitization projects

In the previous paper Dennis Schouten discussed the different aspects of preservation microfilming in projects carried out within the scope of Metamorfoze, the Dutch national preservation programme for library materials. I will do the same now for digitisation projects, which are executed within the framework of Metamorfoze. I will focus on the planning, workflow and implementation of Metamorfoze digitisation projects, on quality control and organizational aspects, and will relate these facets to preservation. In 2001 Metamorfoze received a second four year subsidy from the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sciences to continue its national programme via its core-business of preservation microfilming. Part of the subsidy was earmarked for a new path, that of digitisation of collections that are already or will be preserved by microfilming also. With this new trajectory the ministry subscribes to the view of the hybrid method which is based on the technical connection between microfilming and scanning, or more generally, the coherence between preservation and digitisation projects: preservation via substitution microfilming and digitisation to increase access. It seems clear that combining the two processes offers considerable financial, organizational, practical and logistic advantages, in contrast to carrying out the two separately. Firstly, one can imagine that a combination saves time and that the knowledge of the structure of the collection and the metadata which is built up during preservation can be very useful in the process of digitisation. Secondly, a choice can be made for a high quality microfilm company which is also specialized in scanning and OCR. To keep both processes within one business, prevents problems such as that the microfilms to be digitised are not optimally suited for scanning. We have realized that there are missed opportunities when the two processes of microfilming and digitisation are carried out separately. Various activities have to be duplicated and because of the missed anticipation to digitisation, occurring errors need to be corrected or even ignored. Thirdly, for a filming and scanning business, building up knowledge of the collection while filming can also be very useful when scanning. Fourthly, when at the start of a project it is known that besides microfilming, also digitisation will be involved, one can plan for digitisation. Already in the microfilming phase the future digitisation has to be taken into account, which can have considerable consequences for specifications for the preservation microfilms - as we have learned from the RLG Guidelines for Microfilming to support Digitization (Dale, 2003) and the paper of Hans van Dormolen yesterday. And last but not least, the physical condition of the collection will gain from a combination of preservation and digitisation. Handling is damaging to collections; in uniting the two processes, handling can be considerably reduced

UNICUM: a portal to Dutch academic heritage

The UNICUM development project, commissioned by the Academic Heritage Foundation (SAE), is being carried out by the five classic Dutch universities in 2010–11. UNICUM, short for ‘University Collections and University Museums’, has received a national government grant to create a digital portal to Dutch academic heritage. The portal will present both academic archives and museum and library collections. Images, collection metadata and items can be found on one site. The UNICUM idea is inspired by the Online Archive California. The project is important because it crosses the traditional sector boundaries between museums, libraries and archives, it creates awareness of the opportunities this cross-sectoral approach offers, and it retains the context of — and the relation between — objects within collections as a whole. Moreover, the joint effort brings to light the importance of creating metadata according to international standards to stimulate re-use and exchange of content. In addition, UNICUM has to be regarded as a technical project in which multi-level descriptions will be presented and browsed in a structured way (collections linked to objects and archives linked to separate documents). After the project is finished, the focus will shift to generating content. UNICUM aims to create structured and integrated access to academic heritage by: using international standards (CCO, CDWA Lite, Dublin Core) to stimulate exchange of metadata; examining the potential of EAD as an exchange standard for (non-archival) collections and for structuring related items; determining a common method and creating an input module for registration at collection level; formulating ‘Best Practice Guidelines’ for registration of material at collection and item level; choosing available and established thesauri which comprise all aspects of the future content; developing an integrated format for thematic and highlight descriptions; focusing on the interrelation between items on the one hand and collections as a whole on the other, and vice versa, an interrelation which tells the story of and gives meaning to cultural heritage; harvesting of the content of the aggregation by Europeana

The impact of integrated infant and young child feeding and micronutrient powder intervention on feeding practices and anemia in children aged 6-23 months in Madagascar

This study assesses the impact of an integrated infant and young child feeding (IYCF) and micronutrient powder (MNP) intervention on children's risk of anemia and IYCF practices in Madagascar. Quantitative baseline and endline surveys were conducted in representative households with children 6-23 months from two districts, where an 18-month IYCF-MNP intervention was implemented. Relative risks comparing children's risk of anemia and maternal IYCF knowledge and practices at baseline versus endline, and also at endline among MNP-users versus non-users were estimated using log-binomial regression models. 372 and 475 children aged 6-23 months were assessed at baseline and endline respectively. Prevalence of anemia fell from 75.3% to 64.9% from baseline to endline (p = 0.002); the reduction in the risk of anemia remained significant in models adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics (ARR (95% CI): 0.86 (0.78, 0.95), p = 0.003). In endline assessments, 229 out of 474 (48.3%) of children had consumed MNPs. MNP-users had a lower risk of anemia (ARR (95% CI): 0.86 (0.74, 0.99), p = 0.04) than non-users, after controlling for child's dietary diversity and morbidity, maternal counseling by community-health-workers, and sociodemographic characteristics. Mothers interviewed at endline also had greater nutrition knowledge and were more likely to feed their children ≥4 food groups (ARR (95% CI): 2.92 (2.24, 3.80), p < 0.001), and the minimum acceptable diet (ARR (95% CI): 2.88 (2.17, 3.82), p < 0.001) than mothers interviewed at baseline. Integration of MNP into IYCF interventions is a viable strategy for improving children's consumption of micronutrients and reducing risk of anemia. The addition of MNP does not negatively impact, and may improve, IYCF practices.We are grateful to all of the mothers and children and participating communities, as well as data enumerators, and the USAID-supported SALOHI project team for the technical and financial support during the baseline and endline surveys. We also thank Jacky Raharinjatovo the PSI-Madagascar statistician for support in analyses as well as Roland Kupka, France Begin and Jennifer Marcy for their comments and feedback on this manuscript. The views expressed in this manuscript are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official positions or policies of their affiliated institutions. Both the baseline and the endline surveys were funded by USAID/SALOHI. (USAID; USAID/SALOHI)Published versio

Tenure Security for Indonesia’s Urban Poor : a socio-legal study on land, decentralisation, and the rule of law in Bandung

Today, about 1 billion people are estimated to live in ‘slums’ worldwide. This number will only grow and urban poverty worsen unless radical measures are taken. While it is generally acknowledged in the international development debate that breaking the circle of poverty requires multiple strategies, there is renewed attention for approaches that centre on the issue of tenure security. This means landholders are protected against involuntary removal from the land on which they reside, unless through due process of law and payment of proper compensation. The prevailing approach to the provision of tenure security is land registration. And while the land registration approach currently dominates policy, there has been little research into the effects of registration, particularly in urban areas. What research has been conducted, contests the benefits of this approach. As a result, we witness increasing interest in alternative approaches which generally combine protective administrative or legal measures against eviction with the provision of basic services and credit facilities. The author describes and analyses the extent to which formal, semiformal, and informal tenure arrangements that can be found in kampongs (typical low-income settlements) in Indonesia provide tenure security to the country’s urban poor, particularly since 1998, when Indonesia embarked on an ambitious political and legal reform programme. The author reviews the current legal framework that applies to urban land tenure in Indonesia. In addition, based on rich material that was acquired through empirical research in the city of Bandung, there are a number of case studies presented in which the urban poor’s tenure security was put to the test. Finally, drawing on statistical data, the author analyses the urban poor’s perceptions regarding their tenure security and whether and, if so, how this influences their housing investment behaviour. Following this analysis, the author evaluates the socio-economic benefits of current approaches to attaining tenure security. And with these findings, there are policy suggestions and contributions to theory formation presented to further the current international development debate on tenure security.LEI Universiteit LeidenRule of Law and Development: Formation, Implementation and Improvement of Law and Governance in Developing Countrie

The price of uncertainty: kampung land politics in post-Suharto Bandung

Most Indonesian urban poor live in ramshackle settlements called kampungs and occupy land according to tenure arrangements unrecognised by the formal land law regime. Reform since the 1998 fall of Suharto has led to some recognition of these 'semiformal' arrangements. This complicates the ambitious development agenda of a city like Bandung, pitting two sides with seemingly conflicting interests against each other: the urban poor and the municipal government. Both are dissatisfied with Bandung's land reforms

The KNMI Large Ensemble Time Slice (KNMI-LENTIS)

Large-ensemble modelling has become an increasingly popular approach to studying the mean climate and the climate system's internal variability in response to external forcing. Here we present the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI) Large Ensemble Time Slice (KNMI-LENTIS): a new large ensemble produced with the re-tuned version of the global climate model EC-Earth3. The ensemble consists of two distinct time slices of 10 years each: a present-day time slice and a +2ĝ€¯K warmer future time slice relative to the present day. The initial conditions for the ensemble members are generated with a combination of micro- and macro-perturbations. The 10-year length of a single time slice is assumed to be too short to show a significant forced climate change signal, and the ensemble size of 1600 years (160ĝ€¯×ĝ€¯10 years) is assumed to be sufficient to sample the full distribution of climate variability. The time slice approach makes it possible to study extreme events on sub-daily timescales as well as events that span multiple years such as multi-year droughts and preconditioned compound events. KNMI-LENTIS is therefore uniquely suited to study internal variability and extreme events both at a given climate state and resulting from forced changes due to external radiative forcing. A unique feature of this ensemble is the high temporal output frequency of the surface water balance and surface energy balance variables, which are stored in 3-hourly intervals, allowing for detailed studies into extreme events. The large ensemble is particularly geared towards research in the land-atmosphere domain. EC-Earth3 has a considerable warm bias in the Southern Ocean and over Antarctica. Hence, users of KNMI-LENTIS are advised to make in-depth comparisons with observational or reanalysis data, especially if their studies focus on ocean processes, on locations in the Southern Hemisphere, or on teleconnections involving both hemispheres. In this paper, we will give some examples to demonstrate the added value of KNMI-LENTIS for extreme- and compound-event research and for climate-impact modelling.</p