Abstract
Funded by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) from October 2009 to February 2011 the Look Here! project is examining how we build, embed and sustain digitisation practice across the arts higher education sector in the UK. Led by the Visual Arts Data Service, a Research Centre at the University of the Creative Arts, the project consists of the seven partners: the Arts University College at Bournemouth, University of Brighton, the University of the Arts London, University College Falmouth and University of Southampton, and since its inception the project partners have been joined by two unfunded partners: the Royal School of Needlework and the Textile Archive, Bradford College.
The project has three primary objectives: to support the embedding of digitisation practice within partner institutions; to creative a community to share skills and expertise; and to share emerging knowledge with the wider higher education community through a series of case studies, practitioner guides and workshops. It was envisaged that this would be achieved in four stages. The first stage, project initiation, saw the partners examine the Knitting Collections held by the University of Southampton and consider a number of issues relating to the digitisation of the collections, including: image selection, copyright, metadata, funding, hosting options and user requirements. The second stage involved modelling the digitisation processes, identifying replication and inefficiencies in practice, as well as the critical success factors required to embed and sustain practice at an institutional and sectorial level. The third stage, application, involves partners applying and testing the digitisation model within their own institutions, this process would also enable the model to be reviewed and revised as appropriate, and enable partners to identify gaps in knowledge and skills within the sector. The final stage, dissemination, will see the emerging knowledge and practice shared across the wider higher education sector to support the digitisation of images within the predominately text based disciplines.
At the time of writing the project has been running for approximately six months and the partners have already held a series of workshops focusing on image selection, metadata and copyright, further sessions are planned for funding and commercialisation of collection, digitisation practices and sustainability. Community cohesion is high and all the partners are active both within the project and their host institutions sharing and embedding practice and identifying areas of common concern and ways forward.
Longer term, the project is expected to have significant impact on both the partners and the wider higher education community. It will improve institutional capacity and effectiveness to digitise collections to support learning, teaching and research across the arts and, through the creation of the community of experts and the consultancy service, across the sector. Finally, the project will also raise awareness of the need and importance of digitisation processes within institutions and in the wider sector
