Webinar: preparing to digitise your archives

Long time no blog! I've been on maternity leave, and am planning to write some reflections on that and returning to work soon. But, in the meantime, here's my write up of a webinar I took part in last week from The National Archives. As with the previous webinar I've taken part in, on forward planning, this was a great opportunity to learn more about a topic in a free and easy format, as it only took an hour of my time at work and there was no need to even leave the building!

It was clearly structured and covered the basics of planning a digitisation project. This is my summary of the contents:

Scope your project

• Spent time deciding what to include and exclude in your project. Digitisation is costly so avoid creating extra work by trying to digitise too much. Be focussed!
• Start with a small pilot, digitise a small sample and run it through all of the digitisation processes.
• Consider possible outputs. Tiff files are the most sensible format to capture for the master copy, with 300PPI for most paper originals and 400-600PPI for photographs. PDF is not recommended.

In-house or outsourced?
This decision depends on the size of the project, type, budget and internal capacities. The pros and cons are:
Outsourcing
Pros: Can be cheaper, technical knowledge isn't needed, less stress for staff, saves time  
Cons: Less control over project, relocation of collection/providing access to the material, fragile or sensitive material, restrictions on rescoping the project once it is underway.
In-house
Pros: More control, staff skill development, may save money in the long run, keeps collections in one place
Cons: Lack of in-house skills, big investment in equipment needed, lack of suitable infrastructure, no in-house experience

If considering outsourcing: shop around, get quotes and look at company's existing work. Visit their site and check their set up. Ask for samples early on in the project and have regular project catch ups. Make sure you have a contract.

Document preparation
Preservation/conservation: Assess condition of the collection and whether work by a conservator is needed in order to digitise without damaging the originals. Remove all metal pins, clips etc. Digitisation can take place through Melinex sleeves. How are you going to digitise books safely - unbind the volume, use a camera rather than a scanner etc?

Consider capture and post-processing equipment
There are pros and cons to using cameras and scanners.
Document preservation: a camera provides more alternatives to capturing the image without causing damage
Image quality: cameras tend to produce better results
Price: bear in mind that equipment needs to be kept up-to-date (this should be factored into the cost of outsourcing). Depending on the size of the project, renting equipment may work out cheaper.
Useability: scanners tend to be more straightforward to use with fewer settings. Cameras require colour calibration and that the lens be kept clean.
Versatility: scanners work well with flat materials, but aren't suitable for digitising books. Cameras tend to offer more versatility.

Post processing
Images are usually captured in RAW format then need to be processed. RAW files are very large, so this needs to be considered when assessing file storage needs. Obviously the file format must be compatibile with the image processing and storage software being used.

Metadata and storage
Technical metadata is included at the capture stage, for instance camera settings, focal length, exposure. It may be embedded within the image and then shared in a spreadsheet.
Descriptive metadata is the description of what the item is, such as names, dates and places so that the digitised image is discoverable. It can be captured by OCR (although this has severe limitations) or manually (time consuming and expensive).
Storage ensure you have the the basics, such as a server large enough to store the files and a means of backing them up.

What I've learnt and will take forward:
Visit other archives/Special Collections to learn from their experiences.
Keep it as simple as possible and only capture what is relevant. 
Know what the outcomes of the project are before commencing image capture. 
Never destroy the original after digitisation, unless they are acetate negatives.

Training: Charismatic connecting

I'd spotted that our Staff Development department at work was running a day's training on networking skills, which I thought looked interesting and useful.  The day was led by Russell Wardrop from Kissing with Confidence, an organisation that offers training in public speaking, networking, coaching, influencing and negotiating.

I had wondered in advance whether we were going to spend the day learning how to shake hands etc, and, whilst we did do a tiny bit of that, there was a whole lot more to it! The day was split into four chunks, and at the beginning we were each given a reflective sheet to fill in, to note specific skills we'd learnt each time, plus what we should start and stop doing, do more of and change. This helped me to think about what I'd learnt in each section and reflect on it.

We started off by talking about self-confidence, where it comes from and how you can develop it. It is connected with both skills and self-awareness, so being aware of a skills deficit and taking action to acquire those skills, will help you to develop self-confidence. Simple preparatory measures, such as looking into who the other delegates are in advance of a conference and thinking about who you would like to talk to, all help.

Then we worked our way through the seven principles:

1. Self-awareness
This covered self-regard and resilience, optimism, happiness and assertiveness. We looked at practical ways of building optimism and happiness.
2. Accentuate the positive
No one wants to hang around with someone negative, so think about your personal narrative and how you can focus on the positive.
3. Be a chameleon



A chameleon. From Wikimedia Commons

When networking, you need to adapt to the other person's style. Every word they say is a clue to their lives and really good networkers really listen to what is being said. We then went on to discuss the different types of listening (active, passive, selective) and how to be a good active listener, which means making it obvious that you are listening. One of the great things about the day was the opportunity to keep practising what we'd been learning by engaging with the others on the course. At one point I had to be a deliberately very passive listener, which was actually quite hard!
4. Be appropriately memorable
I could think of so many ways to be inappropriately memorable... But that wasn't the point. We talked about dress, body language, small talk and knowledge and how, whilst you can show your personality, it's important to demonstrate respect for the other person and show that you have made an effort. Think about how you would like people to remember you after your meeting. We then did an exercise working on small talk and swopping partners as we added in different aspects to work on. It was helpful to try out different postures, and think about how each makes you come across. I also found this section useful as we had a diagram of a room at an event, with various people identified on it, and we discussed the pros and cons of approaching these people.
5. Mastering modern manners
This section started with us brainstorming in groups the top ten things that annoy us. A lot of the annoyances seemed to be about the appropriate use of mobile phones(!), but the general theme was behaviour that seems to indicate someone isn't thinking of others, such as poor timekeeping, being unreliable or failing to say please/thank you. Again, much food for thought, as the lists were individual to each of us, although with significant crossover, and it made us think about how we come across to others, and simple things to do to help people think well of you.
6. Guard your reputation
Related to this was guarding your reputation. Once people are thinking well of you, you want to it stay that way! We talked about what we'd like to be known for, including professionalism, discretion and knowledge of our specialism. We also talked about our three levels of network: our personal networks, which consist of our friends and maybe social activities/clubs we belong to, our operational networks, which are our colleagues at work, and our strategic networks, which are the people with the bigger picture, and include our coaches and mentors.
7. Follow up
Finally, we learnt about following up. How many times have you taken someone's card or email address at a conference and promised to be in touch, and then not followed through?! Yet, without follow up, there's no point doing all the previous six principles. We discussed being assertive in following up, how to end a conversation with a promise of a future meeting, and then how to go about arranging that. For example, you are far more likely to get someone to agree to spend 20/30 minutes meeting you for a coffee, than suggesting a lengthy meeting a long way from where they work.

This is only a brief overview of the day's course, but I learnt a huge amount from it, plus a lot which I can hopefully put into practice at events I'm attending over the summer for work.

Training: Train the Trainers

Train the Trainers was a morning workshop run by the Educational Excellence Centre at work, aimed at the subject liaison librarians, who are in the same team as me. SLLs do more teaching than I do, but I still found the hints and tips I picked up through the morning useful for the teaching that I do - mainly training staff, students and other users in how to handle material, introducing groups to Special Collections, and running sessions, such as Using Special Collections in your dissertation.



Me, during a workshop for a community group visiting Special Collections for the first time

We discussed what the difference is between training and teaching. The trainer can only provide the opportunity and environment for learning, it is the individual's responsibility to take their own learning from there. We then moved on to talk about the process of learning and teaching. Apparently the average attention span these days is only 11 minutes (I'm sure it was 20 minutes when I was a student!), so, in an hour's session, you should make sure you change activity 3 or 4 times per session to keep their attention.

We moved on to talk about the key components of the learning and teaching process:
Aims - Goals - Objectives - Methods - Assessment - Evaluation - and back round to Aims again. So a training cycle would look like:
Identification of training needs - Plan & design course - Deliver course - Evaluation of course
Learning objectives are essential, as without them you don't have a clear direction for the students to go in. Objectives should be expressed using action verbs and be specific, so "understand" isn't one as it isn't specific enough. 

We touched on learning theory, Kolb's Learning Cycle (basically, what you learn as a child, when you touch a hot radiator, discover it's too hot to be comfortable, and then don't repeat that behaviour) and Honey and Mumford's Learning Styles, which led to us each doing a questionnaire about which learning style suited each of us best. I am a mixture of three of them! These need to be borne in mind when planning teaching.

Then we looked at deep learning versus surface learning, as it is important for students to develop deep learning: learning for life, which encourages critical analysis of ideas, how to apply them and use them for problem solving. And then how to design teaching for deep learning.

Finally we looked at facilitating a learning and teaching session.

I found the session a useful way of learning more about teaching and learning. Hopefully I will get a chance to apply some of what I've learnt in Special Collections.

ILM Level 3 Leadership and management

I'd been keen to take a qualification in leadership and management for a while. My MA in Library and Information Studies included a module on management, but that was only one module, so it had to cover a lot, and I felt like I could do with more of a grounding in theory and chance to reflect on practice now that I've been working in a variety of professional posts. Fortunately the chance came up through staff development where I work, to take a qualification through the Institute of Leadership and Management (part of City and Guilds), over the course of about six months. There were five one day training courses, and five coursework assignments to be completed. A group of us from across the university took it, and it was a great opportunity to get to know how other parts of the university work. The units were chosen by staff development, reflecting the needs expressed within the university.

Unit 1: Solving problems and making decisions
We looked at how to define a problem and different methods of finding a solution to it. The coursework involved defining a problem within our own workplace and then examining ways to solve it. In advance, I'd thought this was going to be relatively straightforward - I was just amused that I was going to have a whole day's training on making decisions(!) - but it turned out to be really thorough and included learning some useful techniques: such as making sure you've defined the problem before you get started on trying to find a solution, collecting all the data you need to help you find a solution, and then applying problem solving techniques such as brainstorming, mind mapping and using SWOT analysis. We had a go at various techniques to find out what worked best for each of us. I also found that the decision making checklist useful, as not only do you have to make a decision, you then have to communicate it to others successfully, set SMART objectives to make sure it is achieved and follow up to make sure that progress is as you expected. The course also looked at interpreting and presenting data.

Unit 2: Understanding innovation and change in an organisation
This unit was to develop knowledge and understanding of innovation and change within our own institution. The coursework focussed on outlining the benefits to change and what any barriers could be, as well as what could be done to overcome the barriers. Then we looked at what planning and review techniques could be used to manage change and innovation. This really helped me to put things into context, as a couple of organisations I have worked for have either restructured just before I arrived, or restructured whilst I've been in my role, and this unit helped me to see the bigger picture, and also how reactions to it are to be expected. What was definitely essential to take on board were that innovation and change are definitely going to happen and aren't something to be feared!

Unit 3: Understand how to establish an effective team
The year before I'd already done a staff development one day course on effective team management, so this reiterated a lot of what I'd learnt then. It was useful to revise what I'd learnt, learn a bit more and talk about what had worked in practice. We talked about developing trust in the workplace, and how it relates to building a team, and then how to develop that team. I found some parts hard to relate to practical work though - looking at the average composition of a team (60% backbone/reliable producers, 20% developing, 10% fairly new and progressing well and 10% either very new, inexperienced or inadequate), I'm not sure how that relates to the often very small teams of people who work in a Special Collections environment?! Again, I'd looked at team roles using Belbin in a couple of jobs, and found it useful for the insights it offers into how some teams work, and how teams can be helped to work.

Unit 4: Understanding organising and delegating in the workplace
This unit was to develop knowledge and understanding of how to organise and delegate. The coursework again needed us to use examples from our own workplace. We had to show that we understood how to organise people to achieve objectives and how to delegate in order to achieve them. There was some reiteration of techniques learnt in the earlier solving problems and making decisions module, as well as effective team management. Obviously, good delegation requires planning well in advance and being organised, skills we'd already looked at in some detail earlier on. I found this module helped me clarify what I understood about delegation - who is responsible for what, and what the guidelines are for successful delegation to take place. Again though, as with the previous module, some of this seemed to be aimed at large teams of people, rather than the much smaller teams typically found in Special Collections.

Unit 5: Understand how to lead effective meetings
This unit covered what makes a meeting effective and the procedures and planning to put in place to ensure that this happens. The coursework required us to demonstrate that we knew how to prepare, plan and manage a meeting. In advance I thought this would be pretty straightforward - who, after all, hasn't been to hundreds of meetings and thought of ways they could be improved?! It was actually really helpful: covering such things as defining the purpose of the meeting (otherwise, what is the point of having it?), the roles and responsibilities of everyone at the meeting (if you don't have a role or a responsibility, then why are you there?), practicalities (checking everything is in place in advance of your meeting), taking minutes and how to chair effectively. It was good to know that it's sensible and more productive to include breaks in the agenda of longer meetings (every 45-60 minutes is recommended), even if those don't necessarily involve having another cup of tea! And I particularly appreciated the hints to help the meeting flow smoothly, such as not allowing Any Other Business to be included, but instead making sure all topics to be discussed are on the agenda in advance.

The course also included an introductory workshop on writing the coursework assignments, something I benefitted from as this was a very different style of writing to the one I'm used to, and a final work-place implementation meeting, where we discussed what had worked for us on the course, and what hadn't. 

Although it was a struggle at times fitting the coursework in, I am very glad that I had the opportunity to take this course and that I completed it. I feel like I have learnt a lot, and brought new skills away. I would recommend it to others thinking of taking a leadership and management qualification.
 

Training: Preserving historic photographs

In September I spent a day at the British Library Centre for Conservation on a training day on  preserving historic photographs. I wanted to go on this course as I have a lot of photographs in some of my collections at work, and, although I already knew some of the basic principles of caring for them, I wanted to learn more and check I was doing the right thing.

The Centre for Conservation (slightly dwarfed by all the building work behind it)

The day started with introductions all round. The other participants were from a range of organisations, including libraries, archives, museums and some freelancers. First of all was an introduction to the history and identification of photographic processes. This took us through the very beginnings of photographic techniques, and examples of each were passed round the room for everyone to look at in more detail. It was important to cover all of this, as photography initially was very experimental so a variety of materials and techniques were used, some of them overlapping with others - more like evolution than processes in isolation. Of course, as photography was a new thing, nobody initially knew what purpose it would have, so techniques for producing multiple images were one development (by Fox Talbot), as were those aiming to produce one image to replace the miniature (by Daguerre) were another. There is an overview of techniques in the British Library's guide to preserving historic photographic material, available on their website.

Of course, this variety of techniques and materials does not make life easy for those caring for photographic collections now!

We then moved on to conservation problems and solutions, and, again examples were passed around so we could see the type of damage caused. This is a relatively new field of conservation, developed in the 1980s once scientific analysis had developed, although from the earliest days of photography, it was known that there were problems with the stability of silver processes.
The emphasis is very much on correct preservation: because photographs are multi-layered, this makes conservation very difficult, so it is best to avoid creating problems in the first place, than having to deal with them later.

Conservation problems may be caused by:

• Using fix repeatedly, or not washing properly, which produces sulphur on the photo
• Atmospheric pullution
• Storage materials
• Deterioration of the edges in images made using silver. As the air gains access to the photo over time the edges deteriorate with a mixture of oxidation and sulphurisation.
• Printed out/paper prints may have very fine surface particles which may react with other things (e.g. sulphur will make yellow areas yellow more and fade first). This type of damage is irreversible.
• Whereas cyanotype photographs fade with exposure to light, but the colour eventually returns once they are returned to dark conditions. These will also fade in alkaline conditions, such as an acid-free folder.
• Glass plates breaking
• Tintype metal supports will rust and the emulsion peels away from the support. Nothing can be done about this.
• Albumen has a tendency to curl inwards and surface cracks if it's flattened. The molecules are very affected by fluctuations in environment.
• Platinum prints - platinum is a catalyst so will cause any facing paper to degrade, e.g. in an album.
• Gelatin is very vulnerable to moisture and mould, as well as being popular with insects.
• Mouse damage is possible in a photographic collection, though it is less likely than in other collections.
• Chromagenic prints are not stable when exposed to light, so ethical decisions need to be made about how to copy these as the original changes over time.
• Cellulose nitrate has a relatively low temperature (38°C) at which it is flammable. It also produces its own oxygen when it burns, so it is very difficult to extinguish flames once it's alight. However, film made with these is usually in good condition and tends not to be unstable as long as it is kept cool. It can give off a slightly acidic gas.
• Cellulose acetate - unstable and has distinctive smell. The film becomes more brittle, making it unusable. This can happen extremely fast.

Finally, we looked at the preservation of photographs and examples of suitable storage products were passed around. We also came away with catalogues from vendors.

The first thing to note was that PVC enclosures are very bad indeed! Paper and boards used in storage (packaging and mounts) should have a high alpha-cellulose content, with neutral pH, with undetectable sulphur content and free from other impurities such as metal particles.
Some examples of storage materials include:

• Photon, supplied by Conservation by Design
• Argentia, supplied by John Purcell (this is a replacement for the old Silversafe paper, which is no longer available).
• Melinex/Mylar (polyester), supplied by several different suppliers, including Conservation by Design, Secol and Preservation Equipment Limited. Limited sizes also now seems to be available from firms like Gresswells. Plastics must be free from plasticizer, glaze or coating. Prints with emulsion surface damage or mould should not be put into Melinex.
• Glass negatives should be stored in purpose-built plan chests as they are very heavy, and this is less risky than using boxes.
• Glass negatives cannot be stored on aluminium shelving as it isn't strong enough. Shelves should be made from steel with a baked enamel or powder-coated finish.
• Boxes for storing photographs should be acid-free on the outside as this acts as a filter against acids coming in.
• Cold storage is worth considering for later film-based material, particularly if colour is shifting. Timecare ringbinder boxes containing Melinex sleeves can be housed in freezer boxes and then stored in domestic freezers. Hollinger Metal Edge produce freezer packaging, although it is hard to get hold of in the UK.
• Albums - purpose-made boxes of just the right size are now available.
• Plastazote, which is inert and available in different thicknesses, is good for creating partitions in storage boxes.

Other factors:
Temperature and relative humidity - the graph on p. 8 of the British Library's booklet shows the area that is safe - straying outside this grey area means irreversible physical damage. It is usually easier to lower the temperature than it is to control humidity. Cold storage in freezers is the optimum way to store photographic material for as long a time as possible and it is more important to get something that is deteriorating into freezer storage quickly, than it is to rehouse it in Melinex.
Light - keep an eye on the lux hours per year any photograph is exposed to. The choice is between a higher lux for a shorter period, or vice versa. Some institutions allow for a small physical change to occur in their collections over a 50 year period. UV light is particularly damaging and should be excluded from the building by using appropriate blinds and filters.
Handling - Clean hands are better, but try and handle photographs as little as possible. Avoid using any creams or moisturizers. Do not flatten rolled prints, or use adhesive tape, paper clips, pins etc. Do not eat, drink or smoke near photographs, or use ink to label them. Albums should be supported on book supports.
Storage - do not store anywhere near a photocopier or printer as these give off ozone. Do not keep in a basement or attic. Older wooden cabinets (e.g. 50+ years old) are unlikely to cause any further damage, but be aware that felt linings can cause problems. Lino and paint can both give off fumes.


Interesting fact of the day - historic photographs could have been manipulated, just like modern ones (although not quite as easily). Look out for the same cloudscapes being used repeatedly...

It was a very good day on the course, and I learnt a lot, as well as consolidating my existing knowledge. I think it could have been improved by devoting more time to the preserving photographs element in the afternoon, which was done in a bit of a rush.

Webinar: forward planning

I'm a bit behind with blog posts, but getting caught up again now. Back in June I joined a forward planning webinar put on by The National Archives.

This lasted about an hour, and was a good way of finding out more about forward planning for archives, particularly as I could "attend" it from the comfort of my own office without incurring any travel costs or having to take time away from work.

We started off by testing out the webinar voting buttons by comparing how much progress participants so far had made with forward planning. Some of the reasons we might not be looking into it at the moment were: no time, no budget, things change too fast, organisation is too small BUT the emphasis was really on using our resources wisely, which means forward planning is essential. In times of uncertainty a forward plan is a useful advocacy tool to show the capabilities of your service and that your resources are used well, as well as how you are contributing to wider corporate priorities.

The essential (but flexible) ingredients of a forward plan are:

1. Mission
2. Review and evaluation of previous plan(s)
3. Analysis of internal and external environment in which service exists
4. Stakeholder consultation and analysis of views
5. Strategic aims
6. Specific objectives beneath each strategic aim
7. Action plan(s)
8. Resource plan(s)
9. Date plan(s) will be reviewed

As far as timescales go, it is good practice to plan in detail for the next year

Guidelines for writing the plan:

• Keep it simple
• Focus on highlights
• Include things that haven't happened (and why)
• If you have no previous plan, review the previous couple of years.

Analysis

Use SWOT or PESTLE analysis to determine the factors affecting your service.

Aims, objectives, actions and resources

What people and budget are needed to meet the archive's objectives and deliver the plan?

Who will write the plan?

• Don't write it alone - another pair of eyes is always useful!
• Have someone in a co-ordinating role to oversee the content
• Include a range of perspectives from within the organisation
• Compare notes with colleagues in other services.

Once you have a plan:

Use it-

• to plan work loads
• identify grants
• monitor progress
• to know how well you're doing
• to make the case for new resources

Renew it-

• don't let the plan die
• revisit each year's aims and objectives
• make sure your plan moves with time

Consulting with users and volunteers?

• Don't ask too many questions - keep it targetted.
• Ask quite specific questions, not "what could we do better".

Forward planning resources

Forward planning resources on TNA.
Collections Trust

I found the webinar very reassuring, as it helped me get a handle on what I need to do to create a forward plan. It was also good to be told that it doesn't have to be 110% perfect in order to be put in for the Archives Accreditation standard!