Hey, What About Access?Hey, What About Access?
Roy TennantThe California Digital Library, University of California
http://escholarship.cdlib.org/rtennant/presentations/2002sfs/
A Practical Guide to Decision-Making
Outline
What are your access goals?What are your constraints?What opportunities do you have?CapturingDescribingProviding Access
What are Your Access Goals?
On-screen viewing Thumbnail preview Screen-size Detail study (and how much?)
PrintingArtifactual Fidelity or Intellectual
Content
PrintingOn-screen resolutions are typically
inadequate for printingFor non-transparency material (prints,
books, objects, etc.), 300dpi is a good resolution for printable versions
Artifactual Fidelity or Intellectual Content? Artifactual fidelity
Must preserve the appearance of the actual object Can provide an enhanced sense of experiencing
the real object But in some cases, preserving the look and feel of
the artifact obstructs the content Doug Greenberg’s “compulsive authenticity
disorder” (http://www.nedcc.org/owol/dgabs.htm) Intellectual content
Optimized to provide the best presentation of the content itself, not the artifact
The sense of interacting with the actual object may be diminished or destroyed
Both strategies may be required
What are Your Constraints? Hardware
RAM CPU speed Disk space Storage
Software Staff
Time Skill and experience
Money
What Opportunities Do You Have?Grants may be available to finance your
project Grants often expect a certain level of
quality; if so, what capture quality is specified?
Do you have access to student help? Interns? Volunteers?
Can you cut a deal with a vendor like Octavo?
CapturingMonitor resolutions are improving
640 x 480 --> 800 x 600 --> 1280 x 768What is a good resolution for onscreen
viewing today, may not be tomorrowHow many times do you want to scan
your material?Scan at the best quality you can justify
given your goals, constraints, and opportunities
Capture Recommendations for Access (not preservation) Photos, illustrations, maps, etc.:
300dpi 24 bit color
B/W Text document: 300dpi 8 bit grayscale
Negatives and Slides: 2200 pixels in longest dimension 24 bit color or 8 bit grayscale
DescribingGood metadata is essential to your
successThree types:
Descriptive Administrative Structural
Describing: Appropriate LevelDescribing: Appropriate Level
Collection-level access: Discovery metadata describes the collection Example: Archival finding aid; see
http://www.oac.cdlib.org/ Item-level access:
Discovery metadata describes the item Example: MARC or Dublin Core records for each item;
see http://jarda.cdlib.org/search.html Both types of access may be appropriate Doing both often takes very little extra effort
SearchInterface
CollectionDescription
Images
Collection Level AccessCollection Level Access
CollectionDescription
SearchInterface
Images
Item Level AccessItem Level Access
CollectionDescriptions
http://oac.cdlib.org/
http://jarda.cdlib.org/
jarda.cdlib.org/search.html
Describing: Metadata Granularity
<name>William Randolph Hearst</name> <name>
<first>William</first><middle>Randolph</middle><last>Hearst</last>
</name> Consider all uses for the metadata Design for the most granular use Store it in a machine-parseable format
Describing: Machine Parseability
The ability to pull apart and reconstruct information via software
For example, this:
<name><first>William</first><middle>Randolph</middle><last>Hearst</last>
</name>
Can easily become this:
<DC.creator>Hearst, William Randolph</DC.creator>
Describing: Metadata Qualification
<name role=“creator”>William Randolph Hearst</name>
<subject scheme=“LCSH”>Builder -- Castles -- Southern California</subject>
Describing: Formats & Syntax
Dublin Core
EAD
MARC
TEI
XML
Which ones?
Describing: Metadata Storage Formats
It doesn’t matter so long as: You captured the quantity required for your
purposes You captured it at the granularity required for
your purposes You qualify the metadata where required You store it in a machine-parseable format You can output it in any format to which you
wish to complyGiven that, you can do anything!
Describing: Standards Decide to which industry standards you will
comply Use an internal metadata infrastructure that
supports compliance with those standards, as well as your specific requirements
Consider the issues of item v. collection level, granularity, qualification, and machine parseability
Understand that your internal formats may be more complex than what is required for standards compliance
Describing:Making Your Metadata Searchable
Sample Indexing Systems/Databases: Sprite (Perl module) Microsoft Access, Filemaker Pro SWISH-E, swish-e.org MySQL, mysql.com Oracle or Sybase
Less MoreThe power & complexity continuum
Sprite SWISH-E MySQLAccess/FilemakerOracle,Sybase
Providing AccessExhibitBrowseSearch
Providing Access: Exhibit Goals:
Inviting Easy to navigate Highlight selected parts of a collection Teach
Requirements: Great graphic design Informative and succinct commentary Interesting subject matter
http://www.kb.nl/kb/galerie/trivulzio/index-en.html
http://www.bl.uk/
Providing Access: BrowseGoals:
Provide intriguing and interesting paths into and throughout a collection
Give a broad sense of a collection, but not show everything necessarily
Requirements: Logical browse paths May have multiple paths to the same items
(e.g., time, geography, subject)
http://www.kb.nl/kb/manuscripts/browser/
Providing Access: Search Goals
To provide post-coordinate access to all items in a collection relevant to a particular query
To provide good methods to create a search as well as refine or alter the display as required
Requirements: Good search software (database or indexing software) Good metadata (minimum is probably a title or caption
for each item) Good interface (options for navigation, search
refinement, etc.)
http://www.scran.ac.uk/
Recap Determine what you want your users to be able
to do (your access goals) Consider your constraints, opportunities, and
long-term goals Capture images at the best quality you can stand Collect metadata in an amount and form that
supports your access goals as well as interoperability with relevant standards
Never underestimate the power of a committed individual and a cheap scanner!
Final Advice Don’t scrimp on tools — staff time is the most
expensive part of any project For any given project, there are several ways
it can succeed and countless ways it can fail Do it right, or don’t do it at all? NO! From the access perspective, it’s much
better to do it as well as you can than to not do it at all.