On 1 August 2012 14:31, David Gerard <dger...@gmail.com> wrote: > On 1 August 2012 14:19, Andrew Gray <andrew.g...@dunelm.org.uk> wrote: > >> The best model for cases like this would be to develop a method where >> we have an agreed partner who'll digitise culturally significant >> material at a reasonable cost (or a group who can do it in-house, but >> for material like this that's tricky) and a standing offer to fund it >> for certain classes of limited-availability material like this. We >> then approach the auctioneers or booksellers, talk them in to letting >> us have it for a day to scan it, and let them do as they will after >> that. > > We need to develop in-house volunteer expertise, yes. > > So. What do we need?
The Internet Archive would be the best people to talk to about this; they've experience in deploying scanning machines and training individuals to operate them. I don't know how much the hardware costs, but it seems there's one installed at the Natural History Museum: http://www.nhm.ac.uk/natureplus/community/library/blog/2012/07/25/bhl-the-vast-library-of-life It might be worth talking to them and asking if we can train a volunteer to use the hardware on an occasional basis, during slack time, to run our own programs. They have the software in place to contribute copies to IA (which ought to be best practice for our digitisation programs anyway), and we can handle the Commons side ourselves; all we need to do then is source the books! I'm happy to contact them and make enquiries about this, unless someone else already has NHM contacts - anyone? *However*, this is the general case for digitisation of normal print works. For manuscript material like this - rare, probably very fragile, and needing careful curation during the scanning process - I'd be really reluctant to let it near a volunteer who didn't have training and experience. For a program like this, outsourcing it is really the best way to go, and it's certainly more likely to be persuasive. -- - Andrew Gray andrew.g...@dunelm.org.uk _______________________________________________ Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediau...@wikimedia.org http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l WMUK: http://uk.wikimedia.org
