biblio: Issues, principles and policies for creating high-quality digital resources with low-cost methods

Scholars in the arts and humanities are using digital resources in increasingly varied and sophisticated ways. Many of these resources are digital versions of existing resources such as photographs, printed publications or correspondence. Often they are of high quality, created by libraries, museums and archives focused on making their resources available to the broad spectrum of potential users. However, where digital resources are created to meet the needs of an individual research project, the emphasis is understandably on the requirements of that specific project rather than on any broader objectives.

This presentation will demonstrate some low-cost methods for creating high-quality digital resources and maintaining them with non-specialist staff, while ensuring that they can support the widest possible range of uses beyond the immediate context of their creation. In this context, ‘high-quality’ refers to the characteristics of the digital resources, not the content itself. Five particularly desirable characteristics of digital collections are considered: sustainability, longevity (preservation), accessibility, interoperability, reusability