Good Practices Handbook

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Version 1.3
edited by the Minerva Working Group 6
Identification of good practices and competence centres
3 March 2004

General co-ordination
Rossella Caffo (Minerva Project Manager),
Borje Justrell (Coordinator of Good Practices Working Group)
Antonella Fresa (Minerva Technical Coordinator)

European Editorial Committee
David Dawson, Karl-Magnus Drake, Borje Justrell, Muriel Foulonneau, Antonella Fresa, Anna Maria Tammaro

Secretariat
Marzia Piccininno (Ministero per i beni e le attività culturali, Italy)

Texts
Ciaran Clissmann (Pintail Ltd.), Karl-Magnus Drake(Riksarkivet, Sweden), Borje Justrell (Riksarkivet, Sweden), Anna Maria Tammaro (University of Parma. Italy)

Web version
Maria Teresa Natale and Andrea Tempera

© 2004 Minerva Project

Acknowledgements:
This handbook had not been more then a good idea without Ciaran Clissman. Besides all his knowledge about structuring information, his way of putting good practice into proper English has been an invaluable contribution to this work. Remaining peculiarities in the text should be blamed only on the editors, because we have not always followed Ciaran Clissman´s advices.

We will also acknowledge the members of the Minerva project and the National Representative Group who have shared their experience and great knowledge with us. Last but not least, a special thanks to the Italian national Working group on good practices for their great interest in the handbook and their valuable contributions to its content.

Table of Contents

1. INTRODUCTION
   1.1 DOCUMENT OVERVIEW
   1.2 DOCUMENT STRUCTURE
   
2. BACKGROUND
   2.1 THE LUND PRINCIPLES
   2.2 THE MINERVA PROJECT
   
3. PRACTICAL GUIDELINES
   3.1 INTRODUCTION
   3.2 DIGITISATION PROJECT PLANNING
   The Reasons for the Project
   Human Resources
   Research
   Risks
   3.3 SELECTING SOURCE MATERIAL FOR DIGITISATION
   Establish Selection Criteria
   Selection against the Criteria
   3.4 PREPARATION FOR DIGITISATION
   Hardware
   Software
   Environment
   3.5 HANDLING OF ORIGINALS
   Moving and Manipulating Original Material
   3.6 THE DIGITISATION PROCESS
   Using Scanners
   Using Digital Cameras
   Software Applications for Optical Character Recognition (OCR)
   3.7 PRESERVATION OF DIGITAL MASTER MATERIAL
   File formats
   Media Choices
   Migration Strategies
   3.8 META-DATA
   The Scope of Meta-data Used for Object
   Description
   Appropriate Meta-data Standards
   3.9 PUBLICATION
   Image Processing
   3D and Virtual Reality Issues
   Online Publication
   3.10 IPR AND COPYRIGHT
   Establishing Copyright
   Safeguarding Copyright
   3.11 MANAGING DIGITISATION PROJECTS
   Digitisation Process Management
   Team Development
   Staff Training
   Working with Third Parties for Technical Assistance
   Working with Third Parties in Cooperative Projects and Content Sharing
   Costs