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Good Practices Handbook

1 Introduction

1.1 Document Overview

This document is a result of the Minerva project’s good practices working group. It presents a practical handbook to the establishment, execution and management of digitisation projects, with particular focus on the cultural area (libraries, museums, archives). The target audience of this handbook is teams within and across cultural institutions who are contemplating, or are already executing, digitisation projects. The document reflects the outcome of the work carried out by the Minerva project, including the substantial research represented by the national questionnaires completed in connection with the National Representatives Group (NRG) meeting in Alicante, May 2002.

1.2 Document Structure

This document is composed by two chapters:

• Background
• Practical Guidelines

Background - This reviews the relevant aspects of the Minerva project, and states the role of this document in the overall progress of the project. It also covers the work carried out to date, in order that the reader shall have a clear picture of the context in which this document should be considered.

Practical Guidelines - The most important practical lessons learnt and information collected by the Minerva project best practice team are presented. This focuses on a significant number of practical ‘rules of thumb’ which should be considered by organisations which are establishing, executing or managing digitisation projects in the cultural sphere. The guidelines are divided into the following areas, each of which reflects a stage in the life-cycle of a digitisation project:

• Digitisation Project Planning
• Selecting Source Material for Digitisation
• Preparation for Digitisation
• Handling of Originals
• The Digitisation Process
• Preservation of the Digital Master Material
• Meta-data
• Publication
• IPR and Copyright
• Managing Digital Projects

The guidelines are presented in a pragmatic manner, aimed at the hands-on project team.

Complementary and supporting information are available on the Internet at the Minerva Web site

On this Web site you can find relevant references to examples of good practices (http://www.minervaeurope.org/listgoodpract.htm), competence centres (http://www.minervaeurope.org/competencentre.htm ) and role models which are being carried out in the European cultural field, as well as by global links to appropriate and useful online resources are provided.

It may be noted that there are several other sources of guidelines on digitisation and the creation of digital cultural content. The most important ones are noted in the selected list of digitisation guidelines (http://www.minervaeurope.org/guidelines.htm) which is a part of this handbook and are available on the Minerva Web site as well.
It is also important to mention that in depth technical issues have been intentionally removed from this Handbook, in order to keep is as simple and short as possible. For complementary technical information, including standards, please refer to the Minerva Technical Guidelines (http://www.minervaeurope.org/structure
/workinggroups/servprov/docindex.htm), which are also available on the Minerva Web site.