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Digitisation projects in the past often happened ad hoc, with only a vague notion of who would be using the digitised objects, and with little planning on how to generate broader usage or how to ensure future access to digitised material. As a consequence, considerable resources were expended to produce vast repositories of digital content that are now underused or worse, no longer accessible.
There is common agreement among experts that following good practice will help cultural heritage institutions to avoid past mistakes and capitalise on investments.
What is good practice?
Most generally, good practice may be defined as taking all the measures necessary to ensure that digital cultural and scientific resources can be used as broadly as possible, with the ability to build upon existing inventories and with a thorough understanding of how to keep resources accessible in the future. Considering, that digitisation is a significant investment, it means, to take all necessary steps to ensure the highest return on investment.
In detail the approach needs to identify, adopt and consistently apply (technical, organisational, and information) standards as well as methodologies developed within the community (i.e. the current practice) to all in-house practices. Only then can cultural heritage institutions ensure that the digital resources created will be used broadly and practices sustainable.
Benchmarking as the next step
In the process of adopting and applying good practice to in-house activities, benchmarking is the next logical step. Benchmarking good practice in creating digital resources requires an outward looking view supported by the willingness to learn from others (form their mistakes as well as their success), and the fortitude to measure oneself against the best in class.
Evaluating projects
The European-wide MINERVA working group on benchmarking has developed an online benchmarking tool based on a set of criteria that currently represent good practices in digitisation within the cultural heritage community.
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