15-17 Aug 2017 Berlin (Germany)
Direct access, user participation, new services – Some of ETH Library's steps beyond digitisation
Michael Gasser  1@  
1 : Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich, ETH Library  (ETH Library, ETH Zürich)  -  Website
Rämistrasse 101 8092 Zürich Schweiz -  Switzerland

Mass digitisation and online presentation of public domain or creative commons licensed printed material, archival documents, images, and objects have become permanent tasks of GLAM institutions in recent years. With digitisation centres and presentation platforms in place, the focus has more and more shifted from the question of how to bring masses of analogue documents into the digital sphere to what can be done to realise the full potential of digitised content that has been put online already. How can its use and re-use be facilitated, both for researches and the interested public? How can it help to reach new groups of users? How can productive interactions with users and across different user groups be established? Which new and innovative services can be developed based on content readily available online?

Mainly focussing on recent initiatives and projects of the archives and collections unit of ETH Library, the paper exemplifies key elements of the library's multifaceted answer to these questions. Five of these key elements are:

  • Active open data policy: Granting free and unrestricted access to the vast majority of digitised content on ETH Library's partially cooperative platforms for images, rare books, and archival material.

  • Multichannel distribution of metadata and content: Cooperation with international portals like Archives Portal Europe and platforms like Wikimedia Commons in order to bring both the metadata and the content to where many users are.

  • Audience participation: Successful digital crowdsourcing project of the library's image archive leading to enriched descriptions of thousands of photographs.

  • New forms of contextualisation: Using ETH Library's new multimedia storytelling platform as a highly attractive add-on to established forms of contextualisation of archival and special collections' content in blogposts or publications.

The paper will be rounded of by answers to some important questions closely linked to these examples and the developments behind them: In what way do these additional services, projects and initiatives affect internal resource allocation? What are the relevant success factors to measure their impact? And of course: What are the next steps to be taken?


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