Cultural institutions in the UK are repositories of a wealth of historical material. The scholarly importance of such resources is at the basis of the numerous digitisation projects aimed at widening their access worldwide. The lack of national policies has left those institutions alone in engaging in dissemination activities and in raising awareness of their own online material.
Of particular interest to the author are the digital special collections hosted in the English Universities. The main activities of these institutions differ from others, such as museums, archives and public libraries, as they do not have the main institutional duties of preserving and the exploiting of their holdings. This article highlights related issues and suggests some of the possible measures to effectively promote and disseminate universities’ online digital special collections.
Picture the scenario
You work for a University in England and you are a curator of a special collection that has been digitised. You would be in a very rare and lucky situation if the whole world knew about it, and if your institution was not just proud of its treasures, but fully supportive of any initiative to promote and exploit them. This article is for those who are not in such a position. Let's take a step back.
What are special collections?
Special collections are those groups of archives or library materials (usually sharing a subject area) distinguished from the general stock for their physical form, content or depth of subject coverage.
What has a university got to do with it?
At times, a special collection may be strongly linked to a particular University, which may become the natural home of the collection. Special collections therefore are donated or purchased by a home institution, which endeavours to preserve them. Once the institution has a special collection, its value in part depends on its accessibility: it is of little use unless the public knows about it. Digitisation is important as the conversion of the collections into digital format aids both preservation and access. Furthermore, digital special collections may constitute an important point of contact with wider cultural initiatives if appropriately exploited and promoted and may raise the profile of the home institution through the achievement of recognition in a regional, national or international context. Digitisation takes a great role in promoting cultural awareness and in creating new educational opportunities.
Furthermore, digital special collections may constitute an important point of contact with wider cultural initiatives if appropriately exploited and promoted and may raise the profile of the home institution through the achievement of recognition in a regional, national or international context.
What's the problem?
Broadly, the home institutions do not realize all the positive aspects of having collections online, even when copyright is not a concern. This is because there are several issues involved:
Collection issues - there is a lack of a common definition of what really constitutes a special collection (not topic-grouped up-to-date stock such as market reports, European documentation etc.). Several institutions extend the definition of digital collection to electronic journals, digital libraries and really anything that is in digital form and available online (photographs of recent events etc.).
Promotional issues - generally promotional activities fall within the responsibilities of the curators, who are not expert in communication and marketing strategies.
Institutional issues - indisputably, dissemination and promotion relies on the institution's organisational culture and on the attitudes of the curator. It would be a logical approach for an institution's marketing department to exploit online special collections for targeting national and international audiences. It is a fact that the majority of online digital special collections share the domain of their home institution; however the majority of universities lack a genuine interest in their own collections and fail to include them constantly in a wider agenda. Such a failure constitutes a great loss of opportunities to the institution's prestige. It also highlights both the disjointed reality of the English universities and their inability to fully exploit the funds made available for the digitisation of special collections.
Staffing issues – although the curatorial duty of the majority of the collections is the task of information professionals, there is an overwhelming lack of staff dedicated solely to the online special collections. The need for successfully targeted promotional campaigns to ensure their most effective dissemination is even more apparent.
So what to do next?
Let's see what curators could do to enhance promotion and awareness of their online digital collections. It is important to point out that home institutions present different scenarios, realities and financial backing.
Making promotion important
Ensure maximum exploitation of material (involvement of the project teams, university departments, especially marketing and funding bodies)
Create an exhibition in institutions' reception rooms
Create lists and recommendations
Work closely with press and publication offices (they have constant need of images, stories and information on the institutions)
Send notices and full articles to a range of publications, especially subject specific
Gaining more 'power' within own institution
Join forces to create an institutional policy for promotion of collections
Bring together all the institution's online collections
Involve as many departments as possible
Strive to improve the 'image' of the collections
Opportunities
Widen awareness and use of the collection at historical anniversaries and events
Timely launch of promotional activities
Work closely with press and publication offices (they have constant need of images, stories and information on the institutions)
Make use of other campaigns and programmes
Attend relevant conferences
Exhibit in a location where there are external visitors, especially fund-raising events
Organise open evening
Maximise collaboration and retrieval (online tool)
Maximise interoperability by using protocols and standards
Raising awareness
Broaden external awareness
... with other bodies
Create ties with other educational organisations, so that their sites could have links to collection (BBC, museums, city councils education authorities, etc.)
Attend related conferences
Deposit details and links with external online sites
Research subject area of the collection (e.g. subject gateways, bibliographies, pathfinders)
... with information professionals
Participate in discussion lists and blogs
Provide leaflets, bookmarks and hand-outs to have ready for visitors and to send out to related organisations
Attend related conferences
Contextual and promotional information
Create features and services to increase appeal
Re-mount exhibition virtually on web pages
Provide leaflets, bookmarks and hand-outs to have ready for visitors and to send out to related organisations
Make the following available online: statements, contact, table content, catalogue, help, future developments, further reading, background to collection, frequently asked questions
Make use of other campaigns and programmes
Include 'What's new' and 'image of the week/month'
Provide links to other resources and websites
Provide information on promotional events -e.g. conferences, show case services such as copying, shopping, research opportunities;
Include publications for free download or purchase -newsletters, RSS feeds, blogs, special support material (teacher/school/etc.)
Advertise the institution's activities: invite people to see originals
Targeting audiences
Reach targeted audiences
International audiences*
Utilise Web 2.0 applications (e.g. RSS feed and blogs)
Send notices and full articles to a range of international publications
Send electronic newsletters
Set up email distribution and discussion lists
Adhere to national international and initiative (e.g. UNESCO)**
Provide foreign language support
Attend relevant international conferences
National audiences
As above
Utilise national broadcasts
Contact national press
Regional and local audiences
As above
Organise related lectures, forum, etc.
Utilise local broadcast
Contact local press
Provide leaflets, posters and general publications
Organise a programme of talks to interested targeted groups
New Audiences
Create ad hoc online resources (e.g. exhibitions, children/ teacher activities, etc.)***
Work closely with press and publication offices (they have constant need of images, stories and information on the institutions)
* Although most collections were deemed to be appealing to international audiences, not many appear on worldwide online search tools (databases, search engines, subject gateways, etc).
** The overwhelming lack of adherence to the widest spectrum of initiatives at national and intentional level (e.g. databases and portals) is a missed opportunity. See appendix for a list of national and international initiatives.
*** For example, the failure to target children constitutes a loss of opportunities for the dissemination of the collections through reaching schools or parents. Understandably, such an aspect has financial and planning implications and could suffer a lack of interest or expertise. However, explorative and entertaining features for children or just cooperation with the other educational websites (e.g. BBC and Grid of Learning) could become part of an outreach programme for the universities.
Access and use
At planning stages the project team should maximise the collections' use
Clearly display links to access the collection and the online status
Organise open evening
Provide disability support
Implement features to increase appeal and intuitiveness
Explanation of search feature
Basic/quick search facilities
Advanced search features
Extra search options
Intra-collection search
Available search history
Keyword list
Browsing facilities
Increase user's interest by incorporating dialogue opportunities
Online piloting
Surveying
Feedback requests
Keeping contacts updated
Web 2.0 applications (e.g. RSS feed and blogs)
Feedback from users
Attend relevant conferences
Increase the collection's visual appeal and aesthetics
Utilise appealing colour scheme and layout
Unify styles and links
Undertake pilot program before launch
Improve intuitiveness of navigation (icons, zooming and turning pages)
Ongoing website improvements
Observe and compare other websites of both similar or different type of coverage
For more information about digital collections, see any of the following recommended resources and collections:
UNESCO [United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization] archives portal
The strategies suggested are just some of the ways that cultural institutions can intelligently 'spread the message' and increase visitor access to their collections. Without implementing these processes or procedures, it will be very difficult for institutions to promote or broaden the appeal of their special collections. It will also limit the accessibility of their collections to new audiences and the creation of further educational opportunities. Ultimately, this will impact the 'survivability' of their collections in the long term.
Erica Wine works at Digital Capture Solutions, the digitisation service
of the Library and Learning Resources at the Birmingham City University
in Birmingham, UK. She conducted the research promotion of online
digital special collections in the Higher Education Institutions in
England as a partial fulfillment of the requirement for the Degree of
Master of Science.
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