15
th
International Congress on Archives
Shapley
www.wien2004.ica.org
2
Speed of image capture, minimisation of cost, and on-screen legibility of the finished product were all
important benchmarks. Accessibility rather than preservation was the driving force.
A number of digitisation methods were trialled, including overhead, bookeye and flatbed scanners, and
digital cameras. We also tested digital conversions from microfilm; proprietary commercial scanning
systems; and high-speed bureau imaging services.
We used a variety of record formats to test each method's capacity to capture all types of documents.
Considerable time was spent using World War I Army dossiers of which there are over 350,000 as test
models. These dossiers contain various sized handwritten and typed documents in a variety of ink and
pencil colours. A selection of these service dossiers was an obvious choice for inclusion in the trials,
because if digitising these records was successful, other more regular records should be relatively easy.
An important aspect of the trial was the development of a cost-effective and suitable method for making the
digitised images available through the Archives website. It became obvious early in the trials that all
digitised images should be attached to their respective record entry on our RecordSearch database on our
website:
·
to remove the need to create or replicate metadata a significant factor in keeping capture costs low,
·
to avoid the duplication of digitised images on the website, and
·
to maximise researchers' chances of learning about records they might wish to consult.
The clear result of the trials was that overhead digital cameras met the image capture criteria better than the
alternatives. This method provides low-resolution images with adequate legibility, the greatest processing
speed and the lowest cost per image (approximately 25 cents this includes the cost of retrieving and
returning the record to the repository and image capture, processing and storage). The report on the trial is
available on our website
(www.naa.gov.au/Publications/corporate_publications/corporate_publications.html).
Legal issues
You might be wondering how we deal with copyright and privacy issues. Most records in our collection
consist of unpublished manuscript material in which copyright is held by the Australian government.
Though the collection does contain material for which copyright is held privately, in almost all cases this is
of no commercial value. The records that we digitally copy are between 30 and 100 years old and, because
of their age and the passage of time, current copyright holders cannot reasonably be identified or traced.
After carefully considering this issue the Archives took the position that making digital copies of records in
our collection available via the website fulfilled our statutory function of encouraging and facilitating the
use of archival material and was consistent with the fair dealing provisions of the Copyright Act 1968.
The privacy issue was also one that our legislation deals with. The Archives Act requires Commonwealth
records to be released for public access after 30 years unless they contain exempt information. The Act
specifies 16 categories of information that should not be released, one of which relates to personally
sensitive information. We only digitise records that have already been assessed as suitable for public access
against these criteria.
Introduction of the digitisation on demand service
In April 2001 after establishing an Imaging team within the Archives, the digitisation on demand service
was introduced. The service was limited to selected records held in Canberra. Despite little publicity the
service has been a roaring success with over one hundred thousand images captured each month by our
team of seven digitisers.
The Archives' process of creating digital copies for RecordSearch has three components:
·
first, capturing images using digital cameras;
