I am Digitization Assistant at the Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford. I work within the Digital Collections Discovery team, within the Bodleian Digital Library Systems and Services (BDLSS) department.

The very vague title “digitization assistant” reveals incredibly little of what I actually do! I decided to create this page to summarise my day-to-day responsibilities.

In a nutshell:

I create and ingest digitised objects into Digital Bodleian, the University of Oxford’s digital library platform.

My work falls into the later stages of the digitisation process. After funding, selection, conservation, imaging, and cataloguing have taken place, it’s my job to combine the constituent parts for each object into a digital item before it assumes its place on the virtual shelves of Digital Bodleian.

What are we digitising?

A massive variety of things, in all manner of formats, including manuscripts, printed books (including incunabula), scrolls, picture albums, portraits, maps, notebooks, diaries, sheet music, and much more!

The vast majority of work arrives via large-scale, externally-funded projects. This funding typically comes from philanthropic foundations. For example, one of the first projects I worked on, the History of the Bodleian project, was funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York. Another, Manuscripts from the Mainz Charterhouse, was funded by the Fritz Thyssen Stiftung. Other smaller projects may originate through a charitable donation and/or a bequest from an individual. Projects can vary in scale from a handful of objects being digitised to several hundred, determined by the level of funding available.

Another significant work stream is through BDLSS’ college digitisation service, where Oxford’s constituent colleges can have their digitised objects added to Digital Bodleian in exchange for a fee. Colleges often seek to digitise their rarest or most sought-after objects, which has given me the opportunity to work on some incredible items in this role!

Selection of objects for digitisation will foremost be steered by the interests of philanthropic donors, balanced up with the Bodleian’s own objectives and relevant research projects. The library will be on the lookout to digitise highly-requested, fragile, rare, and ‘unique’ objects, that complement existing material, and supplement the needs of library curators and university faculty.

Where do the images come from?

If dealing with a project managed by the Bodleian itself, the images will almost exclusively be shot by Bodleian Imaging Services at their studio in the Weston Library. Colleges will either shoot images in-house or outsource photography to a specialist.

Imaging is the most time-consuming and costly part of a digitisation project, with work normally being scheduled months in advance. The Bodleian’s imaging studio is equipped with all manner of specialised, cutting-edge equipment to photograph just about every format imaginable. For large projects the studio will try to balance the flow of easier and more difficult photography to prevent bottlenecks.

Challenges can include dealing with fragile material, and when dealing with manuscripts or printed books, tight bindings or stubs and fragments. Unusual formats can also prove challenging, such as massive scrolls or small clay seals. If the physical object is especially fragile, it may be singled out for conservation before project photography begins. In rare cases an object may be rejected from photography outright on conservation grounds.

The imaging studio captures images in high-resolution TIFF format, accessible to us via the Digital Asset Management system Portfolio.

What is the basis for object description?

Often overlooked in the digitisation workflow, but arguably of equal importance to imaging, is cataloguing. Without a description for the item, we have no title, no date, no listing of contents, no identification of authorship or place of origin and, ultimately for the user, no reckoning of its overall significance.

The majority of items earmarked for digitisation will have no (or very minimal) catalogue records. A published printed description may exist in some form, or a minimal description might be found in a handlist or card index.

The amount and standard of cataloguing available for a collection of objects will obviously have a significant bearing on selection and digitisation for a given project. The decision may be taken to do a full retroconversion and update of electronic catalogue records as part of a project, while in other cases, we may simply use existing material.

Cataloguing is mediated through the Bodleian’s Special Collections department. It is a labour-intensive and time-consuming process requiring expertise in a given field and familiarity with descriptive standards. The ideal for any digital item is to have the most extensive, up-to-date description possible, but the realities of funding and time constraints may dictate a compromise!

Creating the digital object

With everything having fallen into place beforehand, the time then comes to create the digital object! We’ll get the heads-up from Imaging Services that photography has completed for an object, and if we have our catalogue record ready to go, then we can begin.

There are a combination of automated and manual processes involved in creating the digital object. Automated processes will verify image validity, create derivatives of our high-resolution TIFFs, create sidecar files, and export the complete object to Digital Bodleian storage. Manual intervention is required for performing visual QA of images, applying administrative, descriptive, and structural metadata, and troubleshooting any issues which may arise through any of the aforementioned processes.

Creating the digital object can be a painstaking or straightforward process (or anything inbetween). This will be determined by the amount of descriptive detail on offer, the degree of structural complexity, any image troubleshooting required, and the complexity of objects on a conceptual level. It may be possible to take a digital object through every step of its creation from start to finish in an hour, or perhaps a week!

We use Goobi, an open-source digitisation workflow tool as the basis for our work in creating digital objects.

Once an item is complete, it will be reviewed and proofed by another member of our team before being ingested into Digital Bodleian, where it will be reviewed again to make sure the finished article looks as it should.

Some of my work so far…

I have worked on a variety of projects of varying scales in this role, including:

• History of the Bodleian: Digitisation of a variety of archival records relating to the history of the library.
• Manuscripts from the Mainz Charterhouse: A flagship project entailing digitisation of 89 of the Bodleian’s medieval manuscripts formerly belonging to the Mainz Charterhouse.
• Beethoven in the House: Digitisation of a collection of music items (chiefly short printed scores) associated with Beethoven.
• Notebooks of Gerard Manley Hopkins: Digitisation of nine items associated with the 19th century poet Gerard Manley Hopkins.
• Papers of John Locke: A donor-funded micro-project to digitise two printed books owned and annotated by John Locke.