A - Bid Cover Sheet JISC Grant Funding 06/11

A - Bid Cover Sheet JISC Grant Funding 06/11
Cover Sheet for Bids
(All sections must be completed)
Name of Strand: Strand A:
Strand B:
X
Strand C:
Name of Lead Institution:
National Library of Wales
Name of Proposed Project:
Rhyfel Byd 1914-1918 a’r profiad Cymreig / Welsh
experience of World War One 1914-1918
Name(s) of Project Partners(s)
(except commercial sector – see
below)
Bangor University; Cardiff University; Aberystwyth
University; Swansea University; University of Wales Trinity
Saint David’s The People’s Collection Wales; Archives and
Records Council, Wales (ARCW); BBC Cymru Wales
This project involves one or more
Name(s) of any commercial partner company (ies)
commercial sector partners
YES / NO (delete as appropriate)
Full Contact Details for Primary Contact:
Name:
Professor Lorna Hughes,
Position:
University of Wales Chair in Digital Collections
Email:
[email protected] Tel: 01970 632499
Address:
National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth SY23 1BU
Length of Project:
19 Months
Project Start Date:
1 January 2012
Project End Date:
Total Funding Requested from JISC:
£500,000
Total Institutional Contributions:
£487,916
31 July 2013
Outline Project Description
This project will conduct mass digitization of primary sources relating to World War One from
the Libraries, Special Collections and Archives of Wales. Wales had the highest level of
recruitment of any UK country during World War One. The project will make available a
coherent, consolidated digital collection revealing the often hidden history of World War One as
it impacted all aspects of Welsh life, language and culture. These source materials are presently
fragmented and frequently inaccessible, yet they collectively form a unique resource of vital
interest to researchers, students, and the public in Wales and beyond. The project will digitize
printed and manuscript sources as well as moving image, audio and photographic material;
store the digital content in the Welsh Repository Network and People’s Collection Wales Portal,
and make the digital collection available through a unified common interface to enable federated
searching and browsing, broadest resource discovery, and embedding in research and teaching.
The digital material will also be enhanced through the use of translation tools to enable broadest
access, and to provide an invaluable resource for teaching, research, and public engagement in
time for the 100th anniversary of the start of the War.
I have looked at the example FOI form at Appendix YES / NO (delete as appropriate)
A and included an FOI form in this bid
I have read the Funding Call and associated Terms
and Conditions of Grant at Appendix B
For FE institutions only: Please tick this box if you
are an FE institution in England, please tick this
box to confirm that you meet the eligibility
requirement of teaching HE to more than 400 FTE
YES / NO (delete as appropriate)
B. Appropriateness and Fit to Programme Objectives and Overall Value to the JISC
Community
1. Introduction
1.1 This project is a powerful partnership between the Libraries, Special Collections and Archives of
Wales, and the People‟s Collection Wales, to undertake mass digitization and provide consolidated
access to primary sources that illustrate the Welsh experience of World War One, and its impact on
language, culture and identity. Collections to be digitised are from the National Library of Wales,
Aberystwyth University Special Collections, Bangor University Special Collections, Trinity St David‟s
Special Collections, Cardiff University Library, the Archives of BBC Cymru Wales, and Archives and
Local Records Offices that are members of ARCW (Archives and Records Council, Wales). The
People‟s Collection Wales, will gather content generated by communities and local and family
historians and in personal collections via outreach and targeted digitization of significant material to
enhance and compliment the collections of the HEI partners. The unified, mass digital collection that
will be created will represent the experience of the entire Welsh Nation during World War One.
1.2 With the 100th anniversary of the beginning of World War One approaching in 2014 and the focus
on commemoration, teaching, and research this will attract, there is increasing interest, nationally and
internationally, in making previously inaccessible primary sources for research into the Great War
widely available for broadest use. The Welsh archives and special collections content that will be
digitized through this project fit this criteria perfectly: they tell a hitherto unheard story of the impact of
the Great War, and the War Effort, on nationhood and society in Wales, and reveal the impact of this
seismic event on all aspects of life. Too often, these sources have been relegated to the category of
„local‟ and genealogical interest: by gathering them together we will develop a rich, unified resource,
valuable for any scholar attempting to piece together a national picture. Moreover, it is difficult to
envisage many aspects of Welsh society in the years immediately before and during the War, given
that the changes wrought by the War were so dramatic and far-reaching. The War “marked an
immense break with the past, in social and ultimately in political terms. In no part of the British Isles was
the contrast between pre- and post-war conditions more pronounced” 1. The digital outputs of the
project will help historians understand how Wales was affected by the War more than any other region
of the UK, building a truly „national‟ digital resource to support analysis, interpretation, and reappraisal
of the impact of „the Great War‟ in a small country with a distinct cultural and linguistic identity that was
nonetheless overshadowed by the English language and culture „official narrative‟ of the War. Bringing
these source materials out of the dark will develop a body of material to finally support a paradigm for
interpretation that will be relevant to many countries with dual language and traditions that also saw
transformative post-War changes, and as such it will have considerable international impact.
2. Our Partnership
2.1 This project has been developed by the Special Collections sub-group of the Welsh Higher
Education Libraries Forum (WHELF). WHELF has collaborated on a number of successful projects,
including the Welsh Repository Network. It builds partnerships between libraries, archives, museums
and academic researchers, as well as CyMAL (Museums, Libraries and Archives, Wales) and the
Welsh Government. 2.2 In this project, we have been joined by ARCW, who will bring participation of
the Archives and Local Records Offices of Wales. 2.3 Involvement of the People‟s Collection Wales, is
a significant part of the project, ensuring the broadest audience, and impact beyond Higher Education.
Funded by the Welsh Government, the remit of the People‟s Collection Wales is to develop online
content encourage exploration, sharing and engagement with Welsh history and culture via its portal.
The People‟s Collection Wales will collect community content, and also deploy their highly successful
community engagement methods to ensure widest contribution to, and participation in, the project. 2.4
All-Wales enthusiasm and support for the project is evidenced by letters of support from all HEIs in
Wales.
3. Content
3.1 The WHELF Special Collections Sub-group carried out an extensive analysis of materials within
their collections with the greatest relevance to World War One that were suitable for digitization. The
1
(Kenneth O Morgan Wales 1880-1980, p.177)
partners analysed demand for the archive materials, and were assisted by the advice and
recommendations of researchers in several disciplines who are active in the field. This material thus
selected comprises primary source material that has never been digitized, but which would have great
impact on teaching and research if available digitally. They include 190,000 pages of printed text,
archival pages, manuscript pages and photographs; 50 hours of audio; and 20 hours of audio visual
materials, presently fragile, difficult to access, and dispersed around institutions in Wales.
The collections include2: 3.2 The records of the Welsh Army Corps. Lloyd George sought to
establish a Welsh Army at the beginning of the War, resulting in the Welsh Army Corps. These unique
records provide an insight into the process of recruiting volunteers, who those volunteers were and their
geographical distribution, as well as the process of mobilisation of public attitudes in support of the war.
Additionally they provide a fresh insight into the broader question of how sub-British national identities
were constructed and mobilised for the war effort, demonstrating the kind of propaganda that was used
and how it allowed people to identify with a version of Wales and its history. A similar process of
identification with sub-British identities was seen in recruitment in Scotland, Ulster and the English
regions (e.g. Scots and Irish regiments on Tyneside). 3.3 Welsh newspapers 1913-1919. These are
essential sources for understanding the Welsh experience of the War3, with reports illustrating world
events as well as the impact on citizens not part of the fighting. Their content includes letters from
soldiers, poetry columns, and other literary content. The National Library of Wales has a complete set
of many titles, including Llais llafur / Labour voice, Merthyr pioneer, Y dinesydd Cymreig, as well as
local and national Welsh titles. 3.4 Welsh periodicals and other printed publications. These also
contain vivid first hand evidence of the impact of the War. They include the women‟s journal, Y
Gymraes. student newspapers, and Y Deyrnas (the journal of the conscientious objectors). Diaries,
journals and letters including correspondence by leading figures in Welsh society, contemporary
writings and oral histories from the National Screen and Sound Archive of Wales, oral histories
recorded for BBC Cymru, and Swansea University‟s South Wales Miners Library. 3.5 Literary
Archives, including those of the “Welsh War Poets”, notably Edward Thomas, David Jones and Hedd
Wyn (Ellis Humphrey Evans); artists including David Jones; 3.6 Official documents, including Church
and chapel records and annual reports; records of official organisations, trades union records and
shipping records.
4. Research, teaching and public impact
4.1 A coherent digital corpus of the archives relating to World War One in Wales will inspire and
transform research, teaching, learning and public engagement, nationally and internationally. Research
themes that could be addressed through use of this collection cross many disciplines, including history,
language, literature, politics, medical humanities, and economic and social history. They include
evidence of the effect of the fighting on individuals; social changes (for example, women in paid
employment); recruitment and British/Welsh patriotism; the nature of opposition to the war; the
emergence of Nationalism, and commemoration and remembrance. Themes of interest to historical
sociologists and language planners include the sharp decline in national self-confidence and speakers
of Welsh post-War. We anticipate broadest use of the digital collection by international scholars
interested in the Great War, including the International Research Center of the 'Historial de la Grande
Guerre'4, developing all-encompassing history of World War One, including its impact on culture and
society throughout Europe and the rest of the world. A project focussing on Wales would provide a
comparative history from a different perspective to the larger combatant nations. The digitization and
aggregation of these collections will unlock new, hitherto concealed, fields of research for professional
and amateur researchers, and will facilitate the integration of this content into the core curricula for
teaching and learning in HEIs, FE, and in schools. The project will also fulfil the core objectives of
Digital Britain, and the Welsh Government programme Digital Wales, by encouraging public action with
valuable digital content.
5. Innovation in Mass Digitization
5.1 The project will provide consolidated and aggregated access to locally hosted data from archives
and special collections around Wales through the development of a unified interface. The project will
use the existing Welsh Repository Network as the technical infrastructure for the project, and build
capacity at all partner institutions by populating local repositories with content digitized through this
2
The full list of collections to be digitized is available at: http://www.llgc.org.uk/index.php?id=5444
Ivor ap Glyn, Lleisiau’r rhyfel mawr, 2008
4
http://en.historial.org/International-Research-Center
3
project, exposing it for widest harvesting and discovery. This project will demonstrate cutting-edge
innovation in multimedia repository development and use and leave partner organisations with the
capacity to implement and contribute to similar projects in the future. This innovation will contribute to a
sustainable ecosystem for digital content. We will also integrate methods for enriching digitized content
for multilingual access, incorporating innovative approaches to bilingual content.
6. Building on existing work and expertise
The project will consolidate and expand expertise and innovation in digitization developed at the
National Library of Wales through earlier mass digitization initiatives (several funded by JISC), enabling
partners to benefit from previous expertise in digitization, which includes developing integrated digital
collections, creating workflow specifications for data capture and management, metadata generation
and data exposure for harvesting5. The project will also complement and existing resources that relate
to WWI content, including Welsh Voices of the Great War Online, Welsh Journals Online, and Oxford‟s
First World War Poetry Archive.
The project will develop an exemplar of innovation in creating, delivering and sustaining a digital
collection that will have impact on a large number of stakeholder communities: This project will provide
a valuable template for future digital projects as it combines a nationwide focus with collaborative crosssectoral working and knowledge exchange; integration of existing, new and future digital content;
innovative utilisation, modification and enhancement of the Welsh Repository Network; and economic
benefits through collaboration with commercial and creative industry partners to ensure that data can
be re-used and integrated into future resources. It will build a coherent and sustainable digital resource
that will be maintained by the National Library of Wales.
C. Quality of Proposal and Robustness of Workplan
1. Project deliverables
1.1 A digital archive of 190,000 pages of printed text, archival pages, manuscript pages and
photographs; 50 hours of audio; and 20 hours of audio visual materials.
1.2 A unified web interface that aggregates data stored in the Institutional Repositories of the
Partner HEIs, and the People‟s Collection Wales
1.3 Cross-sector engagement between HEIs, Archives, local records office, as well as public
engagement
1.4 A series of community and scholarly workshops dedicated to developing content and
approaches to embedding the resource in teaching and research
1.5 Cultivation of a network of researchers to encourage embedding of resource in research and
teaching
1.6 A bilingual user interface to support multilingual user engagement and contextualization of
content
1.7 Aggregated bilingual and cross-lingual search and Welsh<>English translation of content
1.8 Increased digital and technical capacity at partner institutions
1.9 Published deliverables, including conference presentations and scholarly articles; Project
outputs, including final report and project documentation
2. Workplan
Core Project elements are: selection; digitization; ingest; metadata development and exposure;
enrichment of content for multilingual access; development of common unified interface; dissemination
and outreach.
2.1 Work package 1: Project management (WP Leader: NLW)
Will oversee all aspects of the project, including: co-ordination of partner relations and management;
budgets; pplanning; coordination with JISC and reporting of progress; project meetings; evaluation and
benchmarking, and monitoring of project milestones (Alan Hughes and Lorna Hughes, NLW)
2.2 Work package 2: Selection of content (WP Leader: NLW)
All aspects of content selection, including: IPR clearance and rights management (including editorial
permission for BBC materials); conservation assessment and agreements on standards of care for
5
http://dev.llgc.org.uk/wiki/index.php?title=Digitisation_Workflow
digitization to be conducted off site; and transfer to the digitization location (partner library and archive
staff).
2.3 Work package 3: Digitization (WP Leader: NLW)
Will encompass the digitization „life cycle‟: imaging, OCR, metadata, and file management. All
digitization will follow best practices and workflows developed by NLW on previous JISC projects,
incorporating all considerations from creation to preservation. Digitization will take place at NLW (NLW,
Cardiff Swansea, Bangor, Aberystwyth and Trinity St David‟s content: NLW digitization staff) and in situ
(for Archives, Local Records Offices, and other community generated content, People‟s Collection
Wales staff).
2.4 Work package 4: Technical and repository support (WP Leader: Aberystwyth)
Local repository support and development where necessary for ingest of data into the Welsh
Repository Network (for Aberystwyth, Bangor, Cardiff, Trinity St David‟s content), the People‟s
Collection Archive (Archival and community generated content); support of any local repository
enhancement to enable the archiving of multimedia digital content; supporting support for exposure
process; documentation and training to build capacity for long term support at all partner organizations
(Antony Colfield, Aberystwyth)
2.5 Work package 5: NLW Ingest (WP Leader: NLW)
Ingest of NLW content in to NLW FEDORA-based repository; supporting the exposure process to
enable harvesting of the content by the project (NLW technical staff)
2.6 Work package 6: Content Harvesting & Aggregation (WP Leader: NLW)
Includes development of metadata and methods for exposing metadata of digitised content for widest
harvesting; development of project standards for metadata requirements from the repositories;
exposure of the content and metadata by repositories, and the People‟s Collection Wales portal, for
aggregation; development and deployment of central aggregation environment; harvesting, aggregation
and indexing of data from the repositories (NLW technical staff)
2.7 Work package 7: use of NLP on Welsh/English digitised content (WP Leader:
Language Technologies Unit, Canolfan Bedwyr, Bangor)
Enrichment of content via utilization of Natural Language Processing methods and tools to enable
cross-lingual free text search and accessibility of Welsh Language content to non-Welsh speakers.
Implementation of: cross lingual free text search and accessibility to Welsh language content, via
language detection; lemmatized free text search in a multilingual context; lemmatized free text search
in a cross lingual context using a search query translator; use of thesauri, terminologies, and bilingual
place names data; and interface enhancement incorporating machine translation (LTU staff)
2.8 Work package 8: Access and interface (WP Leader: NLW)
Designing and developing a fully bilingual and accessible user interface, usability testing,
implementation. Integration of the interface with the aggregation environment to provide full access to
material collected via harvesting; local storage or caching of content to provide fast and effective
delivery to end-users; integration of Work Package 6 deliverables to provide cross-language searching
and machine translation of content; implementation of TIDSR6 methods for impact and uptake of
resource (NLW technical staff).
2.9 Work package 9: stakeholder engagement (WP Leaders: People’s Collection Wales,
and NLW)
Working with core stakeholder groups as an iterative process of engagement and input throughout
development of project (all); research network of academics using the content (Trinity St David‟s);
Community engagement workshops (People‟s Collection Wales)
2.10 Work package 10: Dissemination and outreach (WP Leader: NLW)
Widest dissemination of all project outputs by all members of the project team (all)
3. Outline project timetable: The project will start on January 1st, 2012 and run til July 31st, 2013.
Month
WP1
WP2
WP3
WP4
WP5
WP6
WP7
6
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
http://microsites.oii.ox.ac.uk/tidsr/
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
WP8
WP9
WP10
4. Project management arrangements
4. 1 National Library of Wales staff with experience in all aspects of the project will provide project
management. 4.1.1 As PI, Lorna Hughes, will have overall responsibility for the project, and
accountability to the funders. Hughes will be responsible for all aspects of partner management, and
delivery of outputs, as well as academic outreach and ensuring use, value and impact of final outputs.
This will be an institutional commitment by the Library, as oversight of this initiative will be directly
related to the research programme in digital collections that she is establishing at the Library. 4.1.2
Alan Hughes will act as Project Manager. He is familiar with managing mass digitization projects, and
will have responsibility for the day-to-day operation and coordination of all aspects of the project. 4.1.3
Julia Thomas, a Senior Imaging Officer will also line manage digitization staff.
4.2 PRINCE2 project management methods will be used for the project. The have been successfully
implemented for previous mass digitization projects at the National Library of Wales.
4.3 Work package leaders will have responsibility for the progress of their respective work area and for
their deliverables. They will report to the project manager on a regular basis and to partners. Progress
on each work package will be carefully monitored, and Work Package dependencies closely monitored.
4.4 All partners will meet by video-conference at least once a month. There will be an initial face-to-face
planning meeting. A generous travel budget will support partner meetings and any necessary project
travel. The project partners have worked before on several initiatives, which will assist partner liaison
4.5 A Project management group, consisting of senior management of all partner organizations, will
meet regularly.
4.6 An Academic Advisory Group will provide valuable input into selecting content and embedding the
project outputs into teaching and research in collaboration with the PI and Project Manager.
5. Risk analysis
Risk
Prob Severity Score Action to Prevent/Manage Risk
(1-5) (1-5)
(PxS)
Collaboration: large number of
cross-sector partners
2
3
6
Staff retention
1
4
4
IPR issues
2
3
6
Failure to meet project
milestones.
1
4
4
Lack of stakeholder input
2
2
4
Digitization delays
1
4
4
Technical/repository issues
1
3
3
Low impact of resource
1
4
4
Existing WHELF partnership with history of successful
collaboration; Strong project management WP;
experienced PM; PI with experience managing complex
project partnerships.
All project staff are already in post except 1; necessary
expertise and additional capacity of skills among partners
Extensive IPR scoping already undertaken, and due
diligence documented; key collections cleared;
NLW Workflow for rights clearance and management to
be used; Additional Library staff time and NLW Rights
Manager assigned to project. Critical mass of content in
Partner collections scoped for project allows equivalent quality
substitutions if permissions unobtainable.
Produce project plan with clear objectives; monitor
progress and plan accordingly; prior experience of similar
projects.
Communities of practice already engaged and actively
Involved in planning and selection, including academics.
People‟s Collection Wales have excellent track record on
engagement.
Large capacity for digitization; and experienced staff; use
of established workflows.
Technical support for partners costed in. Use of existing
WRN.
Incorporate TIDSR methodologies for impact and
usability; extensive dissemination and outreach; ongoing
engagement with stakeholders
6. IPR Position
6.1 copyright and other intellectual property rights will be cleared in stages as a managed part of the
creation process. Project partners will be responsible for clearing the rights associated with the material
from their own collections. Opportunities for collaboration in this area will be explored and information
regarding policies and processes will be shared, especially NLW rights clearance workflows. IPR
expertise from the NLW Rights Manager has been costed in, and will be accessible to all project
partners. 6.2 Due diligence will be observed when managing third party rights. 6.3 Where material is on
deposit and/or the current rights holders are known, permission will be requested. Key material has
been cleared prior to the submission of this application, including the papers of many key literary
figures (including Edward Thomas, David Jones and Hedd Wyn). In instances where permission is
declined, materials will not be used; there will be substitution for other materials that have been
identified within the scope of the project. Additional staff resources have been allocated at
organizations where IPR clearance may be complex (Aberystwyth, NLW and Swansea). 6.4 Where
information identifying the current rights holder is unavailable, a decision whether or not to use the
material will be made based on the principle that reasonable efforts have been made to identify and/or
contact the rights holder. This will follow the NLW‟s risk management register for rights. 6.5 Access to
the digitised resources will be open and free of charge. 6.6 The digitised resources will be licensed for
re-use and re-purposing under an open licence (BY-NC-SA).
7. Sustainability issues
7.1 Some technical infrastructure will be required to sustain the output of this project in the long-term.
This will be provided by NLW for at least five years after the project ends. 7.2 The use of the NLW
digitization workflow anticipates the full digital life cycle and preservation. This has been identified as an
exemplar of good practice by the DPC. 7.3 The resources that will be digitized and made accessible via
this project will be essential for research and teaching. We anticipate that this resource will be widely
used, and that usage will ensure future technical sustainability and migration in order to ensure
continued access to a widely used resource.
8. Standards and accessibility
8.1 Resources digitised from the partner organisations will have already been formally described using
recognised standards, encoding rules and controlled vocabularies – AACR2, MARC21, ISAD(G),
LCSH, LCTGM. These descriptions will also include access points for personal and corporate names,
subject and topic headings and place names. 8.2 Use of shared standards ensure that aggregation of
resources can be achieved with minimal manipulation of existing metadata. But these descriptions and
access points will be reviewed by partners to ensure their suitability for the project and enhanced and
enriched as required. 8.3 The text derived from the OCR process will be available for free text
searching but will also be enhanced and enriched to enable spatial analysis by the automatic
identification of place names terms within the text. These will be linked to a standardised gazetteer of
Welsh place names currently in development by NLW, the University of Wales and Galaxy Zoo. 8.4
Structural, administrative and preservation metadata for both the simple and complex digitised objects
will be encoded using the METS schema (version 1.9) in conjunction with other format specific
standards – digital still images (NISO MIX, version 2.0), text (textMD, version 2.2), audiovisual
(AudioMD, version 2.0 and VideoMD, version 2.0), OCR (ALTO, version 2.0), preservation (PREMIS,
version 2.0). OCR text will be structured using TEI following the guidelines set out in Best practices for
TEI in Libraries. 8.5 Rights and IPR metadata will be encoded using the METSRightsMD schema. 8.6
Digitised resources will be ingested into local institutional repositories ensuring that they will have
permanent and persistent identifiers and subject to preservation management actions. Metadata for the
digitised resources will be exposed for harvesting using the OAI Protocol for metadata harvesting. 8.7
All work undertaken to expose the content via the web interface will be in line with the NLW‟s stringent
accessibility requirements, providing a cross-browser platform, largely built on open source software,
which is accessible to those requiring facilitated access (in line with W3C WAI A or AA as appropriate
to the delivery mechanism) 8.8 The National Library of Wales is a participating institution of flickr‟s The
Commons and it is intended that selected visual resources from this project will be shared with through
this means to enable user generated contributions (including comments, metadata tags, and location
information).
D. Engagement with the Community
1. User needs analysis
Preparation of this project involved the scoping of the collections to digitize by working with archives
and library staff to identify the collections most requested and cited; and interviewing 20 academic
researchers of the period to identify their needs for a digital archive. The list of materials to be digitized
was the result of that analysis, and the process also identified content that the community holds that
would also be useful for research (for example, Chapel records).
2. Stakeholder analysis
We have identified the following groups who will be involved via engagement through the project, and
the target of dissemination and outreach activities that address their needs:
Group
Academics
Interest / stake
Unique materials accessible for research; transform study of World War
One; discover new knowledge; use of enhanced research archive; build
awareness of importance of digital contents
Library and
Provision of original content; access and use of digital content; visibility and
Archives staff
preservation of archival content
Students (HEI)
Content available for research and support teaching
Schools
Re-using content for teaching and integration into National Curriculum,
student engagement with community content
Government
Community outreach; enabling Digital Britain and Digital Wales;
knowledge exchange across sectors; use of Welsh language material
Museums
Content for exhibitions, community outreach
General public
Access to content, community input and interaction with resource
Technical/
Innovation in: use of repositories, integration of language and translation
e-Research
tools, digitization and management of content
Creative industries Content with economic value to commercial and creative sector;
and business
knowledge transfer of digitization and use of digital content; tourism
Media
Material to support books and media productions; material to
highlight anniversaries of key events and figures in World War One
Military
Support commemorative activities, exhibitions, community engagement
Importance
Very high
Very high
Very high
Very High
High
High
Very High
Very High
High
Very High
High
3. Stakeholder engagement throughout project
3.1 A stakeholder advisory group will be convened to ensure the development of a healthy and
committed user base of all groups identified above. 3.2 Working with key academics (including Paul
O‟Leary, Aberystwyth; Gethin Matthews Coleg Cymraeg; Gerwyn Williams, Bangor; Chris Williams,
Swansea; and Ifor ap Glyn, independent researcher and poet) to investigate use of the resource in
research and teaching, especially teaching through the medium of Welsh. 3.3 Through project
development at the partner institutions, innovation will also be shared with developers, and providers
and users of content at all partner institutions.
4. Stakeholder Workshops
Two workshop series will support project development and encourage dissemination and use of the
digital resource (WP 9 and 10): 4.1 Three workshops will be convened to build a research Network of
academics interested in World War One in order to frame research questions to inform to development
and delivery of content 4.2 The People‟s Collection Wales will organize five community workshops
aimed at promoting the project and encouraging community content. These will build on the successful
workshops organised by the People‟s Collection Wales for the Welsh Voices of the Great War Project,
although these events will target specific content areas defined by the academic working groups as
especially valuable for the digital archive. These events will be the focus for generating Archives and
community content. They will also be a key focus of outreach to schools and communities.
5. Dissemination
5.1 Project development and outputs will be highly visible via the project website, and dissemination via
key networks and communities in which the partners are active (especially digital humanities; Libraries,
and Archives), within which we will present and publish on the project. CyMAL and the People‟s
Collection will assist with dissemination and publicity throughout the course of the project. We will also
seek to work with JISC, via the e-Content team, JISC Regional Support Centre, and JISC Outreach, for
broadest dissemination about the project, and for contact with new stakeholders throughout the
duration of the project. 5.2 Post project, dissemination will be sustained by hosting of the project by the
NLW, and via continuous outreach by People‟s Collection Wales 5.3 WHELF will also contribute to
dissemination via the its events and contacts 5.4 Dissemination will also be sustained by continuing use
of the resource for research and teaching, especially the citation of the resource in research that has
used the digital archive. Prior digital humanities research has shown that students will find, and prefer
to use, the available digital resources on a specific topic7. Our resource will therefore have a significant
impact on the undergraduate curriculum. 5.5 A launch will be hosted by NLW at the close of the project
as part of the Library‟s World War One anniversary plans 5.6 The material will form the basis for
several planned exhibitions, publications and media productions, in collaboration with project
stakeholders.
6. Evaluation
6.1 Iterative evaluation methods will be adopted as part of the Project Management WP and all project
reporting. Throughout the project, results and findings will be evaluated by the project manager and PI,
and fed back into future work. 6.2 Benchmarking and evaluation are part of digitization workflow at
NLW. 6.3 Input received from stakeholder engagement will be fed into the content and project
development. Academic Network workshops will provide an opportunity for further feedback on the
project and for an assessment of the value of its contribution made to the study of World War One in
Wales. This group will also be charged with developing criteria for measuring impact of the resource,
e.g., citation and use for REF; the increase in use of content for dissertations, use in teaching, etc. 6.4
Librarians and archivists will be able to provide quantitative usage statistics of the analogue resource
for comparison with use of the digital archive to demonstrate impact. 6.5 The PI is actively conducting a
programme of research into use of digital collections for research, and will develop methods throughout
the life of the project to provide quantitative and evidence of impact of the resource, and publish and
disseminate the findings widely.
e. Budget
Directly Incurred Staff
7
Jan 12- Mar 12
Apr 12-Mar13
Apr 13-Mar 14
TOTAL £
See, for example, Hitchcock, T., “Digital Searching and re-formulation of Historical Knowledge”, in Hughes,
L.M., and Greengrass, M. (eds) (2007) The Virtual Representation of the Past. London: Ashgate.
Which Staff: All DI Staff
(NB: NLW Harvest Developer B4 1FTE 40% NLW Institutional Contribution.)
Institutional contributions and partner benefits: Support from partners for this project is significant.
All will make project work a strategic and operational priority, allocating core library and cataloguing
staff as institutional contributions. The NLW have also contributed the time of their rights manager and
Chair in Digital Collections (as PI) as an institutional contribution. Most have waived estates costs for
the project. Accordingly, the percentage of funding sought from JISC is low, reflection the value of the
Project to partners. The NLW will benefit from cross-sector use and implementation of its workflow for
digitization. All will benefit from digitization and exposure of their collections, creating greater use and
impact of their collections, and greater use of the Welsh Repository Network for delivery and federation
of content.
Previous Experience of the Project Team
We have assembled a project team with experience of mass digitization of special collections, so the
knowledge base required is therefore already in place, and minimal recruitment is required. All
Librarians and archivists on the team will draw on extensive experience with their own collections to
select content, prepare material for digitization, clear rights and manage IPR, and liaise with users to
encourage use of the digital collection.
5.1 NLW
5.1.1 Project Management staff
Lorna Hughes, PI Is the University of Wales Chair in Digital Collections, an expert on the creation and
use of digital collections for research. Has been PI on many successful digital initiatives; programme
manager for the AHRC ICT Methods Network, a complex partnership with a budget of £1,000,000.
Alan Hughes, Project Manager, is a senior member of the Digital Projects team at NLW, managing
successful mass digitization projects, including Welsh Newspapers and Journals. He is an expert on
digitization and metadata.
5.1.2 Technical development staff
Harvest Developer, allocated from NLW technical staff, will have experience developing and deploying
middleware to aggregate and make discoverable content in federated repositories; developing and
managing exchange of data and metadata; and creation of effective and appropriate search indexes for
data. Ingest Developer, allocated from NLW technical staff, will have experience developing and
deploying software solutions required to transform raw scanned and OCR content in to ingest-ready
Submission Information Packages and ensure the ingest of those items in to the Library‟s FEDORAbased Digital Asset Management System, as well as adapting existing NLW software to meet the
needs of post-ingest metadata work from projects, and ensuring the combination of post-ingest
metadata with ingested objects. Delivery and interface developer to recruit in January 2011, will have
experience developing and deploying the infrastructure required to expose content harvested and
contained in the aggregated middleware environment, to design and create relevant web content and to
implement analytics and statistical gathering software, and to work with Canolfan Bedwyr to embed the
linguistic cross-searching services within the website.
5.1.3 Collections Staff: Cataloguer, allocated from the archival data section, with experience working
on digitization projects, including selection, cataloguing where required, condition assessment and
rights management Rights Manager: Dafydd Tudor, NLW rights manager, will be allocated to the
project to assist all partners with rights management issues. Tudor has a great deal of experience in all
aspects of copyright and IPR.
5.1.4 Digitization staff have experience imaging primary sources in all media through the extensive
range of digitization projects conducted at NLW, including Welsh Newspapers and Journals, Welsh
Ballads Online, the Geoff Charles Collection, and digitizing the collections of the National Screen and
Sound Archive of Wales (NSSAW) Senior Imaging Officer: Julia Thomas is line manager, overseeing
quality control, workflow, standards and benchmarking, and undertakes A/V digitization. Scanner
Operators work on mass digitization projects with content which is predictable and easy to scan, such
as Newspapers, Books and Large Archives Imaging Officers work on more complex items that require
careful handling and specialist techniques, and also perform QA and basic workflow and metadata
creation tasks. Band 1 Metadata Officers have experience in metadata and cataloguing standards,
and work on pagination and basic metadata creation for mass digitization projects with predictable
content such as Newspapers and Journals and Large Archives. Band 2 Metadata Officers work on
more complex items that require careful handling and more complex content, and do QA and more
complex workflow and metadata creation tasks.
5.2 Swansea University Archivist: Elisabeth Bennett, (representing ARCW) Director of the Richard
Burton Archives. Has extensive experience on digitization projects including the Coalfield Web
Materials. Works through ARCW with community archives. A Content support officer will be drawn
from the team in the Richard Burton Archives to support the IPR management of content from ARCW
Partner organizations. Librarian: Sian Williams, Director, South Wales Miners‟ Library. Experience in
digitization projects includes Gathering the Jewels. A Content support officer will be drawn from the
team in the Library to support the IPR management of audio materials.
5.3 Trinity St David’s: Archivist Peter Hopkins has experience in using and managing digital
collections for research and teaching, coordinating outreach activities for Imaging the Bible in Wales.
Librarian An experienced special collections Librarian will be allocated to the project.
5.4 Aberystwyth University: Repository Support Officer Antony Colfield. Presently developer at
Welsh Repository Network, with experience ingesting content into the repositories of partner
institutions, providing technical support, and developing documentation. Librarian: An experienced
special collections Librarian will be allocated to the project.
5.5 Bangor University Language Technologies Unit at Canolfan Bedwyr are experts in
development and implementation of digital language tools, ISO standards, and ontologies for
multilingual environments that support Welsh. Developed Cysefin, a cloud based/backend solution for
indexing and searching Welsh/bilingual Welsh with English texts8 and Hebog, a web based user
interface for concordance searching bilingual or monolingual corpora9 Lead Software Engineer: Dewi
Bryn Jones has experience in developing and implementing cross lingual lemmatized search and user
interface enhancements for enhanced access to Welsh Language content. Software Engineer: David
Chan has developed Welsh to English machine translation tools with adaptations for early 20th century
Welsh. Research Officer: Delyth Prys is team leader and experienced terminologist.
5.6 Cardiff University: Librarian Peter Keelan, Head of Special Collections and Archives, initiated
Cardiff's first rare books digitization project in 2002, the Ann Griffiths project; led the JISC project Welsh
Ballads Online
5.7 People’s Collection Wales : Project Officer Carys Morgan previously worked on Gathering the
Jewels, and develops content and workshops with the heritage sector, groups and societies to digitize
community content.
5.8 BBC Cymru Wales: Manager Research & Archives Edith Hughes has 13 years experience at
BBC Cymru Wales; regularly manages projects with external partner organisations in both the public
and commercial sector
8
9
see http://www.cysgliad.com/cysefin
seehttp://www.cysgliad.com/cysefin/hebog