Digitization in India:Developing and Implementing a National Policy

Prof. Harsha Parekh (Retd.)SNDT Women’s University

Mumbai 400 020

Digitization Efforts in India

• Individual Library Collection The National Library (Kolkata)

• Publications of Research OrganisationsIndian National Science Academy

• Archival MaterialsArchives of Indian Labour

• Reformatting

National Institute of Technology,

Calicut

Digitization Efforts in India

• Governance

Land records, legal judgements, policy

documents, parliamentary discussions

• Collaborative Projects

Digital Library of India

• Open Archives

Vidyanidhi

Questions Raised

What is the objective?

How & why are materials selected?

What benchmarks have been

specified?

Do we have a national repository?

Who will preserve the digital copy?

What access mechanism do we use?

Questions Raised

How do we handle the original after it has been digitized?

How are institutional initiatives coordinated?

Are the other “memory” institutions, such

as museums and archives, digitizing?

What is it costing the nation to take up this

activity? How will the activity be sustained?

Insights Gained

• Activity is Fragmented• Danger of obsolescence• Holistic View necessary• Two Driving Forces: access & preservation• Reflected in digitization of

- Cultural heritage- Education & research- Citizen participation/governance

Insights Gained

Goals often overlap

But

Critical issues involved are different

For access

metadata, portals, bandwidth

For preservation

standards, conservation issues

Global Initiatives

Nations, Regions and States have developedpolicies, strategies and structures for example

Canada Task Force on Digitization involving

National Library, National Archives, other national museums/galleries, National Film Board and Canadian Broadcasting Corporation New Zealand

National Digital Forum

Global Initiatives

Denmark

Digitization Board & Secretariat

Australia – National Library

Strategies & Action Plan: Electronic

resources

European Union

European Cultural Area planning

Colorado State (USA) Colorado Digitization Program

Coverage

• Goals

• Selection Criteria

• Copyright Issues

• Technical Benchmarking

• Coordination of Activities

• Preservation

• Financial Resources

National Digital Network: Rationale

• Many stakeholders• Different Perspectives • Distributed Activity• Technical Issues• Investments levels high• National/Global significance

A national level policy making & monitoring Body that is participatory

National Digital Network: Objectives

• Set goals

• Establish priorities

• Promulgate Standards

• Provide Procedural guidelines

• Coordinate Activities

• Act as a Clearing House

• Obtain Funding

• Identify R&D areas

National Digital Network: Structure

• Board – Digitization Policy & Decision making; consisting of different stakeholders

• Secretariat – Policy Execution; full-time

staff

• Advisory Panels- cultural heritage- academic and research materials - governance

Cultural Heritage

Involves Cultural (Memory) Institutions

public libraries, museums, archaeological sites, national libraries, science museums, galleries, etc

Cultural industries film and video archives, image collections, music, broadcasting, media and design centres, publishing, etc

Cultural Heritage

Main objective is preservation but also offers opportunities of replicating & disseminatingthe heritage to a larger population.

Increase understanding of the past, strengthen national pride and identity and inform both thefar-flung diaspora and the generations to come.

Cultural Heritage

In the Indian context, our national heritage artefacts are plentiful and widely scattered.

Include cultural heritage (such as manuscripts, early printed books, paintings, music), political heritage (such as documents relatedto the freedom struggle, letters and diaries of statesmen) community memory

Cultural Heritage

Need is urgent; materials are fast deteriorating

Prioritizing is required based on age, fragility,deterioration rate, significance, use, valueE.g. Journals published in the 1890s, between 1829-1849; Paintings on paper

in many extreme cases the first action must bethe right one; sometimes the original is irreparably damaged; only the new digital copyremains.

Education & Research

Higher EducationEarly Indian imprints (books and serials) indifferent disciplines, theses, back issues ofnational & regional newspapers, writings of Indian scholars, archives and documents 

Primary/Secondary Education support from some cultural heritage material made available in repackaged form

Lifelong learning / non-formal education

Governance

• government policy documents

• records • laws

• judgements • information • announcements • forms

Digitization of

Will contribute to increased awareness and access to government information leading to greater participation of the citizens in the democratic process, improve transparency and lead to better governance.

National Concerns

Establishing selection criteria

Ensuring access

Technical concerns

Managerial matters

legal

financial

Human resource development

Selection Criteria

• Considerations of intellectual significance

of the content (based on importance,

authority, uniqueness, timeliness & demand)

• Physical nature of the source materials the intellectual rights status of the material • Number and location of current and potential use and users

Access Requirements

Metadata – types

Indian language

metadata

Ontologies

Gateways and Repositories

Access to individual items and to collections(sets of items)

Technical Concerns

Standards and benchmarks to be used depend

on the goal qualities to be achieved such as• Fidelity to the original• Utility (level and type of access to provide) • Longevity • Security • Portability

Technical Concerns

Storage Formats; for text - image or text

Indian language requirements

Preservation – medium and content

Legal Issues

• intellectual property & moral rights piracy

• Distortion, plagiarism

• Identifying ownership of intellectual property

• Tracking copyright owners

• Securing clearance

• Establishing copyright of new digital document

Financial Issues

• Nature of the original document• Format, characteristics, size of digital file • Post-digitization processing required;

Estimation of costs of digitization; depend on

Assessment of financial viability of project

Deciding of subsidies for projects

Mobilizing resources

Human Resource Development

Development of skilled personnel

Coordinating with educational and professional bodies

Data Capture and Creation

Data Access and Delivery

Managing the Digital Collection

Conclusions

Using the technology to a national advantage, without wasting resources requires

A national vision and plan which is • holistic and long-ranging in perspective • evolved in a participatory manner • implemented with commitment

Accessing and preserving our past for the future depends on the decisions taken today