digital assets strategy 25-02-11...2011/02/25 · digital assets management strategy and business...

Revision: 25 February 2011

Digital Assets Management Strategy and Business Plan Connecting scholarly content with communities worldwide

Overview

Scope

While digital assets are used for many purposes in the School, this strategy concerns the management of those used for learning, teaching and research. These assets comprise three strands:

1. assets that SOAS creates through digitisation of our collections 2. assets that SOAS owns in digital form (research repository, theses and born-digital material) 3. assets that SOAS acqu

Vision

SOAS anticipates a substantial growth in and reliance upon scholarly digital resources to the point where digital will eventually be the dominant form of delivering and accessing knowledge. We will manage scholarly digital assets in order to make them as accessible as possible in fulfilment of the School’s educational mission. We will manage them for the long-term, building sustainable systems to enhance research, learning and teaching at SOAS.

Scholarly digital assets are an effective vehicle for promoting SOAS as the leading university in its key areas of expertise and lifting it to become one of the top 20 universities in the world. A sustainable digital assets management strategy is a prerequisite for a national and international research library in the 21st century. When the strategy is successfully implemented, SOAS will retain its National Research Library status, research capability will grow, distance learning will increase and the student experience will be enriched. The strategy will also enable knowledge transfer and connect our resources with new audiences. As a result, SOAS will maintain its competitive edge in the UK and international markets.

Outcomes Investing in this strategy will achieve the following key outcomes:

1. Wider public access to SOAS’s scholarly collections and research outputs 2. Greater worldwide recognition of SOAS and its strengths 3. Growth in student numbers and enhancement of student experience 4. Increased research capacity through innovation and collaborative research practices 5. Sustainable systems necessary to advance research, teaching and learning 6. Long-term efficiency savings in the curation & preservation, creation & acquisition,

discovery & delivery of scholarly resources

Financials

Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 Totals EXPENDITURE 246,516 273,580 278,941 307,247 325,796 1,432,080 INCOME 117,500 136,000 153,100 171,410 221,051 799,061

STRATEGIC COST: 129,016 137,580 125,841 135,837 104,745 633,019


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Digital Assets Management Strategy

1. Scope

As an element of the SOAS Information Strategy, this strategy is principally concerned with assets used for learning, teaching and research. These scholarly digital assets comprise three strands:

1. assets that SOAS creates through digitisation of our collections 2. assets that SOAS owns in digital form (research repository, theses and born-

digital material) 3. assets that SOAS acquires through licence (e-journals and e-books)

2. Purpose

The purpose of this strategy is to:

1. increase the value of scholarly resources at SOAS 2. retain NRL status for the Library and enhance the School’s global reputation 3. support the School’s Vision for the Centennial, the Information Strategy and other

SOAS strategies 4. coordinate practices and policies for digital assets concerning

• curation and preservation • discovery and delivery • creation and acquisition • access and use control

3. Policies

In implementing this strategy, SOAS will:

1. use open standards wherever possible to promote longevity, enable migration and improve interoperability of digital assets

2. make digital assets freely available at the point of delivery wherever possible 3. comply with intellectual property rights and other legal requirements

4. Strategic objectives:

A successful implementation of this strategy will:

1. Enhance discovery of and access to rare, fragile and endangered material • digitisation of this valuable material will make it more widely accessible • digitisation will preserve decaying material • digitisation of this material will generate income

2. Maximise discovery of and access to SOAS research data and output

• this will increase the delivery of SOAS-generated knowledge • it will fulfil our obligation to transfer knowledge to the public • it will meet the current demand for digitisation of theses

3. Increase digital content available for learning and teaching • more digital content will enhance student experience

4. Support the expansion of distance learning • more digital content will increase student numbers


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5. Enable innovative research practices and knowledge sharing

• digitised resources will support virtual research environments (VREs) • research capacity will grow and output will be enhanced

6. Collaborate with other institutions in developing digital assets • creating links with other institutions will promote SOAS worldwide • the virtual reunification of texts will enhance SOAS holdings

7. Ensure long-term curation and preservation of digital assets • sustainable digital assets will underpin the mission of the School

5. Alignment with SOAS strategies

This strategy supports the:

1. Vision for the Centennial in its aims to • promote global understanding and maintain impact on the world through

research and teaching • serve local and international communities through public education and

knowledge transfer services • develop distance learning and flexible/blended learning programmes • make significant improvements in access to and quality of library resources

2. Information Strategy (draft) in its aim to • ensure that staff and students have the information necessary for learning,

teaching and research 3. Library Strategy in its aims to

• develop research through investment in e-resources and digitisation • retain NRL-related HEFCE funding by addressing the imbalance between staff

and material costs 4. Research and Enterprise Strategy in its aims to

• extend the School's external engagement with local and international communities by means of public education, applied research and knowledge transfer

• create a physical and electronic environment that supports world-leading research

• increase outreach through innovation, contract research and provision of services to the community

5. Student Experience Strategy in its aim to

• develop facilities for multi-media, e-learning, digitisation and the Web

6. External Relations Strategy in its aims to • promote SOAS research worldwide • exploit website and multi-media delivery to bring knowledge and expertise to

a wider national and international audience

7. Learning and Teaching Strategy in its aims to • use new and developing learning technologies and associated methods of

delivery and embed these into learning and teaching • pilot new online learning tools

8. Information and Internal Communication Strategy in its aims to • invest in electronic resources and maximise the student learning experience

through developing shared technologies and a multi-disciplinary approach • ensure that technical expertise and investment is in place and that a shared

multidisciplinary approach is in place


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• embed new technologies within the School • develop the research repository to maximise intellectual capital

9. Estates and Infrastructure Strategy in its aims to • develop IT infrastructure • manage technology and innovation effectively

6. Action Plan

Chart for March 2011 to Feb 2012 2011 2012 M A M J J A S O N D J F 1.1 Assess and prioritise

material

1.2 Digitise approx. 30,000 ppa

1.3 Deliver digitised assets to users

1.4 Store and preserve digital assets

2.1 Develop policy for uploading of all research

2.2 Upgrade repository 2.3 Launch revised service 2.4 Digitise theses 3.1 Establish scanning

service

3.2 Link catalogue to assets 4.1 Establish scanning

service

4.2 Link catalogue to assets 5.1 Develop Web 2.0 tools

for research

6.1 Identify opportunities for collaboration

7.1 Revise existing policies 7.2 Ingestion, storage and

delivery system

7.3 Embed activities in Library

7.4 Migrate digital assets 7.5 Maintain infrastructure indicates that this activity continues beyond February 2012

Objective 1: enhance discovery of and access to rare, fragile and endangered material

1. March-August 2011: assess and prioritise material 2. August 2011-ongoing: digitise approximately 30,000 pages pa 3. September 2011-ongoing: deliver digitised assets to users 4. September 2011-ongoing: store and preserve digital assets


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Objective 2: maximise discovery of and access to SOAS research data and output

1. March-October 2011: develop policy for uploading of all research output, data and publications to the SOAS repository

2. March-October 2011: upgrade repository for increased scope 3. November 2011: launch revised service with publicity and advocacy 4. October 2011-September 2014: digitise theses and upload to SOAS

Repository, where copyright permits

Objective 3: increase digital content available for learning and teaching

AND

Objective 4: support the expansion of distance learning

1. March 2011: establish self-supporting scanning service for digitising material 2. where copyright permits, link publicly available scanned and digital-original

documents to Library’s on-line catalogue and, where appropriate, to BLE

Objective 5: enable innovative research practices and knowledge sharing

1. September 2011-August 2013: develop Web 2.0 tools for research

Objective 6: collaborate with other institutions in developing digital assets

1. March 2011-ongoing: Library staff identify opportunities for collaboration

Objective 7: ensure long-term curation and preservation of all digital assets

1. March-July 2011: revise existing policies to account for the more widespread adoption of digital assets

2. March 2011-February 2012: design and implement ingestion, storage and delivery system

3. March 2011-February 2012: embed curation and preservation within the activities of the Library

4. migrate digital assets to new hardware every 5 years 5. maintain infrastructure for creation, storage, delivery and preservation


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Digital Assets Management Business Plan

1. Executive Summary

This five-year business plan has been developed to accompany the Digital Assets Management Strategy.

The Digital Assets Management Strategy would provide the following core benefits to SOAS:

Widen public access to SOAS collections and research outputs and thus improve the School’s research rating.

Deliver worldwide recognition of SOAS and its strengths and thus enhance the School’s reputation.

Ensure growth in student numbers and enhance the student experience by connecting SOAS digital assets with communities across the globe.

Increase SOAS’s research capacity through innovation and collaborative research practices.

Ensure that SOAS fulfils its mandatory obligations to Research Councils and thus protects future research income.

Deliver sustainable systems essential to the advancement of research, teaching and learning

Save SOAS money through efficiency savings that accrue over time in the curation and preservation, creation and acquisition, discovery and delivery of scholarly resources.

Over the five years of the plan, the following income and expenditure are projected:

The Digital Assets Management Strategy could derive income from these sources:

Commercialisation of digitised content Private Funding Public Funding A top-slice of Research Council FEC Income

This Plan asks for the following support from SOAS:

Contract of employment for: • Digital Curation / Preservation Manager (1 FTE) • Metadata and Access Specialist (1 FTE) • Technical Specialist (0.5 FTE) • Programme Management / Administration (1 FTE)

Technical infrastructure costs for repository development and research curation storage costs.

Management costs for implementing the strategy and programme of work.

Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 Totals Annual Expenditure 246,516 273,580 278,941 307,247 325,796 1,432,080

Annual Income 117,500 136,000 153,100 171,410 221,051 799,061 Annual Strategic Total Cost 129,016 137,580 125,841 135,837 104,745

Strategy Total Cost Over 5 Years 633,019


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2. Background

This Business Plan is a response to the needs identified and the plans set out in the Digital Assets Management Strategy. The Strategy lays out some key objectives and needs that will be served by the Business Plan.

SOAS has become increasingly reliant on digital assets over the past two decades. Scholarly digital assets at SOAS comprise three strands:

assets that SOAS creates through digitisation of collections

assets that SOAS owns in digital form (SOAS repository, theses and born-digital material)

assets that SOAS acquires through licence (e-journals and e-books)

The management of these assets requires coordinated policies and practices for

curation and preservation

creation and acquisition

delivery and discovery

access and use control

The Digital Assets Management Strategy seeks to deliver the following objectives:

enhance the discovery of and access to rare, fragile and endangered material

maximise the discovery of and access to SOAS research data and output

increase digital content available for learning and teaching

support the expansion of distance learning

enable innovative research practices and knowledge sharing

collaborate with other institutions in developing digital assets

ensure long-term curation and preservation of digital assets


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3. Benefits

Financial

The SOAS Library and the School’s research outputs have proven themselves to have financial value both to the School and the wider world. These assets can be further exploited in digital form.

The Research Councils require SOAS to maintain research outputs and publications for long-term access as a mandatory condition of funding. As such, visible compliance and effective maintenance of digital assets is essential to future Research Council funding.

HEFCE funding for the Library is also dependent upon the collections being made more widely available so that the Library can retain its valuable National Research Library (NRL) status. Without digitisation and digital access this key performance indicator of national reach will not be fulfilled. HEFCE currently fund the SOAS Library at £1 million per year.

When businesses like Google look at libraries, they do not merely see temples of learning. They see potential assets or what they call “content,” ready to be mined. Built up over centuries at an enormous expenditure of money and labour, library collections can be digitized en masse at relatively little cost compared to the investment that went into them. Robert Darnton, Harvard University

Possible commercial income generators:

Digitisation of:

• Bibles, Korans and religious texts from Asia, Africa and the Middle East: emphasis on age, beauty or linguistic interest.

• SOAS Treasures

Print on demand services for images and photographic collections

Print facsimiles of SOAS Treasures

Commercial rights sales of images through an outsourced picture library

Rights and licensing for retail purposes – SOAS shop, external retailers, etc.

Funding from private and public sources will cover the costs of digitisation of many resources. A total of £60,000 is proposed to be raised from these sources (£10,000 private, £50,000 public) with opportunities up to £100,000 per annum possible.

Possible private and public income generators:

SOAS Development Office contacts with wealthy family members as demonstrated by the Swire family or Sheik Yahya funding of digital activity.

Funding from foundations will be further explored by development of a portfolio of collections that could be digitised. Including: Arcadia Foundation, Mellon Foundation, Atlantic Philanthropy and Hewlett Foundation.

Funding from public sources has been successful in the past, especially from JISC and the Research Councils. Other sources such as the Heritage Lottery Fund, HEFCE and the European Union are realistic possibilities for future funding.


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Innovation

The SOAS Research and Enterprise Strategy indicates that research income will double over the period of this Plan. The Digital Assets Management Strategy, when implemented, will act to ensure that such growth is feasible.

SOAS can use its digital assets to foster innovation and collaboration in order to deliver fresh research insights from its extensive and unique collections and research. Effective access to scholarly research in digital forms allows academics to focus upon analysis and discovery rather than data collation.

Researchers will be able to access SOAS resources remotely in the field. This serves to repatriate cultural heritage back to the originating communities and allows these communities to actively participate in the research process. Such opportunities to engage in innovative research practices and knowledge sharing are made possible through cohesive access and greater re-use of materials.

Collaboration opportunities will increase:

by developing digital collections with other institutions

by delivering shared services with other institutions – such as storage

by exploring collaborative funding opportunities

by facilitating cross-disciplinary and cross-departmental learning, teaching and research within and without SOAS

by using Web 2.0 access to collections that promotes SOAS worldwide and encourages shared initiatives

Digitised resources and the increased sharing of data sets provide opportunities to create a more complete and transparent record of the scholarly endeavour. The availability of digitised resources can aid citation analysis and provide for easier assessment and peer review at the grant application, assessment, publication and research evaluation stages. Digital assets can also aid in policing the research and teaching environment with online tools for the detection of fraud and plagiarism.

Thousands of people can evaluate and use creatively the digital resources to discover new ideas and make innovations. Many hands make light work and those many hands will profoundly touch Britain's future capacity for learning, research and innovation. Dr Sarah Thomas, Bodleian Librarian, Oxford University

Efficiency and Business Processes

Research and teaching processes will be made more efficient and effective, which will achieve cost reductions in terms of staff time. A greater scholarly return on research time expended will be enabled by fuller access to and discovery of SOAS digital assets.

Now I enter the classroom and I think, most of the content that I have to deliver and a whole lot more, is floating around them right now. And that transforms the way you approach the classroom. Dr Michael Wesch, Kansas State University

Digital assets enhance access to materials by unifying otherwise distributed resources. Time savings are accrued through meeting demand for theses more efficiently. Preservation of rare, fragile and endangered materials is enabled whilst ensuring access to their content is retained.

Learning, teaching and research are all enhanced by wider, easier and cheaper access to digital assets. Multiple resources may be interrogated and compared instantly, making the research process more rapid and facilitating more in-depth


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study. Research thus becomes more comprehensive in scope due to wider availability of a whole corpus in digital form. Travel costs are greatly reduced as the digital asset is accessible at the desktop, and this provides green benefits as well.

The long-term curation and preservation of digital assets is an essential component in maximising the return on the investment made in digitising collections. Such returns accrue over periods of 3-7 years, not instantly. However, an immediate cost reduction can be made through the reduced demand on library physical space as more content is delivered in digital form and physical resources are moved to off-site storage.

Stakeholder

Access to SOAS digital assets will attract more students to its courses and its research agenda. Interaction with digital content will build upon the SOAS brand recognition worldwide and publicise the excellence of the SOAS offer to the market. Digital assets will thus enhance the School’s international competitive edge.

The increasing availability of digital assets will allow SOAS to provide students with more varied, more accessible and richer teaching materials. This encourages a more exploratory, research-based approach to teaching and learning. Entirely new kinds of topics could be prepared, new modes of assessment become possible, and students are given a richer educational experience.

Digitisation takes primary sources beyond the book and the library. Digital assets bring into the classroom simulated practical experimentation as well as rare and fragile artefacts to support teaching.

Once available digitally, materials produced for one context can be used in many others: advanced research projects can be used by life-long learners and students in a wide range of contexts, including schools and colleges. This availability widens the reach of SOAS and enhances its reputation and recognition.

As more content is available, guidance and expertise in sorting and assessing it becomes more valuable. As more people seek flexible and informal learning, they will need the accreditation and support of established institutions. As learners look to assert the value of their learning and researchers their work, affiliation to established institutions will signal valuable quality. Peter Bradwell, Demos

SOAS is a treasure house of research knowledge and content. But many of the treasures remain hidden from the public gaze, available only to the most tenacious researcher. Supporting this Strategy will enable SOAS to bring its collections to a wider audience and thus fulfil its obligation to transfer knowledge to the public. In so doing, SOAS will create tangible benefits to learning, research and teaching. These in turn will deliver economic and social benefits.

4. Risks and Opportunit ies

Opportunit ies

The Strategy for Digital Assets Management is designed to address distinct and pressing risks to the School and its future income. Investing in the Strategy, as laid out in this Business Plan, is an investment in opportunities for increased research funding, more students and greater engagement with new scholarly initiatives focussed upon digital methods and outcomes.


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There are several consequences that will accrue from the investment in the Digital Assets Management Strategy:

Reduce to a minimum the need to re-create digital content.

Protect the returns on earlier investments in IT infrastructure, digitisation and digital outputs from research grants.

Ensure against loss of future research opportunities by maintaining current digital outputs.

Lower future preservation costs by taking action now that will reduce the work required to recover lost digital outputs.

Enable the re-purposing of data for new audiences with the potential to increase income.

Enable the re-purposing of research methodologies in the digital arena.

Risks

Investing in the Strategy will avoid the following risks to the School:

Compromised legal accountability.

• Ensuring copyright and Intellectual Property Rights are fully managed for all research outputs and digital assets whether created by SOAS or procured for use in SOAS.

• Ensuring that FOI and DPA obligations are more easily resolved.

• Meeting contractual obligations laid down by funding bodies to maintain and provide access to digital content and research outputs.

Lost digital assets. Loss of access to data has a significant consequential impact upon the School’s reputation and opportunities for future funding.

lost opportunity. The digital domain is moving quickly, and without immediate action more digital assets may be lost and we will fail to cope with new assets as they arrive. This is not a problem that can be set aside for a more financially promising time. Without immediate investment, the School stands to lose more assets in the short-term and weaken its opportunity for income.

Wasted legacy expenditure. The School has invested heavily in computing facilities for staff and students. It would be wasteful of that investment to expend so much resource on encouraging digital creation and not retain the products for the long-term.

Failure to deliver mission. The management of digital assets is now critical to the mission of SOAS. Without digital content, creativity and research cannot deliver on the strategic vision for the School in the 21st century. The consequence of not supporting the core mission is that student numbers and research income will reduce and competitiveness will be lost.


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Income and expenditure

Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 Totals

Technical Infrastructure Basic Storage Costs [£2,584 Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) per usable Tb storage per year] 36,176 36,176 38,760 46,512 54,264 211,888 Research Curation Storage Costs (Research Council funded research outputs and data) 0 36,176 41,344 46,512 51,680 175,712 Digital Repository Development costs 30,000 20,000 10,000 5,000 5,000 70,000 Digitisation Equipment Maintenance & Replacement 10,000 12,000 14,000 26,000 26,000 88,000 Sub-total 76,176 104,352 104,104 124,024 136,944 545,600 Staff Costs

Digital Curation / Preservation Manager (1 FTE) 49,342 51,316 53,368 55,503 57,723 267,252

Metadata and Access Specialist (1 FTE) 32,620 33,925 35,282 36,693 38,161 176,680 Technical Specialist (0.5 FTE) 20,059 20,861 21,696 22,564 23,466 108,646 Programme Management/Administration (1 FTE) 40,119 41,724 43,393 45,128 46,934 217,297 Digitisation Operation (0.5 FTE) 14,300 14,872 15,467 16,086 16,729 77,453 Sub-total 156,440 162,698 169,206 175,974 183,013 847,330 Other Costs for Managing the Strategy and Digitisation Programme

CPD & Training budget 2,000 2,080 2,163 2,250 2,340 10,833

Publicity materials and marketing 1,400 450 468 2,000 500 4,818

External consultancy & expertise 5,000 3,000 2,000 2,000 2,000 14,000

Travel & conference costs 1,500 1,000 1,000 1,000 1,000 5,500

Recruitment 4,000 4,000 Sub-total 13,900 6,530 5,631 7,250 5,840 39,151

Yearly Cost Totals 246,516 273,580 278,941 307,247 325,796

Total Expenditure Over 5 Years 1,432,080

Income Generation

Commercialisation of digitised content 7,500 15,000 20,000 25,000 60,000 127,500

Private Funding 10,000 11,000 12,100 13,310 14,641 61,051

Public Funding 50,000 55,000 60,500 66,550 73,205 305,255

Research Council Income FEC top-slice 50,000 55,000 60,500 66,550 73,205 305,255

Yearly Income Totals 117,500 136,000 153,100 171,410 221,051 Total Income Over 5 Years 799,061

Yearly Strategy Totals 129,016 137,580 125,841 135,837 104,745

Strategy Total Cost Over 5 Years 633,019


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digital assets strategy 25-02-11...2011/02/25 · digital assets management strategy and business...

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